Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega delivers a speech during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly of People's Power of Cuba in commemoration of the 18th anniversary of the creation of ALBA-TCP at the Convention Palace in Havana, Cuba, December 14, 2022. Yamil Lage/Pool via REUTERS GENEVA (Reuters) - Nicaragua’s government has committed serious and systematic violations which amount to crimes against humanity, a United Nations-appointed team of human rights experts said on Thursday, calling for international sanctions against the government. The three-person body said the government has committed, and continues to commit, acts of torture, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention since 2018. It names President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is his wife, as participants in the violations and calls for international legal action and sanctions against those involved. “The objective (of the government) is to eliminate by different means any opposing or dissenting voices in the country,” Jan Simon, Chair of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, told journalists at a briefing to present the findings, saying the government was “weaponising the functions of the state against the population”. “This has resulted in the Nicaraguan population living in fear,” he said. Nicaragua’s diplomatic mission in Geneva did not reply to a request for comment on the report’s findings. The group of experts said it sent 12 letters to the government since it began working a year ago as well as the final report but never received a response. Ortega, now aged 77, first came to power as a leader of the left-wing Sandinista guerrilla movement that toppled the Somoza dictatorship in a 1970s revolution. He was in and out of office over the years but took power again in 2007 and has ruled since. Human rights groups and the political opposition have long accused his government of severely repressing civic freedoms and his opponents to win elections and keep his grip on the country. Security forces killed more than 300 people in anti-government protests in 2018. Asked about the scale of the abuses, the experts said they had documented over 100 cases of executions, hundreds of cases of torture and arbitrary detention, and thousands of cases of political persecution. Simon said the crisis in Nicaragua risks getting worse and warned of a “humanitarian crisis” ahead. “We are very concerned with the present situation,” he said. “It is our sincere hope that this report can contribute to preventing the further spiraling of systemic violations and abuses.” © 2023 Reuters. All rights reserved

By: Zebilon Maine Image: Reuters The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development says it’s dealing with over 50,000 cases of gender-based violence and femicide in the country annually. The department announced an awareness campaign in Potchefstroom in the North West. The campaign is aimed at raising awareness as part of commemorating human rights month. A five-kilometre walk from Ikageng Magistrates Court to Madiba banquet hall in Potchefstroom was undertaken to raise awareness against gender-based violence. According to the South African Police Service, 988 women were killed between April 2020 and September 2022 in incidents of gender-based violence and, according to Pule Mpolokeng, from the justice department, the Ikageng area is a hotspot. “We do estimate over 50 000 cases in the country about domestic violence-related matters and also about the protection of harassment. There are two separate processes and then here in JB Marks Municipality, especially at Ikageng.” “Ikageng is number one, based on domestic violence and harassment in the whole province and also it is one of the top 30 areas whereby domestic violence and protection of harassment complaints are laid,” said Mpolokeng. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the province says lack of credible evidence means that many cases are not successfully prosecuted. NPA’s Eileen Viljoen says prosecution of some cases is only strong as witnesses. “So, if a witness is not a good witness in court, the prosecution asks the question from a police docket from what is written in a police docket, in a form of a statement by the victim, but if the victim comes to court make very different stories or version of the events happened, it becomes more difficult to find that person to be credible and it makes (it difficult for) the court to make a conviction,” said Viljoen. Some of the survivors revealed the trauma they suffered due to gender-based violence. “It was too painful. I lost everything in my life. I had to restart my life from my marriage, my kids, my family … even the place I was staying at I had to lose it because of that rape,” says one of the survivors. “When I was nine years I was raped by my stepdad, he was staying with my mom. So I did not want to tell my mom because I was afraid,” says another survivor. Ntaoleng Monyatsi of The Ikageng Trauma Centre confirmed that they are experiencing an influx of victims of gender-based violence and that they are faced with many other challenges as well. Ikageng Trauma Centre, Manager Ntaoleng Monyatsi says they need donations. “We need clothes, so that we can give the victims, to change into after they bath. We also request donations of clothes from other stakeholders and we also receive a lot of donations from the churches,“ she said. https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/more-than-50-000-cases-of-gbv-and-femicide-reported-annually/ ©SABC 2023

