86 Victims of Enforced Disappearances Still Missing. UN Should Ban Death Squad from Peacekeeping Missions. © Private (Geneva) – United Nations human rights experts should lead an independent international investigation into enforced disappearances by security forces in Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Senior UN officials, donors, and trade partners should step up measures to hold senior members of Bangladesh security forces accountable, stop enforced disappearances, and prevent future abuses. The 57-page report, “‘Where No Sun Can Enter’: A Decade of Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh,” finds that, despite credible and consistent evidence that Bangladesh security forces routinely commit enforced disappearances, the ruling Awami League has ignored calls by donor governments, the UN, human rights organizations, and civil society to address the culture of impunity. Alongside the report, Human Rights Watch created a webpage tracking and profiling the cases of 86 victims in Bangladesh who were forcibly disappeared and who remain missing. “Awami League leadership and Bangladesh authorities mock victims and routinely obstruct investigations, making clear that the government has no intention of meaningfully addressing enforced disappearances by its security forces,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “As critics of the government live in fear of being forcibly disappeared, and families of the disappeared have little hope of getting justice from the government, UN human rights experts should open an investigation into enforced disappearances in Bangladesh.” This report, based on over 115 interviews conducted between July 2020 and March 2021 with victims, their family members, and witnesses to enforced disappearances, finds that Bangladesh authorities consistently refuse to investigate enforced disappearances and to hold those responsible accountable. Human Rights Watch also found that the authorities use enforced disappearances – and the threat of enforced disappearances – to silence critics, chilling free speech. Although security forces in Bangladesh have long committed grave human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial executions, including under previous governments, enforced disappearances in particular have become a hallmark of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s over decade-long rule. Ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30, 2021, concerned governments and the United Nations should stand with victims of enforced disappearances by increasing scrutiny of their relationships with Bangladesh security forces, Human Rights Watch said. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres should make clear that the UN is unwilling to serve as a cover for the military’s abuses at home. The Department of Peace Operations should sever all ties with any units and commanders found responsible for serious human rights abuses, including commanders who failed to prevent or punish abuses by individuals under their command. According to Bangladeshi human rights groups, nearly 600 people have been forcibly disappeared by security forces since Prime Minister Hasina took office in 2009. While some victims have been released or produced in court after weeks or months of secret detention, others became victims of extrajudicial killings that are falsely claimed to be deaths during gunfights. Scores are still missing. Many of the victims were critics of the ruling Awami League government. The Bangladesh government consistently denies that its security forces commit enforced disappearances. Such denials trickle down from the government leadership, through the ranks of authority. Victims’ families repeatedly described outright refusal by the police and other security forces to file a case or conduct a legitimate investigation of alleged enforced disappearances, at times even citing “orders from above.” The notoriously abusive Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is responsible for more enforced disappearances in Bangladesh than any other unit, according to Bangladeshi human rights organizations. Describing the unit as a “death squad,” human rights organizations have repeatedly called for RAB to be disbanded. In October 2020, 10 US senators published a bipartisan letter calling for sanctions against top RAB officials for extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and torture. The United States, UK, Canada, the EU, and other governments with similar human rights sanctions regimes should impose targeted sanctions on top officials with responsibility for ongoing enforced disappearances and other grave abuses. UN Secretary-General António Guterres should ban Rapid Action Battalion officers from participating in UN peacekeeping missions and ramp up screening of those deployed under the UN flag to ensure its human rights screening policy is being effectively applied in Bangladesh. “Members of a death squad should not be deployed in UN peacekeeping missions abroad,” Adams said. “The UN Department of Peace Operations should ban the Rapid Action Battalion from peacekeeping and the US should bring individual human rights sanctions against Bangladesh commanders implicated in serious crimes like torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings.” For individual accounts of enforced disappearances from the report, please see below. Accounts of Enforced Disappearances Abdul Quader Bhuiyan, an activist of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) also known as Masum, was picked up by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in December 2013. Over seven years later, he is still missing. Masum’s mother, Ayesha Ali told Human Rights Watch: “I am broken. There is nobody here to call me mother. The only thing I want is for my son to return. We won’t even talk about it. We’ll forget what happened, please just bring him back. Everything is lost from my end.” Nur Hasan Hiru, then-BNP organizing secretary in Uttara, Dhaka, was picked up by five or six men claiming to be from law enforcement on June 20, 2011, according to eyewitnesses. Hiru’s family later heard from a security forces contact that he was in RAB custody. Hiru is still missing. His brother told Human Rights Watch: “Over the last 10 years he [Hiru] is missing, we don’t know if he is dead or alive. Even if he is dead, we don’t even get the body. When will this suffering end?” Police arrested Mohammad Rezoun