World Hazara Council Condemns Terrorist Attacks Against Hazara/Shia Community in Kabul, Afghanistan The World Hazara Council (‘WHC’) strongly condemns the heinous terrorist attacks in the Hazara-Shia majority area of West Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday and Saturday, 5th and 6th of August 2022. These attacks follow the earlier pattern of systematic targeted attacks that are deliberately carried out in crowded Hazara-Shia areas. The first attack on Friday took the lives of reportedly more than 50 people and injured scores of others in Sar-e Kariz, Qala-e Shadah. Less than 24 hours later, on Saturday 6th August, yet another explosion claimed lives of at least 14 civilians and wounded many others at Shahid Mazari Square, Pol-e Sokhta, just one kilometre away from the first attack. On Sunday, the 7th of August, there were reports of a third explosion in Hazara-Qala area of Chendawol. The Islamic State-Khurasan Province (‘ISKP’) militant group has claimed responsibility for these blasts. We express and extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of these barbaric attacks. These latest attacks come as the Hazara-Shia community of Afghanistan are commemorating the first 10 days of the Islamic holy month of Muharram, culminating in Ashura on the 10th Day, and as such mourners are gathering in large numbers at mosques and taking part in processions. As the de facto authorities, the Taliban bear the responsibility to put in place adequate security measures to protect the mourners. This is especially important as the community faces systematic attacks. Furthermore, following their takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have removed the self-protection mechanisms put in place at mosques, especially during Muharram, in the last years of the former Republic. Dismantling the self-protection mechanism has rendered the community even more vulnerable as the Taliban remain unable and/or unwilling to ensure security on the ground. Other moves by the Taliban, including the removal of Ashura from the list of holidays in the calendar, strongly indicate that unwillingness on the part of the sitting authorities. It is important to note that the Taliban continue to deny the presence of ISKP in Afghanistan, despite the ongoing escalating attacks. We also strongly condemn the Taliban’s deliberate acts that makes it difficult to save lives of the wounded and blocks coverage of these attacks. The Taliban mistreat families of the victims and refuse to allow volunteers and family members to donate blood to help the wounded. We strongly condemn these acts as inhumane, deem them as clear violation of human rights, and warn against its consequences for the community and the overall social fabric in Afghanistan. We also condemn the Taliban’s refusal to allow journalists to cover these attacks and keep information flowing. While violence is widespread in Afghanistan, the Hazara and Shia community continue to face particular vulnerabilities and continue to be persecuted on ethnic identity and religious grounds. These latest attacks are a continuation of the pattern of vicious systematic attacks against ethnic and religious minorities, targeting places of worship, hospitals, educational centres, sporting facilities and schools. The Hazara-Shia community have long faced violence and persecution in Afghanistan based on their ethnic identity and religion, and since 2001, because of their dedication to democratic political institutions and human rights in Afghanistan. Under the regime of the Taliban in the late 1990s, Hazaras and Shias endured at least nine cases of massacre by the Taliban, while under the former Republic over the last 20 years, targeted attacks continued against the Hazaras and Shias, which were often claimed responsibility for by the Taliban and the ISKP. A recent study has documented nearly 300 attacks in the past two decades against the community. Sajjad Askary, Hazara refugee and advocate says: “While there are widespread human rights violations in Afghanistan, the Hazara people face extra layers of vulnerabilities due to their ethnic identity, religion and more recently, because of their dedication to democratic and liberal values, education, and human rights in Afghanistan. The latest attacks on the Hazara-Shia community highlight that Hazaras are in real danger, and at risk of genocide. The de facto Taliban regime cannot protect the Hazaras. The UN must act with urgency to prevent further atrocities against the Hazara people.” Sitarah Mohammadi, Spokesperson at World Hazara Council and Hazara advocate says: “We call on United Nations member states to recognise ethnic and religious minorities such as the Hazaras and Shias, as needing refugee protection due to their well-founded fear of persecution for their religious beliefs and ethnic identity in Afghanistan. We call on the United Nations and international community to take collective and robust action to intervene to prevent further attacks and protect the Hazara and Shia community. We call on the UN to adequately respond to the atrocities unfolding against the Hazara and Shia population in Afghanistan by implementing the Principle of Responsibility to Protect.” Media Contact: Sitarah Mohammadi, Spokesperson, World Hazara Council worldhazaracouncil@gmail.com شورای جهانی هزاره ۱۹ مرداد, ۱۴۰۱ Responding to the series of attacks leading to about 120 deaths and injuries in areas dominated by Hazara Shia communities in west Kabul over the last few days, Zaman Sultani, Amnesty International’s regional researcher, said: “The systematic attacks on the marginalised and persecuted Hazara Shia community in Afghanistan may amount to crimes against humanity and should be unequivocally condemned. “In the last year there have been multiple attacks on the marginalised community with little to no action. It is essential that as de-facto authorities, the Taliban carry out an immediate, impartial and thorough investigation into the attacks, conducted in line with international law and standards. Those suspected of criminal responsibility for these crimes under international law and human rights violations should face justice in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts and without recourse to death penalty. “The Taliban bear responsibility to take all necessary measures for the protection of civilians in Afghanistan and they must immediately step-up measures to ensure protection to all civilians in the country.” Australian-Hazara diaspora community condemns attacks The Australian-Hazara community in Australia strongly condemns the terrorist attacks which took place last week in West Kabul, Afghanistan, an area home to predominately the Hazara-Shia population. Sajjad Askary, Juris Doctor candidate and Australian-Hazara said: “The consistent, systematic persecution of the Hazara people by Islamic State Khorasan-Province (ISKP) and other Islamists continues today because of their religious beliefs, ethnic identity, and dedication to democratic political institutions and human rights in Afghanistan. Islamist extremists target Hazara schools, maternity centres, sports centres, hospitals, wedding halls, and mosques. Hazaras are being targeted en-mass and on the streets in every corner of