Originally Published by France 24 on February 26th, 2022 Photos of individuals resembling Russian PMC advisers taken next to the newly erected statue. (Source: @RALee85/Archive,) The EU on Saturday announced additional sanctions against Russia's Wagner mercenary organisation for "human rights abuses" in the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and Ukraine. A total of 11 individuals and seven entities tied to the paramilitary group were added to the bloc's list for asset freezes and a travel ban. The Wagner Group itself -- which is fighting in Russia's war in Ukraine -- was already sanctioned by the European Union in 2021. The latest additional sanctions were decided "in view of the international dimension and gravity of the group's activities, as well as its destabilising impact on the countries where it is active", said a statement from the European Council. "The Wagner Group's activities are a threat for the people in the countries where they operate and the European Union," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. The European Council said eight of the individuals and the seven entities listed came under the EU's Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime for Wagner's activities in the Central African Republic and Sudan. One Wagner individual came under an EU sanctions regime applied specifically to Mali. The other two Wagner individuals were listed under the EU's sanctions regime punishing Russia for its war in Ukraine, which was also updated on Saturday. These two were Wagner commanders said to be linked to Russia's capture of the town of Soledar in Ukraine in January. Wagner in Africa In Mali, the EU sanctioned the head of Wagner's forces there. The statement said Wagner's fighters in Mali "have been involved in acts of violence and multiple human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings". Mali is ruled by a junta that last year forced France to remove troops deployed there a decade ago on an anti-jihadist mission. Others listed by the EU in the Central African Republic were high-profile Wagner members, including "the security advisor" to that country's President Faustin Archange Touadera. Wagner has been involved in the Central African Republic at Touadera's invitation to quell a rebellion, and their presence also forced French troops there to leave last year. Gold and diamond companies linked to Wagner in the Central African Republic and in Sudan were hit by the EU sanctions. A Central African radio station, Lengo Sengo, was also listed "for engaging in online influence operations on behalf of Russia and the Wagner Group with the goal of manipulating public opinion". © 2023 Copyright France 24 - All rights reserved. France 24 is not responsible for the content of external websites. Audience ratings certified by ACPM/OJD.

Barbed Wire Hinders Escape as Massive Fire Destroys Rohingya Refugee Camp 11, Leaving Thousands Homeless The destruction of the camp has once again highlighted the urgent need for a long-term solution to the Rohingya crisis. Rohingya Refugee News March 5, 2023 By Shafiur Rahman Charred remains of Refugee Camp 11, showing barbed wire fencing that hindered escapes credit: Ajmeer A massive fire has engulfed Rohingya refugee camp 11 (Balukhali 2) in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, leaving thousands of people homeless and without shelter. The fire broke around 2.30pm, sending a huge black plume of smoke into the air and causing panic among the camp's residents. According to reports in the Dhaka Tribune, the fire destroyed around 2000 shelters, leaving around 12,000 refugees with no place to go. The situation has been further compounded by the barbed wire surrounding the camp, which hindered the exit of the Rohingya refugees. In a desperate bid to escape the raging inferno that engulfed their homes, Rohingya refugees tore down sections of the barbed wire fencing or created holes to create a pathway to safety. These poignant images were taken on a mobile phone by photographer Ajmeer. People had to smash the barbed wire fencing to facilitate exit. Image by Ajmeer The barbed wire fencing was removed by the refugees, allowing for a clearer path to safety. Image by Ajmeer "I never thought I would experience my house being burned again. But now, five and a half years after I fled Myanmar, I have again lost everything," expressed Sulaiman, a Rohingya resident who had previously lost his home in the Tula Toli massacre in 2017. The devastation of this latest fire has left Sulaiman and many others with nothing but the clothes on their backs. "A lot of people could not bring out their possessions because the barbed wire fencing made it necessary for them to take a longer route," Sulaiman added, highlighting how the fencing had further complicated an already treacherous situation. Image of the remains of Sulaiman’s shelter. Credit: Ajmeer As of now, the cause of the fire that ravaged the Camp 11 or Balukhali 2 remains unknown, and there have been no confirmed reports of casualties. However, the devastating destruction of the camp has left thousands of refugees exposed to the harsh elements, leaving them in dire need of urgent assistance. The pressing question now is whether the Bangladeshi authorities will launch an investigation into the cause of the fire and take necessary steps to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Will they also consider removing the barbed wire fencing? In the meantime, it is crucial that the international community rallies together to provide immediate support and aid to those affected by this heartbreaking disaster. Copyright 2023 Rohingya Refugee News

