June 21, 2022 By Nina Shea Sixteen days after the massacre on Pentecost Sunday in Nigeria, at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Ondo state, we know one thing for certain: Nigeria’s government is letting the attackers get away with it. No one has been arrested in the murders of the 40 congregants and the maiming of scores more. Despite an onslaught in which the terrorists surrounded and shot up the city church for 25 minutes, the government has failed to identify a single suspect. That fits with the general pattern of impunity for Islamists who target Nigerian Christians, and it is why there is no end to it in sight. On June 14, I spoke with Ondo’s Bishop Jude Arogundade about the attack. He elaborated on his widely quoted statements in which he took issue with Western leaders who attribute this and other unprovoked attacks on Christians by militant Fulani Muslim herdsmen to climate-change-driven communal disputes over resources. That position has long been held by the State Department and influenced Secretary Antony Blinken’s delisting last fall of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” for religious persecution. Ireland’s President Michael Higgins repeated these excuses for jihadi murder after the Pentecost attack, defending the Fulani herdsmen in the context of a mass shooting, as “pastoral peoples who are among the foremost victims of the consequences of climate change.” In a letter, Bishop Jude denounced Higgins’s words as “far fetched” and “deflections from the truth.” The bishop insists that the atrocity is part of a religious-cleansing campaign to eradicate Christians, and Muslims who are not perceived to be Muslim enough. It was ignited a decade ago by Boko Haram Islamists in the northeast. It has since been spread by various Islamist militants, who are increasingly nomadic Fulani. While Christian farmers were murdered in their fields before in the southwest, this is the first large-scale attack against a church in this region, he said. This violence has spread largely because of government policies that are biased in favor of Fulani, even those who are now radicalized jihadis. Christian farms in the north, particularly in southern Kaduna state, have been hard hit. “Most attacks are carried out by Fulani men (tagged as either unknown gunmen or bandits) dressed in Khaki, riding in military vehicles, and carrying sophisticated weapons,” the Kukah Center, which was founded by Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto state, reported in March. The Fulani attackers “kill, burn houses and churches while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar.’” The Kukah Center finds that “many communities have been displaced and many farmers are unable to plant and harvest their crops. Consequently, hunger and poverty have risen, and the economy has deteriorated by the day.” In fact, thousands in southern Kaduna, a mostly Christian region, have been killed, and millions more are displaced and destitute. The jihadis can take over and even change the names of entire villages without any government response. After the Pentecost massacre, locals are certain, Fulani waged bloody attacks that killed 32 Christians in four southern Kaduna communities — Unguwan Gamu, Dogon Noma, Ungwan Sarki, and Maikori. The church and many houses were torched. There, too, the government failed to respond. In Benue state, on May 20, St. Michael’s Agasha parish in Makurdi suffered lethal attacks when Fulani murdered farmers in their fields and burned their homes. In these pages last August, I wrote of similar Fulani offensives in Christian villages on Kaduna’s border with Plateau, describing a nearby military unit that stood down until the attacks ended. These are only a few examples. “Nowhere seems to be safe again in our country, not even the sacred precincts of a church,” commented Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, president of the Nigerian Catholic bishops’ conference, after the Pentecost attack. The bishops express grave concern about the abductions of their priests, now brazenly conducted from inside church compounds by Fulani jihadis and others — with complete impunity. They understand that the Christian presence in the north is doomed if its leaders are relentlessly targeted. The Kukah Center documented the following: Father Stephen Ojapah and Father Oliver Okpara were abducted by suspected armed Fulani on May 25, from the rectory of St Patrick’s Church in Katsina. On May 11, Father Joseph Bako died in captivity after being kidnapped from Saint John’s Church in Kaduna on March 8. On March 27, Father Leo Raphael Ozigi of St. Mary’s Church was abducted after leaving Mass. On March 24, in Zaria, while traveling to the diocesan secretariat, Father Felix Zakari Fidson was abducted for 37 days. On February 6, Father Joseph Danjuma Shekari of St. Monica’s Church in Kaduna was kidnapped from his parish residence for four days. Other Christian leaders are targeted, too. The Methodist Church reported on May 29 that eight Fulani militants abducted its head, His Eminence Samuel Kanu-Uche, along with a chaplain and Bishop Dennis Mark of Owerri. The three were taken into the bush and tortured. They were released days later after the payment of a $240,000 ransom. “We will finish you people and take over this land,” the militants warned, according to Kanu, who added, “They claimed that Nigeria belonged to Fulani.” While no Muslim imams are reported abducted, the sultan of Sokoto was threatened by a mob for bravely criticizing the May 12 deadly bludgeoning, on a campus in Sokoto, of Christian student Deborah Yakubu, for alleged blasphemy against Islam. The police dispersed the mob setting fires around the sultan’s residence. Bishop Kukah also protested Yakubu’s murder and the fact that only two suspects were arrested, on minor charges. In response, in a viral video I viewed, an imam incited his followers, threatening: “The leader of the infidels of Sokoto state, they said he made some statements. . . . Matthew Hassan Kukah, so let him continue to do, I swear we shall kill him. . . . I swear, we shall kill you.” All diocesan Masses were then suspended following attacks that “devastated” two parishes. Nigeria’s Christian Association implored the government to protect the bishop. For over a decade, Christians have been fleeing ISIS affiliates committing enslavement and religiously motivated murders in Borno and neighboring northeastern states. Now all Nigerian Christians, nearly half of the country’s 216 million people, live in fear of Fulani herdsmen jihadis, who have the apparent tacit approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, the son of a Fulani chieftain, and, as victims of climate change, they have had the sympathy of the State Department and other Western leaders. As elsewhere, this targeting of a religious group occurs in a larger national context of crime, conflict, and terrorist violence, but it is no less egregious and deliberate persecution of defenseless Christians. On May 16, the Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland was in Nigeria and met with Bishop Jude. Hopefully, she listened and will redirect policy to end this horrific religious cleansing. (c) National Review, 2022