the country for decades. “Australia and the international community must recognise and prioritise the claims of Hazaras as needing refuge due to their well-founded fear of persecution for their religious beliefs, ethnic identity and their dedication to democratic political institutions and human rights in Afghanistan, and to continue the humanitarian protection of Hazara refugees. Hazaras have already contributed enormously to Australia, as entrepreneurs and community members. Hazara community efforts raised $160,000 for the bushfire relief in 2020, and the local community has a proud tradition of establishing successful businesses with no start-up funds.” Sitarah Mohammadi, Australian-Hazara and Spokesperson of World Hazara Council, said: “We call on the Taliban to immediately reinstate the self-protection mechanisms to help the Hazara community protect itself in the short term and to devise a comprehensive security strategy for the Hazaras with inputs from within the community. We urge the UN and international community to take collective and robust action to intervene to prevent further attacks and protect the Hazara-Shia community. We call on the Taliban to stop blocking immediate help for the wounded, including blood donation and to ensure humane treatment of the families of the victims. We urge the Taliban to stop blocking media coverage of the security incidents. This is crucial for the flow of information, investigation of the attacks and assistance to the victims. “We urge international human rights organisations working in Afghanistan to clearly mention the identity of victims as ‘Hazara’ in their statements, and thoroughly and substantially investigate, map, document and report on these ongoing atrocities against the Hazara people. We urge the UN to adequately respond to the atrocities unfolding against the Hazara-Shia population in Afghanistan by implementing the Principle of Responsibility to Protect, which must be invoked in situations of mass atrocity crimes. We urge UN member states, including Australia to recognise ethnic and religious minorities such as the Hazara-Shias of Afghanistan, as groups in need of refugee protection due to their well-founded fear of persecution for their religion and ethnicity.” Hayat Akbari, Australian-Hazara and Juris Doctor candidate said: “Since the Taliban re-took over Afghanistan nearly a year ago, there has been a clear escalation of persecution and targeted attacks, and marginalisation as well as exclusion by the de facto Taliban regime against the Hazara and Shia community inAfghanistan. The Taliban have removed Ashura, the holy day for Shia Muslims, from the list of holidays in the calendar, which strongly indicate their unwillingness to include the Shia population of the country. It is important to note that the Taliban continue to deny the presence of ISKP in Afghanistan, despite the ongoing escalating attacks. “Further, marginalised and highly vulnerable groups such as Hazaras are unable to access aid due to discrimination by the de facto authorities, the Taliban. As Australia and other governments deliver aid in Afghanistan, we urge the Australian government to pressurise the Taliban through aid leverage and other channels, and to work alongside INGOs to employ local Hazara staff to ensure that marginalised communities are able access aid and other essential services.” Background On Friday, 5th August, at least eight people were killed and 18 injured in a blast in Kabul. The next day, on Saturday, 6th August a bomb exploded in a busy shopping street in Kabul killed eight people and injured at least 22 as reported in media. On Sunday, 7th August the UN reported at least 120 people were killed and wounded resulting from the attacks to which responsibility was claimed by the Islamic State of Khurasan Province claimed. After the Taliban takeover, such minority communities have no effective representation within the Taliban’s security or governance structure.Amnesty International has previously documented the targeted killing of ethnic Hazara community following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.org.au/afghanistan-taliban-must-immediately-step-up-measures-to-protect-the-hazara-shia-communities/

Repatriated Collection Includes One of the World’s “Ten Most Wanted Antiquities” NEW YORK – Yesterday, the United States government repatriated thirty cultural treasures worth tens of millions of dollars to the Kingdom of Cambodia, including a monumental sandstone sculpture of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god. The return of the Ganesha to its rightful home in Cambodia marks the first success of the “Ten Most Wanted Antiquities,” the Antiquities Coalition’s 2020 awareness campaign to locate and recover some of the world’s most significant looted, stolen, and missing artifacts. All 30 pieces had been sold to American collectors by Douglas Latchford—the now disgraced “adventurer scholar,” who made headlines in last year’s Pandora Papers for smuggling blood antiquities from Cambodian war zones and then hiding his millions of dollars in profits through the misuse of tax havens, trusts, and offshore accounts. The pieces were seized as part of a decade-long, and still ongoing, investigation into Latchford’s network by Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The Ganesha was recovered from the collection of Netscape founder James H. Clark, who surrendered a total of 35 antiquities after learning from investigators that all of the pieces were stolen. In an interview with the New York Times, Clark detailed his business relationship with Latchford and why he felt obligated to return the stolen items voluntarily, saying, “my doing this might inspire other people to do the same, but I’m not sure — it’s hard for people to give up something they paid for, but for me, why would you want to own something that was stolen?” Both the Ganesha and another of the masterpieces returned, the Skanda on a Peacock, hailed from Koh Ker, the capital of the ancient Khmer Empire from 928 to 944 C.E. Ancient Koh Ker statuary was revolutionary for its time given the size, dynamic positions, unique decorative features, and sacred ancestral representation of the art pieces. “We launched the Ten Most Wanted Antiquities list to shine a spotlight on cultural treasures from around the world that have been lost to crime and war,” said Deborah Lehr, chairman, and founder of the Antiquities Coalition. “We’re thrilled that the Ganesha, as well as the Skanda on a Peacock and so many other pieces, are now being returned home to the people of Cambodia. This success demonstrates what wonderful things we can accomplish when governments, law enforcement, advocates, and responsible leaders in the art market work together.” While the first of the original “Top Ten Most Wanted Antiquities” has been recovered, nine remain missing, along with countless other objects stolen from their home by thieves capitalizing on the chaos of war, unrest, or other crisis. These crimes leave a wound that persists for decades or even centuries. In recognition of the work that remains to combat cultural racketeering, the Antiquities Coalition will soon launch an updated most wanted list featuring a new missing masterpiece from Cambodia.

