Sudanese take part in a march against the Rapid Support Forces, who they blame for a raid on protesters who had camped outside the defense ministry during the 2019 revolution, in Khartoum, Sudan, June 3, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah Genocide Emergency Alert: Sudan September 2021 Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Emergency Alert for Sudan. Arab militias are attacking villages and IDP camps, killing and displacing primarily non-Arab African civilians. Ethnic tensions between Arab and non-Arab African tribes have long existed in Sudan, and genocide against non-Arab Sudanese has been ongoing since 1983. During Sudan’s era of British colonization, the British favored the Arab minority. After independence, the Arab elite retained their political power and have repeatedly used forced displacement and genocide to marginalize non-Arab Sudanese. Protesters and the Sudanese military ousted longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. In his place, a transitional government took control, comprised of both military and civilian leaders. Though Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is Sudan’s official leader, his second-in-command, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, is in actual control. General Hamdan, known as Hemeti, is the former enforcer for al-Bashir. He commands the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary army recruited from the Janjaweed militia, the Arab terrorists that carried out genocide in Darfur. The RSF continues to be responsible for numerous human rights abuses, including rape, murder, and torture of civilians—particularly during recent protests. Since UNAMID, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Sudan, pulled out in December 2020, there has been a resurgence of attacks on non-Arabs. Armed Arab militias have attacked civilians in IDP camps and villages, killing many and displacing thousands more. The Sudanese government and several non-Arab rebel groups, including the SPLM-N and SLM-AW, are currently participating in a peace process and recently signed a Declaration of Principles in late March. Despite the peace process, genocidal violence has continued. In early April, violence broke out between Arabs and Masalit tribes in West Darfur, killing, injuring, and displacing many civilians. The RSF and Arab militias have targeted Masalit civilians. RSF missiles have hit a hospital and a UN compound. Over 100 people have been killed. Local organizations have reported many cases of sexual violence. Victims of the genocide in Darfur in 2003 are still living in internally displaced persons camps, where they are vulnerable to further attacks. Due to the unfinished peace process and continuing massacres against non-Arab African civilians, Genocide Watch considers Sudan to be at Stage 9: Extermination. Genocide Watch’s Recommendations: · The UN should expand UNITAMS efforts to implement peace agreements and protect civilians, particularly women, girls, and internally displaced persons. · The Sudanese government should dissolve the RSF and establish a disciplined multi-ethnic security force, with international oversight and accountability. · IGOs should supervise the planned 2022 election to ensure a fair, peaceful, and effective establishment of a democratic government to replace the current military dominated coalition. · Sudanese authorities should investigate and prosecute all incidents of violent attacks. · Omar Al-Bashir should be handed over to the ICC to be tried for genocide. · Hemeti should be charged and tried in the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Genocide Watch staff have published the twenty-seventh Timestream in a series of critical genocides in the world. This Timestream covers the genocidal tactics used by China since 1959 to erode Tibetan sovereignty and culture, including religious persecution, attacks on traditional ways of life, and encouraging the movement of Han Chinese into Tibet. Destruction of monasteries, the expulsion of monks and nuns, and restrictions on the use of the Tibetan language are the means by which China seeks to undermine Tibetan identity. MIlitarization and mass threats are employed to eliminate any resistance to Chinese authority. China seeks to fully incorporate Tibet into its territory to secure its access to the mineral-rich region. See the full Timestream here and view our other Timestreams here.

