By Josh Smith A South Korean war veteran holds the national flag during a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Cheorwon, South Korea, June 25, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji SEOUL, June 29 (Reuters) - South Korea's 2019 decision to deport without legal process two North Korean fishermen suspected of murdering their shipmates violated human rights principles, a U.N. investigator said on Wednesday, after prosecutors reopened the case. South Korean activists had called on new President Yoon Suk-yeol to reinvestigate the case, blaming the previous government of trying to curry favour with Pyongyang amid denuclearisation negotiations and efforts at rapprochement. While the fate of the two men is unconfirmed, there was an expectation their rights would be violated when they were turned over to North Korean authorities, and therefore Seoul had an obligation to process them in the South Korean justice system rather than immediately repatriate them, Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, told reporters. "These are extremely dramatic cases because once a person is repatriated there is no reversal," he said. "The (South Korean) government should not have repatriated these persons right away." Former President Moon Jae-in's administration deported the fishermen, describing them "dangerous criminals" who killed 16 other colleagues aboard their vessel while crossing the sea border and said they would cause harm if they were accepted into South Korean society. North Korea faces accusations of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence and forced labour. It has denied mistreating its citizens. South Korean prosecutors have re-opened the case, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se, who handles relations with the North, told Reuters on Monday. An official with the ministry said on Wednesday it would cooperate with the investigation. Neither Moon, who has kept out of the public eye since leaving office, or North Korea has commented on the case. Quintana was among several U.N. officials who sent a letter to Seoul at the time expressing concern and asking for more information. The officials also sent a letter to Pyongyang. During this week's visit to Seoul, Quintana also met with the family of a South Korean who went missing at sea in September 2020 while working as a fishing inspector. North Korean authorities later shot him dead and set his body on fire, shocking many South Koreans and increasing cross-border tension. That case has also been revisited by the Yoon administration, and last week South Korea's maritime and military authorities reversed their earlier announcements and said there were no signs the official was trying to defect. His family had refuted the defection claims, filing a lawsuit calling for the disclosure of government records. Quintana said he supported the family's right to know more from the South Korean government, adding that ultimately, North Korea was responsible for killing the official, and should also disclose information, punish those who shot him, and provide reparations to the family. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un previously made a rare apology for the killing, calling it an “unexpected and disgraceful event”, though state media said blame lay with South Korea for not controlling its borders. Reporting by Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Lincoln Feast. © 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved

The New York Times By Sui-Lee Wee June 29, 2022 Maria Ressa, the co-founder of the independent news organization, said she would appeal the decision, calling it “harassment and intimidation.” Rappler offices in Pasig City, suburban Manila, on Wednesday.Credit...Maria Tan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Philippine government has again ordered that Rappler, the news website co-founded by Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, be shut down for violating foreign ownership rules, the latest blow against press freedom in the country. Rappler has angered President Rodrigo Duterte for investigating his drug war, and the government has filed seven criminal cases against Ms. Ressa, relating to tax evasion, violation of foreign ownership rules and cyber libel. In his 2017 State of the Nation speech, Mr. Duterte singled out the news organization, saying it was “fully owned” by Americans, a charge that Rappler has denied. (The Constitution prohibits foreign entities from owning domestic media organizations in the Philippines.) Tuesday’s announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission to revoke Rappler’s operating license upholds an earlier move by the agency. In 2018 the S.E.C. said that an investment by Omidyar Network, owned by the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, violated the restrictions on foreign ownership of domestic media. Rappler has argued that Omidyar’s investment was not the same as owning shares, did not violate the law and did not give Omidyar Network control of its operations. Rappler has appealed its case multiple times before the Court of Appeals and the S.E.C. but lost every time. It has continued to publish while its legal battles have dragged on. Ms. Ressa said the Tuesday decision “effectively confirmed the shutdown of Rappler.” She had announced the S.E.C. decision earlier in a speech at the International Media Conference hosted by Hawaii’s East-West Center. In an interview from a hotel in Honolulu, Ms. Ressa said her organization would continue to appeal the decision “because the proceedings were highly irregular.” “This is illegal,” Ms. Ressa said. “For me, this is harassment and intimidation. We’ll continue doing our jobs. In fact, our end goal is to keep swatting away at that Damocles sword.” Maria Ressa, one of Rappler’s founders, at her desk in the office in 2018. Jes Aznar for The New York Times Francis Lim, a lawyer representing Rappler, said the S.E.C., as an administrative agency, could not execute the decision without court approval. He said he planned to file a motion to the Court of Appeals to reconsider. If that fails, they could take the case to the Supreme Court. “It’s not the end of the world for us,” Mr. Lim told reporters, adding that there was still a “very long process” to go. Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, called the case a “government vendetta” against Ms. Ressa and Rappler. “The bottom line is this is an effort to shut up Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, and shut down Rappler, by hook or by crook,” Mr. Robertson said. The order came two days before Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the ousted dictator, is scheduled to be inaugurated as president. It was the latest example of the pressures facing the nation’s news media. Last week, the government blocked two Philippine news websites, saying they supported Communist-terrorist organizations. On Monday, Mr. Duterte said he had used his presidential powers in 2020 to shut down ABS-CBN, a major broadcast network that has reported on the president’s drug war and his track record. Rappler, which has won multiple awards, is well known for its work on countering disinformation and its investigation into Mr. Duterte’s drug war. It is particularly popular among young Filipinos. Last year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to Ms. Ressa and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia, for “their courageous fight for freedom of expression.” Ms. Ressa said the company has had to increase security for its staff after internet users recently spread a false claim that Rappler was the least trusted news organization in the Philippines and after a pro-government Facebook account published Rappler’s address. “When the rule of law is bent so much that it’s broken,” she said, “you have to be ready for anything.” Sui-Lee Wee is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times. She was part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for public service for coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. @suilee

By Antony Sguazzin DA’s Steenhuisen says anti-migrant sentiment may ‘jump fence’ South Africa has been dogged by bouts of xenophobic violence Action SA President Herman Mashaba Photographer: Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images/Getty Images South African politicians are risking conflict between different local ethnic groups and races by encouraging xenophobia against migrants from other nations on the continent, the leader of the official opposition said. Two new political parties, ActionSA and Patriotic Alliance, made significant gains in municipal elections last year by running anti-migrant campaigns. The leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, the third-biggest political party, led delegations to restaurants in the economic hub of Gauteng demanding to know if they employed foreigners and the African National Congress-led government said it will end a special permit that’s allowed 180,000 Zimbabweans to live and work legally in the country since 2009. “They are going to saddle a tiger that they will never be able to ride,” John Steenhuisen, the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance said at Chatham House in London, where he gave an on-the-record briefing Monday. “You may think you are starting a bush fire in the foreigner camp, but I can tell you that that fire will jump the fence in South Africa and eventually we will have a full blown race war on our hands.” South Africa, whose society was divided along racial and ethnic lines under apartheid until 1994, has wrestled with anti-foreigner sentiment. In 2008 xenophobic riots saw about 50,000 people displaced and about 60 killed, including a Mozambican man who was set alight by a mob. There were similar episodes in 2015 and 2019 and in April a 44-year-old Zimbabwean man was stoned and burned to death. Still, the DA’s own record on issues of xenophobia has been checkered. Herman Mashaba, the South African cosmetics entrepreneur who founded ActionSA, represented the DA as mayor of Johannesburg from 2016 until 2019 and frequently outlined plans to drive undocumented migrants from the city, speaking of “shock-and-awe” campaigns to drive foreigners out of derelict buildings in the city center. Ahead of national elections in 2019, its then spokesman on immigration, Jacques Julius, proposed a “humane” deportation program for undocumented migrants whom he said were a major source of crime and who took welfare checks and anti-AIDS drugs meant for South Africans. ‘Pile of Ashes’ Now DA officials are campaigning against xenophobia, Steenhuisen said. Politicians fanning anti-migrant sentiment should exercise caution, he said. “Do not incite and inflame something which you know could see the country turn into a pile of ashes,” he said. ©2022 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved Link to source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-27/s-africa-risks-race-war-by-stoking-xenophobia-opposition-warns

By RFE/RL's Kazakh Service Kazakh Deputy Prosecutor-General Aset Shyndaliev (file photo) Kazakhstan's deputy prosecutor-general, Aset Shyndaliev, says six people were tortured to death after being arrested for taking part in January anti-government protests that led to the removal of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his relatives from the oil-rich Central Asian nation's political scene. Shyndaliev said in a statement on June 29 that 232 individuals died during the protests, which were violently dispersed by law enforcement and armed forces. The previous death toll provided by the authorities was 230, including 19 law enforcement officers. Shyndaliev added that eight officers of the Committee of National Security (KNB) and a police officer had been arrested on a charge of torturing suspects. Overall, he said, 15 officers are suspected of using torture and illegal methods of interrogation on people arrested during and after the unrest. The Prosecutor-General's Office said earlier that 25 people were officially considered victims of torture by hot irons, which investigators used on them during interrogations related to the deadly unrest. Shyndaliev's comments come amid demands by rights activists and some who survived the brutality for more transparency to get justice for the victims in ongoing probes over the use of torture. Thousands of people were detained by officials during and after the protests, which President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said were caused by "20,000 terrorists" from abroad, a claim for which authorities have provided no evidence. The unrest occurred after a peaceful demonstration over a fuel-price hike in the tightly controlled nation's western region of Manghystau on January 2 led to widespread anti-government protests. Human rights groups say the number of people killed was much higher than any of the figures provided by officials. The groups have provided evidence proving that peaceful demonstrators and people who had nothing to do with the protests were among those killed by law enforcement and military personnel. The government has not published the names of those killed during and after the unrest and has rejected calls by domestic and international human rights organizations to launch an international probe into the deaths. © 2022 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