Hossain, an activist with Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Islamist political party, on August 4, 2016, witnesses told human rights defenders. He has not been seen or heard from since. “If my son is guilty, then the police can produce him in court,” said his mother, Selina Begum. “Why did the police pick him up and disappear him?” When his family tried to file a complaint at the Benapole police station, they said, the officer in charge of the station at the time told them, “Do not search for Rezoun or we will slaughter you all.” Mohammad Rafiqul Islam Raja was picked up along with a few of his friends by men claiming to be from the police Detective Branch on April 26, 2013. His friends were later released, but Raja remains missing. Raja’s mother said she wanted to share the information about her son’s disappearance with the world so that she could get her son back. She told human rights defenders that if he was dead, she at least wants her son’s body so that she can “do the proper rituals and pray.” Tapan Chandra Das, 40, a businessman, was in a rickshaw with his business partner, Gobinda Das, on their way home from a meeting on August 3, 2011, when men claiming to be members of the Detective Branch in Dhaka detained him, Tapan’s wife, Shumi Das, told Human Rights Watch. Gobinda was released but Tapan remains missing. Shumi says that she is still hopeful that he will be returned, that she still wears the red bindi and sindoor indicating that she is married, but that she is worried that it would not have been possible for him to be fed and kept alive for these 10 years. She says that sometimes she thinks she hears him calling her name. There has been no progress on the case. Mohammad Fokhrul Islam, the owner of Swift Cable Network, was picked up by RAB officers on May 11, 2013, as he was getting his car repaired. A relative said that after RAB denied the arrest, on May 13, 2013, the family filed a General Diary (police report) with the police. Soon after, the relative told human rights defenders that a RAB member told him that if they went too far with the matter, they too would be disappeared. Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem, also known as Armaan, was picked up from his house by seven or eight men late on August 9, 2016, in the presence of his wife and sister. After his disappearance, Armaan’s family said the police threatened and harassed them. At one point, after some particularly high-profile media coverage, the family said, law enforcement raided their house: “After that [media coverage], the entire house was surrounded by RAB,” a family member said. “One hundred or more. It was scary. They raided the entire house. The stairs were full of police officers.” © 2021 Human Rights Watch

By SOPHENG CHEANG and DAVID RISING In this photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Khieu Samphan, former Khmer Rouge head of state, sits in a courtroom during a hearing at the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. Khieu Samphan, the last living leader from the inner circle of Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime, is to appear in court Monday as he seeks to overturn his conviction on genocide charges before a long-running international tribunal. (Nhet Sok Heng/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia via AP) PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The last living leader from the inner circle of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime launched his courtroom appeal Monday, seeking to convince a long-running international tribunal to overturn his conviction on genocide charges. Khieu Samphan, 90, was the former head of state for the Khmer Rouge, the radical communist regime that ruled Cambodia with an iron fist from 1975 to 1979 and was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people. His defense team is seeking to overturn a 2018 verdict finding him guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, questioning the evidence and arguing there were procedural mistakes. Kong Sam Onn told the judges of the Supreme Court Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC, that his client had been given inadequate time to prepare an initial defense, and that the original panel failed to provide the grounds for its ruling in a timely fashion, among other things. “It should be null and void, and so I am requesting the Supreme Court chamber to ... reverse the judgment,” he said. Khieu Samphan sat in a chair behind his attorneys, wearing a mask in compliance with COVID-19 precautions and appearing to listen intently as they addressed the court. Kong Sam Onn said his client would address the chamber at the end of the four days of scheduled hearings. Prosecutors in opening statements rejected the procedural arguments, while emphasizing the “totality” of the evidence against the defendant. “Mr. Khieu Samphan fails to establish the assertion that underlies his entire appeal, that he knew nothing, saw nothing and heard nothing of the crimes for which he stands convicted,” said prosecutor Chea Leang. “In addition, the defendant, Mr. Khieu Samphan, fails to establish that his conduct does not make him responsible for those crimes and contrary to the appellant’s assertions the evidence underlying his convictions is extensive, diverse and compelling.” Observers say it’s unlikely that the conviction will be overturned, and even if it is, the former leader is already serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2014 of crimes against humanity connected with forced transfers and disappearances of masses of people. That conviction was upheld on appeal in 2016. “The appeal hearing is quite important for both sides, the Cambodian victims and the accused,” said tribunal spokesman, Neth Pheaktra. The verdict won’t come until next year. Under the leadership of the late Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge sought to eliminate all traces of what it saw as corrupt bourgeois life, destroying most religious, financial and social institutions, and forcing millions out of cities to live in the countryside. Dissent was usually met with death in the Khmer Rouge’s notorious “killing fields” or elsewhere, while starvation, overwork and medical neglect took many more lives. Only when an invasion by Vietnam finally drove the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979 did the magnitude of the killings become truly known. Khieu Samphan’s 2018 