September 7, 2021 | Ellen J. Kennedy The plight of the Hazaras isn’t well known on the international stage. They are an ethno-religious minority, about 9% of the Afghani population of 36 million. Women demonstrators from Afghanistan's Hazara minority attending a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 23, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani I teach a class at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul titled “Genocide Prevention: A 21st-Century Challenge.” At the beginning of each class, I invite the students to share updates on human rights issues in the news. As you would imagine, the catastrophe in Afghanistan weighs heavily on all of us – the chaos, the violence, the terrorist attacks, the apparent inability to protect and evacuate those who are desperately trying to leave, and the fear of the future, especially for women and girls. Last week, one of the students mentioned a personal connection. He was flying back to the U.S. from overseas. His seatmate was an Afghani, more specifically an Afghani Hazara, who was coming to the U.S. to study. The Hazaras have been targeted for genocide. A few days ago, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum sent out a Museum Statement on the Hazara. The statement reads, “We are concerned about ethnic and religious minorities, specifically the Shi’a minority who belong predominantly to the Hazara ethnic group, which faces a risk of crimes against humanity or even genocide.” Genocide Watch, an internationally known organization focusing on genocide prevention, calls the Hazara situation a genocide emergency. Human Rights Watch is urging the U.N. Human Rights Commission to investigate the killing of Hazaras as genocide or as a crime against humanity. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield recently spoke about the violence directed against ethnic and religious minorities in Afghanistan. She, too, singled out the desperate situation of the Hazaras: “I want to extend my deepest condolences to these victims and their families, and in particular, the Hazara community that has been so acutely impacted by these attacks.” Who are the Hazaras? The plight of the Hazaras isn’t well known on the international stage. They are an ethno-religious minority, about 9% of the Afghani population of 36 million. Although most of the Afghan people identify as Sunni Muslims, most Hazaras are Shi’a (or Shi’ite). The Hazaras are perceived as ethnically, physically, and linguistically distinct from the Pashtun, who make up 40% of the population, and the Tajik, the second-largest group at 25%. Why are the Hazaras targeted? Because of their religious status, they have long faced discrimination from the majority population and specifically from IS and other Sunni terrorist groups. ISIS-K claims a goal to exterminate all Shi’a, including the Hazaras. The death toll of Afghans in the past decades’ conflicts is more than 47,000. Hazaras are a disproportionate number of that total; they have been singled out for killings, beheadings, suicide bomb attacks, and kidnappings. According to an AP report on June 21, 2021, Hazaras have been targeted at schools, weddings, mosques, sports clubs, and even at births. The AP report highlighted gunmen’s attack on a maternity hospital in a Hazara neighborhood that killed 24 people, including newborns and their mothers. In May 2021, a school bombing in the same area killed 100 Hazara schoolgirls. Amnesty International reported the Taliban’s brutal massacre of nine Hazara men in July, six who were shot and three who were tortured to death. Torture and murder in the context of armed conflict, in addition to the deliberate targeting of civilians, hospitals, and children, are war crimes. The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, passed in 1948, defines genocide as ‘the intent to exterminate, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.’ As the Holocaust Museum statement notes, the Hazaras are targeted because of their ethnicity and religion. What is being done? The International Criminal Court, located in The Hague, Netherlands, is the world’s only permanent tribunal established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The court, to which 123 countries of the world are parties, opened an investigation in 2006 into crimes perpetrated in Afghanistan by the Taliban, the Afghan government, and the United States. The U.S. is alone among Western nations and democracies in not being a party to the court. The Trump administration exerted considerable pressure on the court to drop this case and, after U.S.-imposed sanctions, visa denials, and other reprisals against court prosecutors and administrators, the case was shelved. In 2020, upon review by the court’s Appeals Chamber and after global outrage over apparent U.S. intimidation of court members, the case was reinstated and is in process. The hope is that there will be accountability for the crimes perpetrated by all sides. What can we do? This genocide is occurring now, on our watch. We can ask our senators and representatives in Congress to consider the Hazaras in plans that are being developed to enhance safety for people in Afghanistan and in refugee resettlement. They are at grave risk. ©2015 MinnPost.com. All Rights Reserved.