New Delhi: Mohammed Zubair, one of the founders of fact-checking website Alt News, was arrested by the Delhi Police today on charges of hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity. He has been sent to police custody for a day. The case is based on a complaint made by Twitter handle '@balajikijaiin' this month, alleging that Mr Zubair had tweeted a "questionable" image to "deliberately insult the god of a particular religion", police said. Mr Zubair had sent out that tweet in March 2018. Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha said Mr Zubair was called to Delhi for questioning in a different case from 2020, in which the court has given him protection against arrest. But he was arrested in this new case instead, without mandatory notice, Mr Sinha said. "No FIR copy is being given to us despite repeated requests." Police acknowledged that Mr Zubair was originally being questioned in an older case but was arrested in the new case "after having sufficient evidence on record". He is still being questioned and police will present him before a magistrate tomorrow to seek further custody, it is learnt. The older case from 2020 was filed for alleged harassment of a girl on Twitter. Mr Zubair had called out a man's abusive online behaviour by re-posting his profile photo with his grand-daughter, but had blurred her face. The police have already told the court that there is no offence made out against Mr Zubair for that tweet. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted against the arrest and criticised the BJP government. "Arresting one voice of truth will only give rise to a thousand more," he said. Saying that Alt News provides a "vital service", Congress MP Shashi Tharoor termed Mr Zubair's arrest an "assault on truth", and demanded his release. Another Congress MP, Jairam Ramesh, alleged that the Delhi police acted in a vengeful manner as AltNews exposes the government's bogus claims. Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, too, reacted angrily. "This government is going after those who are exposing hate speech," he told NDTV. Founded in 2017 as a non-profit, Alt News is among the world's most prominent fact-checking outlets. Its founders have been facing online trolling and police cases, particularly by right-wing groups, for years. Source: NDTV https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/journalist-mohammed-zubair-arrested-for-allegedly-hurting-religious-sentiments-3105388#pfrom=home-ndtv_bigstory © COPYRIGHT NDTV CONVERGENCE LIMITED 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Milica Stojanovic The Education Ministry said it will investigate after videos were published by media showing pupils dancing to a nationalist, anti-Bosnian Muslim song at a school end-of-year celebration in the Serbian city of Novi Sad. The Vasa Stajic elementary school in Novi Sad. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Micki. Serbian Education Ministry said on Thursday evening that it will carry out a review at the at the Vasa Stajic School in the northern city of Novi Sad and that “the provincial inspection will take action” to find out who was responsible after children aged 10 and 11 and a teacher were filmed dancing to an anti-Bosniak song. Education Minister Branko Ruzic decsribed the incident as “an isolated case”, saying in a statement that “it does not reflect the situation and atmosphere in schools in Serbia at all, and I express the expectation that such situations will not happen again”. News website Nova.rs on Tuesday and Wednesday published two videos from an end-of-year celebration at the school, where children and an adult female could be seen dancing to a folk song called ‘Ne Volim Te, Alija’ (‘I Don’t Like You, Alija’). The song, recorded during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, refers to Alija Izetbegovic, the wartime leader of the Bosniaks. In the refrain, which can be heard on the videos, the song says: “I don’t like you Alija, because you’re a balija.” ‘Balija’ is a derogatory term for Bosniaks. The lyrics also accuse Izetbegovic of having “destroyed a peaceful dream”. It adds: “May the River Drina [on the Serbian border] take hundreds of your mujahideen [Muslim fighters] every day.” The song, written by Mirko Pajcin, who is known as Baja Mali Knindza, include the names of various places where there was violence during the Bosnian war, many of which were the locations of large-scale war crimes. The school’s director Zorica Djuric told Nova.rs that “the songs [at the celebration] were chosen and played by the students themselves and most of them were completely appropriate for their age”. “Unfortunately, this song was released without anyone’s consent, but because of the noise and clamour that the students were creating, none of the teachers could even hear the words,” Djuric said. She added that “these are teachers with decades of experience in education, many of them are about to retire and none of them has heard of Baja Mali Knindza”. Serbia’s Commissioner for Protection of Equality, Brankica Jankovic, said on Wednesday that “playing songs at a school event whose lyrics incite national [ethnic] intolerance is worrying and inadmissible, especially because it this concerns children of primary school age and an event held at school”. “It is devastating if the children chose the controversial song for all the school performances, and it is extremely worrying if someone from the teaching staff helped them in the realisation of such a choice,” Jankovic said in press release. The Belgrade-based Youth Initiative for Human Rights said that the incident was “just a consequence of the promotion of nationalism at all levels and the atmosphere in which all children in Serbia live, grow up and are educated”. The NGO added that Djuric’s statement, “in which the responsibility for playing the song is transferred to the students, is devastating and shows the lack of understanding of the importance of establishing preventative educational practices”. Copyright BIRN 2015