Mohamed Dhaysane, VOA FILE - Ethiopian soldiers patrol in Baidoa, Somalia, Feb. 29, 2012. Ethiopia troops have been deployed to Somalia's Gedo region to fight al-Shabab. MOGADISHU — Authorities in southwestern Somalia said Ethiopia has deployed hundreds of troops into Somalia’s Gedo region to prevent al-Shabab militants from crossing over into Ethiopia Gedo’s regional administration spokesman, Ali Yussuf Abdullahi, said the Ethiopian troops have been coming to the region since the end of last week and established bases in and around the border town of Dolow. Abdullahi, also known as Ali Juba, spoke with VOA via phone Monday and said the troops, numbering about 2,000, were deployed to fight al-Shabab militants who started to gather large numbers of fighters near the border. Abdullahi said he wanted to tell Somalia’s people that a new problem has arisen from al-Shabab that continues in Hiran, Bakol and Gedo. Abdullahi said Gedo administration authorities are impacted by the terrorist group’s new attacks in the border areas with Ethiopia. Because of the increase in insecurity, he said, al-Shabab militants infiltrated border areas and that it is necessary to cooperate with Ethiopia. That’s why new troops have arrived and are staying in and around Dolow, he said. Regional experts said they believe al-Shabab wants to establish a presence in Ethiopia. Meanwhile, Abdullahi told VOA that an Ethiopian airstrike hit several al-Shabab positions in the Gedo region, including the vicinity of Kabas, where al-Shabab militants were gathering to launch an attack into Ethiopia. He said the airstrike was conducted in coordination with the Ethiopian military and Somalia’s Jubaland state authorities. Asked whether the federal government of Somalia knew about the arrival of Ethiopia’s fresh non-African Union mission troops in the region, he replied by saying that the government knew the troops were coming to fight the militant group. The Ethiopian troop deployment in Somalia comes after the Ethiopian military said its security forces killed more than 800 al-Shabab fighters in response to a rare cross-border attack. The Ethiopian military also said 24 top al-Shabab leaders were among those killed in recent operations against the terrorist group. Late last month, hundreds of al-Shabab fighters crossed Somalia’s border with Ethiopia and clashed with specially trained counterterrorism forces known as the Liyu police. The group entered Ethiopia at several sites from Somalia’s border regions of Hiran and Bakool, according to security officials. U.S. assessments suggest al-Shabab fighters may have gone as far as 150 kilometers into Ethiopia before being deterred. A Horn of Africa analyst recently told VOA that domestic unrest in Ethiopia and the concentration of troops in its Tigray conflict make this an opportune time for al-Shabab to strike. The president of Ethiopia’s Somali region announced last week that Ethiopian forces will establish a buffer zone inside Somalia to prevent further al-Shabab cross-border attacks. After recent suspected Ethiopian military airstrikes in the region of Hiran, al-Shabab militants destroyed the antennas of the privately owned telecommunications companies in the region. Al-Shabab has been fighting Somali government and AU peacekeepers since 2007. It also carried out deadly attacks into neighboring Kenya and one in Uganda. Harun Maruf contributed to this report.

Representatives of the religious minority said that the crackdown was the latest chapter in a long history of persecution. The authorities accused those detained of being spies with links to Israel. Damaged homes in Roshankouh, Iran. The village in Mazandaran Province, where Baha’i have lived for more than a century, was raided as part of a range of actions against the religious minority.Credit. Via Baha’i International Community. By Farnaz Fassihi Iran has begun a sweeping crackdown on its Baha’i community, a long-persecuted religious minority, arresting dozens of people and destroying property belonging to members of the group, according to accounts this week from the government, residents and rights groups. The Iranian Intelligence Ministry said in a statement on Monday that an unspecified number of people from the Baha’i community had been arrested, accusing them of being spies with links to Israel and of propagating the Baha’i faith by “infiltrating various educational sectors across the country, including kindergartens.” Bani Dugal, the United Nations representative of the Baha’i International Community, which advocates on behalf of the group worldwide, said that Iran had arrested 52 Baha’is in July, raiding dozens of homes, closing businesses and demolishing properties. She said that the reasons behind the timing of the actions were still unclear. “We don’t know why,” Ms. Dugal said. “They are rolling out crackdowns and we are concerned that this is a new chapter in the persecution of Baha’is because the nature of the current attacks have been very systematic and cruel and violent.” The community has long faced persecution and discrimination in Iran because the government does not recognize the faith. The Baha’i belief that there was another prophet after Muhammad is anathema to Islam, and the fact that the headquarters of the Baha’i people is in Haifa, Israel, even though its roots are in what is today Iran, adds to the distrust Tehran has for the group. On Tuesday, about 200 security and intelligence officers descended on the tiny village of Roshankouh, in northern Iran, where Baha’is have lived for more than a century, according to interviews with a resident, relatives of residents and rights groups. They closed off an access road, fired gunshots in the air and sprayed pepper gas at villagers, according to the accounts. Bulldozers followed. Their target: Six houses and farmland belonging to Baha’i members. A few days earlier, security agents arrested 13 Baha’is from four cities across Iran, including three prominent community leaders, Mahvash Sabet, Afif Naimi and Fariba Kamalabadi, who had all previously served 10-year prison sentences, according to Ms. Dugal, the Baha’i representative. The attacks on the Baha’i follow a recent wave of wider repression in Iran that has included the arrests of prominent film directors, politicians from the reformist faction, activists and women challenging the mandatory hijab rule in public. In Roshankouh, as well as demolishing houses, the bulldozers tore down fences protecting farmland that served as the backbone of the community’s livelihood, according to witnesses, videos posted on social media, reports broadcast on state television and comments by Iranian officials. One family’s home was reduced to rubble, their furniture, clothes, toys and carpets thrown on the side of the road, according to witnesses. A farmer’s land was seized and declared public property, the witnesses said, adding that an older man who had protested had been beaten up and that several residents who had raised their voices had been pepper sprayed, handcuffed and briefly detained. Cellphones were confiscated to prevent documentation of the raid, one 58-year-old resident of Roshankouh said. “They want to isolate our community, to choke us economically and disrupt our peace,” the resident said in a telephone interview, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. He