Illustration: Ratna Sagar Shrestha/THT By HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE Published: 09:55 am Oct 03, 2021 KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 2 As many as 48 organisations representing conflict victims have written to UN Secretary-General António Guterres affirming that Nepal continues to fail in establishing truth, justice, and reparations for thousands of victims of human rights violations during Nepal's 1996-2006 conflict. Referring to the remarks of Minister of Foreign Affairs during the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 27 in New York, the organisations said, "We hold that successive governments of Nepal have long continued to merely pay lip service and make false commitments to the transitional justice process at international forums including that of the UN. And it is our belief that Minister Khadka's recent remark at the UNGS is just a continuation of those empty promises." In the UNGA, Minister Khadka had said that Nepal was committed to conclude the transitional justice process through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons and that there would be no blanket amnesty in cases of serious violation of human rights. "Let us remind you, earlier in February 2019, the former foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali had made a similar commitment during the 40th session of the Human Rights Council. Several of his predecessors also made similar commitments at various international forums, however, in reality, nothing has happened back home to match their words," they wrote in the letter, which was sent last week. "The reality here is that the victims and their families have been waiting for truth, justice and reparations for well over fifteen years since the end of the conflict in November 2006 while the Government of Nepal continues to showcase the sham transitional justice process to the UN and the international community," the organisation added. Minister Khadka's remark that 'there would be no blanket amnesty in the cases of serious violation of human rights" is welcome, but we need to ask how long will the Government of Nepal continue lying to the world with these hollow promises while it does not amend the Enforced Disappearances Inquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, 2014 as ordered by the Supreme Court to ensure no amnesty for gross violations of human rights, they stressed. As per the letter, the longstanding concerns of the victims of conflict, human rights organisations and international communities, including the UN, on amendment of the TJ law remains unaddressed. "We would like to remind you of the OHCHR's position in 2016 with respect to Nepal's transitional justice bodies that do not meet the basic international standards, especially with respect to the broad provisions in the existing legal framework that can be used to grant amnesty to perpetrators of even grave human rights violations," they reiterated. The two commissions were established in February 2015 against the will of victims. These commissions have been manifestly used to prevent victims from accessing the regular criminal justice system, they argued. "Despite our reservations, we chose to critically engage with the commissions, and submitted our complaints to the commissions, seeking truth and justice," reads the letter. They said that the victims and civil society groups in Nepal had been seeking meaningful consultations, transparent processes and an amendment of the law, as well as the appointment of a fresh set of commissioners only after the law is amended, but to no avail. "We, therefore would like to request you to take with a pinch of salt what our foreign minister has remarked at the UNGA , and to take steps in leveraging your influence on the Government of Nepal so that Nepal's long stalled transitional justice issue is addressed and thousands of victims served truth and justice," they said. The organisations, writing to the Secretary-General includes Conflict Victims Common Platform, Conflict Victim Women National Network, Conflict Victims Orphans Society and 9. Society of the Families of Disappeared Nepal Maoist Victims Association, among others. A version of this article appears in the print on October 3, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.

By Helen Davidson | The Guardian Thursday, 30 Sep 2021, 04.48 EDT Article 23, shelved in 2003, may target foreign organisations and bans ‘subversion’ against Chinese government. Hong Kong’s security secretary, Chris Tang, right, a former police chief, says the new legislation would ‘fill gaps’ around the Beijing-imposed security law, being used to jail pro-democracy figures. Photograph: China News Service/Getty Images The Hong Kong government is pushing ahead with its own national security legislation to “fill gaps” around the Beijing-imposed law already being used to crush dissent and jail opposition figures. On Wednesday, the city’s security secretary, the former police chief Chris Tang, said the government would consider targeting Taiwanese and other foreign political organisations when drafting the new legislation, known as Article 23. It came amid a raft of developments in the campaign against Hong Kong’s pro-democracy groups and figures, including the denial of bail to student activists as young as 15. According to the public broadcaster RTHK, Tang said the new law would be based on the initial draft proposed in 2003, which was shelved after mass protests, and also take into account the circumstances in Hong Kong since the 2019 pro-democracy protests. “Since the national security law has been enacted, there may still be gaps that need to be filled with the Article 23 legislation,” Tang told the legislative council. He also flagged creating a new offence of “inciting hatred”, RTHK reported. Article 23 of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, requires the city to enact national security laws to prohibit “treason, secession, sedition [and] subversion” against the Chinese government. But the clause was never implemented because of deeply held public fears that it would curtail Hong Kong’s cherished rights, such as freedom of expression, and an attempt in 2003 drew 1 million people to the streets. The failure to implement Article 23 had been cited as a key reason