Reporting by Addis Ababa Newsroom; writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Duncan Miriri and Alistair Bell Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends his last campaign event ahead of Ethiopia's parliamentary and regional elections scheduled for June 21, in Jimma, Ethiopia, June 16, 2021. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo ADDIS ABABA, June 27 (Reuters) - The African Union should facilitate peace talks between Ethiopia's government and rebellious forces from the Tigray region in the north, the country's ruling party told state media on Monday. The conflict in Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous nation, has displaced millions of people, plunged parts of Tigray into famine conditions and killed thousands of civilians, since it erupted in November 2020. ADDIS ABABA, June 27 (Reuters) - The African Union should facilitate peace talks between Ethiopia's government and rebellious forces from the Tigray region in the north, the country's ruling party told state media on Monday. The conflict in Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous nation, has displaced millions of people, plunged parts of Tigray into famine conditions and killed thousands of civilians, since it erupted in November 2020. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said two weeks ago that the federal government had formed a committee to study how they will negotiate with the Tigrayan forces. After discussing the committee's report, Abiy's ruling Prosperity Party wants the African Union to oversee a peaceful resolution of the conflict, Gedion Timothewos, the justice minister, told the state news agency. The government, however, stood ready to take action if violence continued, Gideon was quoted as saying by the Ethiopian Press Agency He did not provide more details on the report from the committee, which is headed by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen. It had been given 10-15 days to hammer out details of negotiations and government officials told Reuters last week that its report would be made public. The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a former rebel army turned political party, said it was prepared to participate in a "credible, impartial and principled" peace process, after Abiy announced the formation of the committee. TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Prosperity Party's position. In his role as the AU's Horn of Africa envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has been conducting shuttle diplomacy between the two sides. The federal government later announced a seven-member negotiating committee led by deputy prime minister Demeke Mekonnen. It includes a security adviser to Abiy, justice minister Timothewos, the head of the national intelligence service and the head of military intelligence. Two top officials from the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, which were heavily affected by the fighting, are also on the committee. © 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved

Hate speech and incitement to genocide in D.R. Congo requires urgent response Statement from the Aegis Trust on hate speech and incitement to genocide in D.R. Congo Published June 23, 2022. Residents of Goma, North Kivu, DRC, reacting to the passing of a convoy returning the body of a Congolese soldier killed by Rwandan soldiers at the DRC-Rwanda border. June 17, 2022. (GUERCHOM NDEBO/AFP) Without urgent action there is a very high risk of widespread violence in D.R. Congo against Kinyarwanda speakers. Violence is not new in DRC, where over 100 militia groups exist, and where the Congolese army, FARDC, has also been accused of atrocities. Sexual violence and frequent massacres of civilians have occurred on a vast scale. Against this backdrop Kinyarwanda speakers have been characterized negatively in D.R. Congo for decades, especially in the North and South Kivu Provinces. Researchers have documented growing hate media on Youtube and other channels, particularly targeting Congolese Tutsi and other Kinyarwanda speakers (see https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623528.2022.2078578). In recent weeks the escalation of incitement to violence against Tutsi has taken on an ominous tone, echoing the hate media of early 1990s Rwanda which contributed to the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. This Anti Tutsi hate is not spontaneous. It has been lingering in eastern DRC since 1994 when large numbers of refugees crossed the border of Rwanda into Congo, including people who committed the Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. Recent years have seen a spike in hate speech targeting the Kinyarwanda speaking population of the DRC (Banyarwanda and Banyamulenge). The phenomenon has intensified within the context of the recent fighting between the predominantly Tutsi M23 Congolese rebel group which resumed operations against the Congolese Army in November 2021, leading to displacement of tens of thousands of civilians. The Government of D.R. Congo accused Rwanda of supporting M23, which the Government of Rwanda denies. The virulence and intensity of hate messages amplified by social media platforms raises strong concerns over safety of the targeted populations and further undermines peaceful cohabitation between different communities in the country. In this clip – https://youtu.be/e0W8rDQPXHU – Congolese are called upon to take action against Congolese Tutsi with round-ups, expulsions and killings. These planned and premeditated actions are scheduled for 25th June. Volunteers are urged to bring their machetes to the houses of Tutsis. Early warnings about identity based discrimination are rapidly becoming late warnings in D.R. Congo and intervention is therefore required. What can be done? The prime responsibility to protect their population rests with the Government of DRC. Those inciting violence or committing violence must be brought to account. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Nderitu have encouraged the DRC Parliament to expedite the adoption of a bill on “racism, xenophobia and tribalism” in order to strengthen the legal framework to address and counter hate speech. This process and discussion will take time and so existing mechanisms must be used to prevent DRC tipping into ethnic cleansing of its Kinyarwanda speaking citizens. Failing to apprehend and bring those inciting violence to account encourages a climate of impunity, and then further perpetration. Reflecting the urgency of the situation, as Commonwealth Heads of Government were landing in Kigali, President of Rwanda Paul Kagame flew to Nairobi on 20th June for a meeting of East African Community (EAC) leaders convened by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, including President of D.R. Congo Felix Tshisekedi. One outcome was an agreement to deploy an EAC regional force. This must work quickly with the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) to stabilize the situation. Noting the false promise of protection of past peacekeeping operations, assurance must be given that civilian populations will be protected when rebel groups are disarmed. The disarmament process should target all armed groups, including the FDLR group, members of which were involved in committing Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda 28 years ago. The Tutsi need protection: the Congolese Army and MONUSCO know where to find them – in Uvira and the villages stated in the audio linked above. It is also vital for effective peacekeeping operations to be accompanied by political processes aimed at building a more inclusive society, addressing the longterm drivers of mistrust, hatred and violence. © 2015 Aegis Trust