By Jason Burke and Zeinab Mohammed Salih Dozens of people said to have been killed in attacks allegedly involving Wagner Group fighters. Goldmining in Central African Republic. There have been reports of attacks on several mines across CAR. Photograph: © Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images. Russian mercenaries have mounted a series of bloody attacks on artisanal mines in the lawless border zones between Sudan and Central African Republic (CAR) in an effort to plunder the region’s valuable gold trade, witnesses and experts have said. Dozens of miners are thought to have died in at least three major attacks this year allegedly involving mercenaries working for the Wagner Group, a private military company that has been linked to the Kremlin by western officials. There are also reports of further attacks on mines in at least six other places across CAR. Witnesses interviewed in Sudan by the Guardian described “massacres” by fighters they identified as being from Wagner who swept through encampments full of migrant miners and mine workings between the north-eastern town of Am Daga and the frontier over a six-week period. The fighters shot indiscriminately with automatic weapons, smashed equipment, destroyed buildings and stole motorbikes, they said. One described a mass grave containing more than 20 victims. Others spoke of hundreds dead or injured. The accounts have been corroborated by local civil society groups and international officials and are seen as “credible” in western European capitals, where security services are monitoring Wagner’s operations. The three biggest incidents took place on 13 March, 15 April and 24 May. Most of the victims were migrant workers from Sudan and Chad working in the goldmines, though some local civilians are also thought to have died. Mohammed Zain Mohamed Wadi, 42, said he was attacked in an area called Jabal a-Nar, about 50 miles west of the frontier with Sudan, by Russians, some in armoured vehicles, and soldiers from CAR in pickup trucks or on motorbikes. Wadi said he helped to bury 21 of the victims, all Sudanese. Another six people were also killed. “I’ll never go back … actually I don’t think anybody remained … The goldmines there have been taken over by the Russians,” he said. Jamaa Mohamed al-Habou, 35, was among those who were attacked in the last week of May in the village of Sankillio, near Andaha. He said he and other miners were “chased off by Wagner” and that many were killed during a daylong assault. The 35-year-old fled into nearby woodland, abandoning a metal detector. Others left behind motorbikes and other vehicles, which were seized by the attackers. Members of armed groups opposing the government were also targeted, Habou said. A third witness said as many as 70 people, including his brother and six relatives, died when Russians and Africans attacked the mine where he was working in March. “I had to run for seven days. I saw them coming … to kill and rob everybody their hands could reach,” said Adam Zakaria, 36, from Neyala in South Darfur. He described the Wagner group as white people wearing grey military uniforms, travelling in pickup trucks, armoured vehicles and helicopters. “When we fled their attacks initially, we thought we were safe, but suddenly on our way they trapped us and started beating us, and near to Am Daga they laid another trap where they killed 21 people. We had to bury them in one big grave,” Zakaria said. Since arriving in CAR four years ago to defend the government against rebels, the Wagner Group has made efforts to establish control over the flow of gold and diamonds. Analysts believe the group was initially promised gold and other mining concessions in place of cash payments for its services. Such concessions have gained in importance as the rouble has come under pressure since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Precious metals, especially gold, could help Vladimir Putin’s regime survive the economic impact of sanctions. Analysts said recent attacks appeared to be more like raids for plunder rather than efforts to secure and extract resources over months or years. “There are regular reports of attackers arriving by helicopter, killing artisanal goldminers and rebels … [then] taking everything they can and then leaving. Sometimes they come back again a month or so later and do the same thing. It is nothing to do with securing a mining site,” said Pauline Bax, the deputy Africa director of the International Crisis Group. Wagner has also been blamed for attacks on goldminers elsewhere in CAR, and there are reports of recent incursions across the porous frontier between CAR and Sudan as fighters identified as from Wagner pursue fleeing miners. Wagner has been active in a dozen countries across Africa, and has been repeatedly accused of human rights abuses on the continent. Western officials allege the Kremlin is using Wagner to advance Russian economic and political interests across Africa and elsewhere. Sorcha MacLeod, the chair of the United Nations working group on the use of mercenaries, said the presence of groups such as Wagner prolonged conflicts, led to higher levels of violence and often brought widespread human rights abuses. “Wagner is doubling down in the Sahel and is not going away any time soon,” she said. In a report in May, Human Rights Watch said forces in CAR whom witnesses identified as Russian appeared to have beaten, tortured and killed civilians there since 2019. It said Russia-linked forces in CAR did not wear a designated uniform with official insignia or other distinguishing features. On 15 April the UN announced it would investigate the circumstances in which at least 10 people were killed in north-east CAR, with some initial reports alleging Russian forces may have been involved. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and close ally of Putin, has been accused by the US, EU and others of financing Wagner. The Guardian approached Prigozhin seeking his reaction to evidence implicating Wagner fighters in massacres in Mali earlier this year. In response he said he had “repeatedly said that the Wagner Group does not exist” and that he had “nothing to do with it”, adding that “a dying-out western civilisation” would be defeated by Russia. CAR’s former prime minister Henri-Marie Dondra has said there is no contract between his country and “a Russian private security company … only a military cooperation agreement with Russia”. A leaked November 2021 EU report on CAR said: “Today, most [national army] units are operating under direct command or supervision by WG [Wagner Group] mercenaries.” CAR is one of the poorest countries in the world, and is facing economic collapse. About 1,200 Wagner fighters are thought to be deployed there. © 2022 The Guardian

“Ten years is a monstrous term. They sentence people to less for murder,” the partner of one protester said. Police officers detain a man during a protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine in central Moscow on March 13. AFP via Getty Images file By Shira Pinson and Yuliya Talmazan Swapping out price tags for antiwar leaflets, wearing green ribbons, flashing a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” Those are things that can get ordinary Russians who don’t agree with the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine detained, fined or even jailed. Since the start of Moscow’s incursion, media in Russia have been cautioned against calling it a “war,” and new draconian legislation has been put in place to stop people from “discrediting” the Russian army, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. That has meant the few Russians who still dare speak up against the war have gotten inventive to escape arrest. But it’s far from guaranteed. Artist and musician Alexandra Skochilenko, from St. Petersburg, has been in detention for nearly two months after replacing several price tags at a local supermarket with small pieces of paper containing messages about the Russian army’s actions in Ukraine. One of them read: “The Russian army bombed an art school in Mariupol. About 400 people hid in it from shelling.” Another said: “Putin has been lying to us from TV screens for 20 years. The result of this lie is our willingness to justify war and senseless deaths.” Skochilenko’s lawyer, Yana