for Beijing’s decision to unilaterally impose its own national security law (NSL) on Hong Kong. While the NSL broadly outlaws acts of secession, subversion, foreign collusion and terrorism, the new law would cover treason, theft of state secrets, and the political activities of foreign political bodies in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post said. Last week Tang told the SCMP the “time was ripe” for Article 23 as there was an immediate need to tackle “espionage”, claiming without evidence that the 2019 pro-democracy protests were orchestrated by “state-level organisations”. As the government works on the new security laws, authorities are continuing their crackdown on the remaining elements of the pro-democracy movement, with a rush of developments this week. On Thursday, a court denied bail to student activists, including a 15-year-old girl. Four of the seven members of Returning Valiant charged with conspiring to incite subversion are minors. Also this week, 10 elected district councillors were removed from their seats after authorities found their mandatory oaths of allegiance to be invalid, but gave no further explanation. RTHK issued new editorial guidelines to its staff, ruling the station must support the government in safeguarding national security and interests, or face disciplinary action. It is the latest in a series of moves to control the previously editorially independent broadcaster since a change of management. On Wednesday, the legislative council criminalised doxing – the malicious spread of private information online – under penalty of HK$1m or five years in jail. The same day, the Legislative Council also passed a bill outlawing online insults of the Chinese flag, banning its display upside down or in any other way which “undermined its dignity”, and mandated weekly flag-raising ceremonies in schools. Police also froze the assets of a long-running civil society group, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, a day after it announced its dissolution. Several members of the group have been arrested, charged, or jailed, and its museum commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre was raided this month. Its online exhibition was this week blocked in Hong Kong, with access denied via local internet providers. In the run-up to China’s National Day on 1 October, Hong Kong media have reported police are preparing to station about 8,000 officers, including from the “raptor” squad and counter-terrorism units, around the city. *This article was amended on 1 October 2021 to correctly refer to the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, rather than the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Freedoms as an earlier version said. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

A rebel of Colombia's Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN) shows his armband while posing for a photograph, in the northwestern jungles, Colombia August 31, 2017. REUTERS/Federico Rios/File Photo Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Emergency for Venezuela. Since 2014, economic collapse coupled with severe state-led repression has forced more than 5.4 million refugees to flee the country. The government of Nicolás Maduro continues to detain, torture, and kill civilians. State security forces and armed groups are committing rights abuses. Venezuelan security forces are carrying out a systematic campaign of violence targeting alleged political opponents of the Maduro regime. In crackdowns on political opponents, as well as in efforts that supposedly target armed groups, security forces have killed tens of thousands of civilians and committed egregious human rights abuses, often targeting residents of Venezuela’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. Government-backed forces are perpetrating crimes against humanity, including forced disappearances, torture, sexual violence, and arbitrary imprisonment. Security forces carry out extrajudicial killings of civilians, often claiming their victims have ties to armed groups by planting evidence, with over 18,000 victims since 2014. The Maduro regime uses detention to punish those who threaten his political power. Political opponents are arbitrarily detained for indefinite periods of time and tortured. Efforts by Venezuelan state security forces that are nominally focused on countering “terrorists” and armed groups are used to target human rights defenders, political opponents, and protesters. The government has used the COVID-19 crisis to further suppress dissidents and strengthen its control of the country. Armed groups also use violence to control the lives and everyday activities of Venezuelans, often with the tacit consent or cooperation of the state security forces. Along the Venezuela-Colombia border, a power vacuum has allowed armed groups to establish control. Colombian rebel groups like the ELN, alongside other criminal gangs and armed groups operating on Venezuela’s border, are smuggling drugs and arms between the two countries. Recent fighting between government forces and non-state groups has displaced thousands in the border region. Armed groups are committing widespread human rights violations with impunity, including targeted killings, forced disappearances, sexual violence, and forced labor. These groups use violent threats to maintain control, including the explicit threat to commit “social cleansing” of “undesirable” populations such as suspected criminals and drug addicts. Amid a man-made humanitarian and economic crisis, millions of Venezuelans cannot access food, basic healthcare, or water. Civilians face immediate and ongoing risk of violence from both the government and non-state armed groups. Genocide Watch considers Venezuela to be at Stage 6: Polarization and Stage 8: Persecution. Recommendations: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights should prosecute Nicolás Maduro and other members of the Venezuelan government for human rights violations. As party to the ICCPR, Venezuela must cease arbitrary arrests and detentions; as party to the Rome Statute and per the Venezuelan Constitution, Venezuela must uphold its mandate to protect human rights and should prevent torture. Donor nations should provide humanitarian assistance to Venezuelan civilians and refugees.