Journalist among those detained after city's governor bans march for seventh consecutive year, citing security concerns A demonstrator faces off against Turkish police after the Pride march was banned for a seventh consecutive year (Screengrab/@kepenekevrimm) Turkish police arrested dozens of LGBTQ+ activists and a journalist on Sunday during a Pride march in Istanbul. Protesters had gathered near Taksim Square despite the governor's office banning the march near the iconic Istanbul landmark. Police, who had lined the streets in anticipation of the march, detained dozens of protesters and placed them in buses where they were held in custody. Among those arrested were AFP's chief photographer Bulent Kilic, who witnesses say was handcuffed from behind. Images posted online showed hundreds of protesters lining the streets of Istanbul carrying rainbow flags, despite the heavy police presence. "The future is queer," they chanted. "We are here. We are queer. We are not going anywhere." Kaos GL Association, which campaigns to promote the human rights of LGBTQ+ people against discrimination, said on Twitter police detained at least 52 Pride participants and LGBTQ+ activists. "All those detained solely for their participation in Pride must be released immediately and unconditionally," Milena Buyum of Amnesty International said. Diren, a 22-year-old university student, condemned the hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people. "We are banned, prevented, discriminated and even killed at every second of our lives. Today, it's a very special day for us to defend our rights and to say that we do exist," Diren told AFP. "Police violence is aimed to stop us but it is not possible. You will be unable to stop the queers." Last week, Istanbul's governor banned the march from taking place for the seventh consecutive year. Hours before the march, the Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week group posted a series of safety precautions for demonstrators attending their banned protest, anticipating potential police interference. Organisers confirmed the Istanbul Governor's Office had denied their application to hold the march on Friday. Posting the rejection letter online, the group described the reason for the ban as "the same crap" they face every year when applying to hold the march. "Our application to the Istanbul Governor's Office to hold our 19th Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride March, which will be held on Saturday, June 26, at the Maltepe Rally Ground, was rejected today," the group posted on Friday. "The reason for the ban is the same crap." In the letter, the Istanbul Governor's Office said the proposed march was not "appropriate", citing security concerns and the need to uphold public order. Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, had urged Turkish authorities on Friday to let the march go ahead. "I urge Istanbul authorities to repeal Istanbul Pride latest ban and to ensure the safety and the right to peaceful assembly of marchers," she said in a statement. "The human rights of LGBTI people in Turkey need to be effectively protected." Despite homosexuality being legal in Turkey since its founding as a republic, members of the LGBTQ+ community face regular harassment by the local authorities. Istanbul Pride has taken place every year since 2003. The last march to take place without a ban was in 2014, drawing tens of thousands of people. In 2020, streaming giant Netflix cancelled the production of a series in Turkey featuring a gay character after failing to obtain government permission for the filming. The same year, French sports brand Decathlon faced boycott calls in Turkey for posting messages of support for LGBTQ+ people. © 2014 - 2022. Middle East Eye Link to Article: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-police-arrest-dozens-istanbul-pride-march

By Zubeyir Koçulu and Maaz İbrahimoğlu Incidents of xenophobia and violence towards Syrian refugees in Turkey have increased in recent months, coinciding with local and national election cycles. Populist candidates are scapegoating Syrians as the cause for the country's current woes. A street sign advertises rental properties, with Syrians barred from applying Sherif Khaled Al-Ahmad, a 22-year-old Syrian textile worker, was shot to death in front of his ground-floor apartment in Istanbul on June 7 during an assault by a group of Turkish men. Three men accosted Sherif and his flatmates at around 4.30 am and shouted insults through the Syrians’ windows, demanding them to come outside. Sherif left his apartment to talk to them, but one of the three men immediately shot him in the leg and head, leaving him dead. "They did not immediately escape after shooting Sherif but waited on the corner to shoot the other Syrians living in the apartment," a neighbour and a close friend of Sherif, who chose to stay anonymous for security reasons, told The New Arab. According to him, the attackers had racist motives. Sherif's body was buried in Idlib, Syria last week according to reports by local media. The police are searching for the three men over the killing. The tragic death of the young Syrian comes amid the increasing anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey – including verbal and physical attacks targeting the immigrants from the MENA, Syrians in particular. According to the Interior Ministry, Turkey is hosting more than 3.5 million registered Syrians. Millions of Syrians have fled the neighbouring country since the civil war started in 2011. Recently, several videos showing merciless attacks on Syrians living in Turkey have gone viral on social media. A video widely shared in May shows a group of Turkish men attacking Leyla Muhammed, an elderly Syrian woman, in the Turkish city of Gaziantep. A man in the group is seen kicking the mentally disabled woman in the face as she sat on a bench. The man