Turkey's Kurdish opposition says government obstructing quake relief efforts - by Andrew Wilks for Al Monitor This photograph taken on Feb. 22, 2023, shows a crane demolishing a damaged building and a helicopter flying in the background, in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey. - ILYAS AKENGIN/AFP via Getty Images DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — At a disaster center in the heart of southeast Turkey, staff rush about answering phones, furiously tapping messages and calling out questions to colleagues. But beneath the frenetic activity, the country’s “Kurdish question” casts a shadow even in times of catastrophe. The crisis office in Diyarbakir, the de facto capital of Turkey’s Kurds, is part of the aid operation organized by the People's Democratic Party (HDP) following the Feb. 6 earthquake. The party has its roots in the Kurdish community, from which it still draws most of its support. However, the HDP relief campaign was hampered by one important factor: Despite winning the 2019 local elections in Diyarbakir and 65 other city, town and district councils across the southeast, it no longer controls the municipalities and their resources. Five months after 63% of voters elected the HDP’s Diyarbakir mayoral candidate Adnan Selcuk Mizrakli into office, he was suspended by the government. Another two months later and he was in prison, where he remains, having been convicted of membership of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. Dozens of other HDP mayors and council members from HDP municipalities have faced a similar fate — either removed from office or jailed — since the 2019 elections. The mayors have been replaced by government-appointed trustees. Those working on the party’s relief drive say they would be much better placed to help people across the region if they had retained control of Diyarbakir — the easternmost of the 11 provinces affected by the quake — and other cities and towns. Ozlem Gunduz, a member of the HDP’s executive council, called the trustees a "big issue." He said, “We have only six municipalities where the state hasn’t appointed a trustee but we’re doing our best. If we had the others, I think the death toll would have been less because we would have enforced the building regulations. We would be able to serve cooked meals to everyone in the region after the earthquake.” In the days following the quake, the HDP coordination center mobilized thousands of volunteers and hundreds of vehicles to provide tents, wood, stoves, food and other supplies around the clock. However, the effort has run into problems, including instances when trucks organized by the HDP and nongovernmental organizations not linked to official aid agencies were held up by government officials. “They are stopping us in many places and we’re trying to prevent them from seizing the aid,” Gunduz said. Visiting the site of a collapsed building in Diyarbakir five days after the quake, HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan underlined the problems the party faces in meeting victims’ needs. “We have mobilized all our means since the first day but as you can see, our co-mayors are in prison and trustees have been appointed in their place,” she said. “Our municipalities were usurped. If this had not happened, these wounds would have healed much faster.” Her comments were echoed by a group of men sitting around a fire nearby, waiting for news of loved ones trapped under the rubble of the nine-story Soler apartment block. “These collapses are part of a wider problem facing the people here,” said a local man named Abdullah Hocaoglu. “We have been under attack by the government for years.” The previous day, crowds had booed Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag as he visited the site accompanied by Ali Ihsan Su, the trustee appointed in the place of Diyarbakir’s elected mayor. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged criticism of the government’s sluggish response in the early day of the disaster but local officials from his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have defended the state’s performance. Ismet Cicek, the joint head of the AKP’s branch in Diyarbakir’s Sur district, described the process. “We are going to people and asking what they need and providing them with what we can,” he said. “We place them in mosques and other places where they can stay. “Sometimes people take extra and throw it in the rubbish, then they complain that the state is not doing enough. On the first day there may have been some problems but later things settled. We have people who bring support but there are a lot of greedy people who fill their bags.” Another aspect of the government’s response has raised fears among opposition politicians: Erdogan’s decision to impose a state of emergency across disaster zone. Selahattin Demirtas, the former co-leader of the HDP imprisoned since 2016, questioned the need for the measures and pointed to elections due to be held in the summer. “What doesn’t he have the authority to do that needs the state of emergency?” he tweeted via his lawyers. “If there is no state of emergency, can’t the real looters be stopped, can’t they collect aid, can’t the debris be removed?” Gunduz added, “The state of emergency will allow them to prevent NGOs and political parties from being active in the area, to silence the opposition’s and the public’s criticism of the government’s failings and to cover their role in making this natural disaster worse. They are preparing something for the election.” © 2021 Al-Monitor, LLC. All rights reserved.

