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BY NIKKI BAYAT SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 Courtesy Photo: Carlos Saque Dias Adriano Karipuna, a Brazilian indigenous and climate activist, is seeking international support before it is too late to save the world’s largest rainforest. The following quotes from Adriano have been translated, and were communicated via direct messages. “The last four years were the most deforested and threatened by invasion, our rivers are contaminated by mercury, many animals are disappearing, and our trees are dying,” said Adriano Karipuna, a Brazilian indigenous activist fighting globally to protect the Amazon rainforest. Adriano Karipuna, a Brazilian indigenous activist fighting against the deforestation of the Amazon, poses for a portrait in the Karipuna village in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in August, 2022. Photo: Carlos Saque Dias Adriano Karipuna, a Brazilian indigenous activist fighting against the deforestation of the Amazon, poses for a portrait in the Karipuna village in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in August, 2022. Photo: Carlos Saque Dias Adriano is one of the leaders of the Karipuna Indigenous people, a group located in the Porto Velho Rondônia region of northwest Brazil in the upper Amazon river basin. Prior to Adriano’s leadership, the Karipuna did not address their struggles with the world regarding their struggles and fear, but that changed in 2018 when Adriano addressed the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous People in a plea to gather international support for the at-risk rainforest. The Karipuna lived in isolation until the 1970s when expanding farming and logging activities brought non-Native people into their area of the rainforest. This exposed the Karipuna to violence and disease, and today their tribe consists of less than 60 living members. But regardless of their size, Adriano explains, “My Karipuna indigenous people are protecting 153 thousand hectares of Amazon Forest, and we have very little support from the government.” While the Karipuna’s land is officially recognized by the Brazilian government, it is consistently one of the most illegally deforested territories within Brazil and Adriano claims the government has failed to intervene. Despite brief publicity gained at the UN over four years ago, the Karipuna argue nothing has improved within the Brazilian Amazon, a result of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in office since 2019. In fact, new reports claim that 2021 hit new records for Brazilian Amazon deforestation — up 20 percent from the previous year. Mapbiomas, the Brazil-based organization made up of universities, NGOs and tech companies, explained in their 2022 report that in Brazil alone, “111.6 hectares were deforested per hour or 1.9 hectares per minute, which is equivalent to about 18 trees per second.” Further, Brazil’s space research agency (INPE), used satellite imagery to record deforestation within the first three months of 2022 that showed a 64% increase compared to the previous year. Bolsonaro has kept true to his promise of opening up the Amazon to mining and agriculture, and thus legal deforestation has increased. And many within Brazil, such as Adriano, believe illegal deforestation has also increased in the last few years due to the current administration’s lack of accountability for illegal loggers and farmers. At this shocking rate, Adriano is continuing to see how he can protect the Amazon and is planning to return to Europe within the next month to attend panels on climate change. He views these conferences as crucial opportunities to hold the Brazilian government accountable. “The Brazilian government has not complied with international agreements protecting the forest and Indigenous peoples.” Besides speaking to the UN and other overseas organizations, the Karipuna have fought for legal protection within Brazil’s courts. This year the Karipuna filed a lawsuit against the Brazilian government, their province, and FUNAI (the national agency for the protection of Indigenous peoples in Brazil) citing a lack of protection against illegal logging. As a representative of his people, Adriano is currently in law school to better understand the legal system in order to continue to defend his people beyond this lawsuit. In fact, at the time of communication, Adriano was traveling overnight out of the Amazon into the city to attend his legal studies classes. Of course the Karipuna and their region are not alone in facing the impacts of environmental degradation. Lavinia Candido Neves was born and raised in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas — Brazil’s largest province. Located in Northern Brazil, it is the only city located within the Amazon with a population of over one million people. Neves explains, “The consequences of deforestation in my community are visible in several daily activities, such as the proliferation of diseases related to the quality of the air and raw materials, in addition to the climate changes that have taken place in recent years, increasing the temperature, compromising the flow and volume of water and affecting a mass of people who use natural resources to generate their main income.” While forest degradation is not a new problem, Neves believes these practices have become “increasingly brazen,” a critique many have of Brazil’s government under the current conservative administration. Despite these claims, the Brazilian government asserts that things are improving and the government is interfering where necessary. The most recent Brazilian environmental protection policy was introduced by the government in April 2021 when they shared “The Amazon Plan.” This plan was introduced by Vice President Hamilton Mourão, of the controversial Bolnasaro administration, and prioritizes mitigating deforestation in 60 percent of the Amazon. Its most ambitious goal is to lower deforestation to the level it was at in 2016, yet critics were quick to point out the lack of enforcement. Adriano spoke about these latest environmental promises from the Brazilian government and said, “Brazil has lied to other countries saying it will end deforestation.” He believes those speaking out against the government are more endangered than ever. Adriano explains that recently