Nepovinnova, told NBC News that Skochilenko's act of protest was caught by a customer, who raised a complaint. Skochilenko, 31, is now facing criminal charges of spreading “deliberately false information” about the Russian army and could face up to 10 years in prison, Nepovinnova said. Skochilenko has admitted to swapping the price tags, but she denies that she was spreading false information, according to her lawyer. Her detention has been extended until at least July 1. “I feel like they came into our home and took my family away because of some price tags,” Sofia Subbotina, Skochilenko’s partner, said on the phone from St. Petersburg, sounding dejected. “Ten years is a monstrous term. They sentence people to less for murder.” Nepovinnova said she fears Skochilenko’s case will be used to send a “clear message” to others who dare speak up that they will face the same fate. “She is essentially behind bars for her words,” Nepovinnova said. During the decades of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on dissent, political protest in Russia has become nearly obliterated. Still, in the first days of the war, thousands of Russians took to the streets to voice their opposition. But that has largely fizzled out amid police violence, mass arrests and the Kremlin propaganda insisting most Russians support Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. What continues are the one-person protests of all shapes and forms to get one message across: There are people in Russia who do not agree with the war. Another St. Petersburg resident, Artur Dmitriev, said he was detained in early April for holding up a sign that read: “The war has brought so much grief that it is impossible to forget. There is no forgiveness for those who are making aggressive plans again.” This anti-war message was, in fact, an abbreviated direct quote from a speech made by Putin last year on the day Russia celebrates victory over Nazi Germany. This made no difference to the authorities. After spending 24 hours in detention, Dmitriev, 43, said he had a court hearing and was found guilty of “discrediting Russian armed forces,” according to the court papers he showed NBC News, under the newly enacted legislation. He said he was fined 30,000 rubles, or $520. Holding up his court papers in a Zoom video, Dmitriev said his guilty verdict proves the absurdity of the system that detained and fined him for using Putin’s own words. He said he even sent a snarky email to the president’s press office, asking the Russian leader to split the fine since they were now “accomplices.” The office responded but essentially ignored his request, Dmitriev said. He admitted he was afraid throughout the ordeal and even more so now that he’s on law enforcement’s radar. But he said it’s important to speak up. “It’s obvious where we are headed. It’s classical Orwell,” Dmitriev said. “If you are standing aside, you are only making it worse. But if you do this, you are letting people know that they are not alone.” Making sure others don’t feel isolated is also close to Mikhail Podivilov’s heart. That’s why the IT specialist stood with his bank card above his head at a Moscow metro station one evening in late March, hoping others would take notice,he said. Written on his card was the word “Mir,” or “peace,” in Russian. (“Mir” is the name of a payment system used by Russian banks, and many bank cards feature it prominently.) Within five minutes, he was being questioned by police, Podivilov, 22, said. Speaking with NBC News via Zoom from his home in the suburban town of Ozyory in the Moscow region, Podivilov said the police officers wrangled with him for nearly an hour, trying to get him to move. He refused and all the while stood there with his card above his head, his feet and hands freezing on a chilly Moscow evening, Podivilov said. In the end, they let him go. Podivilov said he was surprised to just walk away. But despite the fear of arrest, he said he does not have “a moral right to be afraid.” “In Ukraine, that’s where people can be afraid,” Podivilov added, with no hesitation in his voice. “The maximum that can happen to me is I will get jailed.” OVD-Info, an independent Russian organization that tracks political persecution and freedom of assembly violations, maintains a long tally of names and acts of Russians who have stood up against the war, including by displaying the blue-and-yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag, standing with a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” in Red Square, holding up banners with nothing but eight asterisks (corresponding to the letters in the slogan “No to war” in Russian), and even wearing green ribbons, which have become a symbol of opposition to the war. It estimated that as of early June, more than 16,000 people had been detained over anti-war protests. It said there are nearly 2,400 court cases underway for allegedly “discrediting” Russian armed forces under the newly enacted legislation, and that it’s aware of at least 170 suspects facing criminal charges related to speaking out against the war. But for the millions of others who remain silent, the fear is too much to bear, said artist and activist Eugene, who said he did not feel safe revealing his last name. Eugene, 31, offers an opportunity to those who want a chance to say something against the war to do so anonymously. Since March 20, he has been running an Instagram account called Malenkiy Piket, or Little Protest in Russian. It’s meant to be a safe space where people can send in photos of small figurines, perhaps a representation of themselves, made out of plasticine or Legos, that are holding up peace messages. The figurines are discreetly placed around people’s towns and cities, or, if it feels too dangerous, in the safety of their homes. The account’s feed is full of colorful photos of figurines, often dressed in Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow colors and placed against city monuments, benches, riverbanks or people’s kitchen tables, with signs reading, “No to war,” “Ukrainians forgive us,” and “Why?” Their might goes beyond their size, emblematic of how much space is left for freedom of expression in Russia. For Eugene, it allows ordinary Russians who, over the decades of Putin’s rule, have lost the ability for political thinking to “exercise their political bodies,” he said, speaking via Zoom from his dimly lit St. Petersburg flat. Malenkiy Picket is like a training ground for what it’s like to still speak up when fear is omnipresent, he added. Eugene said he knows he is risking his freedom by running an account that gives people a platform to speak up, even if it’s in the most discreet of ways. “Some days I’m scared; others, I’m not,” he said. Aware of the risks, he said he made sure Malenkiy Piket would keep running and posting, even if he was detained. He said he believes things in Russia are about to get a lot darker before they can get better, but he is not planning to give up fighting for freedom of expression and against the war. “Even if tomorrow is the end of the world, I should still try to do something,” he said with a smile. © 2022 NBC UNIVERSAL

Join us for a live conversation with Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention, Dr Gregory H Stanton, as we discuss major flashpoints in the world today from India to Ukraine, Israel and China and his thoughts on whether any of these run risks of genocide. (click to view the interview) Stanton is the founding president and chairman of Genocide Watch. From 2010 to 2019, he was a research professor in genocide studies and prevention at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Virginia, USA. Prior to that, he was the James Farmer Professor in Human Rights at the University of Mary Washington.