conviction was largely connected to crimes committed against Vietnamese and Cham minorities in Cambodia. He was found not guilty of genocide against the Cham, a Muslim ethnic minority whose members had put up a small but futile resistance against the Khmer Rouge, for lack of evidence. But he was found guilty of genocide of the Vietnamese under the principle of joint criminal enterprise, under which individuals can be held responsible for the actions of a group to which they belong. His crimes against humanity conviction covered activities at work camps and cooperatives established by the Khmer Rouge. They included murder, extermination, deportation, enslavement, imprisonment, torture, persecution on political, religious and racial grounds, attacks on human dignity, forced marriages and rape. He was “found to have encouraged, incited, and legitimized criminal policies and to have made a significant contribution to crimes committed” by the Khmer Rouge. The breaches of the Geneva Convention governing war crimes included willful killing, torture and inhumane treatment. During his trial, Khieu Samphan claimed the allegations against him were “Vietnamese propaganda” and said that while he had been aware of accusations of suffering under the Khmer Rouge, “the term murderer I categorically reject.” After being ousted from power in 1979, the Khmer Rouge waged guerrilla warfare for another two decades before disintegrating. Pol Pot died in the jungle in 1998, and on Christmas Eve that year, Khieu Samphan surrendered along with Nuon Chea, the movement’s chief ideologue and its second-highest official. Nuon Chea was convicted alongside Khieu Samphan in 2018 and died the following year. The ECCC tribunal was established at Cambodia’s behest to bring to justice the leaders of the Khmer Rouge during its time in power. Since the first judges and prosecutors took up their duties in 2006, however, the court has only successfully convicted three people in prosecutions that have cost some $300 million. In addition to Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, the only other leader convicted was Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who as head of the Khmer Rouge prison system ran the infamous Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh. He died in 2020 while serving a life prison term for war crimes and crimes against humanity. After the conviction of Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea in 2018, the government of autocratic Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a midlevel Khmer Rouge commander before defecting while the group was still in power, declared no more cases would go forward, saying they would cause instability. Human rights attorney Theary Seng, who survived the Khmer Rouge genocide but lost her parents, criticized the trials as “political theater” where Hun Sen and others have been “allowed, backed with U.N. insignia, to try themselves.” Still, she said she planned to attend the opening of the appeal to see the case against Khieu Samphan to its conclusion. “I have forgiven Khieu Samphan, as I have no intention for revenge, but that is not the same as holding him responsible,” she told The Associated Press in an email. “I hold Khieu Samphan directly responsible for the murders of my mom and dad, and for taking my childhood away from me in forcing me into a living hell.” ___ Rising reported from Bangkok. © copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

Argentina, both as a Spanish colony and as an independent state, has exploited and persecuted indigenous populations. Many Argentines still deny the atrocities known as the “Dirty War.” Colonial Spain forced indigenous peoples off their lands to make way for Spanish settlers. After independence in 1816, successive governments continued this forced displacement of indigenous peoples. In the 1870s, President Julio Argentino Roca enacted the “Conquest of the Desert”, a military campaign that subjugated and enslaved Mapuche people living in the Pampas region and committed genocide against them. Some Argentines still view Roca as a “civilizing figure,” and the government continues to deny the Mapuche access to their land and cultural rights. In the late 19th century, during the Tierra del Fuego Gold Rush, European settlers, in concert with the Argentine and Chilean governments, systematically exterminated the Ona, Yaghan, and Haush peoples. The decimation of these indigenous populations is known today as the Selk’nam Genocide. From the late 1960s to the late 1980s, to curb the spread of communism in South America, the United States CIA organized Operation Condor in Argentina and neighbouring countries. The Argentine military Junta (1976-1983) detained, tortured, and murdered left-wing activists and other political opponents during the Guerra Sucia, or “Dirty War”. The Junta’s tactics included “disappearing” (i.e. murdering) an estimated 30,000 citizens, transferring stolen babies to military families, and using “Death Flights” to drop dissidents into the sea. Civilian rule returned to Argentina in 1983. Shortly thereafter, the democratically elected Raúl Alfonsín administration began criminal trials against nine leaders of the Junta. Only five were convicted. A truth and reconciliation commission published the shocking Nunca Más report that detailed over 8,000 disappearances and uncovered more than 300 detention prisons. The Full Stop Law of 1986 stopped the trials. In 1989 - 1990, President Menem pardoned the generals who had been convicted. In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled the Full Stop Law unconstitutional. Only one police officer has been tried and convicted since. His main accuser was later "disappeared." Due to continuing denial of the extent of the Junta’s crimes during the Dirty War and the continuing discrimination against indigenous peoples, Genocide Watch considers Argentina to be at Stage 3: Discrimination and Stage 10: Denial. Genocide Watch Recommends: • Argentina should resume trials of surviving perpetrators of the Dirty War. • As recommended in the 1983 National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, Argentina should pay reparations to families of victims of the Dirty War. • A memorial museum should be built in Buenos Aires dedicated to victims of the Dirty War. • The Argentine government should implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect the land and culture of indigenous Argentine communities.