many indigenous people have been murdered by invaders seeking to take the land, likely due to Brazil’s increasingly lax arms policies, and says these murders have failed to reach justice. Adriano’s statements regarding murder in the Amazon comes after the global outcry in June 2022 when British journalist, Dom Phillips, and Brazilian indigenist, Bruno Pereira, were murdered while journeying through the Amazon gathering information for a piece on illegal deforestation. Although suspects were charged with the murder, the story has raised many questions within the public regarding “the truth” Phillips and Pereira were aiming to uncover prior to his tragic death. As the world’s largest rainforest, deforestation in the Amazon carries global impacts, but the scale of these impacts is often unfathomable to scientists. J. Keith Gilless, a professor of Forest Economics at UC Berkeley and former Dean within their College of Natural Resources, highlights what he believes are the two greatest threats when addressing deforestation; loss of biodiversity and carbon floods. “The biggest loss is that whenever you are deforesting in the tropics you are promoting the loss of biodiversity,” said Gilless. “The Amazon is one of the great hubs of biodiversity and the biodiversity of the Amazon is great enough that we don’t know what we are losing until we have lost it.” These ecosystem changes are unpredictable and unprecedented. Secondly, the carbon floods set off a chain of events that will greatly contribute to climate change. Gilless explains that “a mature rainforest is a big carbon account. The process of deforestation sets in motion a chain of events that makes the area a tremendous carbon emitter.” This flux of carbon that will be sent into the atmosphere has large scale global effects. In fact, deforestation is second only to the burning of fossil fuels in regards to carbon emissions — something scientists directly link to climate change. As deforestation continues to increase, threatening locals and the global climate alike, scientists believe the time to save the Amazon is limited. Until the evidence points in a positive direction, individual activists like Adriano are continuing to spread their message in hopes of garnering support. Adriano reminds readers abroad: “My Karipuna people need help, and our forest is very threatened.” Copyright 2022

Indigenous communities in B.C. want new monarch to play greater part in reconciliation in Canada CBC News · Posted: Sep 10, 2022 4:00 AM PT | Last Updated: September 10 Queen Elizabeth talks with members of the Haida Nation at Sandspit, B.C., on May 11, 1971.(Bill Croke/The Canadian Press) In light of the death of Queen Elizabeth, Indigenous organizations and communities in B.C. are hoping her successor will commit to bettering the relationship between First Nations and the Crown. King Charles III was proclaimed Canada's new head of state on Saturday, following the death of his mother on Thursday. The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC), which comprises the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), B.C. Assembly of First Nations and First Nations Summit, is calling on Charles to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery as his first official act. Originally created by the Catholic Church in 1452, the doctrine justified the stealing of land from Indigenous people. It was used by Great Britain and France to claim land in North America. "The Doctrine of Discovery dehumanized non-Europeans while empires waged war and stole lands, resources and wealth that rightfully belonged to Indigenous peoples all over the world," the FNLC said in a statement. "We call for this international law doctrine to be renounced by the King of England. With a change in Canada's head of state, it's time for a change in the Crown's approach to Indigenous sovereignty." Holding the monarchy accountable The relationship between Indigenous people and the monarchy is a complicated one. Many First Nations signed treaties with the Crown, which included pledges to share resources that the Crown later violated. "It is important to keep that relationship alive," Diana Day, lead matriarch with Pacific Association of First Nations and a member of the Wolf Clan from the Oneida Nation, said on CBC's The Early Edition. "It's important to hold [the monarchy] accountable, to hold them responsible and to have them take a greater part in reconciliation and truth-telling of the history of this country." For Indigenous people, the death of Queen Elizabeth is prompting a range of emotions given their fraught relationship with the monarchy and its colonial legacy. Queen Elizabeth, Canada's head of state and the longest-reigning British monarch, died age 96 on Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Day said it's important to recognize the Queen's death and her long years of service, but it's also critical to think about the Indigenous people in Canada who are without housing or clean water. Following the Pope's apology for the Catholic church's role in residential schools, some called for the Queen to make a similar apology — one that never came, despite her role within the Anglican Church, which ran dozens of residential schools in Canada. A symbolic relationship CBC Indigenous affairs reporter Wawmeesh Hamilton says the relationship between the monarchy and Indigenous people is purely symbolic. "There are visits, there are diplomatic gestures and there are well wishes. It's an abstract relationship that looks good, and it reads well," he said, adding that the monarchy has no say or sway in Indigenous government. When news of the Queen's passing broke, Hamilton said Indigenous people took to social media to air their grievances with the monarchy, colonialism and residential schools. A statue of Queen Elizabeth II is pictured in an art gallery in Vancouver, B.C. on Sept. 8. Adam Olsen, MLA for Sannich North and a member of the Tsartlip First Nation, says the monarchy has a responsibility to take part in reconciliation. (Ben Nelms/CBC) "Her family lost someone they love," he said. "There are protocols among Indigenous communities about death. They differ, but one common denominator is respect for the grieving and the dead." Indigenous groups share condolences after death of Queen Elizabeth, but colonial past leaves some