added that he had won a court case to save his house but that some of his farmland had been confiscated on Tuesday. The village has a total population of about 52 people, according to state television. Residents said that there were about 70 houses belonging to Baha’i families, with most being seasonal residents. There were less than a handful of houses belonging to Muslim families, residents added. Local officials from Mazandaran, the province that includes Roshankouh, walked around the village flanked by security guards this week and gave interviews to state television on Tuesday in which they defended the actions as protecting the environment. They said that the demolished houses infringed on forests and that land had been illegally cultivated. “The orders issued have nothing to do with a sect or a belief,” said Mohamad Sadegh Akbari, a cleric who is chief prosecutor for Mazandaran, according to official news outlets. Baha’i community members said that the government’s actions amounted to collective punishment because of a legal battle over property rights that has simmered since 2016, when Roshankouh was mapped and officials ruled that parts of it were within forests owned and protected by the state. Last August, the government demolished three small shacks in Roshankouh, saying that they had been built on protected land, according to residents and local news reports. The State Department’s Office for International Religious Freedom posted on social media that “the U.S. urges Iran to halt its ongoing oppression of the Baha’i community and honor its international obligations to respect the right of all Iranians to freedom of religion or belief.” Baha’is face widespread discrimination in Iran and are effectively barred from government employment and higher education. Sectors of the service industry involving food, hospitality and medicine, are also off limits to members of the group, according to Ms. Dugal and interviews with members of the faith inside and outside Iran. “We have nearly 150 years of history in Roshankouh from the earliest days of the Baha’i faith,” said Badi Daemi, a 64-year-old Iranian Baha’i who has relatives living in the village. Mr. Daemi was speaking via telephone from Andorra, the European country where he now lives. “There are development violations all over Iran,” he added, “so why are they bulldozing this tiny village in the mountains?” © 2022 The New York Times Company

The human rights group accused the Ukrainian military of establishing bases and weapons systems in schools and hospitals. An apartment building heavily damaged by Russian attacks in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, on Friday. Some experts fear a new report will give Russia an excuse to further target civilian areas. Credit: David Guttenfelder for The New York Times By Valerie Hopkins and Thomas Gibbons-Neff Aug. 7, 2022 The director of Amnesty International’s Ukraine office resigned on Friday to protest a lengthy statement by the wider organization that accuses Ukrainian soldiers of employing tactics of war that endanger civilians. In what it called an “extended press release” the group said on Thursday that “Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals.” News of the statement ignited an internal debate in Amnesty International and was met with widespread and almost universal condemnation in Ukraine, which has been defending itself against a Russian army that has vastly more firepower, which it has used to decimate urban areas and to torture and kill thousands of civilians. The news release said that the organization’s findings in no way justified the Russian forces’ tactics, and that Amnesty International had previously documented Russian war crimes, but that was not enough to placate the group’s critics, including its Ukraine director, Oksana Pokalchuk. “If you don’t live in a country that’s been invaded by occupiers who are tearing it apart, you probably don’t understand what it is like to condemn the defending army,” she wrote in a Facebook post announcing her resignation after seven years with the organization. “And there are no words in any language that are able to explain it to someone who has not felt this pain.” She also worried that the statement, which was prepared in the group’s main office, not by its Ukrainian arm, would be used and abused by the Kremlin. “Without wanting it, the organization created material that sounded like support for Russian narratives,” Ms. Pokalchuk said. “Seeking to protect civilians, this research instead became a tool of Russian propaganda.” Ukrainian soldiers watching emergency crews clearing rubble from a home hit by multiple rocket attacks near Sloviansk, in eastern Ukraine, last month. Credit: Mauricio Lima for The New York Times Internally, some employees said that while it was important to call out potential Ukrainian violations of the laws of war and practices that could endanger civilians, the accusations presented in the statement and their wording were too vague. That is partly because the rules on soldiers carrying out their duties from civilian areas are murky, analysts say. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine accused the organization of trying to “amnesty the terrorist state and shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.” “Aggression against our state is unprovoked, invasive and openly terroristic,” he continued in his nightly video address on Thursday. “And if someone makes a report in which the victim and the aggressor are allegedly the same in something, if some data about the victim is analyzed and what the aggressor was doing at that time is ignored, this cannot be tolerated.” The statement has underscored the problems raised by Ukrainian forces fighting in urban settings, one of the most destructive forms of warfare. In the five months since Russia invaded Ukraine, the country’s cities have become the focal point for both offensive and defensive operations. Experts in the rules of war said there were no proscriptions against using schools, hospitals, museums and other public places as military command posts or bases, so long as they were not being used for their peacetime purposes. And the Ukrainian military has said that Russia’s prolonged shelling of towns and cities, like the eastern city of Kharkiv, has forced it to position its troops and artillery within neighborhoods to properly defend them. Neighborhoods in Kharkiv have mostly emptied out, though some stalwart residents remain. But further east, in the industrial Donbas region where Russian forces have focused much of their firepower, more residents are choosing to stay behind. Ukrainian officials say this has left the country’s military in an increasingly tenuous position: They are putting more civilians in danger with their presence but, especially in bigger towns and cities, have fewer and fewer options when it comes to where they locate their forces. A publishing house was heavily damaged on July 31 by Russian bombs in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times Before Russian units captured the eastern city of Lysychansk, for example, some of the city’s remaining citizens, many of them pro-Russian, had soured on their Ukrainian defenders. It was understood that around 30,000 to 40,000 people of Lysychansk’s