By: Lavenia Lativerata-Vuadreu Frank Bainimarama had accused the president of failing to uphold the constitution. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/EPA Fiji’s opposition leader and its long-serving former prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, has been suspended from parliament for three years for sedition and insulting the president. The suspension came days after he launched an extraordinary verbal attack on the country’s president, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere. In a provocative first speech as opposition leader on the opening day of parliament on Monday, Bainimarama criticised Katonivere – who is also the former president of Bainimarama’s party, Fiji First – for supporting the new government, saying he had “failed the Fijian people”. “He will go down in history as the person who aided and abetted the most incompetent and divisive government,” the opposition leader said. Bainimarama ruled Fiji for 16 years after seizing power in a military coup, until a national election in December in which a coalition of parties narrowly voted to install Sitiveni Rabuka as prime minister. Bainimarama accused Katonivere of having failed to uphold the constitution. “As the commander-in-chief, he has failed to provide proper guidance to the RFMF [military],” he said in his speech. “The president has failed to protect the constitution, the rule of law and failed to halt the resultant chaos that is insidiously and rapidly creeping in and the impending disaster that is going to befall upon our beloved country – that will fall upon our people, upon our economy and upon our future generations. “I appeal to the rank and file of the RFMF to preserve their manna, to maintain their credibility and their calling and not forsake their constitutional role.” The minister for home affairs and immigration, Pio Tikoduadua, condemned Bainimarama’s comments as “treasonous” as well as denigrating and humiliating to the head of state, and said that in appealing to the military, the opposition leader’s remarks “were highly seditious and disrespectful” and in breach of parliamentary privilege. On Wednesday the speaker of the house, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, ruled Bainimarama’s comments “out of order” and a breach of parliamentary privileges that could get him suspended. Lalabalavu directed the privileges committee, which is made up largely of government members, to deliberate on the matter. On Friday evening it provided its report to parliament recommending Bainimarama be suspended from parliament for three years. Their recommendation went to a parliamentary vote, and after four hours of debate that went late into the night on Friday – during which time Rabuka pleaded for the suspension to be reduced to 18 months if Bainimarama apologised – parliament voted to suspend the opposition leader until 17 February 2026, bar him from the parliamentary precinct, as well as ordering him to apologise to the president and public. Bainimarama was not in the house during the debate and the vote. “Seditious words were uttered that breached the standing orders,” Lynda Tabuya, a member of the privileges committee that recommended the suspension, told parliament. Bainimarama’s Fiji First party denied he had incited rebellion in his speech, and pointed to Bainimarama drawing 29% of all votes in Fiji’s election. Inia Seruiratu, who was leader of government in parliament during Bainimarama’s administration, is likely to be nominated acting leader of opposition. Bainimarama’s speech on Monday was in response to Katonivere’s presidential address during the opening of the 2023-24 parliamentary session two weeks ago. In his address, Katonivere outlined the policies and plans of the Rabuka-led coalition government, which included strengthening Indigenous land rights and undoing some of the initiatives of Bainimarama’s Fiji First government, namely re-establishing the Great Council of Chiefs that was abolished in 2012 during his reign. Bainimarama argued that while the changes advanced Indigenous rights, it suppressed those of others, and he accused Katonivere of having “done an about-turn”. Fiji has a history of military coups, and its military commander in January warned Rabuka’s new government against making “sweeping changes”. Fiji has been pivotal to the Pacific island region’s response to strategic competition between the US and China, and will host a meeting of 18 leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum next week. © 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/17/fiji-opposition-leader-suspended-from-parliament-for-sedition

Facebook rejected complaints about the posts violating the company’s rules, then later took them down. By Newley Purnell, The Wall Street Journal on 8 Feburary 2023 A Facebook user offered these handguns and bullets in a forum dedicated to India’s Bajrang Dal, a Hindu nationalist group, in this post from last month. Facebook later removed the post for violating its policies. Facebook users have offered for sale on the platform handguns, rifles, shotguns and bullets to members of a forum devoted to an extremist Hindu organization with a history of violence in India. Eight posts, some of which had been up since April, caught the eye of Raqib Hameed Naik, the founder of a group that monitors attacks against religious minorities in India. He began reporting them to Meta Platforms Inc. in late January as contravening the company’s publicly stated policy that prohibits private individuals from buying or selling firearms or ammunition on Facebook platforms. Facebook declined to remove them, saying the posts didn’t violate the company’s rules, according to responses from the company that The Wall Street Journal reviewed. After the Journal inquired about the posts, Facebook on Tuesday removed them, saying