conflicted Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North and a member of the Tsartlip First Nation, said he believes this is the time to start conversations around Canada's relationship with the monarchy and reconciliation, as they pass the crown from one generation to the next. "We have to recognize ... that the wealth and privilege that monarchs and the business of the monarchy is accumulated on the backs of Indigenous peoples. They have a responsibility." Queen was asked to renounce Doctrine of Discovery Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, secretary-treasurer of the UBCIC, pointed out that the Queen had also been asked to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery but did not. "The Queen represented a sovereign relationship with many of our nations," Kukpi7 Judy Wilson she said Thursday. With Queen Elizabeth's death, Canada prepares for an official mourning period Why Pope Francis may be hesitant to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery First Nations across Canada have also called for the Pope to renounce the doctrine. Wilson said the renouncing of the doctrine is the "only way we can move forward with a true relationship." With files from Courtney Dickson, Christina Jung and CBC Radio

By Jeanelle Mandes Global News Posted September 13, 2022 6:41 pm Updated September 14, 2022 10:40 am Chief Wally Burns of the James Smith Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada (Source: Reuters - "Canada: Indigenous leader calls for support after stabbing spree") Following one of the worst mass killings in Canadian history, Saskatchewan leaders continue to voice the need to implement First Nations policing on-reserves in Saskatchewan. The Chief of the James Smith Cree Nation (JSCN) said in a press release on September 8, 2022 this is needed for his community so a tragedy like this does not happen again to anyone. “We ask three things, three things from the government,” said Chief Wally Burns. “We ask that we have our own tribal policing, we ask for awareness and addictions, we ask for treatment centers so things won’t happen like this to any nations around the world.” The Chief of Poundmaker Cree Nation echoes the same need for his community saying drugs like crystal meth is pushing the leadership to fight for their own tribal policing. Chief Duane Antoine met with Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore this past spring to talk about implementing band council resolutions (BCR) but says not enough is being done to address this issue. READ MORE: Poundmaker Cree Nation taking next steps to set up independent police force “We told them, you guys have to honour our BCRs — band council resolutions — or something is going to happen. Sure enough, look what happened last week,” he said. “It’s tough to see a community going through that right now. And that’s what I was trying to prevent here in Poundmaker.” BCRs are decisions and resolutions that are voted in favor of chief and council. Poundmaker implemented BCRs in the past to kick band members out of the community after declaring a state of emergency last year. Chief Antoine said RCMP members aren’t enforcing the BCRs due to the issue of human rights. “That throws a big wrench on what we’re trying to pursue here,” he said. “The solution right now is we have to go back to the justice minister as well as (Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations) Marc Miller, to try and help us out to resolve this.” When RCMP are not able to act on implementing BCRs, it does not address the need to make the community safer from drugs and violence which is why he is pushing the governments on all levels to implement First Nations policing. READ MORE: Canada’s work on First Nations policing law should have begun ‘long time ago:’ Bellegarde Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said in an interview with News Talk 650, the provincial government wants to have those conversations with Indigenous communities and the federal government on addressing these key issues. “There is an ask for Indigenous policing, File Hills being the example to where we would look as it has been largely successful,” said Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in an interview with CKOM. “As well, (there have been calls for) some additional funding and awareness around addictions and addiction centers in the province.” Saskatchewan only has one running First Nations policing service located in Treaty 4. The File Hills First Nations Policing Service was incorporated in 2002 that serves five communities located in the Treaty Four Tribal Territory which are Okanese First Nation, Peepeekisis First Nation, Carry the Kettle First Nation, Star Blanket First Nation and Little Black Bear. Daniel Bellegarde, who is the Chair of the File Hills First Nations Board of Police Commissioners, said their initiative is successful because it’s community-based policing in the true sense. “The protective service is much closer to the people. People have trust in the police service and see it as their own,” said Bellegarde. “The police service itself is professional. It’s culturally competent and is respectful of community priorities. I think most of all it’s embedded in the community so that the presence is there at all times.“ The File Hills First Nations Police Service has a joint funding agreement between the Public Safety Canada and the Saskatchewan Justice where they cost share a budget of $2.3 million. © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Tajik media sources say one of its soldiers was killed. Sep 14, 2022 The unmarked border has seen multiple clashes over the decades. Border troops from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan exchanged sustained gunfire over several hours on September 14, just one day after Kyrgyzstan flaunted Turkish-made drones that it has implicitly touted as its guarantee for ensuring an edge in future confrontations. Security officials from both countries agreed on little except that a clash had occurred. Tajikistan’s security services, known by the initials GKNB, claimed that troops from Kyrgyzstan’s Batken province border unit fired four mortars at their troops posted in a remote and uninhabited mountainous location north of their country’s Vorukh exclave. “They fired without reason at Tajik border guards with machine guns, automatic rifles, and