prewar population of around 100,000 people had stayed behind, ensuring that Ukrainian forces were sometimes sharing apartment buildings and other structures with civilians, many of whom were hoping for their defeat. The Russians “have bombed the school, the technical school, the ‘Silpo’ shop, and more,” said Mykhailo, a resident of an apartment complex in Lysychansk who gave only his first name to avoid retribution. “Everywhere the Ukrainian military settle is bombed and everything is being destroyed.” Russian officials claim not to attack civilian areas, but Ukrainian and international investigators say they have incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. And Ukrainian politicians and human rights defenders, as well as international scholars, have argued that Ukrainian soldiers have largely been forced to defend territory under Russian attack. “The complete absence of any positions, equipment, or even a single soldier near a school, hospital, kindergarten, church or museum will not protect them from Russian attacks with air, artillery, tanks, incendiary or cassette ammunition,” Roman Avramenko, the director of the TruthHounds NGO, which investigates war crimes, wrote on Facebook. “The presence of civilians never stopped the Russians from attacking these objects.” Others pointed to the well-documented atrocities the Russian Army has committed in urban areas. “In hundreds of occupied cities, towns and villages, what we saw in Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel is happening right now,” said Olha Reshetylova, of the Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian advocacy organization, referring to Kyiv suburbs that have become synonymous with barbarity. “Therefore, I do not want the Ukrainian Army to leave my city.” Police officers and forensic investigators exhuming bodies of Ukrainian civilians near Bucha in June. The civilians are believed to have been killed by Russian forces months earlier. Credit: Nicole Tung for The New York Times Amnesty International’s language statement, she said, “duplicates the theses of Russian propaganda that allegedly the Ukrainians themselves are to blame for the fact that they are being shelled. In fact, it has nothing to do with international humanitarian law.” Ms. Pokalchuk also complained that Amnesty International had initially not planned to ask the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for a comment on its allegations, and then when it did it gave officials only a few days to respond. Marc Garlasco, a United Nations war crimes investigator specializing in civilian harm mitigation, wrote on Twitter that Amnesty International “got the law wrong.” “Ukraine can place forces in areas they are defending — especially in urban warfare,” he wrote. “There is no requirement to stand shoulder to shoulder in a field — this isn’t the 19th century. Ukraine still has an OBLIGATION to protect civilians — but they are taking steps to do so, like helping civilians relocate.” He said he feared that the statement could endanger Ukrainian civilians. “While nothing has stopped Russia from hitting civilian areas, now they have an excuse,” Mr. Garlasco said. “A respected human rights org. said the targets are there. I fear they will expand their targeting of civilian areas at worst. At best they can claim a defense.” The outcry has not altered Amnesty International’s position. “While we fully stand by our findings, we regret the pain caused,” Alexander Artemyev, a spokesman, said in an email on Sunday. “Amnesty International’s priority in this and in any conflict is ensuring that civilians are protected. Indeed, this was our sole objective when releasing this latest piece of research.” Some analysts said the backlash against the statement also highlighted another angle: the difficulty of discussing possible Ukrainian atrocities when it is the clear underdog defending its territory. “As in the former Yugoslavia, in long, brutal conflicts, even the attacked can at times do things they should not do,” said Iva Vukusic, a scholar of postconflict justice at the University of Utrecht. “That’s not unimaginable. Pointing that out is not equalizing blame, it’s discussing the complex wars in all the nuances that exist.” Amnesty International Ukraine has exposed Russian atrocities in Ukraine, including an in-depth investigation of the infamous March 16 attack on a Mariupol theater that it concluded was a clear war crime. Ms. Pokalchuk noted that all of Amnesty’s local staff had been affected by the war in Ukraine. A board member, Maksym Butkevych, who joined the military after the full-scale invasion began in February, is a Russian prisoner of war. That might make any Amnesty International statement that would appear to give talking points that favor Russia, as many argued the statement did, all the more painful. Copyright 2022: The New York Times Company

© UNICEF/Pierre Holtz. Central African girls aged 12-18 years in Sam-Ouandja, Haute-Kotto prefecture. Armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) must lay down their arms and engage in political dialogue, a UN-appointed independent human rights expert said on Friday, urging the international community to strengthen efforts to restore State authority and end impunity there. “I vehemently condemn the obstinacy of the Coalition of Patriots for Change and other armed groups who continue to spread terror, insecurity and suffering among the civilian population and victims of violations and abuses,” said Yao Agbetse, who monitors rights abuses in CAR. Grave human rights violations At the end of a ten-day official visit to the country, he expressed dismay over reports from residents in the town of Bria, capital of the Haute-Kotto prefecture, who described the ease with which armed groups can move in and out of neighbouring Sudan. In that same district, schools in Ouadda, Yalinga, and Sam-Ouandja regions, have been closed for four years. Meanwhile, in Haute Kotto and Mbomou prefectures, the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic and the Front Populaire pour la Renaissance en Centrafrique (FPRC) have committed numerous grave human rights violations, including sexual violence, particularly rape and sexual slavery, mostly targeting girls aged 11-17. Mahamat Salleh, an FPRC leader based in Nzako, has been implicated in several cases of rape and other serious human rights abuses, Mr. Agbetse said. ‘Unacceptable’ attack He pointed to the brutal, organized attack on the village of Boyo last December, saying that human rights violations committed by the CAR national army (FACA) and the internal security forces (FSI) and their auxiliaries were “unacceptable”. Russian allies and the FACA had allegedly provided support to the mostly Christian anti-Balaka militia who committed atrocities there, including beheadings and sexual violence, and forced thousands of residents to flee. “The seriousness of these facts requires appropriate responses from national authorities towards the victims,” Mr. Agbetse said. “I recommend that the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) set up a more reactive warning system and regular joint operations with the FACA to prevent tragedies like the one in Boyo”. Mercenaries The UN expert also demanded that Russian mercenaries of the Wagner security group refrain from