By Helen Davidson | The Guardian 15 August 2021 End of Civil Human Rights Front comes days after police suggested its past rallies may have violated national security law. Former convener of the Civil Human Rights Front Figo Chan is taken to a Hong Kong court for sentencing in May. Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images A major civil society group that was behind some of Hong Kong’s biggest protests has disbanded under increasing pressure from police. The Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) announced its closure on Sunday, saying no members were willing to perform secretariat duties after its convenor, Figo Chan Ho-wun, was jailed for 18 months over a 2019 rally. The 19-year-old umbrella organisation, which in the past had counted numerous political parties as members, has been a significant presence or organiser of protests in Hong Kong. For successive years it ran the annual 1 July protests, until authorities began to systematically deny permission to it and other rallies, citing the coronavirus. “In the course of over a year, the government continuously used the pandemic as a reason to reject the demonstration applications of CHRF and other groups – each member group was oppressed, and civil society was facing unprecedented challenges,” CHRF said in a statement reported by local media. “CHRF originally hoped to continue to face the challenge with everyone in the existing ways, but convenor Figo Chan is already in jail because of several cases, and the secretariat can no longer maintain its operations. With no members participating in the next secretariat, we can only begrudgingly announce our disbandment.” Chan, 25, was jailed in May alongside other high profile Hong Kong activists Lee Cheuk-yan, Jimmy Lai, Albert Ho and Leung “Long Hair” Kwok-hung, over their involvement in a protest on 1 October 2019, one of the hundreds of pro-democracy rallies held in Hong Kong that year, but which coincided with China’s National Day. That protest saw violent clashes and chaos on the streets, with police using teargas and water cannon against protesters, some of whom threw molotov cocktails and lit fires. An 18-year-old student was shot point-blank by a police officer. The disbandment came just days after the police chief suggested that past rallies organised by the CHRF may have violated the national security law, despite the CHRF obtaining permits and repeated reassurances from authorities that the 13-month old law is not retroactive. Police have been investigating CHRF’s finances since April, and on Sunday the South China Morning Post cited a government-connected source saying police would continue to pursue the group regardless of its dissolution. In its Sunday statement CHRF thanked the people of Hong Kong for walking with them over the past two decades, which “allowed the world to see Hong Kong, allowed light to shine through darkness, and had sown the seed of democracy and freedom in people’s hearts”. CHRF’s disbandment comes just days after Hong Kong’s largest teachers union also announced it was disbanding. Civil society and community groups are under increasing political pressure in the city, where authorities are continuing to crack down on anything which could be interpreted as dissent or anti-Beijing sentiment. Last month, five members of a speech therapists’ union were arrested over the publication of children’s books about sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village. The books, which reportedly sought to explain the democracy movement to children, were accused of being seditious content. The disbandment of the CHRF and the teachers union followed successive articles in China’s state media targeting the organisations. “For any anti-China and trouble-making forces, it’s just a matter of time for them to court their own ruin,” China’s top state media People’s Daily said on Tuesday. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

AFP FILE - A man leads his herd of cattle in Manoua, Cameroon. N’DJAMENA (Reuters) -Around 11,000 people fleeing clashes between herders and fishermen in northern Cameroon arrived in neighbouring Chad at the weekend, a provincial governor in Chad said on Monday. About 20 people have been killed in what officials say is Cameroon’s worst ethnic violence in recent memory. Clashes broke out last week between fishermen and herders from different ethnic groups over a dispute about holes the fishermen dug in the ground. “Yesterday, our social services received nearly 11,000 refugees who came with almost nothing. They don’t have bedding, a change of clothes or food,” Gayang Souare, the governor of Chari Baguirmi province in northwestern Chad, told Reuters. “There are wounded among them who require immediate medical care and children who are without their parents,” he said, adding that local capacity to provide for the refugees was quickly being overwhelmed. The violence in Cameroon’s Far North region is taking place in a zone where the army has for years been battling Boko Haram and, more recently, militants linked to Islamic State. Local officials say it is the worst ethnic violence they have seen, with one of the reasons being that residents have acquired weapons in recent years in response to insecurity caused by Boko Haram and local bandits. Reporting by Mahamat Ramadane; Writing by Cooper Inveen and Aaron Ross, Editing by Timothy Heritage. © 2021 Reuters.