other weapons,” the Tajik GKNB said in a statement, which described the incident as having started at 7:30 a.m. Bishkek time (0230 GMT). At least one Tajik border guard was killed and another five were wounded in the clash, Dushanbe-based outlet Asia-Plus reported, citing hospital workers in the Vorukh enclave. Tajik security services say their troops returned fire and that officials from both countries later engaged in negotiations to deescalate the conflict. Dozens of such incidents have occurred along various points of the un-demarcated Kyrgyz-Tajik border in the past few decades. In a development that has troubled international organizations that have sought without success to push the countries toward mediation, increasingly powerful weaponry has been deployed by the countries’ troops over the years. Kyrgyz security services, also known by the Russian-language initials GKNB, claimed the confrontation began when one of their men discovered a Tajik border guard in a position beyond a demarcation line previously agreed upon by both countries. The Tajik soldier refused to step down and eventually opened fire, they said in a statement. The Kyrgyz border service said in a follow-up statement that Tajik troops were still deploying gunfire at 11:30 a.m. Bishkek time (10:30 a.m. Dushanbe time). “Despite a cease-fire agreement having been reached, the Tajik side from time to time opens fire at Kyrgyz positions,” the border service in Bishkek said. In yet another statement, the border service said that by 12:40 p.m. Bishkek time, all gunfire had ceased. Kyrgyz officials said in that press release that border service representatives were engaged in another round of talks. Kyrgyz officials said none of their troops were injured in the clash. One day before this latest round of fighting began, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and the head of the security services, Kamchybek Tashiyev, attended a ceremony to mark the opening of a base to be used for deploying recently acquired Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles. The drones have been used to great effect by Ukrainian forces fighting against the invading Russian army and, before that, by Azerbaijan in its war with Armenia in 2020. Japarov said in a speech at the base opening ceremony that “ensuring the security of the borders of Kyrgyzstan is considered one of the state’s priorities.” Tajikistan has similarly been undertaking concerted efforts to develop its own drone fleet in a certain indication it is unwilling to lose aerial superiority in future border conflicts. In May, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Major-General Mohammad Bagheri, traveled to Dushanbe with pledges to enhance bilateral security cooperation. During that visit, Bagheri and his Tajik counterpart attended the opening of a facility for the production of Iranian-designed Ababil-2 tactical drones. The unmanned aerial vehicle is described by U.S. military sources as a single-engine, long-range, low-technology drone that is mainly used as a target drone for training anti-aircraft defense crews, but which can also be deployed for “rudimentary surveillance capabilities” and as “a loitering munition.”

Edited By: Chaheti Singh Sisodia London, UK Updated: Sep 09, 2022, 06:44 PM(IST) Tajik service members take part in a military parade near the border with Afghanistan Photograph:( Reuters ) Despite some of them having been granted asylum in other nations, the Tajikistani authorities are apparently gathering up Afghan refugees and forcing them to cross the border back into Afghanistan. According to reports from Tajikistan's 10,000-strong Afghan refugee community, recent round-ups of Afghan families who have sought asylum in the nation since the Taliban's takeover in August 2021 have resulted in people being picked up off the street and homes being searched. The Tajikistani government has been urged to halt the forced deportations by the UNHCR, the UN organisation for refugees. It is unclear why they are doing this or what their strategy is; up until a few weeks ago, the Tajikistani government was working with the UNHCR to house and resettle Afghans who were escaping the rule of the Taliban. While statistics on recent Tajikistan deportations are not yet available, the UN has documented a case of five Afghans being forced to return on August 23. In spite of UNHCR's efforts to stop the deportations, they included "a family consisting of three children and their mother, [and] were deported to Afghanistan through the Panji Poyon border gate in southern Tajikistan," the UN agency said. According to Afghans in Tajikistan who spoke to the Guardian, the number of people being forcibly deported back into Afghanistan amounts in the hundreds, and the number of forced deportations has been rising over the previous two weeks. They claimed that many Afghan refugees were being sent back without passports or other forms of identification, leaving them on their own and unable to travel to a place of safety. No one in Samira's family has dared to leave their apartment in a small village in northern Tajikistan for nearly a week. Her kids haven't gone to school, and they don't feel secure enough to go buy food or necessities for their health. Samira is terrified of the deportations even though she and her family are also just about to immigrate to Canada. Her biggest concern is for her kids, who have already been through a great deal of trauma. “The refugee life has been hard on children. They deserved a better future,” she said. (with inputs from agencies)