obstructing collaboration and joint operations between FACA, FSI and UN peacekeepers. “The Wagner group must not prevent the deployment of MINUSCA protection operations and not obstruct the investigation of human rights abuses and violations of International Humanitarian Law,” he continued. In the interest of all citizens of CAR, the UN expert urged outlawed militias to engage in the peace and reconciliation process led by the Commission on Truth, Justice, Reparation and Reconciliation. Systematic investigations At the conclusion of his visit, Mr. Agbetse recommended that all allegations of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law be systematically and thoroughly investigated by Central African authorities. “These investigations must be followed by concrete actions to ensure that the victims have access to justice,” he said. The expert said a reparation fund should also be established to ensure justice for victims. Moreover, he strongly recommended extraordinary judicial sessions to tackle the heavy caseload of sexual violence allegations linked to the chronic instability and conflict across CAR. Sentencing Mr. Agbetse upheld that in cases of conflict-related sexual violence, so-called “amicable settlements” were simply unjust to victims, and must be stopped, he added. Moreover, he noted that some testimonies and reports indicated a lack of control and accountability within the State apparatus, including the judiciary, police, and the civil service in general. He also called on Authorities to address hate speech and incitement to violence, and on the international community to strengthen its support to ensure that State authority restoration is effective. Independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work. © UN News

Police officers securing a bridge in Mitrovica, Kosovo, on Sunday, after protests along the border with Serbia.Credit: Festim Beqiri/Picture-Alliance/DPA, via Associated Press Valerie Hopkins Updated August 3rd 2022 A dispute over license plates between the Balkan nations of Kosovo and Serbia, from whom Kosovo split 14 years ago, yielded protests and gunfire Sunday night, prompting fears that the violence could escalate as Western countries are focused on the war in Ukraine. Amid demonstrators who built barricades, unknown gunmen fired on Kosovo police officers along the restive northern border with Serbia on the eve of a new law requiring ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo to switch from Serbian license plates to Kosovar ones in the next two months. Many Serbs in Kosovo still use Serbian-issued plates, which the government considers illegal. Kosovo’s government had also said that beginning Monday, all Serbian ID and passports holders must obtain an extra document to enter Kosovo, just as Kosovars must do to enter to Serbia. No one was injured by the gunfire, but in response to the violence, the Kosovo police closed two northern border crossings. “The following hours, days and weeks may be challenging and problematic,” Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, said in a video released on his social media channels. Similar protests over license plates flared a year ago, but observers say that tensions are higher this time because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which consumes the focus of Kosovo’s most important ally, the United States, as well as that of the European Union. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign pushed out Serb forces from the former province. Serbia — as well as its key allies, Russia and China — still refuses to recognize Kosovo’s independence, and insists on protecting its ethnic Serb kin, who make up about 5 percent of Kosovo’s population of 1.8 million people. A little less than half of Kosovo’s Serb population lives in four northern municipalities bordering Serbia and many have been reluctant to recognize the authorities in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, preferring to live as though they were still part of Serbia. The European Union has mediated negotiations between both governments since 2011 and slowly, the police, courts and municipalities have come under Pristina’s control. But, encouraged by the political leadership in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, Serbian nationalists protest each additional attempt at integration. “We will pray for peace and seek peace, but there will be no surrender and Serbia will win,” President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia said on Sunday at a news conference. “If they dare to persecute and mistreat and kill Serbs, Serbia will win,” he continued, adding later, “We’ve never been in a more difficult, complicated situation than today.” Mr. Vucic, who convened a high-level meeting of security and military officials on Sunday night, said that the Kosovar government was trying to cast him in the same light as President Vladimir V. Putin by blaming the unrest on Serbia’s close relationship with Russia, a fellow Slavic and Orthodox Christian nation. Kosovo’s leader, Mr. Vucic said during Sunday’s news conference, was trying to take advantage of the global mood by projecting that “big Putin gave orders to little Putin, so the new Zelensky, in the form of Albin Kurti, will be a savior and fight against the great Serbian hegemony.” Vladimir Djukanovic, a Serbian member of Parliament from Mr. Vucic’s ruling party, also linked the border spat to the war in Ukraine, tweeting, “Seems to me that Serbia will be forced to begin the denazification of the Balkans,” an ominous reference to Russia’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine. Serbia, a candidate to join the European Union, has maintainedclose ties with Moscow and has not joined Western sanctions on Russia, though it did vote in favor of a United Nations resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Belgrade and Moscow share animosity for the NATO military alliance because of its bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, when Mr. Vucic was a spokesman for the Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. NATO still maintains a peacekeeping presence in Kosovo, with a force of approximately 3,700 troops. In a news release, NATO said its force on the ground was “ready to intervene if stability is jeopardized.” After a meeting with the U.S. ambassador on Sunday night, Kosovo’s government announced it would delay the implementation of both the license plate and identification decisions by one month. Russia quickly weighed in on Sunday, calling the license plate and identification laws “another step to oust the Serbian population from Kosovo,” Russia’s news agency, TASS, reported. “We call on Pristina and the United States and the European Union backing it to stop provocation and observe the Serbs’ rights in Kosovo,” said Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry. Kosovo’s northern border with Serbia has been a hub of violence in the past. In 2011, when the Kosovo police sought to take full control of area, one Kosovo police officer was killed and 25 more were injured. Copyright 2022 The New York Times Company