By Christopher F. Schuetze The 96-year-old woman, a former secretary in a concentration camp, was supposed to appear in court to face charges of being an accessory in the deaths of more than 11,000 people, in what may be one of the last Nazi trials in Germany. But instead of taking a taxi from her assisted living home outside Hamburg to the nearby court, Irmgard Furchner, who was 18 when she started work in 1943 at the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland, headed instead for a nearby subway station, according to the court. It was not immediately clear where Ms. Furchner, who had previously told journalists and the judge she didn’t want to be part of the trial, was heading, but she was soon apprehended by the police after the court reported her missing. The court, in the town of Itzehoe, said she was undergoing a medical investigation. Ms. Furchner was indicted in February after a five-year investigation into her work as a secretary to the commander of the Stutthof camp, located near Gdansk, then known as Danzig, between June 1943 and April 1945. The indictment was part of an effort by German prosecutors over the past decade to hold lower-ranking people to account for their actions during the Holocaust. But they have been racing against the clock to bring aging suspects to court. Last year, a Hamburg court convicted a 93-year-old who was a guard in the same concentration camp on 5,230 counts of being an accessory to murder. Ms. Furchner had written to the judge to ask for a trial in absentia, which is not allowed under German law, and had received a warning that she faced legal consequences if she did not appear in court. Ms. Furchner was scheduled to hear the charges against her on Thursday morning and get a chance to respond. But the court, which had been moved to a local warehouse to accommodate more spectators and media because of high interest in the case, was kept waiting before the judge ordered the police to find the woman and bring her in. The court had previously determined that Ms. Furchner would not be able to sit through full days of the legal proceedings because of her advanced age, and had agreed to hold shorter sessions for her, although she was classified as being physically fit enough to stand trial. The trial turns on the question of how much Ms. Furchner knew about the killings that went on in the camp where she worked. Ms. Furchner had acted as a witness in Nazi trials in postwar Germany, including in one that led to the conviction of the camp’s commander, Paul-Werner Hoppe, who was her direct boss. The International Auschwitz Committee, a group founded by Auschwitz survivors, condemned the woman’s flight. Christoph Heubner, the group’s executive vice president, said, “This shows an incredible contempt for the rule of law and also for survivors.” Her next scheduled court date is Oct. 19. (c) New York Times, 2021

UNDP Yemen – People in rural parts of Yemen are suffering from extreme hunger. The Yemen conflict killed or maimed 2,600 children as hostilities intensified in 2019 and 2020; that’s according to a new report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed conflict in the country. Published on Monday, the report detailed how these youngsters were victims of the indiscriminate use of mortar and artillery shelling, ground fighting, anti-personnel landmines, and other explosive remnants of war. In total, more than 3,500 children suffered one or more grave violations; chief among these was the denial of humanitarian access, killing and maiming, and the recruitment and use of children. ‘Scarred for life’ Issuing the findings, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, said that “the atrocities and immense suffering” would likely leave a generation of Yemeni children “scarred for life.” “It is urgent for all parties to actively work towards a political solution of the conflict if they hope to save children from further harm”, she said. “Boys and girls are the future of Yemen. Parties to conflict must protect them from use and abuse and start treating children as the precious asset they are.” The verification of information for all grave violations recorded on the ground was difficult, the report notes, and the intensity of the conflict and hostilities also hindered the ability to document and verify violations. The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions further exacerbated these existing access challenges. 