assaulted her upon rumours in the neighbourhood claiming that she was a kidnapper, which turned out to be false. Anti-Syrian sentiment has increased in Turkey in recent years, partly fuelled by an economic downturn that saw consumer prices skyrocket, threatening President Tayyip Erdogan's 19-year grip on power. Ferhat Kentel, a sociology professor, told The New Arab that the refugees are a handy instrument for the Turkish government and employers. "We must remember that hosting millions of refugees is a bargaining chip against the West that the government has used to threaten Europe with opening the borders and letting the refugees 'occupy' their countries. On the other hand, they are also an instrument for business people; they are just cheap labour." A poll conducted this year shows that 81.7% of Turkish electors want the government to send Syrians back to their country, and the percentage supporting this idea among Erdogan voters is 84.5. Several polls conclude that the majority of the Turkish population sees the refugees, specifically Syrians, as the reason for the high cost of living in the country. Sending Syrians back to war-torn Syria has become an election promise before Turkey's upcoming 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections. Main opposition secular CHP and newly emerged nationalist parties such as IYI and Zafer have promised their supporters to deport Syrians from the country. The ruling AKP has joined the club recently. In May, Erdogan revealed his party's plans to send around one million refugees back to Syria. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced in April that Turkey has deported 317,000 refugees, including 19,000 Syrians. Amnesty International has criticised Ankara over the “illegal deportations” of Syrians, calling on Ankara to protect them from any forcible return, in line with its international obligations. Ahmad al Ahmad, a businessman from Aleppo, told The New Arab that several of his Syrian customers in Istanbul's Bagcilar district had stopped coming to his ornament shop in fear of deportation. "There are so many police officers hunting Syrians around my shop. Syrians who didn't manage to sort out their residency permit in the country stay away from the area." Al Ahmad also said that the Municipal Police recently removed his shop's sign in Arabic after some nationalist politicians and media figures raised a big stink over the increasing number of shops with Arabic names and signs in the country. "We know that we are not wanted here," he sighed. People from different political factions answered The New Arab's questions about Syrians. Orhan Yanik, an Erdogan supporter, said that "the rents and prices increased after Syrians came to the country." "I want them to go back to their country, but not forcefully; it should come after creating a liveable environment in their country," he added. Ercan Ateş, a voter of the main opposition CHP, argues that Syrians must be deported immediately. "Our economy is already bad; we try to survive with the price hikes. And Syrians caused the increase in rent prices. Our people are unemployed, and business holders unofficially hire Syrians for half salary, so they don't pay insurance and tax." He believes that the war in Syria has already ended, and Syrians could go back. According to Ismail Salloura, however, a man from Damascus who is running a dessert shop in Istanbul, there is still war in Syria, and they cannot go back and live safely in their country. Ferhat Kentel asserts that the anti-Syrian racism in Turkey should be situated in the overall social, political, and historical context of the country. According to him, Turkish society is full of past traumas of very different social actors and incidents, leading to the marginalisation of ethnic minorities, who serve as internal and external enemies blamed for the problems in the country. Ferhat believes that hatred towards refugees is also linked to the insecurity fuelled by the global and national economy, wars in the region, and political instability. "Average person faces many hardships in their struggle for survival in Turkey. So, this is not only a question of rationality but of feelings. [Turks’] feelings of resentment and grudge lead to situations in which they find themselves vulnerable. Those people who feel insecure or who don't have a kind of confidence in their being or identity conclude that the refugees are responsible for this environment. Vulnerable people consider refugees, another vulnerable group, as scapegoats." According to Kentel, taking the anti-refugee sentiment under control and preventing more systemic attacks on immigrants in the country depends on the initiatives of the politicians. "All depends on their discourse. Will they use manipulative language or mild language? Will they provoke, or will they calm the situation?" He argues if Ankara finds a way to ameliorate the problems about the democratic order, human rights, and the economy, people will be less angry and more peaceful. And they will not target refugees as much as they do now. According to the professor, if the country's political and economic situation deteriorates, it is difficult to expect better days for refugees living in Turkey. © 2022 The New Arab Link to article: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/deporting-syrians-has-become-election-promise-turkey

By Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Rubatheesan Sandran in Mullaitivu In the middle of a crippling economic crisis, demonstrating is a luxury the country’s Tamil minority cannot afford Women hold a protest in Mullaitvu, Sri Lanka, demanding the return of those who were disappeared during the war Photograph: KUMANAN/Kumanan For months now, the sounds of protest and anger have rung out across Colombo, Sri Lanka’s largest city. Every day, along the city’s seafront promenade of Galle Face, people have gathered in their tens of thousands to rage against the government for plunging the country into its worst financial crisis in modern history. But 200 miles north, in the district of Mullaitivu, the streets are silent. The economic crisis has hit Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, who are concentrated in the north and eastern provinces, as hard as those in the south; the fishermen here say they are already starving. But they will also tell you that protesting is a privilege in Sri Lanka – one they have never been afforded. “If we staged a protest here like they are doing in Galle Face, they would shoot us dead,” said Ravikaran Thurairajah, 58, a former councillor from Mullaitivu who has been arrested 14 times for