Rival armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are carrying out horrific sexual attacks against women and girls, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Friday. This mother of five decided to move from Tanganyika, DRC. (IOM/Lauriane Wolfe) The alert was prompted by what UNHCR has called “widespread and systematic” abuse in Tanganyika province, where thousands of people have been internally displaced this year, often many times. “Some women and girls have been abducted and used as sex slaves by armed group members”, spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told journalists in Geneva. ‘Horrific violence’ The UNHCR spokesperson explained that in just the past two weeks, humanitarian partners in the Kongolo and Mbulula health zones, have recorded 243 incidents of rape, 48 of which involved minors, in 12 different villages. Noting that the actual figures are thought to be even higher, as reporting of gender-based violence remains taboo in most communities, she said that amounted to an average of 17 reported attacks per day. “Our staff have heard horrific testimonies of extreme violence”. In addition to the huge physical and psychological trauma from being raped, survivors of sexual violence can face stigma and possible exclusion from their families. Rival armed groups Since May, more than 23,000 people have been displaced in northern Tanganyika’s Kongolo Territory alone, according to local authorities. And most have fled insecurity multiple times in the past three months. As of last month, UN estimates reveal that insecurity and violence have uprooted nearly 310,000 people, and are currently displaced in Tanganyika Province. According to the UNHCR spokesperson, rival armed groups responsible for the attacks were competing for control of mining areas – especially gold mines – and the abuse was linked to retaliation for Government-led military operations. “Forcibly displaced persons have accused armed groups of carrying out mass rape as women attempt to flee their homes”, she said, adding that “ransoms have been demanded from families in exchange for their freedom”. ‘Triangle of death’ While the UN agency remains committed to helping the survivors, ongoing violence and the need to travel long distances for care at medical centres are hampering its work. To protect civilians, especially women and girls, UNHCR is calling on the authorities to urgently scale up security in the so-called “triangle of death” – an area bordering several localities between Tanganyika, Maniema, and South Kivu Provinces. The move would also allow humanitarian access as well as for investigations to be launched and perpetrators to be brought to justice. “Humanitarian and protection needs are growing and UNHCR is seeking further financial support”, Ms. Mantoo said, informing the journalists that only 36 per cent of the $205 million required for DRC operation has been received. © 2021 UN News

By CARA ANNA NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A militant leader in Ethiopia says his group has struck a military alliance with the Tigray forces now pressing toward the country’s capital, as the conflict that erupted in the Tigray region last year spreads into other parts of Africa’s second-most populous country. FILE - On this Tuesday, June 29, 2021 file photo, Tigray forces ride in a truck after taking control of Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. (AP Photo, File) “The only solution now is overthrowing this government militarily, speaking the language they want to be spoken to,” Oromo Liberation Army leader Kumsa Diriba, also known as Jaal Marroo, told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday. The alliance is a further sign of the broadening of the Tigray conflict that began in November after a political fallout between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray leaders who had dominated Ethiopia’s government for nearly three decades. Thousands have been killed in the nine-month war that has been marked by widespread allegations by ethnic Tigrayans of gang-rapes, man-made famine and mass expulsions by Ethiopian and allied forces. The OLA leader said the agreement was reached a few weeks ago after the Tigray forces proposed it. “We have agreed on a level of understanding to cooperate against the same enemy, especially in military cooperation,” Diriba said. “It is underway.” They share battlefield information and fight in parallel, he said, and while they’re not fighting side by side, “there is a possibility it might happen.” Talks are underway on a political alliance as well, he said, and asserted that other groups in Ethiopia are involved in similar discussions: “There’s going to be a grand coalition against (Abiy’s) regime.” The alliance brings together the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, who had been front and center in Ethiopia’s repressive government but were sidelined when Abiy took office in 2018, and the OLA, which last year broke away from the opposition party Oromo Liberation Front and seeks self-determination for the Oromo people. The Oromo are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group. Ethiopia’s government earlier this year declared both the TPLF and OLA terrorist organizations. Tigray forces spokesman Getachew Reda told the AP last week that “yes, we’re working with some people” in pursuit of a political arrangement but didn’t give details. “We want to work with anyone not implicated in the genocidal campaign Abiy Ahmed has waged,” he said. There was no comment from the spokeswoman for Abiy’s office. The OLA leader spoke a day after the prime minister called on all capable Ethiopians to join the military and stop the Tigray forces “once and for all” after they retook much of the Tigray region in recent weeks and crossed into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions. The Tigray forces spokesman has told the AP they are fighting to secure their long-blockaded region but if Abiy’s government topples, “that’s icing on the cake.” With access to parts of Ethiopia increasingly restricted and journalists often harassed, it is difficult to tell how citizens will respond to the prime minister’s call, or whether they will join the fight against him. The government has supported large military recruiting rallies in recent weeks. The Tigray leaders embittered many Ethiopians during their nearly three decades in power by putting in place a system of ethnic federalism that led to ethnic tensions that continue to simmer in the country of 110 million people. Diriba acknowledged that agreeing to the Tigray forces’ proposal for an alliance took some thought. “There were so many atrocities committed” against the Oromo people during the TPLF’s time in power, he said, and the problems it created have never been resolved. But the OLA decided it was possible to work together, he said, though some doubts remain. “I hope the TPLF has learned a lesson,” he said. “I don’t think the TPLF will commit the same mistakes unless they’re out of their mind.” If they do, there will be chaos in Ethiopia and it could collapse as a state, he said. It was not clear how many fighters the OLA would bring to the alliance. “This, madam, is a military secret,” its leader said. He said he hoped the TPLF’s talks with other groups would become public in the near future. He also warned the international community, which led by the United Nations and the United States has urged a halt to the Tigray conflict and negotiations, that the crisis has to be handled carefully “if Ethiopia is to continue together.” © copyright 2021 The Associated Press.

