Two new lawsuits filed by the victims’ families are the most recent attempt to hold social media companies responsible when men steeped in violent ideologies on those platforms open fire. Garnell W. Whitfield’s mother, Ruth, was one of 10 people killed in a racist massacre in Buffalo last year.Credit...Libby March/The Buffalo News, via Associated Press By Jesse McKinley July 23, 2023 Ask the families of the victims of last year’s racist massacre in Buffalo what they want and one goal comes up again and again. “To hold anybody and everybody, in anything and everything, that had a part in what happened to my mother and the other nine, what was done in Buffalo, to hold them accountable,” said Garnell W. Whitfield Jr., whose mother, Ruth, was one of 10 people — all of them Black — who were killed. That longing for accountability has resulted in two new civil lawsuits filed by the Buffalo families, the most recent attempt to hold social media companies responsible when men steeped in violent ideologies on those platforms open fire. But even as such massacres continue, seemingly unabated, lawsuit after lawsuit against tech giants has thus far failed to award victims and their families in court. Indeed, the Buffalo suits will face significant challenges, experts in digital law say, with some blunt predictions as to their likelihood for success. “It’s not going to work,” said Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University’s law school and a co-director of its High Tech Law Institute. In recent years, a handful of cases involving social media and tragic incidents have advanced past preliminary stages, including two lawsuits brought by families of victims of terrorist attacks in Istanbul and Paris that reached the Supreme Court. But the nation’s highest court rebuffed both efforts to hold companies, including Google and Twitter, liable for Islamic State videos appearing on their sites. The primary legal obstacle, Mr. Goldman and others say, remains Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which provides protection to online companies from liability from third-party content published on their sites. Drafted in the incipient days of the internet, the statute was meant to protect internet companies from lawsuits over speech published in chat rooms or other forums. But as the decades have passed, critics say, its scope has broadened, even as calls to narrow it have grown. “The vast majority of courts have really indulged this very excessive, unqualified immunity approach to the reading of Section 230,” said Mary Anne Franks, a law professor at the University of Miami who has advocated reforms to Section 230. “There hasn’t been a case, I think, exactly like this one. But if you look at some of the other attempts to hold social media companies accountable for acts of terrorism, et cetera, they’ve mostly lost.” All of which galls people like Barbara Massey-Mapps, whose sister, Katherine, was also murdered in the Buffalo attack, during which the gunman used an assault rifle to shoot 13 customers and employees of a Tops supermarket. Three people survived. The gunman, Payton Gendron, an avowed white supremacist, livestreamed his attack. He had written voluminous online diaries filled with racist content and references to so-called “replacement theory,” which posits a nefarious conspiracy to replace white people with people of color. And Ms. Massey-Mapps, 66, believes that social media is to blame for introducing him and others to such ideas, and for using algorithms that are capable of feeding a steady stream of videos to people seeking racist or other hateful content. “This wouldn’t spread as fast if you didn’t have Facebook or YouTube or what have you,” she said. “There’s so much negativity, so much ugliness. And I’m like, Why?” Ms. Massey-Mapps was among three victims’ families and an employee of Tops who filed suit in May against social media companies, including Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) and Google (which owns YouTube). A second suit was filed this month by a legal team led by Benjamin Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney who said he intended to use the gunman’s own admission that he was influenced by social media to prove the case and set a new precedent. “The laws, the technical justifications, always exist until they don’t exist anymore,” Mr. Crump said, “Until people say, We can’t condone this.” For opponents of Section 230, there have been glimmers of hope: In 2021, a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco — Lemmon v. Snap — limited the immunity provided by the law, in a case involving a so-called “speed filter” on Snapchat, which encouraged speeding in cars and had led to the deaths of three teenagers using the filter. A recent case in Oregon — against the anonymous chat site Omegle, which has been used by some sexual predators — has also overcome Section 230 challenges. It is in the discovery phase and is headed to trial, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said. Like those cases, the suits filed in Buffalo argue that the social media platforms in question are essentially dangerous products, an effort to sidestep the content protections provided by Section 230. The two suits — filed in state court in Erie County — use nearly identical language, referring to the apps as “defective” and suggesting they were designed to be addictive to users and to encourage violence. The Supreme Court, however, dealt blows to opponents of Section 230 in May, when it ruled against plaintiffs in the two suits brought by families of victims of terrorist attacks seeking damages from Google and Twitter. Jess Miers, legal advocacy counsel for Chamber of Progress, a lobbying group that represents tech firms such as Google and Meta, said that those Supreme Court decisions reinforced the protections provided by Section 230, while allowing websites leeway to crack down on hateful posts. While “these tools and algorithms inadvertently amplify objectionable content,” she added, the Section 230 protections are “crucial to ensure that social media companies can continue using algorithms” to monitor and minimize “harmful content.” José Castañeda, a spokesman for Google, said the company had “the deepest sympathies” for victims and families of the Tops shooting, and said that “YouTube has invested in technology, teams and policies to identify and remove extremist content.” Google also works with law enforcement and other platforms “to share intelligence and best practices,” he added. Jeff Kosseff, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval Academy’s Cyber Science Department, said that the Buffalo suits could face additional challenges over free speech, as hate speech was constitutionally protected, with the exception of “true threat or imminent incitement of violence.” In recent years, there has been increased attention on the effects of social media on young people — including a warning from the surgeon general in May. And Mr. Kosseff says such anti-tech sentiments could begin to suffuse legal arguments. “We’ve had a lot of judges, particularly in cases against big tech companies, who are not very big fans of big tech companies,” Mr. Kosseff said. “So that’s why I would never say it’s absolutely doomed.” Mr. Gendron, now 20, has already faced criminal charges: In February, he pleaded guilty in state court and was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. He also faces federal charges, including hate crimes, some of which could carry the death penalty. At a news conference to announce the second lawsuit, family member after family member stepped up to the podium, some in tears, others stoic, to describe their pain. “It doesn’t turn off for me,” said Kimberly Salter, whose husband, Aaron, a retired Buffalo police officer, was killed while working as a security guard at Tops and hailed as a hero afterward. “I’m sure it doesn’t turn off for the other families either.” © 2023 The New York Times Company

Protestors try to storm Baghdad's Green Zone over the burning of Quran and Iraqi flag in Denmark. Iraqis raise copies of the Quran, Muslim's holy book, during a protest in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 22, 2023. Hundreds of protesters have attempted to storm Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and the seat of Iraq's government, following reports of the burning of a Quran by a ultranationalist group in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen. (AP Photo / Hadi Mizban) BY ALI JABAR AND JARI TANNER. BAGHDAD (AP) — Tensions flared again in Iraq on Saturday over a series of recent protests in Europe involving the desecration of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, which sparked a debate over the balance between freedom of speech and religious sensitivities. Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone that houses foreign embassies and the seat of Iraq’s government early on Saturday, following reports that an ultranationalist group burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Iraqi Embassy in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, the previous day. The protest came two days after people angered by the planned burning of the Islamic holy book in Sweden stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. Security forces on Saturday pushed back the protesters, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge leading to the Green Zone, preventing them from reaching the Danish Embassy. Elsewhere in Iraq, protesters burned three caravans belonging to a demining project run by the the Danish Refugee Council in the city of Basra in the south, local police said in a statement. The fire was extinguished by civil defense responders, and there were “no human casualties, only material losses,” the statement said. The council confirmed in an emailed statement to The Associated Press that its premises in Basra “came under armed attack” early Saturday. “We deplore this attack — aid workers should never be a target of violence,” Lilu Thapa, the Danish Refugee Council’s executive director for the Middle East, said. Iraq’s prime minister has cut diplomatic ties with Sweden in protest over the desecration of the Quran in that country. An Iraqi asylum-seeker who burned a copy of the Quran during a demonstration last month in Stockholm had threatened to do the same thing again onThursday but ultimately stopped short of setting fire to the book. The man — an Iraqi of Christian origin living in Stockholm, now a self-described atheist — did, however, kick and step on it, and did the same with an Iraqi flag and a photo of influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr and of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The right to hold public demonstrations is protected by the constitution in Sweden, and blasphemy laws were abandoned in the 1970s. Police generally give permission based on whether they believe a public gathering can be held without major disruptions or safety risks. On Friday afternoon, thousands protested peacefully in Iraq and other Muslim-majority countries. In Iran, the powerful Revolutionary Guard’s chief, Gen. Hossein Salami, said that “we do not allow those who insult the Quran to be safe”, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Saturday. Muslims “will decree a severe punishment for the perpetrators of these crimes,” he continued. In the incident in Copenhagen, according to Danish media reports, members of the ultranationalist group Danske Patrioter burned a copy of the Quran and an Iraqi flag in front of the Iraqi Embassy, livestreaming the action on Facebook. Copenhagen police spokeswoman Trine Fisker told the AP that “a very small demonstration” with fewer than 10 people took place Friday afternoon across the street from the Iraqi Embassy and that a book was burned. “We do not know what book it was,” she said. “Apparently they tried to burn the Iraqi flag and after that, somebody stepped on it.” Fisker said the “political angle is not for the police to comment” on, but the “event was peaceful ... from a police perspective.” The Danish government on Saturday condemned the demonstration. Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called the action a “stupidity that a small handful of individuals did.” “It is a shameful act to violate the religion of others,” he told Danish public broadcaster DR. “This applies both to the burning of Qurans and other religious symbols. It has no other purpose than to provoke and create division.” The incident prompted the protests in Baghdad overnight. Chanting in support of the anti-Western Shiite cleric al-Sadr and carrying images of him and the flag associated with his movement, along with the Iraqi flag, hundreds of protesters attempted to enter the Green Zone and clashed with security forces before dispersing. Later, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned in a statement “in strong and repeated terms, the incident of abuse against the holy Quran and the flag of the Republic of Iraq in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Denmark.” It called the international community “to stand urgently and responsibly towards these atrocities that violate social peace and coexistence around the world,” the statement read. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani criticized the desecration of the Quran in Denmark and said the Danish government should be held responsible for preventing such acts and should pursue and punish those behind them, the ministry’s website said. The ministry also summoned the Danish ambassador to Tehran, Jesper Vahr, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. The report said that Vahr was told Iran believes that if the Danish government had acted effectively, “we would not have witnessed such a blasphemous act today.” On Saturday evening, more than a thousand protesters gathered again in central Baghdad but did not attempt to storm the Green Zone for a second time. They burned Swedish and LGBTQ+ flags and chanted against the United States, Israel, Sweden and Denmark, before dispersing peacefully after a couple of hours. © 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

February 8th, 2021 James Landale, BBC There is a "very credible case" that the Chinese government is carrying out the crime of genocide against the Uighur people, according to a formal legal opinion newly published in the UK. It concludes there is evidence of state-mandated behaviour showing an intent to destroy the largely Muslim minority in north-western China. This includes the deliberate infliction of harm on Uighurs in detention, measures to prevent women giving birth - including sterilisation and abortion - and the forcible transfer of Uighur children out of their community. And, significantly, it says there is a credible case that Chinese President Xi Jinping is himself responsible for these crimes against humanity. It states "the close involvement of Xi Jinping" in the targeting of Uighurs would support a "plausible" case of genocide against him. It says: "On the basis of the evidence we have seen, this Opinion concludes that there is a very credible case that acts carried out by the Chinese government against the Uighur people in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region amount to crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide." A legal opinion is the professional judgement of a respected QC - an independent expert in their field - who assesses the evidence and the law and comes to a conclusion. It does not have a legal standing, like a court judgement, but can be used as a basis for legal action. This opinion was commissioned - but not paid for - by the Global Legal Action Network, a human rights campaign group that focuses on cross-border legal issues, and the World Uighur Congress and the Uighur Human Rights Project. Why is there tension between China and the Uighurs? China's Muslim 'crackdown' explained China's hidden camps: The vanished Uighurs of Xinjiang China's foreign ministry has consistently denied allegations of human rights abuses against the Uighurs in Xinjiang. The Chinese embassy in London accused anti-China forces in the West of fabricating "lies of the century" about Xinjiang. The 100-page document - written by senior barristers at Essex Court Chambers in London, including Alison Macdonald QC - is understood to be the first formal legal assessment in the UK of China's activities in Xinjiang. The opinion is significant because it beats a legal path that British judges would follow if Parliament were to agree new legislation allowing the High Court to decide on matters of genocide. MPs from all parties are hoping to push through this change in the House of Commons on Tuesday, but the government is working hard to avoid defeat. Uighur camp detainees allege systematic rape US and UK condemn reports of rape in Chinese camps Searching for truth in China's 're-education' camps Ministers are hoping to see off the rebellion by offering to boost the role of parliamentary committees in assessing genocide, but the relevant committees are understood to have rejected the idea. The legal opinion was based on an exhaustive legal assessment over six months of publicly available evidence from governments, international organisations, academic scholars, charities and the media. The documents included first-hand witness evidence from survivors, satellite imagery and leaks of Chinese government papers. The bar for proving genocide is high. A court has to establish acts were committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. In great detail, the opinion sets out evidence of what it describes as the "enslavement, torture, rape, enforced sterilisation and persecution" of the Uighurs. "There is compelling evidence that detainees are subject to a range of forms of serious physical harm," the opinion says. "Detainees report having been punished by administration of electric shocks, forced to remain in stress positions for an extended period of time, beaten, deprived of food, shackled and blindfolded." Measures intended to prevent births within a group are among the activities that count as genocide in international law. The opinion sets out evidence of mass forced sterilisation as part of a plan for population control acknowledged by the Chinese authorities. It concludes: "There is prolific credible evidence of Uighur women being subject to measures that prevent them from reproducing, either temporarily or permanently (such as by having IUDs non-consensually implanted or through forced removal of their wombs), as well as forced abortions. Such acts would, in our view, clearly constitute a form of genocidal conduct under [international law]." Genocide can also include the forcible transfer of children from one group to another. The opinion says: "There is evidence of Uighur children being forcibly removed from their parents. This includes their non-consensual placement in orphanages when one or both parents are in detention, and their mandatory placement in boarding schools. It continues: "The fact that children are deprived of the opportunity to practise their Uighur culture…, that they are sometimes given Han names, and that they are sometimes subject to adoption by Han ethnic families, all bolsters the evidence that their forced removal is carried out with the intention of destroying the Uighur population as an ethnic group as such." Significantly, the opinion says there is a "plausible" case that personal responsibility for the genocide lies with President Xi and two senior Chinese officials - Zhu Hailun, deputy secretary of Xinjiang's people's congress, and Chen Quanguo, party secretary in Xinjiang. It points to leaked internal Communist Party documents, and other evidence, which it says show that "Mr Xi controls the overall direction of state policy and has made a range of speeches exhorting the punitive treatment of the Uighurs. Mr Chen and Mr Zhu have acted upon that overall policy by devising and implementing the measures which have been carried out in XUAR, including mass detention and surveillance."It says: "We consider that there is a credible case against each of these three individuals for crimes against humanity." It adds: "The evidence reviewed above suggests the close involvement of Xi Jinping, Chen Quanguo and Zhu Hailun in initiating and implementing a range of measures which, taken together, target Uighurs with a severity and to the extent that one could infer an intent to destroy the group as such. "In those circumstances, we consider that there is a plausible inference that each of those three individuals possess the necessary intent to destroy, so as to support a case against them of genocide." The Chinese embassy in London insisted that the population of Uighurs in Xinjiang was growing. All ethnic groups, it said, had the same legal status and freedoms of religion and culture. "Some anti-China forces in the West have concocted and disseminated plenty of false information about Xinjiang and fabricated "lies of the century" in various forms," the embassy said. "They have smeared China's image and slandered its policies on Xinjiang." It added: "Anyone who is fair-minded can see that the true intent of those forces is to suppress and contain China's development... Their moves are driven by a Cold War mentality, hegemonic worldview and zero-sum game mindset. China will never allow such farce and vicious demonization to succeed. Lies may mislead people for a while, but cannot win the trust of the world. Facts and truth will eventually bust all lies." © 2023 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.