his involvement in local peaceful demonstrations. “We respect their struggle, but we don’t see our struggles represented there.” It was 13 years ago that Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war between the Tamil separatist militant group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – commonly known as the Tamil Tigers – and the Sri Lankan military came to a bloody end in this district. Tens of thousands lost their lives as the LTTE was defeated and up to 100,000 people, mostly Tamils, were abducted by the Sri Lankan armed forces and never seen again. Since then, many in Mullaitivu have not stopped demanding justice, accountability and political representation for Tamils. Among them is Mariasuresh Eswari, 49, whose husband, Mariyadas, a fisher, was taken by the navy in March 2009 as he went to collect his catch. He never came back. In a protest that has gone on for more than 3,000 days, dozens of wives and mothers have sat in a camp outside the local administrative offices, demanding the return of their loved ones or answers as to where they are. But the price these women pay is heavy. “Every time we protest, they issue court orders to stop us,” said Eswari. “We have been harassed, groped and beaten by police. They use indecent language against us, and I had to be hospitalised recently after police used force against us. Military intelligence has us under constant surveillance.” With tears in her eyes, she pointed to her husband’s photograph on the wall, yellowing and mottled with age. All around in this makeshift office, the missing people of Mullaitivu stare out hauntingly from the walls: old men with furrowed brows, girls stiff in school uniforms with bows in their hair, and teenage boys awkwardly Photoshopped on to tropical backgrounds. Mariasuresh Eswari points to her husband’s photograph, one of the thousands who disappeared in Mullaitivu during the war Photograph: Rubatheesan Sandran/The Guardian “Where were the protests in the south when the military killed and took away our families?” asked Eswari, as she recounted clambering over dead bodies with her children in her arms as they tried to flee to safety at the end of the war. “It’s easy for them to protest there, it’s not the same here. When I see the Colombo protests, all I see is discrimination.” While those in Mullaitivu are supportive of the calls in Colombo for the resignation of the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is part of Sri Lanka’s most powerful political family, there is also frustration. The Rajapaksa dynasty had always played on Sri Lanka’s ethnic tensions to gain the votes of the Sinhalese majority, and has almost no support among Tamils. “We already rejected the Rajapaksas and their racist majoritarian politics a long time ago,” said Thurairajah, the former councillor. “Unlike those people in Colombo who are now protesting, we never voted for them in 2019. We always said this family would destroy this country.” Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former president, was in power and Gotabaya Rajapaksa was head of the armed forces during the final, brutal phase of the war when most deaths occurred in the north. Since Gotabaya Rakapaksa became president, all progress towards war crimes tribunals and accountability mechanisms for wartime atrocities has been halted. There were fears that by joining the economic protests, other issues inflicted on the Tamils in the north, particularly around land, would be drowned out. The loss of Tamil land to military and government agencies is seen by many as a concerted effort to change the demography of the region. Several local Hindu temples where Tamils have been worshipping for hundreds of years have recently been seized by the archaeology department for excavation, and new Buddhist temples are being built in their place. In Mullaitivu, dozens of farmers have spent over a decade unsuccessfully trying to reclaim their land, which they say was illegally occupied by the military and where the Gotabaya naval base, named after the president, now stands. “There have been invitations from the south for us to join them in protest, but there is a clear distinction from what they want and what we want,” said Prabhakaran Ranjana, 55, whose son has been missing since May 2009. “We don’t want fuel and economic assistance from the government, we want answers. We want justice for our people, we want our land back.” Though widespread anti-government protests in Colombo have been largely dominated by the Singhalese-Buddhist majority – with Muslims and Christians also taking part – significant attempts have been made to include Tamils. An event was held where the national anthem was sung in Tamil, a very rare occurrence. And for the first time, memorials for those who died at the end of the war in Mullaitivu and a commemoration of the burning of the library in the Tamil city of Jaffna – considered one of the worst cultural atrocities carried out by the Sri Lankan military during the war – were held on 18 May. Nonetheless, these efforts have all come up against issues exposing the continued ethnic segregation of the island. A Buddhist monk said on stage that the national anthem should only be sung in Singhala, and attempts were made to stop the Mullaitivu memorial on the basis that it was glorifying the Tamil Tigers. Conflicts over the language used in the memorial were particularly thorny; in the south, 18 May is celebrated as a day of victory, but in the north it is known as the anniversary of Mullaitivu genocide. Unlike in the south, which has benefited from decades of investment and development, people in Mullaitivu said that dire economic circumstances were nothing new for them. During the war they had no access to sugar, milk or soap, and many survived on a boiled rice porridge, with the adults drinking the starchy water and giving the children the grains. “It feels like those war days again,” said Ranjana. The mounting economic deprivation has, however, pushed one group in Mullaitvu to breaking point. Fishers said they were on the brink of starvation, as without paraffin to power their boats they could no longer go out to fish. Usually, 1,600 boats would go out a day, supporting about 12,000 jobs, but now they are lucky if they can send out any at all. “There’s a bleak future for us if we don’t get fuel for the boats,” said Alagarasa Rasarathina, 53, who has been a fisher all his life. “If we want to eat, we need to go to sea.” The fishers said they were pooling their resources to buy some paraffin on the hidden market for seven times the usual price, but even that was hard to find, and