111 children held The deprivation of liberty of some 111 children, held for alleged association with opposing parties to the conflict, is also a major concern. The Special Representative said that children should be considered primarily as victims, “and depriving them of their liberty should only be used as a last resort and for the shortest period, in accordance with international juvenile justice standards,” the report added. Ms. Gamba called on the international community to continue to support the reintegration of released children, including through the Global Coalition for Reintegration of Child Soldiers. Attacks on education continued, with 37 recorded attacks on schools, and the military use of 80 schools, further impairing the right of boys and girls to an education. More than two million children are currently out of the classroom. Hope in dialogue The report outlined the UN’s dialogue with parties to conflict, and the progress made by the Government of Yemen in the implementation of its action plan to end and prevent child recruitment and use of children, signed in 2014 and of the Roadmap adopted in 2018, which “has led to a significant decrease for this violation.” The Special Representative echoed the UN Secretary-General’s call for a nationwide ceasefire by all parties to the conflict, and to continue their engagement with the UN Special Envoy for Yemen towards the resumption of an inclusive political process to reach a comprehensive negotiated political settlement. “Considering the rights and needs of children into the discussions will also be critical for sustainable peace and for the future of the country,” said Ms. Gamba, adding that the Practical Guidance for Mediators to Protect Children in Situations of Armed Conflict issued by her office, is an important and useful tool in the context of Yemen. “The terrible toll that the war in Yemen takes on children must end. Peace is the only solution and child survivors need our support to heal and rebuild their lives,” she stressed. © United Nations

Ian Lindsay, Adam T. Smith, & Lori Khatchadourian The Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW) has recently released its latest September 2021 Report on the status of Armenian cultural heritage in Azerbaijani-occupied territory in Nagorno-Karabakh. Please read the attached pdf or find the link to the report below. Also, find a link to the CWH website for more information about their methodology and goals. Link to Report(s) Link to CWH Website ©️ Caucasaus Heritage Watch 2021

Nat Hill September 2021 Internal Troops of Turkmenistan. Photo Credit: Kerri-Jo Stewart, Wikipedia Commons Turkmenistan is the homeland of the Turkmen, a Turkic ethnic group that follows the Sunni branch of Islam. Turkmenistan is also home to smaller populations of Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Russians, Ukrainians, and other ethnic minorities. In 1885, the Russian Empire conquered the Turkmen. In 1925, the Soviet Union created the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. The Soviet administration banned the practice of Islam, forbade the practice of traditional Turkmen culture, and brought thousands of Russian and Ukrainian workers to develop the natural gas and petroleum industry. When Turkmenistan gained its independence in 1991, former Communist Party leader Saparmurat Niyazov immediately established a one-party police state. Niyazov was known for his eccentric cult of personality. He renamed the days of the week. He banned lip-syncing, gold teeth, and he forced people to memorize his manifesto, the Ruhnama. The Niyazov regime banned all civil society organizations, political parties, and independent media. Political dissidents were detained, tortured, and often executed. Niyazov enacted a policy of “Turkmenization,” which forced non-Turkmen minorities to use only the Turkmen language and dress only in Turkmen clothing. Non-Turkmen were fired from government jobs. Niyazov died in 2006. His successor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, has continued Niyazov’s cult of personality. Political opponents are arrested and imprisoned. Independent media are prohibited. Civil society leaders are detained and often die in prison. The process of Turkmenization remains, shutting out non-Turkmen minorities from education and politics. Turkmenistan today is one of the most corrupt and totalitarian regimes in the world, on a par with Kim Jong-Un’s North Korea and Teodoro Obiang’s Equatorial Guinea. The U.S., EU, and the U.N. occasionally condemn human rights violations in Turkmenistan, yet they take no meaningful action. Turkmenistan has large petroleum and natural gas reserves, the state oil company, Türkmengaz, is building a gas pipeline via Afghanistan and Pakistan to India with financing from the Asian Development Bank. Profits from gas sales will strengthen Turkmenistan’s oil and gas monopoly as well as its totalitarian government. Genocide Watch considers Turkmenistan to be at Stage 3: Discrimination, Stage 6: Polarization, and Stage 8: Persecution. Genocide Watch Recommends: The U.S., E.U., and the Asian Development Bank should block the completion of Turkmenistan’s natural gas pipeline until it frees its political prisoners. International support for exiled opposition and monitoring groups, such as the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, should increase.