By Patrick Wintour Yazidi Justice Committee has been working privately for more than two years to show states failed to protect minority group An aerial view of mourners carrying coffins during a funeral for Yazidis found in a mass grave in the village of Kojo, northern Iraq, last December. Photograph: Zaid Al-Obeidi/AFP/Getty Images A group of high-level British lawyers have been working privately on compiling evidence to show that one or more countries failed in their international obligations to prevent genocide against the Yazidis in northern Iraq. The lawyers, who formally announced their collaboration as the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC) on Tuesday, have been working over the past two and a half years to investigate the genocide committed from early 2013 by Islamic State. The group includes five international human rights organisations and is chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, formerly a lead prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Its lead patrons are the peers Helena Kennedy QC and David Alton. The YJC is expected to name three countries in a report next month when the work is complete. It would be one of the first times that states have faced the risk of proceedings being instituted against them for failing to prevent genocide, and could open up a new form of human rights accountability. The YJC lawyers, working pro bono, have examined evidence that as many as 10 countries could be deemed responsible for the failure to prevent genocide under the UN’s Genocide Convention, and could be brought before a court of law. The aim is to bring those states before the international court of justice (ICJ), a step that would require another country to take action. If the case was successful, the respondent states might be required to pay reparations to the victims of genocide. Under article 1 of the 73-year-old convention, states have a responsibility to prevent, prosecute and punish the crime of genocide. There has been virtually no accountability for the Yazidi genocide except for a prosecution in Germany last November of a single Islamic State fighter who was found guilty of genocide over the death of a five-year-old Yazidi girl he bought as a slave in 2015. The Frankfurt trial was based on the principle of universal jurisdiction to address crimes under international law that were committed abroad by a perpetrator who is not a German citizen and who was only extradited to Germany on the basis of an international arrest warrant. The YJC says there is evidence the genocide is still taking place, and that Yazidis remain in an extremely precarious position in Iraq and Syria largely as a result of the recent resurgence of Islamic State, Turkish drone strikes and an overall sense of neglect by the Iraqis. It is widely acknowledged that more than 5,000 Yazidis have been killed and more than 400,000 displaced from their homes. To date, at least 2,800 Yazidi women and children are still being held captive by Islamic State or remain missing. Aarif Abraham, an international human rights barrister and co-founder of the YJC, said the report would be the first to consider the issue of state responsibility in relation to the Yazidi genocide. He said: “It will serve to put states on notice of their binding obligations to prevent genocide through using all means reasonably available.” © 2022 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Link to Article: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jun/21/uk-lawyers-yazidi-justice-committee-genocide-iraq

By Medha Bhagwat General Jo Kyong-chol has also previously assisted the Supreme Leader in consolidating his powers when his father and predecessor Kim Jong-il died in 2011. (Source: Twitter) North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un has promoted a feared general Jo Kyong-chol to the country's most powerful decision-making body, the Central Military Commission (CMC). Known as the "Angel of Death", Kyong-chol was the mastermind who oversaw the purging and execution of senior officials which also included Kim's uncle Jang Song-thaek in 2013. The "shadowy" general is believed to be one of the most important officials of Kim as he assisted the North Korean leader in consolidating his power after his father and the previous leader Kim Jong-il passed away in 2011. According to Michael Madden, a fellow of The Stimson Center in Washington DC and the sole author and editor of the website North Korea Leadership Watch, the appointment of Kyong-chol to the CMC is a huge indication that Kim is 'tightening control'. Commenting on the general's new duties and responsibilities, Madden is of the opinion that Kyong-chol will be in charge of imprisoning and executing North Korean elites in the military and the ruling party WPK. The prison in authoritarian nation, in words of Madden is a place from where individuals do not emerge alive. "When we talk about prison for North Korean elites, we are talking about places where there is no natural light and if you go into one you do not leave there alive," he said. In case of executions, it varies according to the situation. Most common is the one where the "disobedient malcontent" is shot three times by members of the firing squad. Another method includes being restrained to the ground as a military tank is run over them, The Mirror reported. Madden however, believes that this decision of Kim can also be understood as a "warning" to the top executives of all ranks and stations to shape up because the CMC exercises monitoring and investigative authority over civilian officials in the party as well as the state. "This indicates Kim Jong-un tightening control. There could be a matter of he and General Jo cracking down on certain cohorts in the military," he added. This announcement comes as North Korea appears to be preparing to launch its seventh nuclear test in a show of force against its neighbor in the South and the United States. © 2022 IBTimes Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Washington, DC (June 16, 2022) – A Muslim activist whose house was illegally demolished by the Uttar Pradesh government over the weekend has slammed the authorities, saying they razed her home to “punish, humiliate, and harass” her family for being active Muslims. “It is an alarming trend that… law enforcement, the government, and development authorities arbitrarily, unjustly, illegally, and lawlessly demolish Muslims households. They also punish and incarcerate Muslims for no crime at all,” Afreen Fatima, the activist, said at an online Congressional Briefing organized by 18 US-based civil rights organizations on Wednesday. “This [demolition] was just a way to punish my father for being an active local member of the Muslim community,” she added. The police in Prayagraj city, where Fatima lives, first detained her parents and a sister on June 12. Subsequently, district authorities razed their home even as television cameras rolled on. Earlier, on Friday, June 11, the city’s Muslims had marched to protest BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s hateful and blasphemous comments about Islam and Prophet Muhammad last month. Without offering any evidence, the district authorities blamed Fatima’s father, Javed, claiming he masterminded Friday’s violence. The BJP has since expelled Sharma but the police have failed to arrest her under Indian law. At the same time, Muslims across India who continue to call for Sharma’s arrest have been subjected to police brutality, unlawful arrests, and having their homes razed to the ground by Hindu extremist authorities. In Fatima’s case, her father, diabetic mother, and younger sister were all detained after the police scapegoated her father as being the mastermind behind the Pragyaraj protests. “There was no warrant when [my father] was taken away,” said Fatima, a student leader and vocal critic of the BJP. She was at the forefront of the protests called nationwide in 2019 to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests that introduced, for the first time, a religious test in citizenship laws. “The