they ran afoul of the company’s policies. “We prohibit individuals from buying or selling guns on our apps” and “remove violating content as soon as we see it,” a Meta spokeswoman said. She declined to comment on why the posts hadn’t been removed when first reported. Meta has faced criticism from rights groups that it fails to adequately police its platform in India, its biggest market by users, where more than 300 million people use Facebook and more than 400 million people are on its WhatsApp messaging service. Firearms are heavily restricted in India, which requires buyers to be at least 21 years old and possess gun licenses. Sellers must also be licensed. Posts offering firearms for sale have appeared in Groups, as Facebook’s forums for like-minded users are known, that pledge allegiance to Bajrang Dal, a youth wing of a conservative Hindu organization, the Vishva Hindu Parishad, or VHP. The VHP is affiliated with Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organization, known as the RSS, for which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi worked for decades before his landslide election victory in 2014. Bajrang Dal was in 2018 deemed a militant religious organization by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Its members have in past years been jailed in India for religiously motivated killings. A spokesman for Bajrang Dal and the VHP said the U.S. government’s assessment of Bajrang Dal is misguided, that none of its members would purchase firearms and that the groups don’t believe in violence. Spokesmen for the RSS and the Prime Minister’s Office didn’t respond to requests for comment. The posts offering guns for sale in five different Groups dedicated to Bajrang Dal were tracked by Mr. Naik, the founder of the research group Hindutva Watch. Some sellers promised they could deliver the firearms within 24 hours, according to posts reviewed by the Journal. In one of the posts last month, a user shared images of five pistols, some silver and some black in color, with one resting on a motorcycle seat and another held in someone’s hand. Bronze-colored bullets emerge from a clip in one photo. Any “brother” who needs a “Desi katta pistol,” an Indian homemade gun, should contact the user via Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service at a mobile number provided, the person wrote in Hindi. When Mr. Naik contacted the seller via WhatsApp, the person responded that one of the pistols could be purchased for 11,000 Indian rupees, equivalent to $133, according to messages reviewed by the Journal. Users in Facebook Groups devoted to Bajrang Dal have also made threats to use weapons against Muslims, according to separate posts seen by the Journal. Mr. Naik said the material is alarming given ongoing religious tensions in Hindu-majority India, where Muslims make up about 14% of the population. The Journal in 2021 reported that internal Facebook documents showed researchers determined the company’s services were rife with inflammatory content that one internal report connected to deadly religious riots in India. A Facebook spokesman said at the time that the company had invested significantly in technology to find hate speech across languages, and that globally such content on the platform was declining. Facebook in the U.S. has confronted the issue of gun sales before. In 2016, it banned the private sale of guns following controversy over users selling firearms through its Groups. India is a vital market for Facebook, since it isn’t allowed to operate in China, the only other country with more than one billion people. In 2020, Facebook announced a $5.7 billion investment in a new partnership with an Indian telecom operator to expand operations in the country, its biggest foreign investment. Facebook in 2020 determined Bajrang Dal likely qualified as a “dangerous organization” that should be banned from the platform, the Journal reported that year, citing people familiar with the matter. Facebook didn’t remove the group following warnings in a report from its security team that cracking down on it might endanger both the company’s business prospects and its staff in India, the people said. The spokesman for Bajrang Dal and the VHP said Facebook’s staff would have no reason to fear Bajrang Dal members. He said Bajrang Dal has no official presence on Facebook, though there may be Groups and pages dedicated to the organization. A Meta spokesman said at the time that the company enforces its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy globally without regard to political position or party affiliation. The Meta spokeswoman declined on Tuesday to provide further comment. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

The event was organised by the supporters of self-proclaimed godman Dhirendra Shastri. By Vipul Kumar, The Wire on 8 February 2023 The chief speaker at the event, 'Bhakt Hari Maharaj'. Photo: Screenshot from video New Delhi, India: On February 5, a ‘Sanatan Dharm Sansad’ (‘Hindu Parliament’) was organised by the supporters of Dhirendra Shastri. According to chief speaker Bhakt Hari Maharaj, those attending the event have three main demands – declaring the Ramcharitramanas to be the national book of the “Hindu rashtra” India, the cow as the national animal, and Z-plus security to Shastri. But later, the event escalated into calls for violence against the minority community. One of the posters at the event said, “All the saints and crazy people of Shree Baghesgwar Dham are welcome.” The first poster publicising the event was posted on Twitter by Bageshwar Dham’s Twitter account on February 4. The name of the chief speaker mentioned on the poster was Bhakt Hari Maharaj, who also called for violence at the event. Shastri is the head of the Bhageshwar Dham temple situated in Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh. He