By Emma Farge The United Nations headquarters building is pictured with a UN logo in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 1, 2022. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri GENEVA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. human rights mission in Ukraine said on Friday that Russia is not allowing access to prisoners of war, adding that the U.N. had evidence that some had been subject to torture and ill-treatment which could amount to war crimes. Matilda Bogner told a Geneva news briefing that U.N. monitors had unimpeded access to Ukrainian facilities and had documented incidents of torture and ill-treatment of POWs by Ukraine which may also amount to war crimes. "The Russian Federation has not provided access to prisoners of war held on its territory or in territory under its occupation...," Bogner said. "This is all the more worrying since we have documented that prisoners of war in the power of the Russian Federation and held by the Russian Federation's armed forces or by affiliated armed groups have suffered torture and ill-treatment." "In terms of the treatment of prisoners of war, certainly some of the issues could rise to being war crimes - issues of torture and ill treatment of prisoners of war," she said in response to a question about the Russian-held prisoners. Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, denies torture or other forms of maltreatment of POWs. It says its forces in Ukraine are engaged in a "special military operation" to disarm the country and remove far-right nationalists it deems a threat to Russia's own security. Ukraine and its Western allies say that is a bogus pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression and that Ukraine poses no threat. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not comment on the U.N. statement because Russian authorities did not have enough information. "We do not know who approached the military and whether they did," he told a news briefing. Ukraine's General Staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kyiv has previously said it checks all information regarding the treatment of POWs and will investigate any violations and take appropriate legal action. Ukrainian prisoners are being subject to a "welcoming process" whereby they are forced to walk or run between rows of Russian guards who take turns severely beating them as they enter the facilities, Bogner said. Her team had also received information about Ukrainian prisoners suffering from infectious diseases including hepatitis A and tuberculosis in a penal colony in Olenivka, she said. At the same briefing, she also urged Russia to release on humanitarian grounds four pregnant prisoners of war being held in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. © 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved

Portraits of 30,000 prisoners murdered by Iran's Ebrahim Raisi in 1988. The Mall, Washington DC, August 12 The current President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, was one of the four judges who ordered the execution of over 30,000 Iranian prisoners in 1988 and over 1500 more in 2019. Most of the people murdered were members of a minority Islamic religious sect persecuted by the Iranian regime, making the murders acts of genocide. Raisi is due to attend and speak at the UN General Assembly in September 2022. To do so, Raisi must be granted a US visa. A massive protest of those opposed to the genocidal Iranian regime occurred on the Mall in Washington DC and in other cities on August 12, 2022. The protesters demanded that the US deny a visa to Raisi. On that same day, an Iranian agent attempted to assassinate Salman Rushdie at Chautauqua, NY. The assassin was carrying out a death sentence (fatwa) against Rushdie issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini, reaffirmed by the current Iranian Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei. Rushdie was severely wounded. Also that day, a federal indictment and arrest warrant were issued for Iranian government officials who attempted to hire assassins to murder John Bolton, former US National Security Advisor. These murders were all ordered by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The US has a treaty obligation to issue visas for meetings of the UN General Assembly. But the US has denied visas to several Iranian officials who were involved in the taking of American diplomatic hostages at the time of the Iranian revolution. The US is under no legal obligation to issue a US visa to genocidists. In fact, it is legally prohibited from doing so. The US should deny a visa to Ebrahim Raisi. If Raisi is granted a visa, US Attorneys should prepare an indictment and arrest warrant for Raisi, and when he lands in the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation should immediately arrest him for genocide, a crime of universal jurisdiction under US law. Genocide Watch Founding President Dr. Gregory H Stanton spoke at the demonstration on August 12. To read Dr. Stanton's speech, "Taking Iran's Threat of Genocide Seriously," click on the PDF below: To hear Dr. Stanton's speech, click on the image below: Dr. Gregory Stanton speaks at the demonstration on the Mall in Washington, DC on August 12, 2022 protesting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's planned presence at the UN General Assembly in September.

Perparim Isufi - BIRN - August 31, 2022 Serbian disclaimer on Kosovo border stresses that recognition of Kosovo IDs in no way implies recognition of Kosovo's independence. Jarinje crossing point between Serbia and Kosovo. Photo: BIRN As the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia on crossing borders using only IDs comes into force tonight, a big disclaimer written in English and Serbian on the Serbian side of the frontier reminds the public of Serbia’s continued non-recognition of Kosovo’s independence. “Enabling the use of Identity Cards issued by Pristina (Kosovo) is done exclusively for practical reasons, for the purpose of making the position of individuals easier and for enabling their freedom of movement in accordance with the Agreement on Freedom of Movement reached in dialogue in 2011; it cannot be interpreted as recognition of unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo,” the disclaimer reads. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, declared in February 2008, insisting it remains a province of Serbia. The disclaimer confirms this, saying the permitted use of Kosovo IDs in Serbia “is without prejudice to determining Kosovo’s final status”. The deal reached last weekend in Brussels put an end to a nearly 11-year period when Serbia issued entry-exit documents to Kosovo citizens replacing the IDs issued by Kosovo for their stay in Serbia. While the issue of IDs now looks settled, it is still not known how or when the Kosovo government’s disputed decision on licence plates will be implemented. That decision gives Kosovo Serbs two months, until October 31, to exchange their current vehicle plates for Kosovo-issed plates, marked RKS. Serbia-issued plates bear the acronyms of Kosovo towns such as KM, PR, PZ, UR and GL. The August 27 deal on IDs was the first time Kosovo leader Albin Kurti and Serbia’s Aleksander Vucic had agreed on something more than 13 months since they first faced each other in Brussels. However, the deal is only an oral agreement. Serbia’s Vucic clarified on Sunday that this is “an oral agreement, the [previous] one in writing was made in 2011”. The Kosovo government decided in June that every person presenting themselves to cross the state border using personal IDs issued by Serbian authorities will now be issued temporary declaration forms valid for 90 days that replace the Serbian-issued document. The decision reciprocates Serbia’s non-recognition of Kosovo-issued IDs, introducing the same measure that Serbia has implemented towards Kosovo citizens since 2011. The changes announced by Kosovo triggered serious tensions in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo around a month ago, when Kosovo Serbs set up barricades and Kosovo police closed the border crossings. Vucic and Kurti discussed the issue at their unsuccessful meeting on August 18 but found no solution. Copyright BIRN 2007

By Fredrick Nzwili, CNS Published by Crux Sep 8, 2022 Young Eritrean soldiers are pictured in a file photo in Asmara. Places of worship have become the latest target for the forced roundup of Eritrean teens to serve as soldiers, in what clerics describe as a deteriorating situation. (Credit: Jack Kimball/Reuters via CNS.) NAIROBI, Kenya — Places of worship have become the latest target for the forced roundup of Eritrean teens to serve as soldiers, in what clerics describe as a deteriorating situation. For two years, 15- and 16-year-olds have been taken from towns and villages. Some are ending up on the front lines in the war in Ethiopia’s northern state of Tigray, according to the sources. “A few weeks ago (Eritrea) resumed the confiscation of schools run and owned by the Catholic Church. (As if) this was not enough, now there are roundups of young boys and girls aged 16 … for compulsory military service without end,” Father Mussie Zerai, a Catholic priest of Eritrean origin who works with migrants, told Catholic News Service Sept. 7. “They do it in places of worship as happened last Sunday (Sept. 4) in the Eparchy of Segheneity, in the village in Akrur at the Catholic parish of Medhanie Alem,” he said. The priest said the soldiers arrived during Mass and surrounded the church to prevent anyone from escaping. They proceeded to take the teens by force, including all the boys of the choir in their uniforms, said the priest, pointing at photographs widely circulated on social media. “These young people who end up in military training camps and then (would) be sent as slaughter fodder in the wars underway in the region, particularly in neighboring Ethiopia,” said Zerai. He warned that if the regime continues raiding places of worship, there was a risk that young people — fearing the forced recruitment — would abandon the churches. “The sacred right of every believer to go to church to pray without being persecuted by the military or police in their country is a fundamental right of every human being,” said the priest. For 20 years, the government of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has implemented a national service program for all citizens 17-55 years old. According to Human Rights Watch, many Eritreans have spent their entire lives in the service of the government, in either military or civilian capacity. Many of these recruited are picked directly from secondary schools, according to the human rights organization. The forced recruitments have resulted in many 18- to 24-year-olds fleeing the country, including making the dangerous journey across the desert and the Mediterranean Sea toward Europe. The Eritrean government has ignored pleas by the international community to respect human rights. “On a daily basis, people continue to flee the government’s forced recruitment and take those journeys across the desert. The government doesn’t care. It has nothing to lose,” said an Eritrean church source who could not be named for security reasons. © 2022 Crux Catholic Media, Inc.

Governor of the Sahel region in restive north says military-led convoy carrying supplies was hit by improvised explosive device. Military personnel patrols an area in northern Burkina Faso. (AFP or licensors) At least 35 civilians have been killed and 37 wounded when a convoy carrying supplies in Burkina Faso’s jihadist-hit north struck an improvised explosive device, the governor of the Sahel region has said. The landlocked African state is in the grip of a seven-year insurgency that has claimed more than 2,000 lives and forced 1.9 million people to leave their homes. Monday’s incident took place as the military-led convoy was supplying towns in the restive north on a road between Bourzanga to Djibo, according to a statement by Sahel region governor Rodolphe Sorgo. “One of the vehicles carrying civilians hit an improvised explosive device. The provisional toll is 35 dead and 37 injured, all civilians,” it said. “The escorts quickly secured the perimeter and took measures to help the victims,” the statement said, adding that the convoy had left the north for Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. A security source told AFP the supply convoy was “composed of civilians, drivers and traders”. According to a resident of Djibo, “several dozen vehicles, including trucks and public transport buses” were hit. “The victims are mainly traders who were going to buy supplies in Ouagadougou and students who were returning to the capital for the next school year,” the resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP. Jihadist groups have recently staged similar attacks on arterial roads leading to the main cities in the north – Dori and Djibo. At the start of August, 15 soldiers died in the same area in a double IED blast. Much of the fighting has been concentrated in the north and east, led by jihadists suspected to have links to al-Qaida or the Islamic State group. With more than 40% of the country outside government control, Burkina’s ruling junta, which seized power in January, has declared the fight against the insurgency a priority. On Sunday evening, in a speech to the nation from the town of Dori, junta chief Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba welcomed a “relative calm” in several localities. The government said it had intensified the army’s “offensive actions” and also initiated a dialogue with certain armed groups, through religious and local leaders. According to Damiba, this process has enabled “several dozen young people” to lay down their arms. However, there have been numerous attacks since the beginning of the year, such as June’s massacre in the north-western department of Seytenga, when 86 civilians were killed – one of the bloodiest of the long-running insurgency. © 2022 The Guardian