In the Middle East and North Africa, Male Guardianship Rules Hamper Travel and Other Movement. Women hold signs during a protest against the decision by the Supreme Judicial Council, a body run by Hamas authorities, to allow male guardians--usually referring to fathers or another male relative—to ban unmarried women from traveling out of the Gaza Strip, in front of the council, in Gaza City, Palestine on February 16, 2021. Such restrictions trap women in Gaza even further coming on top of Israeli and Egyptian movement restrictions that have turned the Gaza Strip into an “open-air prison.”© 2021 AP Photos/Adel Hana Many Middle East and North Africa countries still prevent women from moving freely in their own country or traveling abroad without the permission of a male guardian. Women in the region are fighting rules that authorities often claim are for their protection, but that deprive women of their rights and enable men to control and abuse them at will. All authorities in the Middle East and North Africa should eliminate any and all discriminatory restrictions on women’s freedom of movement including all male guardianship rules. (Beirut) – Many Middle East and North African countries still prevent women from moving freely in their own country or traveling abroad without the permission of a male guardian, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 119-page report, “Trapped: How Male Guardianship Policies Restrict Women’s Travel and Mobility in the Middle East and North Africa,” says that although women’s rights activists have succeeded in securing women’s increased freedoms in many countries in the region, old and new restrictions require women to seek permission from their male guardian – typically their father, brother, or husband – to move within their country, obtain a passport, or travel abroad. Human Rights Watch also found that in a number of countries, women cannot travel abroad with their children on an equal basis with men. “From leaving the home to leaving the country, authorities in the Middle East and North Africa are imposing varying restrictions on women’s right to freedom of movement,” said Rothna Begum, senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Women in the region are fighting against restrictions that authorities often claim are for their protection, but in reality, deprive women of their rights and enable men to control and abuse them at will.” The report is based on a comparative analysis of dozens of laws, regulations, and policies, as well as information provided by lawyers, activists, and women in 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Male guardianship policies in the region, which also exist beyond the Middle East, have been influenced by a broader history of laws and traditions around the world, including European legal traditions, that gave or still give men control over women’s lives. Fifteen countries in the region still apply personal status or family laws that require women to either “obey” their husbands, live with them, or seek their permission to leave the marital home, work, or travel. Courts can order women to return to their marital homes or lose their right to spousal maintenance. In some countries, these rules are becoming more entrenched. In March 2022, Saudi Arabia issued its first written Personal Status Law, which codified the long-standing practice of requiring women to obey their husband “in a reasonable manner” or lose financial support from their husbands if they refuse to live in the marital home “without a legitimate excuse.” Women can be arrested or detained or forced to return home if male guardians in Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia report that they are “absent” from their homes. In Saudi Arabia and Yemen, women are still not allowed to leave prison without a male guardian’s approval. In countries experiencing conflict, some armed groups have imposed guardianship restrictions in areas under their control. In parts of Syria under the control of some armed groups, women are required to be accompanied by a mahram (husband or other close male relative). Houthi authorities who control parts of Yemen have increasingly required women to travel with a mahram or to provide their male guardian’s written approval. Such rules have forced many female Yemeni staff at nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies to leave their jobs, losing much-needed income for their families. While women’s rights activists in the region have made some gains, they continue to fight against discriminatory mobility restrictions. In 2018, following decades of advocacy and activism, Saudi Arabia allowed women to drive, but other restrictions remain. Women in Iran continue their decades-long fight against the mandatory hijab, a central feature of the nationwide “women, life, freedom” protests that erupted after the death in custody of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in September 2022. Some state universities, including in Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, require women to show they have male guardian permission before they can go on field trips or stay at or leave campus accommodations or grounds. In some countries, women may also face discrimination trying to rent apartments or stay in hotels if they are not married or do not have a male guardian’s permission. In a positive advance, most governments in the region now allow women to obtain passports and travel abroad without requiring guardian permission. In August 2019, after much campaigning by Saudi women’s rights activists, Saudi authorities amended its rules to allow women over age 21, like men, to obtain passports and travel without guardian permission. Iran, Qatar, and Yemen remain outliers. In Iran, married women must show their husband’s permission to obtain a passport, and to travel. In Qatar, interior ministry rules require unmarried Qatari women under age 25 to show permission from their male guardians to travel abroad; while Qatari men from age 18 do not. Yemen’s de facto policy requires Yemeni women to show their male guardian’s permission to obtain a passport. Qatar also allows male guardians to apply to a court to impose travel bans against any of their female relatives, including their wives. Authorities in Iran, Gaza (Palestine), Saudi Arabia, and Yemenalso allow male guardians to ban women’s travel abroad. Some restrictions are relatively new. Hamas authorities in Gaza issued restrictions in February 2021 that means an unmarried woman, even if able to leave Gaza amid sweeping Israeli and Egyptian movement restrictions, can be prevented from traveling as soon as her male guardian applies for a court-ordered ban. In August 2022, Houthi authorities in Yemen,who control large parts of the country,expanded restrictions so that women cannot travel or leave their areas within the country or travel abroad without a mahram. In May 2023, Libya’sInternal Security Agency, a body linked to the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, one of the two governments in Libya vying for legitimacy and control, began requiring Libyan women traveling without a male escort to complete a detailed form about the reasons for their travel and past travel. Women can also face discriminatory restrictions on traveling abroad with their own children. Fourteen countries in the region do not allow women to obtain passports for their own children on an equal basis with men. Nine countries, officially or in practice, require women to obtain permission from the child’s father to travel abroad with their children, while men face no similar requirement. “Even as women’s rights activists win some freedoms, the authorities seek to take others away, rolling back not just women’s rights, but harming children, families and society,” Begum said. “All authorities in the Middle East and North Africa should eliminate any and all discriminatory restrictions on women’s freedom of movement including all male guardianship rules.”

FILE - Trucks loaded with United Nations humanitarian aid for Syria following a devastating earthquake are parked at Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, in Syria’s Idlib province, on Feb. 10, 2023. On Tuesday, July 11, 2023, the U.N. Security Council failed to renew the Bab al-Hawa border crossing into opposition-held northwestern Syria from Turkey. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File) By Edith M. Lederer UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States said Monday it has joined major donors in demanding that the United Nations be able to deliver aid through a key crossing from Turkey to Syria’s rebel-held northwest independently and to everyone in need. That’s a rejection of conditions set by Syria and backed by its ally Russia that Damascus control all aid and banning U.N. communications with rebels in the region. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the U.N. Security Council that the Syrian government’s offer earlier this month to allow aid deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing showed the need for cross-border assistance, but she said Syria’s restrictions were unacceptable and “would hinder relief and put humanitarians, including U.N. personnel, at risk.” After the latest six-month mandate expired on July 10, Russia vetoed a nine-month extension and the council rejected a Russian resolution for a six-month extension. President Bashar Assad’s government then gave a green light for the United Nations to use the crossing, but on condition it cede control to Syria, not communicate with groups it calls terrorists and that aid deliveries by overseen by the Red Cross or Red Crescent. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs rejected the offer. It said prohibiting communications with the rebels would prevent U.N. aid reaching all in need and having aid deliveries overseen by the Red Cross or Red Crescent would interfere with U.N. independence and wasn’t practical because they don’t operate in the northwest. It said the request that aid deliveries be carried out in “full cooperation and coordination” with Damascus required “review." Thomas-Greenfield said the United States has joined other major donors in making clear that any cross-border arrangement must include five key elements: U.N. operations must be independent and engage with all parties on the ground; the U.N. must operate throughout Syria including outside government-held areas; access should be long-term and not end in winter; assistance must adhere to humanitarian principles; and previous cross-border monitoring arrangements must be maintained. “All five of these elements are critical,” the U.S. envoy said, stressing that they would improve trust among donor nations to Syria’s humanitarian operations, reaffirm that U.N. operations will be guided only by humanitarian principles, ensure proper funding and give humanitarian workers greater predictability. U.N. humanitarian coordinator Ramesh Rajasingham told the Security Council that humanitarian officials are continuing to talk to the Syrian government about the terms of the aid operations. Meanwhile, he said the U.N. has sent convoys through the two other less convenient crossings at Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai that Syria opened to increase the flow of assistance to victims after the devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that ravaged its northwest and southern Turkey on Feb. 8. Assad extended their opening until Aug. 13, and the U.N. again urged him to keep the two crossings open. Many people in northwest Idlib have been forced from their homes during the 12-year civil war, which has killed nearly a half million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. Hundreds of thousands live in tent settlements and have relied on aid that comes through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing. The main insurgent group in northwest Idlib is Hayat Tahrir al Sham, whose origins were in al-Qaida. The group and other militants are a mix of homegrown fighters and foreign jihadis who began coming to Syria in 2011 after an initially peaceful uprising against Assad turned into an armed insurgency. Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky made clear that delivery of aid through Bab al-Hawa must be carried out “with the consent and in close coordination with the internationally recognized government of the country.” He said U.N. humanitarian personnel now have the opportunity to cooperate with legitimate Syrian authorities, prioritize the interests of those needing assistance, including in government-held territories, “and not internationally recognized terrorists and their Western sponsors who have entrenched themselves in Idlib.” Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh told the council Damascus is open to cooperating with the United Nations but must be in control. He stressed that Syria requires not only aid but early recovery projects and de-mining operations. © 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Targeted killings of civilians in western Sudan increasingly resemble the horrors of 20 years ago, survivors say By Hafiz Haroun and Rick Noack July 18, 2023 Sudanese girls who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region look at makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad, while taking refuge in Borota, Chad. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters) ADRE REFUGEE CAMP, Chad — Twenty years after the Darfur genocide began, the children of those who survived are fleeing a new wave of violence that increasingly resembles the 2003 mass slaughter. Like their parents two decades ago, they’re escaping towns in Sudan’s western Darfur region that are being burned to the ground in what appear to be coordinated attacks, leaving behind their family members who have been killed. Once again, they say they’re being targeted by Arab paramilitary groups for their non-Arab background. Some men and boys have been shot on the spot if they admit to belonging to the Masalit ethnic group, according to survivors, and those who escape may never be able to return. At the cramped Adre refugee camp in neighboring Chad, 11-year-old Essam Muhammad was holding his 13-month-old sister. Twenty years ago, Muhammad’s mother, Fatima, lost her parents in the genocide, and now Muhammad too has lost his mother. In tears, he recalled the moment his mother’s life slipped away last month. Shot by a sniper in the stomach in western Darfur, just a few miles from the border, her last whispered words to Muhammad were: “From now on, you’re responsible for your little sister.” A covered body across from a military armored vehicle on a street in the West Darfur state capital El Geneina, amid ongoing fighting in Sudan. (AFP/Getty Images) In interviews, more than two-dozen survivors in this and other refugee camps shared similar accounts, adding to a mounting body of evidence that suggests Darfur faces a new wave of genocide. The region has seen a surge in targeted killings and forced displacement since 2019 that was attributed to Sudan’s Arab paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Masalit leaders, in turn, have at times been accused by Arabs of provoking violence. But the bloodletting escalated dramatically after fighting broke out in April around the country between the forces of two rival Sudanese generals who have been vying for power in the capital, Khartoum. Within days, fighters linked to the RSF — a group widely seen to have roots in the Janjaweed militias accused by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes against humanity in Darfur two decades ago — went on new killing sprees in predominantly Masalit neighborhoods in western Darfur, survivors say. A man walks while smoke rises above buildings after aerial bombardment, during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum. (Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters) Over 300,000 Sudanese people in Darfur and elsewhere have died in the violence. More than 2.2 million people have been displaced within the country, while about 700,000 have fled abroad, many to Chad, according to the International Organization for Migration. “The fighters told us that there is no place for us here,” recalled Randa Abdullah, 18, a Masalit whose parents raised her in a refugee camp in Geneina, the regional capital of the West Darfur state, after they were targeted in the 2003 mass killings, which were declared a genocide by Western leaders, the International Criminal Court, Genocide Watch, and human rights groups. In April, Abdullah watched through a door slit as her father died after being shot by a sniper just outside their home. “We saw him take his last breaths,” she said, “but we couldn’t help him.” “All around us, people were being killed,” she said. She said she fled Geneina with about 100 other refugees, traveling on roads where “corpses were lying everywhere.” Snipers killed two dozen of the refugees in her group, she recalled. Hawa Adam, a Sudanese refugee woman, who fled the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, rides a donkey with her children as she heads to water point near the border between Sudan and Chad in Goungour, Chad. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters) Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the humanitarian research lab at the Yale School of Public Health, which contributes research to the State Department’s Sudan Conflict Observatory program, said it is increasingly clear that the attacks committed by the RSF in Sudan constitute crimes against humanity — and that “no one is stopping them.” “Very few people are making it out at this point” who can share their accounts of the violence with the world, Raymond said. But he added that satellite imagery shows that entire urban neighborhoods and villages have been burned to the ground in recent weeks in what appear to be efforts to permanently displace their populations. Last week, the U.N. human rights office said in a statement that it had “credible information” that 87 people — mostly Masalits — were buried in mass graves outside Geneina in mid-June on orders of the RSF. Among the victims were women and children, the United Nations said. The RSF, as usual, has denied responsibility for these killings and similar incidents. RSF officials did not respond to requests for comment for this report. In another incident, fires destroyed an area equivalent to the size of 280 soccer fields in the town of Murnei three weeks ago, according to the Sudan Conflict Observatory. The “velocity and scale” of arson attacks attributed to the RSF and aligned militias appears to still be on the rise, Raymond said. How the democratic hopes of the Sudan Spring went so horribly wrong The Darfur genocide that began in 2003 was carried out during the dictatorial rule of Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was later implicated by the International Criminal Court in ordering the mass killings. His ouster in 2019 amid large popular protests led to the formation of a hybrid military-civilian government, which in turn was overthrown by the two generals who are now fiercely battling for domination: Sudan’s military chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti. Ibrahim Abkar, 75, saw his sister and grandson killed in front of him in Geneina. (Hafiz Haroun for The Washington Post) When their fragile power-sharing deal collapsed in April, fighting erupted in Khartoum and quickly spread to Darfur. Many of the attacks have involved systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure and local populations. In interviews, more than a dozen survivors from Geneina described targeted killings of unarmed neighbors and relatives in predominantly Masalit neighborhoods. Their testimony matches similar accounts from various towns in Darfur collected by human rights researchers in recent weeks. Doctors have reported seeing an influx of women who have been raped and subjected to other forms of sexual violence. Survivors say that RSF forces and their allies have used artillery to strike civilian buildings, including many refugee shelters. Suspected RSF fighters shot residents in the streets or went door to door, executing all men they encountered, according to survivors, who recognized some of the attackers as neighbors known to be RSF fighters or spotted cars and uniforms typically associated with the RSF. Sudan’s rapid decline into war evokes Somalia’s catastrophic collapse While survivors said the atrocities in Darfur have been primarily committed by the RSF and its allies, they also blamed the Sudanese army for shelling their districts during clashes with the RSF, resulting in civilian injuries and deaths. Ten survivors also described being turned away when they sought refuge at the regional headquarters of the central reserve police, which is aligned with the military. “They refused to let us into their compound and told us to leave,” said Juma Dawood Musa, 42. Seeing no other options, Musa’s family decided to risk the perilous, 20-mile journey into Chad, repeatedly passing checkpoints of RSF troops or aligned militias. His wife did not make it, he recounted. At one of the checkpoints, as militia fighters beat him with sticks, his wife intervened but became herself the target and was hit in the neck. Musa managed to drag her away, but she soon began to lose consciousness. To save himself, Musa said he had to leave her corpse beside the road. At refugee camps in and around the small Chadian town of Adre, hundreds of thousands of refugees are estimated by the Chadian government to have arrived in recent weeks, straining an international relief response that humanitarian groups say lacks money and resolve. As the peak of the rainy season is approaching, mosquito and waterborne diseases are proliferating rapidly. Eleven-year-old Muhammad does not have a tent to keep him dry. And on a recent day, humanitarian workers, running low on supplies, had only given him and his little sister a small portion of rice. Muhammad tried to honor his late mother’s last request and fed all of it to his 13-month-old sister. “I can bear the hunger,” he said. “All I care about is that my sister has enough.” Humanitarian workers say they’re stunned that the echoes of the 2003 genocide have so far not resulted in more international funding for aid groups or stronger sanctions. “The response from the international community is far below what we should expect on this scale of violence,” said Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, a crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). The organization called on the ICC Prosecutor, who has announced an inquiry into recent incidents, to probe attacks on civilians in West Darfur after an HRW investigation found evidence that RSF fighters and aligned militia shot more than two dozen people who had been hiding in schools in the town of Misterei in May. Zainab Abdullah, 35, a refugee from Geneina, said she and her family unsuccessfully hoped that justice would be administered in the wake of the 2003 genocide that displaced them. “But the criminals became rulers,” she said. This time, she doesn’t want to harbor false hopes. “We won’t return to Sudan,” she said. Noack reported from Paris. By Rick Noack Rick Noack is a Paris-based correspondent covering France for The Washington Post. Previously, he was a foreign affairs reporter for The Post based in Berlin. He also worked for The Post from Washington, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Twitter Copyright 2023 The Washington Post