More than 200,000 Yazidi survivors are still displaced from their homes in Iraq since the 2014 genocide at the hands of IS Reza / Webistan View of the Kabarto refugee camp, now home to many of the Yazidi forced to flee the city of Sinjar, which was taken by ISIS on August 3rd,2014 Eight years on since the Islamic State militant group's massacres of Yazidis, more than 200,000 survivors are still displaced from their homes in Iraq, the United Nations said Thursday. The needs of displaced persons living in and outside camps, and returnees remain high said the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM). After seizing swathes of Iraq in 2014, IS militants carried out horrific massacres, including in the northern region of Sinjar where the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi minority - a monotheistic, esoteric community - has long been rooted. A lack of adequate shelter and basic services such as running water. electricity, health care and education is making durable solutions difficult for Yazidis returning home or seeking to do so. "Families are forced to focus on meeting their most basic needs rather than on meaningfully rebuilding their lives," the IOM said. IS destroyed around 80 percent of public infrastructure and 70 percent of civilian homes in Sinjar city and its surrounding areas, the Geneva-based agency said. IS fighters also destroyed the region's natural resources and farmland. "Mass executions, forced conversions, abduction and enslavement, systematic sexual violence and other heinous acts" perpetrated by IS "reflect a genocidal effort to destroy this historically-persecuted ethno-religious minority," the IOM said. More than 2,700 people remain missing, the agency added. Some are known to be held by IS, which persecuted Yazidis for their non-Muslim faith, but the whereabouts of others is uncertain. Survivors among the non-Arab, Kurdish-speaking minority are unable to mourn lost loved ones, many of whom lie in unmarked and mass graves still awaiting exhumation, said the IOM. "The scale of the atrocities committed against the Yazidi community is such that it will have an impact on generations to come," said Sandra Orlovic, IOM Iraq's reparations officer. "The government of Iraq and the international community need to create conditions that will assure Yazidis that such atrocities will not happen again and support them in healing and rebuilding their lives." The Norwegian Refugee Council said in May that violence and sluggish reconstruction had prevented Sinjar city's Yazidi, Muslim Kurdish and Arab residents from returning home, as had a surge in violence earlier in the month. "A staggering 99 percent of those who applied for government compensation had not received any funding for damaged property," the aid group added. In early May, fighting broke out between Iraqi troops and Yazidi fighters affiliated with Turkey's banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). More than 10,000 people fled the fighting, adding to the displaced population. © 2022 The New Arab Link to article: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/more-200000-yazidis-still-displaced-iraq-un

August 03, 2022 By Will Brown & Tom Shacklock Protests in Goma, North Kivu against the U.N. peacekeeping force MONUSCO. (Moses Sawasawa/AP) The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.) has substantially escalated over the last several months, particularly in North Kivu and in South Kivu. Notably, Tutsi and other “Rwandophones” (also known as “Banyarwanda” or Kinyarwanda speakers) have recently come under increased threat of genocidal violence. “Rwandophones” are groups considered to be historically of Rwandan origin. Whereas Hutu and Tutsi have mostly lived in North Kivu since the colonial era, the Banyamulenge, who are related to the Tutsi, have lived in South Kivu since before colonial rule. After Congolese independence in 1960, Rwandophones faced hostilities. Their citizenship was revoked in 1981. In the Congo Wars (1996-2003), Rwanda invaded the Congo to prevent Rwandan Hutu exiles who had organized the 1994 genocide from using the Congo as a base of operations, in doing so overthrowing President Mobutu. Many Tutsi and Banyamulenge joined Rwanda to seek protection from persecution, reinforcing the idea they were “invaders.” There is still strong anti-Rwandophone sentiment in the D.R.C., despite the 2004 nationality law being worded to include most Rwandophones. This year, the mainly Tutsi M23 rebel group resurged, displacing tens of thousands, after being defeated by Congolese forces and United Nations (U.N.) peacekeepers (MONUSCO) in 2013. It had partly returned from 2016, resurfacing in 2021. M23 emerged due to Tutsi insecurities and marginalization and previously had Rwandan support. Rwanda denies backing M23 again. Hostilities have increased against Rwandophones, who are all associated with M23, despite most Banyamulenge and Hutu opposing the insurgency. A Rwandophone lieutenant colonel was brutalized by civilians and police in Kisangani, and a Banyamulenge herder was lynched and reportedly cannibalized in Maniema. A recent recording called on Congolese to kill Tutsi using machetes in South Kivu. The authorities arrested people for joining Tutsi “hunts” in the capital, but the threat remains. In South Kivu, the Banyamulenge have been targeted by self-styled “indigenous” Mai-Mai militias in a separate crisis since 2017, as detailed in this report. A recent paper found a close link between genocidal hate speech and anti-Banyamulenge attacks. In Ituri, the Lendu CODECO militias have targeted Hema in systematic attacks since 2017. They killed 62 displaced Hema in February, displaying MONUSCO’s insufficient capacity to protect civilians. The threats to the Hema and also the Luba are detailed in this report. General frustration with MONUSCO has led to violent protests. The civil society group LUCHA and populist politicians have said MONUSCO should withdraw if it continues to fail to protect civilians, yet this would put civilians at more risk. The Batwa forest people, or “Pygmies,” face persecution due to exclusionary conservation policies. Since 2019, Congolese soldiers and park guards have run abusive operations to displace Batwa from their homelands in Kahuzi-Biega National Park. This year, the D.R.C. Senate finally passed a law against anti-Batwa discrimination. There is uncertainty over the prospect of foreign intervention. The East African Community has agreed, but set no date, to deploy troops in the D.R.C. Uganda already intervened recently to fight the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist terrorist group that often commits massacres. Last year, the United States (U.S.) offered to help the D.R.C. combat the ADF and will now seek to calm tensions between the D.R.C and Rwanda. The D.R.C. is at Stage 8: Persecution and Stage 9: Extermination. Genocide Watch recommends that: Neighboring countries (such as Rwanda) refrain from taking actions that could escalate the situation. MONUSCO prepare for increased targeted violence and increase its intelligence gathering capabilities, preparing to rapidly redeploy its forces to all conflict hotspots and use force to protect all civilians. The U.N. Security Council authorize an increased number of soldiers and augmented assets (such as helicopters) for MONUSCO and reconsider upcoming plans to draw down MONUSCO forces. The U.S. and other donor states increase and ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid in the D.R.C.