would not have supported the community. “It’s very difficult to share this small catch among all the fishermen – it’s not enough to feed all the families,” said Rasarathina. “People are already going hungry, they will start dying soon.” Things were even tougher for the female labourers who depend on small pieces of work fixing and cleaning fishing nets in exchange for some of the catch. Now they have nothing at all. Vaithaijah Mariyai, 59, who lost five children in the war and relied on small pieces of work on the boats, is living off donations, the last of some leftover fish and some vegetables she picked from the side of the road. “I don’t know how I will survive after this,” she said. The fishers have recently held protests outside the district offices, accusing the government of abandoning them to their deaths, but still no fuel has arrived. “Take a photograph of us,” said one fisher, Thiyakarasa Thiyagalingam, 42, as he sat looking out bleakly at all the grounded fishing boats. “I don’t know how much longer we will be here.” © 2022 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern) Link to source : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/22/sri-lanka-tamils-protests-economic-crisis

By Douglas Burton Washington, D.C. Newsroom An early morning raid Sunday by terrorists in north-central Nigeria hit a Roman Catholic congregation hard. “We lost three of our parishioners, and 36 people were kidnapped, the majority of whom were Catholics,” Father Francis Agba, pastor of St. Moses Church in Rubu, told CNA via text message. “This is the third attack against this village in this month alone and the latest of 15 attacks in the 17 outstations of the parish this year,” he added. Agba is the head of St. Augustine’s Parish which has 17 churches, one of which is St. Moses. The three churches were in a complex of villages called Rubu in Kajuru County, approximately 30 miles south of Kaduna City in north-central Nigeria. Other churches attacked included Maranatha Baptist and Evangelical Church Winning All. The abductees included 31 females and five males, according to Jonathan Asake, the head of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), an umbrella group for all Christian communities in the State. Worshippers told reporters that they had decided to attend the 7 a.m. service in hopes of lessening the chance of becoming victims of terrorists who have struck the village many times in recent years. The terrorists thwarted those plans. When the shooting started the congregants ran toward the forest but three lost their lives, said Agba, the St. Moses pastor. Another attack the next day: the village of Gwando, 10 miles east of Rubu, was swarmed by terrorists Monday, according to Stingo Usman, a community leader in Maraban Kajuru. “No one was killed because the villagers ran into the forest, but their animals were rustled,” Usman said. Nigerian security forces attempted to respond to the attack in Rubu an hour after it began but changed plans after hearing that the bandits had left the town with their hostages, Usman said. “The military then decided to meet the bandits at Kutura Station, but abandoned that effort due to bad roads,” Usman said. Kaduna Police spokesman Mohammad Jaliga Kumo did not respond to CNA’s request for comment. The attacks are part of a systematic campaign by Fulani bandit gangs to force the majority-Christian farmers off of the land in southern Kaduna, Asake said. The Sunday morning raids came nine days after a June 5 bandit assault on three villages approximately 12 miles away that left 32 dead and 12 wounded, Asake said. The villagers attacked in that raid on June 5 reported that a helicopter hovered over the village and fired rounds that killed or wounded residents of the village instead of the terrorists. The Kaduna State Commissioner for Public Security disputed the claim, but the villagers have held firm in their version of events. In that earlier raid 27 villagers, chiefly women, were abducted. The bandits have since contacted relatives using the abductees’ cell phones and demanded a ransom of the equivalent of $1,300 per person, Asake said. “We told the bandits that most of the captured women are widows whose husbands were killed in previous attacks. Their answer was that the women could be returned in lieu of a promise that our villagers will not go to their farms carrying any weapons,” he said. “They cannot carry even a machete, making them utterly defenseless during the next attack.” “The International Committee on Nigeria believes the Fulani militants have an attack strategy to instill fear, cause displacement, and allow occupation of Christian farms,” Kyle Abts, executive director of the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON), told CNA. The goal is to disrupt these farmers from generating a harvest and a wage. After leaving the area, these lands will be re-occupied by Fulani herders and their families,” Abts said. The spate of attacks targeting Christian churches has been attributed to “communal violence” by analysts with the Council on Foreign Relations and the result of “clashes over land and water resources” in reports by the U.S. Department of State. Human rights scholars who spoke to CNA sharply disagree with those characterizations. They say the massacres in Kajuru are part of a long-term campaign by radicalized Muslims to Islamicize the whole of Nigeria. The widespread killings by terrorist gangs along with the Islamist insurgencies of Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa have taken more than 350,000 lives since 2001, said Abts, of ICON. “The overall aim of the terrorists is economical and partly religious,” Father Agba said. “Partly religious, because many Muslims have fallen victim, too, but the frequency of the attacks is much more on the predominantly Christian parts of the state.” The gangs that have terrorized the state of Kaduna with mass kidnappings of college students and groups of motorists on the highways have grown wealthy and powerful since they emerged in the northwestern state of Zamfara in 2011, according to bandit expert Dr. Murtala Rufa’i, a historian at the Usmanu Dan Fodiyo University in Sokoto. Scholars estimate that between 10,000 and 30,000 bandit terrorists are operating in five of Nigeria’s northwestern states. Douglas Burton is an independent writer specializing on Nigerian terrorism from his home near Washington, DC. He began covering the campaign to retake Mosul from ISIS in 2015 and switched to covering ISIS in Nigeria in 2019. He is a former State Department official in Kirkuk Iraq. (c) 2022 Catholic News Agency, Douglas Burton.