detention of my mother and my sister was illegal because in order to detain females for any inquiry or any investigation, the police first had to get a certain permission from the Magistrate, which was never done.” Fatima emphasized that the family had been paying all of their taxes and utility bills, and had never received any notice that their home was illegally constructed. “There is collective punishment to the entire Muslim community which says that you cannot speak up… I urge everyone to not just speak up about this, but to hold authorities and law enforcement and governments accountable for the arbitrary and lawless power that they exercise over Muslim bodies, Muslim houses, and Muslim lives.” Govind Acharya, India/Kashmir specialist at Amnesty International, said that the Modi government is, “selectively and viciously cracking down on Muslims who dare to speak up and peacefully express their dissent against the discrimination faced by them… which is in complete violation of India’s commitments under international human rights law.” “We at Amnesty are calling on Indian authorities to immediately put an end to the excessive use of force in response to large scale protests in the country… We also call for the immediate release of those who have been arbitrarily arrested solely for peacefully exercising the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, which are guaranteed by India’s constitution,” said Acharya. “This is not just affecting activists. You do not need to be a vocal Muslim to have a target placed on your back,” said Amin Zama, Associate Director for the Indian American Muslim Council, an advocacy organization dedicated to upholding civil and human rights in India. “The BJP have proved this by demolishing the homes of poor Muslims in Delhi, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh with only the flimsiest evidence connecting them to riots or illegal construction. This is clearly another step towards the genocide of 220 million Muslims, and India is drawing closer to it by the day.” According to Ria Chakrabarty, Policy Director at Hindus for Human Rights, a nonprofit, India seemed to be, “taking notes from the Israeli hard right and pursuing a similar strategy to create an ethnonationalist apartheid state, where religious and cultural minorities live a separate and unequal existence.” “The US government should use its human rights toolbox, especially through the International Religious Freedom Act, to punish individuals who have clearly persecuted India’s religious and cultural minorities,” Chakrabarty said. The briefing was co-sponsored by Genocide Watch, World Without Genocide, Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, International Christian Concern, Jubilee Campaign, 21Wilberforce, Dalit Solidarity Forum, New York State Council of Churches, International Commission on Dalit Rights, Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America, India Civil Watch International, Center for Pluralism, American Muslim Institution, Students Against Hindutva Ideology, International Society for Peace and Justice, The Humanism Project and Association of Indian Muslims of America. Link to the press release: https://iamc.com/demolition-of-muslim-homes-is-illegal-collective-punishment-says-muslim-activist-afreen-fatima/ © 2021 Indian American Muslim Council

Tigray forces ride in a truck after taking control of Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The leader of the Oromo Liberation Army armed group says his group has struck a military alliance with the Tigray forces. (AP Photo, File) NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Witnesses in Ethiopia said Sunday that more than 200 people, mostly ethnic Amhara, have been killed in an attack in the country’s Oromia region and are blaming a rebel group, which denies it. It is one of the deadliest such attacks in recent memory as ethnic tensions continue in Africa’s second most populous country. “I have counted 230 bodies. I am afraid this is the deadliest attack against civilians we have seen in our lifetime,” Abdul-Seid Tahir, a resident of Gimbi county, told The Associated Press after barely escaping the attack on Saturday. “We are burying them in mass graves, and we are still collecting bodies. Federal army units have now arrived, but we fear that the attacks could continue if they leave.” Another witness, who gave only his first name, Shambel over fears for his safety, said the local Amhara community is now desperately seeking to be relocated somewhere else “before another round of mass killings happen.” He said ethnic Amhara that settled in the area about 30 years ago in resettlement programs are now being “killed like chickens.” Both witnesses blamed the Oromo Liberation Army for the attacks. In a statement, the Oromia regional government also blamed the OLA, saying the rebels attacked “after being unable to resist the operations launched by (federal) security forces.” An OLA spokesman, Odaa Tarbii, denied the allegations. “The attack you are referring to was committed by the regime’s military and local militia as they retreated from their camp in Gimbi following our recent offensive,” he said in a message to the AP. “They escaped to an area called Tole, where they attacked the local population and destroyed their property as retaliation for their perceived support for the OLA. Our fighters had not even reached that area when the attacks took place.” Ethiopia is experiencing widespread ethnic tensions in several regions, most of them over historical grievances and political tensions. The Amhara people, the second-largest ethnic group among Ethiopia’s more than 110 million population, have been targeted frequently in regions like Oromia. The government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission on Sunday called on the federal government find a “lasting solution” to the killing of civilians and protect them from such attacks. All contents © copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Human Rights Watch June 7, 2022 End Indefinite Detention, Stop Boat Pushbacks Thai authorities detain 59 ethnic Rohingya found stranded on an island off the coast of Satun province, Thailand.© 2022 Thai Naval Area Command 3 (Bangkok) – The Thai government should provide recently rescued Rohingya asylum seekers with assistance and immediate access to procedures to determine their refugee status, Human Rights Watch said today. On June 4, 2022, the Thai navy found 59 Rohingya – 31 men, 23 women, and 5 children – from Myanmar stranded on Koh Dong Island near Satun province in southern Thailand. The navy took them ashore and detained them at the 436 Border Patrol Police unit. Thai officials who questioned them said these Rohingya were abandoned by smugglers, who charged them about 60,000 Thai baht (US$1,750) per person for a journey to Malaysia. “The Thai government should end its policy of summarily locking up rescued Rohingya people and throwing away the key,” said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Thailand should permit the United Nations refugee agency to screen all Rohingya arriving in Thailand to identify and assist those seeking refugee status.” To protect Rohingya asylum seekers, it is crucial for the Thai government to permit the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to conduct refugee status determination interviews, Human Rights Watch said. Like its predecessors, the Thai government of Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha has treated Rohingya arriving at the border as “illegal immigrants,” detaining them in squalid lockups. According to one Western embassy in Bangkok, Thai officials are holding more than 470 Rohingya in indefinite immigration detention with no access to refugee status determination procedures. Thai authorities have not permitted UNHCR to conduct refugee status determinations for them. Thailand also discriminates against Rohingya by refusing to allow them to register as legally documented migrant workers, unlike other people coming from Myanmar. Meanwhile, the Thai navy announced that it will maintain a policy to intercept