September 07, 2022 06:20 GMT By Valeria Yehoshyna Russian soldier Stanislav Shmatov's account of atrocities in Ukraine's Kharkiv region was recorded by Ukraine's Security Service in intercepted cell-phone calls to his family. A severed ear. An order to "destroy everything you see." Houses looted or pulverized by Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers. Twenty-one-year-old Russian soldier Stanislav Shmatov had no idea the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was recording his conversations when he contacted family back in Russia this spring from northeastern Ukraine's Kharkiv region. Like other Russian military personnel in Ukraine in the first months after the February 24 invasion, he spoke freely. On April 15, in intercepted cell-phone calls with his 51-year-old father, Aleksandr Shmatov, and an apparent female relative, Irina Zheleznikova, Shmatov -- who identifies himself in phone recordings as an armored vehicle driver with Russia's 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade -- described the torture and abuse of a Ukrainian prisoner, as well as looting and indiscriminate, heavy shelling of a village in Kharkiv Oblast, home of Ukraine's second-largest city and a conduit to the critical Donbas region to the south and east. In a separate August 16 phone call with Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Shmatov, a native of the village of Novotulka, near the Volga River in Russia's Samara region, also passed on information about the alleged killing of a man during a separate operation shortly after the February 24 invasion. Under the UN's 1949 Geneva Conventions, treaties of which Russia and Ukraine are signatories, torture, willfully causing injury, murdering POWs, deliberately targeting civilian populations, and the extensive destruction of property without military necessity all rank as war crimes. Kyiv had launched investigations into about 32,000 suspected war crimes since the invasion. The 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, the Russian armed forces' sole peacekeeping brigade, which participated in the March 2014 takeover of Crimea and the war fought in southeastern Ukraine's Donbas since that April, has featured among those investigations. The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, one of Ukraine's most active rights monitors, has received appeals for investigation from over 400 people displaced from Russian-occupied areas in the Kharkiv Oblast and has identified almost 4,000 incidents via open sources including news reports and social media. But without access to occupied areas, Ukrainian and international rights activists cannot easily investigate such reports. "The situation is quite complicated," said Hanna Ovdiyenko, a lawyer for the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. "At the moment, most of the crimes are concealed due to the fact that the [occupied] territories are inaccessible." Nonetheless, using satellite photos, telecommunications data, and comments from Shmatov himself, Schemes has been able to approximate the location of the Russian-occupied Kharkiv village that the soldier allegedly described. Cellular Footprints His mobile phone calls to family in Russia provide the first clue. According to detailed records obtained from law enforcement sources, the Ukrainian cellular network first picked up a signal from what Schemes later determined was Shmatov's phone on March 3, a week after the invasion began, at a location in the Chernihiv region some 140 kilometers northeast of Kyiv. His digital trail disappeared after about a month, when Russian troops withdrew from areas around Chernihiv and Kyiv in northern Ukraine after failing to seize the capital. In mid-April, a cellular tower whose coverage straddled the border of three eastern regions where many of the Russian soldiers who had withdrawn from the north were redeployed around that time -- Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv -- next detected his signal. On April 15, the SBU intercepted two calls from his phone. The use of mobile phones in areas with nonsecure, Ukrainian-run cellular networks has repeatedly enabled the Ukrainian military to eavesdrop on Russian troops. But Shmatov, if aware of this risk, apparently paid it no heed. 'We Were Shooting At Everything' In a call to a man Schemes determined to be his father -- among other ties, they share an address in Russia -- Shmatov said his brigade attacked a village with missiles from Grad multiple-rocket launchers and machine-gun fire and used armored personnel carriers to surround it on three sides. "We were shooting at everything -- at houses, cars, everything. We…ripped apart all the houses with tanks and APCs," the voice Schemes identified as Stanislav Shmatov's said, using expletives frequently. "We took two prisoners. Took away their AK-47, their rifle, their SVD [sniper rifle]," he said. "Cut off one of their ears." "What for?" his father, Aleksandr Shmatov, asked, according to the recording. "He didn't want to talk, so his ear was cut off," came the reply. The elder Shmatov said this sounds "tough," but his son disagreed. "It's not like he got a bullet in the forehead or was quartered by an armored personnel carrier, so it's still fine, mild," the voice attributed to Stanislav Shmatov said. The soldiers could have "cut off a finger or two," he added with a laugh, or fired 100 rounds and "made a colander" out of the victim. A Village 'Cleanup' In the phone call with his father, Shmatov does not give his exact location, which he does not seem to know; he says only that it is a village in the Kharkiv region. But he does name landmarks: a railway that runs through the village, a river, and a nearby forest. According to the Ukrainian government, data records showed that telecommunications