Kate Ferguson Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Mon 24 Jul 2023 15.42 BST Peace between Hemedti’s RSF and Sudan’s army will not end war crimes. As UN security council president, Britain must act. Women who fled the conflict and massacres in Sudan at a shelter in Chad this month. About 3.7m people have been displaced, mostly from Darfur. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters ​​As conflict in Sudan escalates, it is becoming clear that the Rapid Support Forces has returned to Darfur to complete the genocide it began 20 years ago. The RSF is the Janjaweed rebranded, the “devils on horseback” used by the Sudanese government from 2003 to implement widespread and systematic crimes against non-Arab communities across Darfur. The RSF was, and still is, commanded by Gen Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo. In recent weeks, what we knew was coming has been confirmed. Yale University’s Conflict Observatory, which uses a combination of satellite imagery, Nasa thermal-detection data and open-source analysis, found evidence of the “targeted destruction of at least 26 communities” by the RSF between 15 April and 10 July. Mass graves have been discovered, and satellite imagery shows entire urban neighbourhoods and villages have been burned down. Sexual violence is once again an evident component of RSF strategy. Facilities necessary for survival are being deliberately destroyed, from homes, schools and hospitals to water, electricity and communications infrastructure. This is what you do when you want to permanently remove a people. And terrible as this evidence is, the public reports and verified cases will still represent a massive undercount of what is actually taking place. This hellish trajectory will gather momentum, and there is a real risk the RSF will now take aim at larger targets, such as the town of El Fasher, where there are at least 600,000 displaced people now largely housed in three camps. The RSF appears to be taking advantage of an international response to the crisis that is prioritising resolution between the warring generals – Hemedti and Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan’s armed forces – but so far is proving unable or unwilling to respond to the mass violence being unleashed across Darfur. From the second world war and the Holocaust to the wars of Yugoslav succession and genocide against Bosnia’s Muslims, this deeply flawed assumption that ending armed conflict will also end campaigns of identity-based mass violence has meant catastrophic failures to protect vulnerable people and prevent massive losses of life. Failure to acknowledge these distinctions in Sudan will likewise be devastating for Darfur. The deliberate violence in Darfur requires an urgent response. However, doing so confers no legitimacy on Sudanese armed forces, which have been committing human rights violations elsewhere in Sudan in pursuit of reimposing Islamist authoritarian rule. What has been reported in Darfur should be seen as the first wave of a strategy that will become more extreme if left unchecked. The RSF command is watching what the world will do before it escalates. We have the narrowest of windows in which to act. The nature, intent and perpetrators of atrocities must be named and condemned. Last week the UK’s development minister, Andrew Mitchell, said crimes against humanity was “entirely right” to describe what is taking place. It is surprising that other countries – in particular the US, which has an established mechanism to do so – have yet to follow suit. Global condemnation can give perpetrators cause to hesitate; this buys time, which saves lives. The roles played by state leaders via back-channel diplomacy, and in leveraging bilateral and personal relationships, often make the greatest difference amid such delicate tipping points. Leadership from the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, along with Mitchell, in publicly condemning mass atrocities in the strongest possible terms – and getting on the phone to urge their counterparts to do the same – is therefore critical. The glare of the international spotlight allows perpetrators fewer places to conceal their crimes. As current president of the UN security council, the UK should be using every forum and mechanism to bring attention, investigation, documentation and media coverage. Impunity thrives in the shadows. The UK must listen far more to the people who know and understand this violence best. I told the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee last month that the UK made a catastrophic error in trusting the men with guns rather than listening to the people who were feeling increasingly unsafe. It would be a graver mistake still to assume now that designing protective strategies is the singular purview of military experts in western capitals. The UK needs to establish urgently an emergency communications channel between Whitehall and experts in Sudan, Darfur, Chad and the Darfuri community here in the UK, who will be among the first to know when the RSF advance or alters course. Ultimately, as the chairs of both the international development and foreign affairs select committees have repeated, a protective wedge must be placed between people at risk and the RSF. The full spectrum of protective options must be fully considered, including but not limited to the rapid deployment of high-level international observers, the presence of UN political and human rights experts as “eyes and ears” on the ground, and peacekeeping forces that can protect civilians. [Genocide Watch comment: "Communications channels" and "protective wedges" are not enough. What is needed is a full UN Peacekeeping Force with at least 2000 heavily armed and financed combat troops and a mandate and rules of engagement to aggressively protect civilians. If the ICC issues arrest warrants, the UN PKO should be authorized to arrest both Generals Hemedti and al-Burhan, and send them for trial by the ICC. If the UN Security Council cannot authorize this UN PKO, the genocide should be referred to the UN General Assembly and the UN PKO should be authorized under the Uniting for Peace Resolution.] None of these options is easy – we know the UN security council is broken, and securing permission for access will be a diplomatic feat on its own – but difficulty cannot become an excuse not to persevere when any kind of international presence will help to pause attacks and buy time. We knew the spectre of identity-based mass violence was returning to Sudan. We knew it when Hemedti instigated a massacre in Khartoum after the people’s revolution in 2019; we knew it when Burhan led the military coup in 2021. If the UK’s policy is indeed “to maximise our ability to take effective action to prevent and respond to atrocities”, comprehensive action must be taken now. Otherwise, we will have to accept that we stood by 20 years after genocide began in Darfur, allowing the very same perpetrators to complete the crime. Kate Ferguson is co-executive director of the charity Protection Approaches, which works to prevent identity-based violence © 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern)

© SOPA images GENEVA, July 20 (Reuters) - Dozens of rights activists as well as prominent lawyers and former prosecutors have written to the U.N. Human Rights chief urging him to intervene to try to prevent the execution of an Iranian boxer, a letter showed on Thursday. Mohammad Javad Vafa'i Thani who was imprisoned for his role in anti-government protests in 2019 was informed on Wednesday that his execution verdict had been finalised, according to the letter dated July 19. "We ask that you make an urgent public call for the Iranian authorities to halt Vafa'i Thani's imminent execution sentence," said the document, signed by 83 people including the former head of the International Criminal Court Judge Sang-Hyun Song, more than a dozen current and former U.N. human rights officials as well as former prosecutors. Iran's judiciary was not immediately available to comment on the matter. However, his lawyer Babak Paknia said in a tweet that the judiciary had not notified them about the verdict. A spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said: "We have received information on this case and are following up on it and gathering additional information." Iran was rocked by major protests last year sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022 while in the custody of the country's morality police. Since then, at least seven people have been executed for verdicts linked to the unrest, which the clerical rulers have accused the country's foes of fomenting. Turk has been pushing for a trip to the country and a meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, although there has been little if any indication those efforts are bearing fruit. Reporting by Emma Farge and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Editing by Alison Williams. © 2023 Reuters. All rights reserved

Russian president reacts angrily after Polish defence minister sends troops to guard eastern border By Andrew Roth Poland’s defence minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, centre, with the US ambassador, Mark Brezinski, left, and Maj Gen Adam Joks, observe joint US-Polish training exercises on Friday Photograph: Marcin Bielecki/EPA Vladimir Putin has said Russia will use “all means at its disposal” to defend Belarus after Poland and other EU countries voiced concerns about the deployment of Russian paramilitaries near their borders. Putin delivered a series of aggressive remarks during a meeting of his security council, where he claimed without evidence that Poland was seeking to invade Belarus, a Russian ally, and that their elites were “dreaming of Belarusian lands”. Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group have begun holding training sessions for Belarusian troops at the Bretsky training centre in western Belarus, about six miles (10km) from a border crossing with Poland. Poles near the border say they have heard gunshots and helicopters, Reuters reported this week. Wagner fighters began arriving in Belarus in large numbers last week after their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, struck a deal with the Kremlin to end a short-lived mutiny in which he sent his heavily armed fighters on a “march of justice” toward Moscow. On Friday, Poland’s security committee said it would move troops toward the east in response to the Wagner group’s new presence in neighbouring Belarus. The independent Belarusian Hajun project estimated that about 2,500 Wagner mercenaries had arrived in the country, many from bases in Ukraine. “Training or joint exercises of the Belarusian army and the Wagner group is undoubtedly a provocation,” Zbigniew Hoffmanna security official, told the Polish state news agency PAP, according to a Reuters translation. “The committee analysed possible threats, such as the dislocation of Wagner group units. Therefore, the minister of national defence, chairman of the committee, Mariusz Błaszczak, decided to move our military formations from the west to the east of Poland.” Poland earlier this month said it would send up to 1,000 troops to defend the eastern borders of the country. In Moscow, Putin launched an angry invective in response, claiming without evidence that Poland was seeking to annex territories in Belarus. “Unleashing aggression against Belarus would mean aggression against the Russian Federation,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin. “And we will respond to it using all means at our disposal.” He similarly said without evidence that Poland would seek to annex territories in Ukraine. “The western territories of present-day Poland