Rohingya boats that come too close to the coast. After providing them with fuel, food, water, and other supplies, the navy will push those boats pushed onward to Malaysia or Indonesia. This amounts to a continuation of Thailand’s deadly pushback policy, which has resulted in Rohingya boats going missing on the high seas and people dying, Human Rights Watch said. The Thai navy further stated that any boat that somehow lands on Thai shores will be seized, and immigration officials will arrest the men, women, and children aboard on illegal entry charges and detain them. Thai authorities have, for years, said they do not want to accept Rohingya as refugees. However, under international law, Thailand cannot summarily reject at the border the claims of asylum seekers fleeing persecution. Thailand is obligated not to return them before providing a full and fair assessment of their claims for international protection, Human Rights Watch said. The Myanmar government and military have long persecuted the Rohingya, members of a Muslim ethnic minority group who have lived in Myanmar’s Rakhine State for generations, driving them to flee repression and dire poverty. The situation has significantly worsened since August 2017, when the Myanmar military committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya. Given the lack of security and overcrowded, unsanitary and dangerous camp conditions where many Rohingya are forced to live in Bangladesh, many have risked harsh weather conditions on the Andaman Sea to embark on dangerous journeys to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, often falling prey to human trafficking gangs. “The Thai government should help the oppressed Rohingya, not worsen their suffering,” Pearson said. “The Thai government should immediately allow them access to desperately needed protection.” Copyright 2022 @ Human Rights Watch Resource Thailand urged to let UN evaluate refugee status of Rohingya Thailand told to end Rohingya detentions, boat pushbacks Thailand: Let UN Refugee Agency Screen Rohingya How the Rohingya crisis came to Thailand Thailand’s refusal to recognise Rohingya as refugees leaves them in illegal limbo

In Burkina Faso, UN humanitarians on Friday appealed to the international community for help, after attacks by armed groups forced thousands to flee their homes in the east of the country. © CIAUD/Abdoulaye Seydou Amadou. Hundreds of Burkinabe fleeing the massacre in Seytenga have found safety across the border in Niger. According to an alert from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, almost 16,000 mostly women and children, have been displaced to Dori, after gunmen killed at least 79 people in the town of Seytenga, which is close to the border with Niger. Door-to-door Killers “The new arrivals in Dori gave accounts of armed men going door-to-door to seek out and kill adult males, meaning that many witnessed the deaths of their husbands or fathers,” said UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh. “Almost two-thirds of those who fled Seytenga are under 18.” Today, hundreds of people who fled the attackers have no option but to sleep rough on the roadside until shelter is found, the UNHCR official told journalists in Geneva. Many others have been taken in by host and displaced families already in Dori, while others have found space in refugee reception and transit centres. More Burkinabe are expected to arrive in Dori in the coming days, while some 15,500 have sought shelter across the border in Niger’s Tillabéri region, where resources are already scant. Ongoing Mass Displacement Burkina Faso’s displacement crisis is one of the world’s fastest growing humanitarian emergencies. The number of internally displaced people reached 1.9 million at the end of April, UNHCR said, citing government figures. Urgent Needs Addressed With the Burkinabe authorities, UNHCR and partners have offered help to meet the most urgent needs. These include providing shelter and essential items, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene services (WASH) and psychosocial support. But non-State armed groups have attacked water supplies and infrastructure in the country, including a recent attack on the main water supply to Dori, and WASH needs could rise rapidly, UNHCR warned. To help those families sleeping rough, UN humanitarians have helped regional authorities to relocate them to three existing displacement sites in Dori. Additional plots have been identified to host potential future arrivals, too. “UNHCR and partners are preparing to bolster supplies of emergency shelters and core relief items, including sleeping mats, soap and cooking utensils, for more than 1,000 families,” Mr. Saltmarsh explained. Shrinking Space He noted that the town of Dori has grown threefold and is now home to almost 76,000 displaced Burkinabe, as well as some 20,000 refugees from Mali. Although efforts have been made to provide State education and healthcare to the new arrivals, the UN agency warned that competition for resources – water and land for pasture and agriculture, plus rising inflation and fuel shortages - “are all testing peaceful coexistence between different communities”. Other countries in the Sahel – Chad, Mali and Niger – also face a combination of violence, poverty and the effects of climate change. More than 2.5 million people have fled their homes in the Sahel region over the past decade. To date, the $591 million humanitarian appeal for Burkina Faso is only 15 per cent funded. © 2022 UN News

By Kari Soo Lindberg Veteran attorneys leave city in wake of national security law. Beijing says legislation has restored stability in finance hub. Riot police charge and attempt to detain demonstrators during a protest in Hong Kong, in Jan. 2020.Photographer: Kyle Lam/Bloomberg Veteran human rights lawyer Michael Vidler decided it was too dangerous to work in Hong Kong the moment a judge designated to handle national security law cases implied offering legal support to democracy activists could be a crime. Judge Stanley Chan cited a contact card naming two law firms, including Vidler’s, as evidence of how organized the 2019 anti-government camp was in his judgment for an unlawful assembly conviction earlier this year. As to whether the lawyers named were “accomplices” to that crime, Chan said he couldn’t comment. “It was deeply disturbing for me as a lawyer to be, in essence, accused of inciting a crime because a potential client had a piece of paper on him which listed my firm as a source of legal advice and assistance,” said Vidler, who previously defended now-jailed democracy activist Joshua Wong and won a landmark appeal that recognized spousal visas for same sex couples. “There was no longer space for my firm to continue its public interest litigation work,” he added, “without an increasing risk of serious adverse consequences for my team and myself.” Vidler left Hong Kong in May after almost two decades working in the former British colony, and closed his law firm shortly after. His experience reflects growing concern that Hong Kong’s rule of law, for decades a foundational pillar of its standing as an international financial center, is becoming more influenced by the mainland where the Communist Party controls the courts. A government spokesperson said Hong Kong’s rule of law remained “solid and robust” after the security legislation Beijing imposed on the city in June 2020, crediting it for restoring a “peaceful and stable environment.” The spokesman said Chan made his comments outside the context of a national security law case, and denied that he suggested a lawyer could be criminally liable for simply providing legal services. Authorities have ramped up pressure on lawyers who’ve defended some of the 10,000 protesters arrested during the 2019 unrest. Prominent barrister Margaret Ng was arrested over her work with a fund providing financial aid to activists, with police reporting other lawyers to their professional bodies for misconduct unearthed in that investigation. She has denied the charges and a court hearing is set for Sept. 19. Former Hong