The joint letter sent by Refugees International and 82 other NGOs noted that a UN fact-finding mission in Sept. 2019 had found a pattern of conduct suggesting 'genocidal intent' by Myanmar to destroy the Rohingya. Rohingya families gather near makeshift shelters in Myanmar's Rakhine state, July 4, 2021. (AFP) More than 80 human rights organizations on Tuesday urged U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to declare that Burmese authorities committed genocide against the stateless Rohingya minority, as the fourth anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar into Bangladesh approaches. In a joint letter to America’s top diplomat, the groups called on the United States to come out with such a declaration about alleged atrocities that took place in Rakhine state, the home of the Rohingya, when the Burmese military launched an offensive there after deadly raids by Rohingya insurgents on police and army outposts in August 2017. “[A]s the fourth anniversary of the brutal campaign against the Rohingya approaches – and with the ongoing risk of further atrocities – we urge you to publicly announce your determination and to refer to the crimes by their proper name: crimes against humanity and genocide,” Refugees International and the other groups wrote, referring to the offensive launched in the wake of the rebel attacks on Aug. 25, 2017. Neither the Trump administration, which was in power then, nor the new Joe Biden administration have publicly declared what happened in Rakhine at the time as genocide or crimes against humanity. However, U.S. government officials have issued statements condemning the violence that took place and caused nearly three-quarters of a million Rohingya to seek shelter in neighboring Bangladesh. In November 2017, then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated that “After a careful and thorough analysis of available facts, it is clear that the situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.” As a result of the massive influx of refugees, Cox’s Bazar and nearby areas in southeastern Bangladesh are home to about 1 million Rohingya refugees. While Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to repatriate the Rohingya within months of the crackdown, those efforts have failed. That prospect dimmed in February when the Burmese military overthrew the government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi that had won last year’s general election. “The Feb. 1st coup by the same military that perpetrated abuses against the Rohingya, and the ongoing abuses by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya, other ethnic groups and the Burmese population in general, only underscore the importance of recognizing the military’s past crimes against the Rohingya for what they are,” the rights groups told Blinken. “The military coup places an increased urgency on this request as the last trappings of democratic restraints on the military are pulled away. The military’s actions are already greatly exacerbating the COVID pandemic and a growing humanitarian crisis.” A U.S. determination of genocide and crimes against humanity would subject the Myanmar government and its military to “much needed” international scrutiny, the rights groups said. They pointed out that along with Rohingya, ethnic minority groups including the Chin, Karen, Kachin, Rakhine and Shan face increased risks of atrocities. “Such a determination would be wholly consistent with findings of the Department of State which concluded that the attacks on the Rohingya were ‘well-planned and coordinated’ and that they were ‘extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents,” the letter said, referring to an August 2018 report, titled “Documentation of Atrocities in Northern Rakhine State.” In a report to Congress on July 12, 2021, Blinken’s State Department said the Biden administration was “committed to promoting democratic values that underpin a stable international system critical to freedom, prosperity, and peace.” “This Administration will defend and protect human rights around the world, and recognizes the prevention of atrocities is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility,” the department said last month. Envoy’s visit Meanwhile during a visit to Bangladesh in April, John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy on climate, praised Dhaka for its “extraordinary” generosity in sheltering the Rohingya. He also described the post-coup situation is Myanmar as “one of the great moral challenges of the planet today.” “So the new administration, Secretary [of State] Tony Blinken, is very cognizant of this issue, and very focused on it, and I know that he and the administration are going to do everything in their power to try to restore democracy to Myanmar, and in the doing of that, to try to be able to help relieve the pressure and the challenges that the Rohingya represent,” Kerry said in response to a request by a reporter for BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. The joint letter sent by Refugees International and 82 other NGOs noted that, in September 2019, an independent U.N. fact-finding mission had found a pattern of conduct that “infers genocidal intent” by Myanmar to destroy the Rohingya. “Now is the time to use the words that fit the crimes. U.S. leadership matters. We call upon you to demonstrate the moral leadership and courage necessary to push global action in the face of genocide,” the letter concludes. Among the 83 signees are Genocide Watch, the Arakan Institute for Peace and Human Rights; the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights; the Jewish Rohingya Justice Network; Pusat KOMAS, Malaysia; the Burmese Rohingya Association of North America; and World Rohingya Organization. © Radio Free Asia