By Abdi Sheikh Former al Shabaab group co-founder and spokesperson Mukhtar Robow sits among colleagues after he was named as the minister in charge of religion by Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre in Mogadishu, Somalia August 2, 2022. REUTERS/Feisal Omar MOGADISHU, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre on Tuesday named a co-founder and spokesman of the Islamist al Shabaab as minister for religious affairs, a move that could either help strengthen the fight against the insurgents or provoke further clan clashes. Mukhtar Robow had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head after he co-founded al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab and served as the group's spokesman. Al Shabaab insurgents have killed tens of thousands of people in bombings in their fight to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed central government and implement its interpretation of Islamic law. Robow split from the group in 2013 and publicly denounced al Shabaab when he came to the government side in 2017. But the relationship soured after he grew too politically powerful. Somalia's previous government arrested Robow in December 2018 as he campaigned for the regional presidency of southwest state. Security forces shot dead at least 11 people in the protests that followed, sparking criticism from the United Nations. Robow's new job sparked a flurry of hashtags on Twitter crowing he had made it # FromPrisonertoMinister. He had been held under house arrest until recently. His appointment could help strengthen government forces in his native Bakool region, where insurgents hold substantial amounts of territory but where Robow also commands support. Or it could fan flames with the region's president, who sees him as a political rival. "We welcome his appointment. The move will advance reconciliation and will serve as a good example for more high level al-Shabab defections," said political analyst Mohamed Mohamud. "Al Shabaab members who might be thinking of surrendering ... can dream of serving their country at the highest levels." New President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, elected by lawmakers in May, has promised to take the fight to the insurgents after three years in which his predecessor, consumed by political infighting, took little action against al Shabaab. That allowed the insurgents to build up substantial reserves of cash and carry out attacks over a wide swathe of Somalia. Last week scores of al Shabaab fighters and Ethiopian security forces were killed in clashes along the two nations' shared border. Additional by Abdi Sheikh and Daud Yusuf in Nairobi, Kenya; Writing by Katharine Houreld and George Obulutsa; Editing by Estelle Shirbon © 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved

A soldier outside the Olenivka prison on Friday after an explosion killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war who were being held there. Credit: Associated Press Prisoners recently released from a Russian prison camp where an explosion killed dozens of Ukrainian soldiers late Thursday have described torture and hellish conditions. Guards provided just enough food for prisoners to survive and meted out regular beatings, they say. Stas Hlushko, 37, a civilian prisoner released on July 4 from the camp, Correctional Colony No. 120, said the blast site was far from the barracks where hundreds of prisoners are being held. He described how new inmates were beaten upon arrival. “As prison guards explained to us, it’s important for the prisoner to be humiliated at once,” he said. “The torture of us civilians was not so bad as for soldiers.” He described how camp guards would create a “corridor” and force new prisoners to run the gantlet as he was beaten with “chains, metal pipes and so on.” “One emergency service guy was put in our cell and for a day couldn’t move,” he said. “He was tortured with electricity.” The treatment of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians being held by the Russians has been a topic of growing concern. Russia has not provided a precise total of how many are being held, and the issue is further complicated because civilians are often held in the same camps as soldiers. The Russians operate at least 18 “filtration centers” in eastern Ukraine and western Russia, according to a recently declassified U.S. intelligence assessment. Tens of thousands of people forcibly deported to Russia have passed through the centers, and those deemed to pose a high risk to Russia are taken to other detention centers where soldiers are also kept, according to witnesses and international observers. Incidents of torture and inhumane living conditions at Correctional Colony No. 120 were described by several former prisoners and by family members of people still being held. Vitaliy Sytnikov, a 35-year-old civilian who was arrested while trying to evacuate other residents from Mariupol in March, described a disciplinary cell known as “the pit.” “Almost every day we heard the beatings of prisoners of war there,” Mr. Sytnikov said in a telephone interview. He said that most of the people who were beaten were soldiers who had defended the Azovstal steel plant. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian commissioner for human rights, said on Saturday that the government had “initiated a process” to return bodies of those killed at the camp to Ukraine. He said that even before the blast, the government in Kyiv had asked that the Red Cross and other international experts investigate abuses of prisoners at the camp, where he said “thousands” of people were being held — civilians and soldiers. “As far as we know, there were no other positive changes in the confinement conditions — there was nothing like that,” he said. “So there are many questions at the moment but, believe me, we are doing everything we can and everything we have to do.” Michael Carpenter, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has issued a series of statements on abuses at Russian prison camps. He said on Friday night that the explosion that killed the soldiers was the latest evidence of “barbaric, inhuman treatment of P.O.W.s by Russian forces.” Copyright: 2022 New York Times Company