Kong Bar Association chief and human rights lawyer Paul Harris left the city in March after being questioned by national security police. “Any degradation of Hong Kong’s strong rule-of-law tradition by hollowing out rule-of-law-related institutions will not be favorable to the security of international investments and finance,” said Michael Davis, a professor of law and international affairs at O.P. Jindal Global University in India, and former law professor at the University of Hong Kong. “Presumably, investors who carry on despite these growing limitations will demand a higher premium on their investments as associated with higher risks.” The changes strike at a central pillar of China’s 50-year promise to maintain Hong Kong’s liberal institutions and capitalist markets until at least 2047 under a framework called “one country, two systems.” The city will celebrate the halfway mark of that guarantee on July 1, in a ceremony that could be attended by President Xi Jinping. Lawyers in Hong Kong are operating in an environment where many are debating whether even recognizing the accomplishments of the accused could run afoul of the security law. The stakes are high, since authorities haven’t dropped charges against any of the at least 114 people so far prosecuted as part of national security cases. Keith Richburg, head of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, said the board suspended its longstanding Human Rights Press Awards earlier this year after lawyers advised him the police would probably investigate the organization for “aiding, promoting or celebrating sedition,” according to a recording of a meeting with local journalists to explain the decision. The winners included Stand News, which shut down in December after police arrested seven people connected to the publication on a colonial-era sedition law. “You won’t get a fair hearing before an NSL judge,” Richburg said a lawyer told him, referring to the national security law. “How many people arrested on the sedition or national security law have gotten off?” he added. “You think they’re getting a fair trial in Hong Kong and China? Arresting people means that you’re guilty.” Richburg declined to comment further. Human Rights Reporting The Society of Publishers in Asia, which is also based in Hong Kong, last week gave out a human rights reporting award to Chinese-language publication Ming Pao for a series on the legal risks involved in commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. It’s unclear if Stand News submitted entries for the SOPA awards. SOPA didn’t respond to questions. Bloomberg is currently represented on the board the FCCHK, and the editorial committee of SOPA. The national security law altered Hong Kong’s legal system in several ways: It enabled the city’s leader to choose which judges in the special administrative region can handle security law cases, diminishing the impartiality and independence of the judiciary, and allowed certain cases to be tried across the border, in vaguely defined circumstances -- a power yet to be exercised. Perhaps most significantly, it changed the rules for bail by removing the presumption of innocence, a precedent that’s seen scores of defendants jailed for more than a year without a trial and has since been expanded to other crimes with a security element. So far, all four security law cases that have come to trial have resulted in guilty verdicts, with the sole defendant who fought charges denied a reduction in sentence in part because he chose not to plead guilty. Those outcomes have likely put defendants off trying to clear their names, said one senior lawyer, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject matter. These changes have already impacted Hong Kong’s international reputation. Two British judges withdrew from the city’s Court of Final Appeal earlier this year, after the UK government said their roles risked “legitimizing oppression,” while seven US lawmakers have called on President Joe Biden to sanction judges and prosecutors handling national security cases for enabling Beijing’s crackdown on freedoms. Hong Kong’s global ranking on the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index fell three spots to 19th out of 139 countries surveyed in 2021, after holding the No. 16 rank for the past four years, with a decrease in legal accountability for government officials one of the biggest factors for the drop. The city’s legal system still ranks the fifth highest in the region. Officials used a symposium organized by Hong Kong’s Justice Department last month to defend the city’s legal system, with China’s top local diplomat, Liu Guangyuan, arguing that “countries that claim to promote democracy” were the ones undermining the rule of law around the world by interfering in the affairs of others. “Hong Kong boasts an independent judiciary and fundamental rights and freedoms fully protected under the Basic Law,” Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s outgoing chief executive, told the event. “That is why Hong Kong is often the preferred choice for multinational cooperation when it comes to legal and dispute resolution services.” Two-Track System Despite fears for the legal protection of civil liberties, four lawyers who either currently practice or recently worked in Hong Kong said there appears to be an expectation in the business community that other areas of law won’t be eroded, which they considered to be misguided. All four spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Commercial law won’t be interfered with because that’s one of the pillars of Hong Kong being an international center for business, trade, and finance,” said George Cautherley, vice chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce in the city. Maintaining that reputation will be crucial to Hong Kong’s stated goal of expanding the city as an international center for legal and arbitration services. Thomas Kellogg, the executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, cautioned that mainland China’s system showed such a bifurcation between public law -- which governs relations between people and a government -- and private law that manages contracts is “difficult.” China ranked 98th globally in the World Justice Project’s index last year, due to a lack of governmental institutions subject to checks and balances, among other things. The situation in Hong Kong is becoming “all too reminiscent” of the Xi-era crackdown on rights lawyers in China,” Kellogg said, referencing the “709 crackdown” that saw some 300 human rights lawyers arrested in 2015. Many are still imprisoned, while others lost their licenses. “The pressure being put on lawyers who take security cases makes it even harder for lawyers to step forward,” Kellogg said. “I worry such cases will only handled by pro-Beijing lawyers, who will press their clients to cut a deal with the prosecution, even if they have strong human rights claims they could make in a defense.” ©2022 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved

By Marc DAOU With international attention focused on the war in Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be in a good geopolitical position to launch a new military operation against the Kurds in northern Syria. Despite US warnings, Erdogan has threatened an offensive on two strategic Syrian towns near Turkey’s southern border. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech on the final day of military exercises in Izmir, Turkey on June 9, 2022.© Murat Cetinmuhurdar/PPO/Reuters Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again started threatening a new military operation in northern Syria in a bid to create his much-wanted buffer zone along the Turkey-Syria border. Erdogan’s plan, which he was forced to shelve last year, has resurfaced in recent weeks as Ankara has calculated that the war in Ukraine has turned the geostrategic tide in Turkey’s favour. "We are meticulously working on new operations to fill the gaps in our security line on our southern borders," Erdogan told lawmakers of his AKP party earlier this month. "We will clean up Tel Rifaat and Manbij," two towns west of the Euphrates River, he said before promising to proceed "step by step” in other regions. Erdogan’s sights are once again trained at territories controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Supported and armed by the US military, the YPG formed the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Arab-Kurdish alliance that fought the Islamic State (IS) group in the US-led international coalition against the jihadist group. Turkey, however, views the YPG and its parent Kurdish political party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as "terrorists". Ankara claims the YPG and the PYD have links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the EU. Replacing the Kurds with ‘Arab populations’ "Erdogan's threats against the Kurds should always be taken seriously," warned Fabrice Balanche, a professor at the University of Lyon-II and research associate at the Washington Institute. Officially, Erdogan’s stated objective is to eliminate the PKK, but in reality, Ankara has the Kurdish presence in northern Syria in its sights. In the immediate aftermath of the Arab Spring, Syria’s Kurdish minority had a de facto embryonic state in the north and northeast of the country as the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad weakened the Damascus regime. In 2016, the Kurds of Syria established the autonomous federal zone of Rojava in areas abandoned by Assad’s forces in what some experts believe was a bid by Damascus to deter the Kurds from joining the ranks of the rebellion. Ankara, however, rejects the slightest hint of Kurdish autonomy near its borders, perceiving it as a threat to Turkey’s territorial integrity amid fears that military bases and training camps in Kurdish hands will eventually benefit the PKK. Erdogan therefore wants to create a 480 kilometre-long and 30 kilometre-wide buffer zone between Turkey’s southern border and the Syrian territories east of the Euphrates River. Since the start of the conflict in Syria, Ankara has displayed “complete opposition” to an autonomous Syrian-Kurdish presence south of its border, said Balanche, and has launched several offensives in the region. “The objective has not changed: to replace the Kurds by Arab populations displaced by the conflict and by local pro-Turkish militias loyal to Ankara’s interests in order to constitute an Arab belt, a sort of anti-Kurdish buffer zone, in northern Syria,” he said. "Eventually, given that the Turks have already created the Syrian National Army (SNA), which includes Islamist militias and has about 70,000 men, the territories taken from the Kurds could become a self-proclaimed Republic of Northern Syria, like the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” said Balanche. The Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, following a Turkish invasion, between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). While the Republic of Cyprus is an EU member, the TRNC – which was self-proclaimed in 1983 – is recognised only by Ankara and not the rest of the international community. A ‘winning’ calculation Since 2016, Erdogan has launched a number of military operations in northern Syria, including a March 2018 offensive that enabled his troops and their Syrian Islamist fighters to seize control of the northern Afrin district. The Kurdish forces that lost Afrin retreated further south to Tel Rifaat. During Turkey’s last military offensive, in October 2019, Turkish forces targeted the border towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad further east, disconnecting Kurdish-held areas and displacing tens of thousands of people. The threat of a new offensive comes as international attention is focused on the war in Ukraine, presenting Turkey with a geopolitical opportunity that Erdogan does not want to pass. "Calculating that this is the right time to go on the offensive again in Syria, Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to take advantage of the situation since the West is focused on the war in Ukraine and on Russia, which is at the heart of their concerns,” explained Balanche. “In a way, he is asking the West what is their priority: to thwart the Kremlin's plans in Europe or to support the PKK? Presented like that, his calculation is not a losing one." In a June 9 speech delivered in the western Turkish province of Izmir on the final day of military exercises, Erdogan stressed that, “We hope none of our true allies will oppose our legitimate concerns". "Erdogan's calculation could well be a winning one,” said Balanche, noting that the Turks, “with their aerial and technological superiority, managed to drive YPG forces in just three months from Afrin, located in a mountainous stronghold that the Kurds thought they could never lose.” A year later, Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad were taken in a single month. "The Turks could have even gone further were it not for Russian mediation and a ceasefire," explained Balanche. “If Recep Tayyip Erdogan decides to launch an offensive against Kobane or Manbij, where the population is 85 percent Arab, he could easily manage the same results." US warnings, Russia’s tacit agreement By all accounts, it appears that nothing can stop the Turkish president from achieving his goals in northern Syria – despite US warnings. On June 1, at a joint press conference in Washington with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that, “any escalation there in northern Syria is something that we would oppose, and we support the maintenance of the current ceasefire lines. The concern that we have is that any new offensive would undermine regional stability.” But Balanche is not sure Washington’s warnings will stop Turkey. “The Americans have protested and will protest even more if Turkey takes action against the Kurds they have promised to protect. But they do not have the means to prevent it," he said. The Biden administration can place sanctions against Ankara, but Turkey holds too many geostrategic cards, including a veto power on a NATO membership bid by Sweden and Finland. Like the US, neither the Iranians, nor the Assad regime, nor its Russian sponsors are keen to see the Turks take over parts of Syrian territory. "The Iranians have set red lines, namely not to touch Shiite areas, nor Aleppo, while Assad’s army is not able to oppose the Turkish military machine,” noted Balanche. While Russia has said a Turkish operation in northern Syria would be “unwise”, Moscow is not categorically opposed to Erdogan’s plan since the Kurds have refused to return under the Assad regime’s control – and therefore under Russian protection. And at a time when Russia is facing serious pressure from the West, Moscow is not inclined to sabotage its cordial relations with Turkey, a loose cannon in the NATO fold. During his visit to Ankara on June 8, Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was very understanding of what he called Turkish "concerns" even as Moscow called on Ankara to “refrain from actions that could lead to a dangerous deterioration” of the situation in Syria. For their part the Kurds, who were abandoned by Donald Trump in December 2018, once again find themselves with their backs against the wall. "They are quite resigned, and no longer believe in the political project of autonomy. The Turkish offensive of 2019 dampened their hopes, since they saw their Western allies, despite their promises, did nothing to support them,” said Balanche. “They are therefore expecting a new Turkish operation and know that they will not be able to hold out for long and that no one will come to their rescue.” Erdogan also knows this. Back in August 2019, he warned that "as long as the [YPG-controlled areas] have not disappeared, Turkey will not feel safe”. Three years later, and with a war raging in Ukraine, the Turkish leader appears determined to do what it takes to “feel safe”. © 2022 Copyright France 24 Link to Article: https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20220616-as-ukraine-crisis-rages-erdogan-trains-his-sights-on-kurdish-northern-syria