Sudan will hand longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court along with other officials wanted over the Darfur conflict, Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi said on Wednesday. Sudan's deposed president Omar al-Bashir stands in a defendant's cage during the opening of his corruption trial in Khartoum on August 19, 2019. Ebrahim HAMID AFP/File Sudan will hand longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court along with other officials wanted over the Darfur conflict, Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi said on Wednesday. The "cabinet decided to hand over wanted officials to the ICC," Mahdi was quoted as saying by state media. Bashir, who ruled Sudan with an iron fist for three decades before being deposed amid popular protests in 2019, faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced in the conflict, which erupted in the vast western region in 2003. Bashir, 77, has been wanted by the ICC since 2009, when it issued a warrant for his arrest. The decision to hand him over came during a visit to Sudan by ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan. Sudan has been led since August 2019 by a transitional civilian-military administration that has vowed to bring justice to victims of crimes committed under Bashir. Khartoum signed a peace deal last October with key Darfuri rebel groups, with some of their leaders taking top jobs in government, although violence continues to dog the region. The Darfur war broke out in 2003 when non-Arab rebels took up arms complaining of systematic discrimination by Bashir's Arab-dominated government. Khartoum responded by unleashing the notorious Janjaweed militia, recruited from among the region's nomadic peoples. Human rights groups have long accused Bashir and his former aides of using a scorched earth policy, raping, killing, looting and burning villages. Last year, alleged senior Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb, surrendered to the court. ICC judges said in July he would be the first suspect to be tried over the Darfur conflict, facing 31 counts including murder, rape and torture. © 2021 AFP

Forces aligned to the Ethiopian government subjected hundreds of women and girls to sexual violence. Rape and sexual slavery constitute war crimes, and may amount to crimes against humanity. Women and girls in Tigray were targeted for rape and other sexual violence by fighting forces aligned to the Ethiopian government, Amnesty International said today in a new report into the ongoing Tigray conflict. The report, ‘I Don't Know If They Realized I Was A Person’: Rape and Other Sexual Violence in the Conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, reveals how women and girls were subjected to sexual violence by members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), the Eritrean Defense Force (EDF), the Amhara Regional Police Special Force (ASF), and Fano, an Amhara militia group. Women who fled the conflict in Tigray pray at a church near Umm Rakouba refugee camp in Qadarif, eastern Sudan, last November. Photograph: Nariman El-Mofty/AP © 2021 Guardian News Soldiers and militias subjected Tigrayan women and girls to rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation and other forms of torture, often using ethnic slurs and death threats. “It’s clear that rape and sexual violence have been used as a weapon of war to inflict lasting physical and psychological damage on women and girls in Tigray. Hundreds have been subjected to brutal treatment aimed at degrading and dehumanizing them,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “The severity and scale of the sexual crimes committed are particularly shocking, amounting to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. It makes a mockery of the central tenets of humanity. It must stop. “The Ethiopian government must take immediate action to stop members of the security forces and allied militia from committing sexual violence, and the African Union should spare no effort to ensure the conflict is tabled at the AU Peace and Security Council.” The Ethiopian authorities should also grant access to the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights Commission of Inquiry, and the UN Secretary General should urgently send his Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict to Tigray. Amnesty International interviewed 63 survivors of sexual violence, as well as medical professionals. Twenty-eight survivors identified Eritrean forces as the sole perpetrators of rape. Widespread sexual violence The pattern of acts of sexual violence, with many survivors also witnessing rape of other women, indicates that sexual violence was widespread and intended to terrorize and humiliate the victims and their ethnic group. Twelve survivors said soldiers and militia raped them in front of family members, including children. Five were pregnant at the time. Letay*, a 20-year-old woman from Baaker, told Amnesty International she was attacked in her home in November 2020 by armed men who spoke Amharic and wore a mixture of military uniforms and civilian clothing. She said: “Three men came into the room where I was. It was evening and already dark… I did not scream; they gestured to me not to make any noise or they would kill me. They raped me one after the other… I was four months pregnant; I don’t know if they realized I was pregnant. I don’t know if they realized I was a person.” Nigist*, a 35-year-old mother-of-two from Humera said she and four other women were raped by Eritrean soldiers in Sheraro on 21 November 2020. She said: “Three of them raped me in front of my child. There was an eight-months pregnant lady with us, they raped her too… They gathered like a hyena that saw something to eat… They raped the women and slaughtered the men.” Health facilities in Tigray registered 1,288 cases of gender-based violence from February to April 2021. Adigrat Hospital recorded 376 cases of rape from the beginning of the conflict to 9 June 2021. However, many survivors told Amnesty International they had not visited health facilities, suggesting these figures represent only a small fraction of rapes in the context of the conflict. Survivors still suffer significant physical and mental health complications. Many complained of physical trauma such as continued bleeding, back pain, immobility and fistula. Some tested positive for HIV after being raped. Sleep deprivation, anxiety and emotional distress are common among survivors and family members who witnessed the violence. Sexual slavery and intention to humiliate Twelve survivors said they were held captive for days and often weeks, and repeatedly raped, in most