towers covering Borova, a Russian-occupied village in the Kharkiv region, transmitted Shmatov's conversation with his father. The head of Borova's village government, Oleksandr Tertyshniy, who has left the area, said he is almost certain Shmatov was describing the nearby village of Pisky-Radkivski, 15 1/2 kilometers to the south, along the Oskil River and Oskil Reservoir. Oleksandr Tertyshniy Russian troops entered Pisky-Radkivski on April 15, according to Russian media reports. Tertyshniy told Schemes that, in one building in Pisky-Radkivski, Russian soldiers "interrogated our people; especially those who were the members of the Anti-Terrorist Operation," referring to Ukrainians who have fought in the war against Russia-backed forces in the Donbas. "They collected lists" of locals who who have fought in the Donbas, Tertyshniy continued, referring to Russian occupying forces in Pisky-Radkivski. "They behaved extremely cruelly." Intelligence sources who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their identities told Schemes that several Ukrainian servicemen were captured in the village when Russian forces occupied it in April. For security reasons, Schemes is not disclosing the servicemen's names. But what occurred in Pisky-Radkivski did not affect captives alone. In his April 15 conversation with Zheleznikova, the apparent female relative, Shmatov described what he falsely termed the Russian "liberation" of the village from "Nazis" actually entailed, and indicated that a commanding officer gave the order to destroy the village's buildings. "Your commander gave the order?" the voice identified as Zheleznikova's asked. "Well, yeah," the voice attributed to Shmatov responded. "The battalion commander, the brigade commander, the deputy brigade commander. He says, ‘Take out all the f****** buildings, damn it, as soon as you see them. To f*** with all the buildings.'" Borova village head Tertyshniy said he has received reports that, after Russian forces occupied Pisky-Radkivski, residents lived in cellars "for a long time." According to one account he relayed, civilians stayed in a cellar for a week with the body of an elderly woman killed by machine-gun fire. Schemes could not independently verify these reports, but satellite images of Pisky-Radkivski from the U.S.-based company Planet Labs show the extent of the destruction. Shmatov is recorded as saying his brigade attacked the village on three sides. To the north of the village, along Sadova Street, which locals and other evidence indicates was the Russian military's entrance route into Pisky-Radkivski on April 15, several completely destroyed buildings can be seen in satellite imagery. Photographs shot by villagers and provided to Schemes further illustrate damage on this street. At the opposite end of the village, satellite imagery and video shot by locals show houses without roofs and other damaged buildings. In the village center, Russian forces apparently fired on an agricultural warehouse. The local school on Tsentralna Street was also destroyed. The gutted school building in Pisky-Radkivski Pictures of the school's computer room before and after the Russian occupation. Satellite images also confirm the destruction of private residences further along Tsentralna. As in other parts of Ukraine that have been occupied, there is also evidence of looting and the forcible expulsion of citizens from their homes by Russian forces. 'We've Got Guns. We've Got A F****** Tank' After one scouting trip, Shmatov's fellow servicemen returned with sausage, mayonnaise, and lard, he told his father: "They went into a store?" Aleksandr Shmatov wondered. "Of course not," his son said. "They've been going after people. And why would they f*** with us? We've got guns." "Well, yeah." "We've got a f****** tank. Somebody wants to f*** with us, lose their house and live on the street, be my guest." "And you can do that, yeah?" "You've got to do that." Displaced residents and other Ukrainians routinely post requests for information about relatives in Pisky-Radkivski whom they can no longer contact. "Acquaintances hear terrible things," one female user wrote. The Russian Defense Ministry has denied previous reports that its soldiers have tortured and abused Ukrainian prisoners of war or mistreated Ukrainian civilians in occupied areas, but has provided no information to support those denials. Denials And A Threat On August 16, Schemes reached Shmatov by calling the mobile phone number he had used in Ukraine. Wounded and recovering in Russia, he claimed that he "had never seen a single prisoner" during his posting in the Kharkiv region. He sidestepped personal responsibility for the violence described in the phone calls intercepted by the SBU. He claimed that when he described the assault on the Kharkiv region village, he had been recounting "what the guys did there" and "things the guys said." Asked whether anyone's ear was cut off, he said, "Honestly, my brigade and my guys themselves, the people who were there with me, no one did anything like that." When the Schemes reporter identified himself as a Ukrainian journalist, Shmatov ended the exchange with a threat: "I'll come and shoot you in the f****** head if you call someone from my brigade or my guys one more time." Yet, despite his denials, Shmatov implicated fellow Russian military personnel in the killing of a Ukrainian man he described as a spotter held by Russian forces during his first mission in Ukraine – apparently referring to the offensive in the north in the weeks following the February 24 invasion. With a little laugh, he told Schemes that "the guys" gave the prisoner a severe beating at a factory. "And then they shot him dead," he said. Nonetheless, he denied that the soldiers had committed a war crime, saying: "We didn't do that stuff." At first, Shmatov did not directly answer when asked whether his brigade commander had given orders for the soldiers to terrorize civilians. "I was kind of there on my own wavelength, so to speak," he said. "I didn't give a damn about anyone at all." Later in the call, however, he was asked about what he had told Zheleznikova was an order to destroy buildings and "put everyone down." "Well, yeah, we had this order," he told Schemes. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty © 2022 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.