are a gift from Stalin to the Poles, have our friends in Warsaw forgotten about this?” Putin said. “We will remind you.” Russia has used similar threats of pre-emptive strikes to justify military action in the past, including its invasion of Ukraine. But there are no signs of a direct clash between Poland and Belarus or Poland and Russia at present. The arrival of the Wagner mercenaries in Belarus appears to be a temporary measure as the Kremlin tries to manage the fallout from last month’s brief mutiny. William Burns, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, said at the Aspen Security Forum that Putin was still buying time while he decided what to do with Prigozhin and his mercenary army. “What we are seeing is a very complicated dance,” Burns said. But Putin could ultimately decide to take revenge on Prigozhin and kill him, he added. “In my experience, Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback, so I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution,” he said. “If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster.” Russia has reportedly detained a number of military officers suspected of having advance knowledge of the mutiny, including Sergei Surovikin, the head of Russia’s aerospace forces and an ally of Prigozhin’s. On Friday, investigators also arrested Igor Girkin, a former battlefield commander of irregular Russian proxy forces in Ukraine. He had condemned Putin for his mismanagement of the war in Ukraine. Video surfaced earlier this week of Prigozhin welcoming Russian mercenaries to Belarus, saying they would stay there “for some time” to train before focusing their efforts on Africa, where they have been contracted by a number of governments to fight in local conflicts or protect valuable assets. He again accused Russia’s military of mismanaging the invasion of Ukraine and said his troops could return to the front in the future. “What is happening at the front now is a disgrace in which we do not need to participate,” he said. “[We will] wait for the moment when we can prove ourselves in full.” © 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

High levels of income inequality and segregation mean higher risk of mass shootings, according to a new study. Mass shootings in the US have more than doubled since 2014, and they disproportionately affect Black Americans. Photographer: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service By Isabel Webb Carey and Fola Akinnibi. Mass shootings claim a disproportionate number of Black victims and happen more often in US cities with higher Black populations, suggesting that structural racism may play a role, according to a new study by Tulane University researchers. Mass shootings, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as incidents where at least four victims are shot, have more than doubled in the US since 2014, to 649 in 2022. The higher a city’s Black population, the more likely it is to experience a mass shooting, according to the research published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery, a medical journal. The study is one of the first to look into the demographics of these events and link them to housing segregation, redlining and other discriminatory housing practices. Addressing some of these systemic issues could be a tool in stemming the increase in these incidents, the study’s authors said. “It’s really important from a policy perspective that we think about racial and economic polarization,” said Julia Fleckman, a public health researcher at Tulane and a co-author of the study. “We need to think about robust policies to address structural racism because that might have an impact on violence.” The findings disrupt the nation’s image of mass shootings, which has been shaped by tragedies like the Las Vegas festival shooting and Sandy Hook in which most of the victims were not Black. They draw attention instead to the more prevalent kinds of mass shooting incidents that don’t get the same attention. For example, on July 16 of this year five people were shot, one fatally, in South Los Angeles. On the same day, a drive-by shooting in Chicago left a 41-year-old mother dead and four others injured, while a similar shooting happened hours before in Dallas. The study looked at several measures of economic and social inequality in 51 metropolitan areas, and found that mass shootings correlated with places where the segregation rate was high, where there was a high percentage of Black residents, where the gap between rich and poor was very large and where there were higher rates of single-parent households. Those findings suggested to the researchers that housing policies that have historically pushed Black residents to certain neighborhoods, as well as a lack of economic opportunity, could put people at higher risk of mass shootings. Of the 51 largest metro areas in the US, only Providence, Rhode Island, did not record at least one mass shooting between 2015 and 2019. Over that period, there were nearly 900 incidents, claiming 828 lives and injuring almost 4,000 people, according to the study. Michael Ghio, a surgery resident and the principal author of the study, deals with the outcomes of shootings every day. He sees mass shootings and gun violence as a public health issue, and hopes the study will prompt more research into the impact of mass shootings on Black Americans, calling it the “tip of the iceberg.” US gun deaths rose 35% in 2020 — exceeding the worst levels recorded in the 1990s. The biggest increase in firearm homicide victims was among Black people, according to Centers for Disease Control data. There’s a connection between the rise in shootings and a rise in firearm purchases, notes Kelly Sampson, senior counsel and director of racial justice for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. A “culture of fear” leads people to arm themselves, ultimately leading to more violence, she said. Sampson emphasized the importance of stopping guns from flowing into communities in part by holding the gun industry accountable for guns that flow from legal to illegal markets. There’s also a need for investments in communities, she added. “For decades people have been working in their own communities to really address gun violence holistically,” she said, referring to community gun violence interruption programs and calls for more equitable distribution of resources. “Too often those programs are under-resourced.” ©2023 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved

This is a locator map for Iran with its capital, Tehran. (AP Photo) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian authorities have shut down one of the offices of the country’s biggest e-commerce company and launched judicial procedures after it published pictures online showing female employees not wearing the mandatory Islamic headscarf, semi-official media reported. The move appears to be part of a new campaign launched last week to impose the Islamic dress code nearly a year after the morality police largely melted away in the face of widespread protests. Digikala, informally known as “Iran’s Amazon,” appears to have run afoul of the rules by posting pictures of a corporate gathering in which several female employees were not wearing the hijab. The company boasts more than 40 million active monthly users and hosts over 300,000 merchants. Iranians are largely cut off from international retailers like Amazon because of Western sanctions linked to the country’s disputed nuclear program. The website of Iran’s Hamshahri daily, which is affiliated with the municipality of the capital, Tehran, reported late Sunday that one of Digikala’s offices had been sealed. It said the website was operating normally. The website of Iran’s judiciary said court cases had been filed in connection with the photos, without elaborating. Nationwide protests erupted last fall after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police. She appears to have been detained for violating the country’s dress code, which requires that both men and women dress conservatively and that women cover their hair in public. The protests, in which women played a leading role, quickly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s theocracy, which took power after the 1979 revolution. Authorities responded with a heavy crackdown in which more than 500 protesters were killed and nearly 20,000 were detained. The protests largely faded at the start of this year but there are still widespread signs of discontent. After the protests began, the morality police largely vanished from the streets and many women — particularly in Tehran and other cities — stopped wearing the hijab. But officials insisted throughout the crisis that the rules had never changed. Iran’s ruling clerics view the hijab as a key pillar of the Islamic Republic and consider Western-style dress to be a sign of decadence. Last week, the morality police returned to the streets as officials announced a new campaign to force women to wear the hijab. © 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

AU, ECOWAS Should Press for End to Violations, Urge Accountability Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, right, welcomes Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their meeting in Bamako, Mali, February 7, 2023.© 2023 Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP (Nairobi) – Malian armed forces and foreign fighters apparently from the Russia-linked Wagner Group have summarily executed and forcibly disappeared several dozen civilians in Mali’s central region since December 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. They also destroyed and looted civilian property and allegedly tortured detainees in an army camp. On June 16, 2023, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop told the United Nations Security Council to withdraw the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) “without delay,” citing a “crisis of confidence” between the Malian authorities and the 15,000 member UN peacekeeping force. On June 28, the UN Security Council decided to “terminate MINUSMA’s mandate,” but maintain its personnel until December 31 to plan and execute the cessation of operations and transfer of tasks. “The UN peacekeepers’ impending withdrawal makes it more crucial than ever for the Malian authorities to protect civilians and prevent further abuses during military operations,” said Carine Kaneza Nantulya, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should express their concerns about grave abuses by the Malian armed forces and allied apparent Wagner Group fighters and increase pressure on the Malian authorities to end these violations and hold those responsible to account.” Between March 1 and May 30, Human Rights Watch interviewed by telephone 40 people with knowledge of the incidents in central Mali. Interviewees included 20 witnesses of abuses, three family members of victims, two community leaders, five Malian civil society activists, eight representatives of international organizations, and two Sahel political analysts. Human Rights Watch also reviewed a video showing evidence of abuses by Malian soldiers and associated foreign forces but was not able to independently determine the date and location of the capture. Human Rights Watch on June 26 sent two letters to Mali’s justice and defense ministers detailing its findings about alleged abuses and related questions. In its response, dated July 20, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the government said it was not aware of any human rights violations, but that “the public prosecutor in charge of the Specialized Judicial Unit, on the instructions of the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, opened a judicial investigation for war crimes