has been recently embroiled in controversy because of his claim that he performs “miracles”. His “miracle” was challenged by a rationalist, Shyam Manav of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, at an event in Nagpur. Shastri left midway through the event. In response, Shastri gave interviews to mainstream media channels where he got a chance to brand himself as a “godman”. At one of these events, he called an ABP journalist on stage and told him his father’s name and other personal details, to show his “miraculous” powers. This whole stunt was aired on ABP news. The demands of Shastri’s followers at the Dharm Sansad at Jantar Mantar resonate with the demands he himself has been making. At his religious gatherings, he asks for support from his followers to make India a Hindu rashtra and Ramcharitramanas the national book of India. Allegations have been made against him of practicing untouchability and disturbing communal harmony too. The event at Jantar Mantar. Photo: Screenshot from video The speech by Bhakt Hari, the chief speaker, started by showing outrage against criticism of the Ramcharitramanas by Swami Prasad Maurya, UP MLA, and Chandra Shekhar, the education minister of Bihar. They had said that the book spread hate and is discriminatory toward Dalits and lower castes. After demanding legal action to “teach them a lesson”, Bhakt Hari’s outrage suddenly shifted towards the minorities. He said, “Those who will worship Hanuman will be killed by Christians and Muslims. Those who eat cows will eat you up. Thirty-six crore of our deities live inside a cow and these Christians and Muslims slaughter 1.5 lakh cows before every sunrise.” “Akhilesh Yadav (former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh) and Nitish Kumar (chief minister of Bihar) have not condemned the act of criticising the Ramcharitramanas. They are doing politics of divide and rule, like the Congress and Britishers used to do,” he continued. “Angrejo ne kaha tha todo baato raj karo. Congress ne kaha todo baato raj karo. Isaiyon ke kaha todo baato raj karo. Musalmano ne kaha kaato maro. Isaiyo ne kahan kaato maro. (Britishers, Congress, and Christians said to divide and rule. Muslims said to kill. Christians said to kill).” “Kab maroge? Arey isai musalmano ko kab maroge? (When will you kill? When will you kill Christians and Muslims?)” he continued. “You don’t have any weapons to kill. You have knives to cut vegetables. Keep weapons. Keep swords. Keep guns. All our deities keep weapons in their hands. You should keep weapons in one hand and religious books in the other. Make the balance of weapons and books and move forward. Kill, if it is required. Those who insult our Ramcharitramanasshould be declared anti-national and shot dead. Those who take away our daughters and daughters-in-law – shoot them in the open, Christian or Muslims.” On February 5, at Jantar Mantar, another event was organised at the same time as Sanatan Dharam Sansad by the supporters of Sudarshan TV head and Hindutva activist Suresh Chavhanke. There, speakers said that the Supreme Court’s critical observations on Chavhanke’s 2021 public exhortation to “die for and kill” to make India a “Hindu nation” was “unnecessary legal harassment”. They also accused the top court of favouring Muslims and took an oath again to make India a Hindu nation. Offensive remarks against minorities and calls for violence against those who oppose Chavhanke were made from the stage. The two events had some common speakers and audiences. There has been no police action against either event yet. After the video of the violent call by Bhakt Hari went viral on social media, the Delhi police gave a notice to the Twitter handle ‘Molitics’ which had reported on the event. The Delhi police found Molitics’ post on Twitter to be “offensive, malicious and inciting message which can adversely affect law and order”. Notably, there has been no action taken against the speakers at the Sanatan Dharam Sansad who were in the video. In response to the notice, the founder of Molitics tweeted, “I’m still confused! Why would you send this to us? I hope such notice must have gone to these saffron-clad criminals too.” © The Wire 2023

By MIKE CORDER, AP News February 21, 2023 Former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA ) member Pjeter Shala attends his trial at the Kosovo Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesaday, Feb. 21, 2023. (Piroschka van de Wouw/Pool photo via AP) THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A former fighter with the Kosovo Liberation Army was responsible for the murder of one person and the illegal detention and torture of nearly 20 more during his country’s war for independence from Serbia, an international prosecutor said Tuesday at the start of a war crimes trial. The defendant, Pjetёr Shala, insists he is innocent and has pleaded not guilty to four charges of war crimes at the European Union-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a court that is part of the Kosovo legal system but based in the Netherlands. Later this year, the court is scheduled to begin the trial of Kosovo ex-President Hashim Thaci on charges including murder for his alleged role in atrocities as a guerrilla leader during the 1998-99 war. He denies all charges. Alex Whiting, an American lawyer who leads a prosecution office linked to the court, told a three-judge panel that there is enough evidence to convict Shala, despite what he described as a pervasive climate of witness intimidation in Kosovo. “We are confident that the evidence that will be presented during this trial will establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Shala is criminally responsible for the crimes charged in the indictment.” Shala, who was arrested nearly two years ago in Belgium, told judges: “Everything is fabricated” as he insisted he was “fully not guilty.” He is accused of mistreating ethnic Albanian Kosovars who were perceived as spies or collaborators with Serb forces at a makeshift detention center at a metal works in Kukёs, northern Albania, in May and June 1999. Whiting said that Shala took part in the brutal beating of detainees, leaving them “covered in blood, suffering from broken bones or unable to walk.” Shala, 59, also was “part of the group that murdered one of the detainees by beating him repeatedly and severely and shooting him in the leg causing him to bleed to death over a period of many hours,” Whiting said. Most of the people who died in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbian troops ended the fighting, but tensions between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense. All contents © copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

February 21, 20235:32 PM EST LIMA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - An investigation of criminal allegations against former Peru President Pedro Castillo from before he was ousted and detained in December for attempting to illegally dissolve Congress has been formalized, the country's top prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. Castillo is accused of crimes including influence peddling, organized crime and being an accomplice to collusion committed during his administration. The decision from the attorney general comes days after Congress passed a constitutional complaint, allowing the office to formally launch the investigation. The complaint, which alleged Castillo was involved in corruption dating back to July 2021, was pending in Congress at the time he was ousted. The attorney general's office also kicked off investigations into two of Castillo's former ministers for alleged connections to bribery in exchange for public works contracts, including a case involving state-owned oil company Petroperu (PETROBC1.LM). Castillo has been in pre-trial detention since December as he also faces an investigation for rebellion and conspiracy for his attempt to dissolve Peru's unicameral Congress. The former president denies all charges made against him. Castillo also requested to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that he be set free and reinstated as president, his former lawyer and minister Walter Ayala, announced on Twitter on Tuesday. Castillo had previously requested that the IACHR intervene in December, saying his detention was a violation of his rights. The ouster of Castillo, a former teacher and son of rural farmers, sparked a wave of violent protests that have left some 60 dead, mainly in Peru's poorer south. Protesters have called for the resignation of Castillo's successor President Dina Boluarte, early elections, the shuttering of Congress and a new constitution. Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Josie Kao and Bill Berkrot

February 21, 2023 UATEMALA CITY (AP) — Thousands of people demonstrated in Guatemala Tuesday to protest a court’s decision not to allow an indigenous candidate to register for the country’s June 25 presidential elections. Protesters blocked at least 15 local highways, demanding that the leftist candidate be allowed to run. Thelma Cabrera was to have been the presidential candidate for the leftist Peoples Liberation Movement, or MLP. The dispute arose when Guatemala’s electoral tribunal ruled that former human rights official Jordán Rodas cannot be the vice presidential candidate for MLP because he allegedly did not have a letter certifying he had no legal cases pending against him. Because he was part of the MLP ticket, Cabrera apparently can’t run either, despite the fact that some other candidates have been allowed to register to run even though they have pending cases. Rodas has argued that the requirement is not mentioned in the Constitution. Source: AP News

Chile’s Cerro Chuño neighbourhood has become notorious for environmental pollution and dangerous criminal activity. Mireia Godoy, 74, no longer remembers what her neighbourhood used to be called when she arrived more than 20 years ago. “Now they named it Cerro Chuño and nobody wants to come here. Before, we used to have buses and everything at our doorstep,” she said. It looks as if a war has ravaged the main street of Cerro Chuño, a slum in the east of Arica, a city in northern Chile buried on the edge of the Atacama Desert. Its cracked pavement is littered with rubbish and a thick layer of brown dust covers the few businesses that remain open. Beneath the dust, however, lies a deadly secret: Cerro Chuño is highly contaminated with lead and arsenic, among other heavy metals that can cause severe health issues. “Ask me about my illnesses, I have them all,” Godoy laughs melancholically, enumerating the problems with her bones, heart, legs and hands. “Everything because of the lead,” she explains. “Because of the toxic dump where our sons used to play. How many children must have died here.” Built in the early 1990s, as the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet came to an end, Cerro Chuño has become a home for migrants and refugees from across Latin America. But thanks to the long-term effects of an international mining agreement, Cerro Chuño is also a site of environmental pollution, leading to health problems, instability and criminal activity. The Chilean government has taken steps in recent months to disrupt the criminal networks that have taken root in Cerro Chuño. A faction of the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang has been using the neighbourhood as its headquarters in Chile for drug and human trafficking, as well as the extortion of migrants and refugees and torture. The gang has a reputation as one of the most violent criminal organisations in Latin America. After a major operation