Nat Hill September 2021 Raskol Gang Member ©️ Stephen Dupont The island of New Guinea is divided in half, with the west under Indonesian control as the province of West Papua and the east being the sovereign nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Under colonial rule, the Dutch controlled the western side of the island. The Germans and British divided the eastern half. Following the Second World War, Australia governed Papua New Guinea under United Nations Trusteeship for 20 years until 1975, when Papua New Guinea (PNG) formally gained its independence. Indonesia invaded and took control of West Papua in 1962. In 1988, the island of Bougainville declared independence from PNG. The conflict arose over a large copper mine called Panguna, co-owned by the mining conglomerate Rio Tinto and the PNG government. The Panguna mine devastated Bougainville’s environment, and the local population saw little of the profits. In response, the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) was formed to fight for independence. The PNG government enacted a total blockade of the island and began a scorched earth campaign to root out the BRA. In total, over 15,000 people were killed and 60,000 more displaced. While the PNG government and Bougainville representatives reached a formal peace agreement in 1998, several factions in Bougainville have been agitating to renew the conflict. Environmental exploitation and urbanization are increasingly threatening communities in the PNG Highlands and on the outlying islands. Mining and deforestation have polluted rivers and depleted hunting and fishing stocks. The increased scarcity of resources has led to widespread outbreaks of violence between communities and tribes, with the PNG government having little authority to enforce law and order or do justice in the country. Violence against women and girls is widespread in PNG. Over two-thirds of women have experienced domestic violence, and nearly half have been subjected to rape. Young criminal gangs, known locally as Raskol, in big cities such as Port Moresby and Lae have played a large part in the rise in violent crime and rape. PNG's crime rate is among the highest in the world. While tribal and gang-related violence in Papua New Guinea is widespread, it is characteristically localized and on a small scale. Genocide Watch considers Papua New Guinea to be at Stage 3: Discrimination and Stage 5: Organization. Genocide Watch Recommends: · The PNG government should limit contracts with irresponsible foreign corporations to reduce further deforestation and environmental pollution. · The PNG government should enact legislation that would ban or restrict ownership of firearms in Papua New Guinea. · Foreign associates, primarily Australia, should assist PNG in reforming its judicial system to cope with rampant violence against women.

By Mark Wilf The Polish government's new law bars restitution to Holocaust survivors, part of a trend erasing any Polish responsibility for what happened to Jews during the war. This summer, the government of Poland passed legislation curbing the rights of Holocaust survivors and their families. Shockingly, the law is set to take effect Thursday on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. For Polish survivors and their descendants, who have sought justice for decades over the wrongful seizure of their property, this is a massive blow. For Jews, the High Holy Days are a time to remember the lessons of the past, recognize injustices and seek to correct them. Jewish tradition understands that this requires an honest study of the past and a commitment to seeking justice. The new Polish law does just the opposite, foreclosing any current or potential claims that Jews and non-Jews have to property that was first expropriated during the Holocaust and then nationalized during the communist era that followed. For Polish survivors and their descendants, who have sought justice for decades over the wrongful seizure of their property, this is a massive blow. Leaders of many countries recognize that this is a reprehensible action on the part of Poland and have offered strong criticism. Here in the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his deep “regret” at the law, urging changes and saying it “will harm all Polish citizens whose property was unjustly taken, including that of Polish Jews who were victims of the Holocaust.” On Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of congressional leaders has called for scrapping the law. In Israel, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the law was “a shameful decision and disgraceful contempt for the memory of the Holocaust,” while Foreign Minister Yair Lapid recalled Israel’s chargé d’affaires from Warsaw and delayed having the Israeli ambassador to Poland take up his post. Poland’s European allies have also spoken up. Eric Pickles, the United Kingdom’s special envoy on post-Holocaust Issues, pressed the country to change course: “Restitution of confiscated Jewish property remains unfinished business. Poland's many friends urge it to agree [to] a fair and reasonable scheme.” In response to these forceful statements, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki declared, “As long as I am the prime minister, Poland will surely not pay for German crimes. Not a zloty, not a euro, not a dollar.” That retort seeks to distract from the issue at hand. While it is true that Poland suffered greatly under Nazi occupation, the property in question was taken by Poland’s former government after the war and remains in Poland today. Holocaust victims suffered expropriation of their property twice — first by the Nazis in