and crimes against humanity against X” and that “the findings of various investigations will be brought to the attention of national and international opinion in due course.” People interviewed said that the Malian armed forces committed the abuses during military operations in response to the presence of Islamist armed groups in Ouenkoro, Séguéla, Sossobé, and Thioffol villages, in Mopti and Ségou regions. During all the operations, except the one in Thioffol, witnesses reported the involvement of foreign, non-French speaking armed men who they described as “white,” or “Russians,” or “Wagner." These cases are a fraction of the abuses committed by the Malian armed forces and affiliated foreign fighters in Mali in the past year. “I was at the market when the shooting started [and] I saw three military helicopters flying low, one of them firing,” said a 28-year-old man who was in Ouenkoro village on March 23. “People fled in all directions . … I took my motorbike and rode as fast as I could. I saw two people falling on the ground behind me, shot from the helicopters.” A large number of “white” foreign fighters in uniform carried out a February 3 assault on the village of Séguéla, which resulted in beatings, looting, and the arrest of 17 men, of whom the bodies of eight were later found. In December 2021, Mali’s military government said that Russian military instructors were in Mali as part of a bilateral agreement with Russia, but denied the presence of Wagner fighters. However, there is growing evidence of activities and abuses in Mali by the Russia-linked Wagner Group, a private military security company run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin until tensions between the Russian defense ministry and Wagner Group escalated in Russia on June 24. On May 1, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov acknowledged in an interview with an Italian news channel that the Wagner Group “provides security services” to the Malian government. In a June 26 interview with the Russian media outlet RT, Lavrov said that Wagner Group members were in Mali, “working there as instructors. This work, of course, will continue.” On June 27, Prigozhin said in a press statement, “Wagner forces in African and Arabic countries have been working exclusively in the interests of the Russian Federation.” In its July 20 response to Human Rights Watch, the Malian Foreign Minister said that the Malian armed forces “conduct military operations completely autonomously,” and that no other foreign force or pro-government militia “is involved in field operations.” Yvan Guichaoua, a leading political analysist on the Sahel, told Human Rights Watch, “By demanding MINUSMA's withdrawal, the Malian authorities place themselves in an exclusive security relationship with Wagner, whose way of conducting warfare threatens civilians and whose reliability is questionable as demonstrated by the recent events in Russia.” On February 25, the Council of the European Union imposed “additional restrictive measures” against the head of the Wagner Group in Mali, saying that “Wagner mercenaries have been involved in acts of violence and multiple human rights abuses.” These restrictive measures, including asset freezes and travel bans, add to the measures that the EU Council adopted in December 2021 against individuals and entities linked to the Wagner Group, including the Wagner Group itself. On May 25, the United States Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on Ivan Maslov, the Wagner Group’s leader in Mali, “for his involvement in the actions of the Wagner Group in Mali.” On the same day, the US State Department imposed visa restrictions on two Malian military commanders, Col. Moustaph Sangare and Maj. Lassine Togola, “for their involvement in gross violations of human rights.” On June 27, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Andrey Nikolayevich Ivanov, an executive in the Wagner Group who “worked closely with Prigozhin’s entity Africa Politology and senior Malian government officials on weapons deals, mining concerns, and other Wagner Group activities in Mali,” for “having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Prigozhin.” Human Rights Watch has previously documented serious abuses during counterinsurgency operations by the Malian security forces and allied fighters believed to be from the Wagner Group since 2022. Islamist armed groups have also committed numerous serious abuses, including unlawful killings, looting, and destruction of civilian property. “Soldiers consider us as jihadists [Islamic fighters], but jihadists threatened to impose an embargo on our village if we didn’t comply with their laws,” said an Ouenkoro resident. “State authorities are not here to protect us. We had no other choice but to accept their orders. And now, soldiers treat us as terrorists. We are between a rock and a hard place.” Most of the men Human Rights Watch documented who were killed, arrested, or forcibly disappeared were from the pastoralist Peuhl, or Fulani, ethnic groups. Islamist armed groups have concentrated their recruitment efforts on Fulani communities by exploiting grievances with the government and other ethnic groups. All parties to the armed conflict in Mali, including members of foreign armed groups, are bound by international humanitarian law. Applicable law includes Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law. Common Article 3 prohibits murder, torture, and ill-treatment of people in custody. Those who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent are responsible for war crimes. “Malian authorities will come to realize that the peacekeepers’ departure will severely affect civilian protection and the monitoring of abuses by all sides,” Kaneza Nantulya said. “The Malian government should allow independent experts from the African Union, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and ECOWAS to report on human rights developments in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission.” For detailed accounts of the abuses and other details, please see below. The names of those interviewed have been withheld for their protection. Armed Conflict in Mali Hostilities have intensified across Mali since 2022 as the Malian armed forces have conducted large-scale counterinsurgency operations against the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jamaa Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the rival Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). Both JNIM and ISGS have frequently attacked civilians. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a data collection, analysis, and crisis mapping project, reported that at least 5,750 people have been killed in over 1,740 incidents in all ten regions of the country between January 2022 and March 2023. The violence, which spilled over to other Sahel countries including Burkina Faso, has exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis, with 8.8 million people requiring assistance and 412,000 people forced from their homes. In August 2022, France withdrew the last of its 2,400 troops from Mali, ending a nine-year counterinsurgency operation. Relations between the two countries frayed following two military coups in Mali in 2020 and 2021. Following the 2021 coup, both the African Union and ECOWAS suspended Mali’s membership. In February, the Malian authorities ordered MINUSMA’s human rights chief, Guillaume Ngefa-Atondoko Andali, to leave the country, accusing him of “destabilizing and subversive actions.” On June 16, the foreign minister, Diop, told the UN Security Council to withdraw UN peacekeeping forces, “without delay,” and rejected a May 12 UN report accusing Malian troops and Wagner Group fighters of killing over 500 people, of whom most were summarily executed during a military operation in Moura, in central Mali in March 2022. The government denounced what it considered the “instrumentalization and politicization of the human rights issue.” On June 19, Malian authorities announced they would open an espionage prosecution against those responsible for the UN’s Moura massacre report. The public prosecutor, Ladji Sara, said in a statement that those behind the report are “all co-perpetrators or accomplices in the crimes of espionage, undermining the morale of the army or air force.” In it July 20 response to Human Rights Watch, the Malian Foreign ministry characterized Human Rights Watch’s approach on evidence collection as “biased” and regretted “the lack of thoroughness in cross-checking alleged facts and the imbalance in the conclusions drawn from them.” It noted that the Malian armed forces are “professional,” and trained in human rights and international humanitarian law and “act in strict compliance with human rights and international humanitarian law.” The ministry concluded by stating that the government of Mali “remains open to continuing dialogue will all partners who genuinely work for the defense and promotion of human rights.” Thioffol, Mopti region, December 18 On December 18, Malian soldiers unlawfully killed four civilians, including three women and one girl, and injured two other women in and around Thioffol, a small ethnic Fulani settlement within the village of Boulikessi. One Islamist fighter and three nearby civilians, including an older man, were also killed in a firefight with Malian soldiers. Human Rights Watch interviewed three witnesses to the attack and a relative of three who were killed. One witness said around 10 a.m., a Malian military vehicle with at least six Malian soldiers, who were part of a large convoy, came across a group of five men, one of whom was an Islamist fighter sitting under a tree on the outskirts of Thioffol. The Islamist fighter shot at the military vehicle and the soldiers responded by opening fire and killing the fighter and three of the civilians. One witness, a herder from Thioffol, said: “I was with three friends under a tree not far from the village when a man arrived on a motorbike. I noticed his motorbike was full of merchandise and arms. He himself was armed. We sat down together and found out he was a jihadist from Burkina Faso . … Suddenly, the jihadist … climbed the tree. He told us that the military were coming. I saw a military vehicle in front of us. The jihadist jumped from the tree, grabbed his weapon, and fired at the soldiers, who opened fire in response. They [soldiers] killed the fighter and my three friends. I ran as far as I could and hid.” The other vehicles in the military convoy – four motorbikes and at least 12 pickup trucks with over 100 soldiers, according to witnesses – then reached Thioffol. Witnesses said soldiers went door to door searching for Islamist fighters and looted homes. One soldier broke into a home and from close range shot the women and girls who were inside, killing three women and a 7-year-old girl, and injuring at least two other women. A 45-year-old mother of seven who was in the home and was wounded in the foot said that soldiers first threatened and then shot at the women and girls inside: “One [soldier] asked us: ‘Where are the men?’ We said they were out grazing animals. He replied: ‘If we found your men, we would have massacred them.’ He ordered us out, while other soldiers stole our silver bracelets, kitchen utensils, and water cans .