to take down the faction in July, police in Arica have continued to conduct raids in Cerro Chuño, including one on January 16. But little has been done to counteract the environmental crisis in the area. “There is not an environmental approach,” Diego Arellano, the government’s environmental officer in Arica, told Al Jazeera. Before the neighbourhood was built, in 1984, the Chilean mining company Promel reached an agreement that would allow the Swedish multinational Boliden to dump almost 20,000 tonnes of toxic mining waste in Arica. The deal included the promise that the tailings from the mines contained gold and precious minerals, which would bring wealth and employment to the area, explained Rodrigo Pino, an anthropologist at the Catholic University of Chile who has been working with the community for years. Pino said the community was also told the waste would be properly treated before being buried. But the mining waste was largely forgotten until the beginning of the next decade when social housing for low-income families was built in adjacent areas. Cerro Chuño was erected a few metres from the toxic dump. It consisted of about a thousand small houses, most with a single bathroom and a kitchen. In the late 1990s, families started to realise that cancers, respiratory difficulties, allergies, miscarriages and birth defects had to do with the toxic mountain on which their homes stood. Demonstrations began and eventually, Chile enacted the Polymetals Law in 2012, promising residents health care and relocation to uncontaminated areas, as well as measures to reduce the pollution. The government also announced plans to demolish houses in Cerro Chuño to prevent further exposure to heavy-metal poisoning. But ultimately, only a few rows of buildings were torn down. In 2021, the United Nations estimated that 12,000 people had been affected by toxic waste in the area, some of them losing their lives. But Arellano, the environmental officer, told Al Jazeera that the Chilean government considers the site contamination-free now, with arsenic in the ground stabilising at levels no longer hazardous. Cerro Chuño now is a hub for refugees and migrants, attracted to Chile because of the country’s economic and political stability. Peruvians, Bolivians, Haitians and, more recently, Colombians and Venezuelans have joined impoverished Chileans in the neighbourhood, occupying once-abandoned homes where they have to pay neither rent nor electricity. “Despite the poison, we have no other place to go,” explains Frandor Acosta, 25, who arrived with his father, wife and newborn daughter two years ago from Valencia, Venezuela, fleeing political instability. Tired of living in cramped conditions, Acosta is building a new house on a piece of land he bought close to the current one, using whatever materials he can find and moving contaminated stones and dust. “The polymetals — it’s not something we’ve taken to heart because we know we won’t be feeling the consequences in just one or two years,” Acosta said, although he admits his little girl gets sick more than usual. Almost every week, she seems to have the flu. A woman named Angela — who asked that her last name be withheld for her safety — also said her daughter had been sick each month since she arrived in Cerro Chuño. Doctors have not been able to tell her why. But contamination is not Angela’s main concern, she whispers. Security is. Threatened by members of the Tren de Aragua gang, Angela had to close the restaurant where she made a living for her family. “They took me out like that because I was Colombian,” Angela said, placing her hands on her chest, pointing her fingers in the shape of a gun. “You don’t talk about it.” When asked about the violence, which has been stigmatising for the neighbourhood, many residents avoid going into detail. “If you don’t mess with anyone, you don’t have problems,” said Marcelina Camacho, 69, a Dominican woman who owns a small grocery shop. The number of people living in Cerro Chuño is difficult to calculate because of the high turnover. The border town of Arica, with almost 200,000 people, is a transit point for refugees and migrants coming to Chile from nearby Peru and Bolivia. For families like that of Marian — a 30-year-old Venezuelan who also asked her last name be withheld — Cerro Chuño is a place to recover from an arduous migration. As she swept the entrance of her makeshift home, Marian explained that she and her family had tried their luck crossing the perilous Darién Gap, through the Panamanian jungle, on their way to the United States. But the route grew too dangerous and they decided to change direction, heading for Chile instead. They arrived two months ago. As she watched her daughter chase a stray cat, Marian said she had not yet heard anything about the contamination or gangs in Cerro Chuño. In its 2021 report, the UN called for “urgent measures” to be taken in the area “to return safely the hazardous waste to Sweden for proper disposal”. But that has not changed conditions for those living in and around Cerro Chuño. A group of mothers living in neighbourhoods near Cerro Chuño have formed a group called Mamitas del Plomo or “Mothers of Lead”. Facing chronic heavy-metal exposure, they have written letters to authorities asking for the government to follow through with the safety measures outlined in the 2012 Polymetals Law. In the last answer they received, dated July 2022, the Chilean government — headed by the social democrat Gabriel Boric — assured the group that the administration was “working” on the matter. “They’ve been having all the information for years but still don’t remove or treat the toxic waste we breathe every day,” the group’s leader, Luz Ramírez, told Al Jazeera. “They know we are dying. Their inaction makes them accomplices to this crime.” SOURCE: AL JAZEERA By Marta Maroto