the Holocaust and then, after the post-war Polish government nullified Nazi takings, a second time by the communist authorities. To many Holocaust survivors, seeing their struggle culminate in this legislation under a democratic Poland is akin to their property being taken a third time. Their seized homes, apartments, offices and factories are now owned either by the government or by private individuals. Although there is no reliable or centralized estimate on the total number of claims, a 2016 list from Warsaw alone included 2,613 street addresses with open claims. Making amends need not impact current occupants of the property. Other countries have provided claimantswith substitute property or compensation, and a 2017 legislative proposal by the Polish government would have taken this approach. Moreover, a 2020 State Department report found that Poland, which at 3.3 million had the largest European Jewish community prior to World War II, is the only European Union member state with significant Holocaust-era property issues that has not enacted comprehensive legislation on national property restitution or compensation covering Holocaust confiscations. The truth is that this law is part of a broader trend of Polish government actions over the last few years to steer the narrative of the Holocaust away from Jewish suffering and erase any Polish part in — and responsibility for — what happened to Jews during World War II. It comes on the heels of similar Polish measures, the most troubling being legislation that circumscribed speech blaming Poland for anything that happened during the Holocaust. That problematic bill was passed by the Parliament in 2018 on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. This effort coincides with a rising nationalist tide that has increased sensitivities to anything that could be seen as defaming Poland, and makes political parties see benefits to promoting bigoted views. The governing right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), as well as far-right parties, have made anti-restitution laws a key part of their platforms alongside anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ laws. In 2019, thousands of Polish nationalists marched against the U.S. in anti-Jewish protests decrying Washington’s push for compensation. While Poland’s commemoration of the many non-Jewish Poles who suffered at the hands of Nazi aggression is certainly appropriate, minimizing Jewish suffering during the Holocaust is outrageous and unacceptable. It not only undermines victims’ legitimate claims for restitution, but also covers up the root causes of their oppression — causes that must be acknowledged and addressed in order for history not to repeat itself. As Jewish communities, we have a special responsibility to preserve the truth about what happened in the Holocaust. We must stand up to fight any efforts to erase or downplay the story of what Polish Jewry or Jews from other countries endured. Whatever happens in Poland, we can take immediate action here in the U.S. to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and strengthen the calls for justice abroad. The Jewish Federations of North America, of which I am chair of the board of trustees, is advocating for legislation in the U.S. at the national and state levels to ensure children learn about the Holocaust in school. For example, the federal Never Again Education Act, signed into law in May 2020, authorized $10 million over five years for Holocaust education nationwide. Today, only 20 states have mandated education on the Holocaust. The laws vary by state, but generally the legislation requires that all schools provide age-appropriate education specifically about the Holocaust in elementary and/or high school. Holocaust education is taught in other states, of course, but it’s done so in an ad hoc way that doesn’t ensure all students learn the facts about this terrible genocide. A 2020 study of millennials and Generation Z by the Claims Conference, a body negotiating compensation from Germany for Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, found that 44 percent of Americans ages 18 to 39 couldn’t identify what Auschwitz is. More than 1 in 10 thought Jews bore some responsibility for what happened in the Holocaust, and 30 percent had seen Nazi symbols on their social media platforms or in their own communities. Regular, ongoing, fact-based Holocaust education is the first step in inoculating young people against untruths about the Holocaust and honoring the survivors who remain. But increasing Holocaust education at home is just one key step. Federations, along with allies such as the World Jewish Restitution Organization, are pushing for Poland to pass comprehensive legislation that would meet the commitments it made under the 2009 Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues, which outlined several measures toward compensation for property belonging to the victims of Nazi persecution. We support Congress and the State Department’s ongoing monitoring of restitution in Europe, as approved in the 2018 JUST Act that Federations supported to keep the issue front and center. The Senate should also swiftly confirm the nominee for special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism to ensure that a top diplomat is addressing these issues globally. At Yom Kippur, a time of atonement, reflection and action toward justice, we must redouble efforts to support Holocaust education. We must reinforce our commitment to standing strong against attempts to distort, downplay or diminish what happened during the Holocaust, in Poland and elswhere. We must, so it can never happen again.  © NBC News