… [A]s soldiers started leaving, one turned back, stood on the doorstep, and opened fire. Four of us died on the spot, including a girl. The soldiers fired a first and then a second round of bullets.” Another woman, 32, who was in the same house and was also wounded, said: “The soldier was standing in front of the door. He got down on his knees and started shooting. I was injured in my left foot, but four others died. When the soldiers left, we took care of the bodies and prepared them for the burial.” The three survivors and a relative of three of the victims provided the identities of all eight civilians, ages 7 to 72, who were killed. Séguéla, Segou Region, February 3 Villagers said that on February 3, scores of “white” fighters in military uniforms with at least one Malian soldier carried out an operation in Séguéla village, searching for Islamist fighters. During the operation, the fighters looted homes and shops, beat people, and arrested 17 men. Later, on February 21 near Doura in the Ségou region about 65 kilometers from Séguéla, villagers found the bodies of eight who were arrested in the February 3 raid. The whereabouts of the remaining nine remain unknown. Human Rights Watch interviewed five people who witnessed the military operation, including two who found the bodies near Doura and reviewed a video filmed on February 21 showing the bodies found near Doura. Residents said that JNIM is known to operate in the area around Séguéla, however, witnesses to the military operation said there were no Islamist fighters in Séguéla at the time. “The presence of jihadists is real. … [T]hey want us to veil our women, cut our pants short … but this doesn’t make us jihadists,” said a 50-year-old resident. “Jihadists are armed, we can’t chase them out. But that day there were no jihadists around.” Villagers said that foreign fighters flew into Séguéla in three helicopters, arriving at about 9 a.m. For over five hours they went door to door, pulling men out of homes and rounding them up in front the village mosque. “There were almost only white Wagner soldiers, they led the whole operation,” one man said. “They were heavily armed, masked, and wore camouflage uniforms and spoke a language we did not understand, but which was not French.” Witnesses said that the uniformed fighters rounded them up and beat them with various objects. “The military grabbed me by the neck and pushed me down,” said one man. “They did the same with other people. They beat us with an iron bar. I was beaten on my back and buttocks.” Another one said: “I was hit several times by different [white] soldiers with a rubber stick. The military communicated with us through signs. Some would order us to sit, others to stand, some would indicate ‘move,’ others ‘stay.’ Some of us did not comply with their instructions because we didn’t understand what they wanted, and so the soldiers beat us even harder.” Witnesses said that the fighters looted homes and shops, taking away money, goods, and valuables. “Two white soldiers broke into my house, searched it, and took away all my wife’s jewellery,” one man said. A 45-year-old man said: “I was at the market in a shop when I saw two white soldiers coming. One pointed his gun at us while the other looted the shop. He took everything he could, especially the 2 million CFA [US$3,300] belonging to the shop owner. Three more white soldiers came and started looting other shops frenziedly.” At the end of the operation, the fighters arrested 17 men between ages 27 and 82. Villagers gave identifying details of those detained and specified that they were all ethnic Fulani, except one who was an ethnic Bambara. They said the fighters did not explain the reasons for the arrests, beyond what they assumed were vague accusations that the men were members of Islamist armed groups or had collaborated with them. “They selected 17 men whom they suspected were jihadists or their accomplices,” a witness said. “They took random people, including very old men.” On February 21, a group of Séguéla villagers found in a deserted area near Doura the bodies of 13 men, including eight of those arrested on February 3 in Séguéla.in a deserted area near Doura. Two who visited the site said that all of the victims were bound and appeared to have been shot, including four whose throats were slit. One of the villagers said: “Four bodies had their throats slit to the point where the heads were almost completely cut off. Their feet were bound. It was hard to look and the smell that emanated from the bodies was pungent, obviously the animals had already begun to gnaw on the bodies. We identified eight bodies of our friends and relatives arrested on February 3 in Séguéla. We could not identify the other five bodies because of the advanced state of decomposition, but we suspect they are the other people arrested in our village the same day.” Both men said they could not carry the bodies with them out of fear of being stopped by the military. The whereabouts of the other men arrested in Séguéla on February 3 remain unknown. Sossobé, Mopti Region, March 6 Five villagers described an airborne operation by members of the Malian armed forces associated with “white” fighters on March 6 in Sossobé village in which soldiers killed five civilian men and beat villagers, and looted property. Al-Qaeda affiliated fighters are present in and around Sossobé, residents said. Witnesses said soldiers searched door to door and looted homes. “I was home with my wife and three children when three white soldiers came,” a 50-year-old herder said. “They searched the house and broke our wardrobe with the butt of their guns. They took my wife’s jewellery and 40,000 [West African CFA] francs [about $67].” Said a 45-year-old man, “Soldiers searched us and stole 240,000 francs [$400] from my pocket.” Witnesses said soldiers rounded up at least 200 men in front of the village mosque and beat at least two who had attempted to flee. “The white soldiers beat two people who were sitting next to me,” a villager said. “They beat them with wooden sticks so hard that the sticks broke.” Another man said: “The soldiers hit them fiercely several times to the point that I thought the two men had died.” Villagers said that when the soldiers left, they and other Sossobé residents found the remains of five men who they said soldiers killed during the operation. They provided identifying details of the five, four of whom were ethnic Fulani and one an ethnic Bozo. “We found four bodies about 100 meters south of Sossobé, all were face down on the ground, which made us think that they had been killed as they tried to run away,” a man said. “Two had bullet wounds on their heads, the others in the back. We buried them in four graves.” Another man said: “There was a young ethnic Bozo man among those who had been rounded up with us at the mosque. He was so scared, he started screaming, ‘I am not a jihadist! I am just a fisherman!’ This irritated the military, who took him toward their helicopters. When the soldiers left, we found his body with several bullet wounds, close to where the helicopters had landed.” Witnesses said that the soldiers arrested 21 men, all ethnic Fulani, and took them away in helicopters. “At about 2 p.m., soldiers started selecting people,” a 50-year-old man said. “They pointed their fingers at 21 men saying, ‘terrorist.’” Another man said, “Two white soldiers tied their hands with tape, blindfolded them, and took them away.” The whereabouts of those taken remain unknown. This was not the first time that soldiers have carried out unlawful killings and arbitrary arrests in Sossobé. Three witnesses said that on December 30, 2022, dozens of “white” fighters and Malian soldiers carried out an airborne operation in Sossobé searching for Islamist fighters in which they killed a 46-year-old man and a 55-year-old man with a psychosocial disability (mental health condition) and arrested nine others. Ouenkoro, Mopti Region, March 23-24 Eight villagers said that on March 23, scores of Malian and “white” foreign soldiers accompanied by pro-government ethnic Bambara or Dozo militiamen carried out an operation in Ouenkoro village in which they killed at least 20 civilians, including a woman and a 6-year-old child The villager said they also arrested 12 men, beat people, and looted property. Ouenkoro is in an area where JNIM is known to operate and carry out attacks. Witnesses said that at about 10 a.m., at least two military helicopters opened fire on the Ouenkoro market, which was filled with hundreds of merchants and villagers, followed by the arrival of soldiers. “I was at the market when I saw military helicopters shooting at us,” said a 55-year-old man. “People ran away. I hid behind a house and saw white soldiers invading the market, shooting, breaking into homes, and arresting people.” Witnesses said the helicopters were sand camouflage, which the Malian military uses. Human Rights Watch obtained two lists of victims compiled by survivors and Ouenkoro residents, one with 20 names and the other with 22, but was unable to confirm the exact number of deaths. Witnesses said that while Islamist fighters are known to pass by Ouenkoro and shop at the market, the day of the military operation there was no exchange of gunfire between the soldiers and Islamist fighters. They said soldiers shot from both the helicopters and from ground level at people who were running for cover. Witnesses and people who participated in the burials said that they found the bodies of those killed scattered in various places, including at the market and the village entrances. A 39-year-old man who helped bury the bodies at the village cemetery on March 24 and March 25 said he found “four bodies at the market and others around the village,” with various types of wounds. “[T]hose [at the market] were clearly torn apart and shattered,” while the “others had bullet wounds in the back or in the head.” “I counted at least 20 bodies,” another man said. “We buried them individually, each in one grave.” At least one body was found charred. “I saw the bodies of three people, including of my 84-year-old uncle, who was completely burned near his barn and granaries,” said a 34-year-old herder. “The other two bodies were a 57-year-old trader and a man from Douren village. They were both shot.” Witnesses said soldiers went door to door, pulled men out, and then rounded them up in front of the village mosque where they beat them with various objects and accused them of collaborating with Islamist fighters. “Two white soldiers broke into my place, pointed their guns at me, and took me toward the mosque,” a man said. “On the way, they stopped and beat all men who attempted to flee.” Another man said: “White soldiers didn’t beat me because of my old age. But they beat almost all the others. They punched them, kicked them with their boots, hit them with sticks. They also questioned people about the presence of jihadists. And when people replied they didn’t know, soldiers hit them harder.” Soldiers who participated in the operation also destroyed and looted civilian property. A man who fled Ouenkoro during the attack and returned there on March 28 said: “At the market, at least three shops had been vandalized and looted. In one shop, soldiers had looted all the towels and a solar panel. In two others, they had taken away all products, including rice, sugar, and drinks. I also saw a barn and a granary completely burned.” Villagers said that on March 23, soldiers arrested at least 12 men in Ouenkoro between age 45 and 82, of whom most were ethnic Fulani. They took them to an unknown destination the following day. Human Rights Watch reviewed a list of names of those arrested compiled by relatives and other Ouenkoro residents. Human Rights Watch learned that “white” fighters and Malian soldiers took those arrested to an army camp in the town of Sofara in Mopti region and used torture or other ill-treatment to force confessions from the detainees regarding their affiliation or complicity with Islamist armed groups. Human Rights Watch has previously documented alleged summary executions, enforced disappearances, and incommunicado detentions by government security forces in and near the Malian army camp in Sofara. © 2023 Human Rights Watch