cases by several men. Some were held in military camps, others in houses or grounds in rural areas. Tseday*, 17, told Amnesty International that she was abducted by eight Eritrean soldiers in Zebangedena and held captive for two weeks. She said: “They took me to a rural area, in a field. There were many soldiers; I was raped by eight of them… Usually, they went out to guard the area in two shifts. When four of them went out, the rest stayed and raped me.” Blen*, a 21-year-old from Bademe, said she was abducted by Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers on 5 November 2020, and held for 40 days alongside an estimated 30 other women. She said: “They raped us and starved us. They were too many who raped us in rounds. We were around 30 women they took... All of us were raped.” Eight women also told how they had been raped by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers and associated militia near the border with Sudan, as they sought shelter. Two survivors had large nails, gravel, and other types of metal and plastic shrapnel inserted into their vaginas, causing lasting and possibly irreparable damage. Soldiers and militia repeatedly sought to humiliate their victims, frequently using ethnic slurs, insults, threats, and degrading comments. Several survivors interviewed by Amnesty International said that the rapists had told them, “This is what you deserve” and “You are disgusting”. Lack of support for survivors Survivors and witnesses told Amnesty International that they received limited or no psychosocial and medical support since they arrived in the internally displaced persons camps in the town of Shire in Ethiopia, or in refugee camps in Sudan. Survivors also suffered because medical facilities were destroyed and restrictions imposed on the movement of people and goods, which hindered access to medical care. Victims and their families said they are short of food, shelter and clothes due to the limited humanitarian aid. Reports of sexual violence were mostly hidden from the outside world during the first two months of the conflict that began in November 2020, largely because of access restrictions imposed by the Ethiopian government and the communications blackout. “On top of their suffering and trauma, survivors have been left without adequate support. They must be able to access the services they need and are entitled to – including medical treatment, livelihood assistance, mental healthcare and psychosocial support – which are essential aspects of a survivor-centred response,” said Agnès Callamard. “We must see all allegations of sexual violence effectively, independently and impartially investigated to ensure survivors receive justice, and an effective reparation program must be established. All parties to the conflict should also ensure unfettered humanitarian access.” Methodology Between March and June 2021, Amnesty International interviewed 63 survivors of rape and other sexual violence; 15 in person in Sudan, and 48 remotely on secure telephone lines. Amnesty International also interviewed medical professionals and humanitarian workers involved in treating or assisting survivors in the towns of Shire and Adigrat, and in refugee camps in Sudan, about the scale of sexual violence and for corroborating information on specific cases. In May, the Ethiopian authorities announced that three Ethiopian soldiers had been convicted and 25 others indicted for rape and other acts of sexual violence. However, no information has been made available about these trials, or other measures to investigate and to bring those responsible to justice. Amnesty International wrote to Ethiopia’s Office of the Prime Minister, the Office of the Federal Attorney General and the Minister of Women, Children and Youth, to Eritrea’s Information Minister and a senior advisor to President Isaias Afwerki on 26 July 2021 requesting a response to the organization’s preliminary research findings, but had not received a reply at the time of publication. Since fighting began in the region on 4 November 2020, thousands of civilians have been killed, hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced within Tigray, and tens of thousands of refugees have fled to Sudan. Note: *Names have been changed. © Amnesty International 2021.

10 August 2021 | Reuters Taliban insurgents tightened their grip on captured Afghan territory on Tuesday as civilians hid in their homes, and a European Union official said the militants now control 65% of the country after a string of gains as foreign forces pull out. President Ashraf Ghani called on regional strongmen to support his government, while a U.N. official said advances made in human rights in the 20 years since the hardline Islamists were ousted from power were in danger of being erased. In the capital Kabul, Ghani's aides said he was seeking help from regional militias he has squabbled with over the years to rally to the defense of his government. He had also appealed to civilians to defend Afghanistan's "democratic fabric". In the town of Aibak, capital of Samangan province on the main road between the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul, Taliban fighters were consolidating their control, moving into government buildings, residents said. Most government security forces appeared to have withdrawn. "The only way is self-imposed house arrest or to find a way to leave for Kabul," said Sher Mohamed Abbas, a provincial tax officer, when asked about living conditions in Aibak. "But then even Kabul is not a safe option anymore," said Abbas, the sole bread winner for a family of nine. Abbas said the Taliban had arrived at his office and told workers to go home. He and other residents said they had neither seen nor heard fighting on Tuesday. For years, the north was the most peaceful part of the country with an only minimal Taliban presence. The militants' strategy appears to be to take the north, as well as the main border crossings in the north, west and south, and then close in on Kabul. The Taliban, battling to defeat the U.S-backed government and reimpose strict Islamic law, swept into Aibak on Monday meeting little resistance. Taliban forces now control 65% of Afghan territory, are threatening to take 11 provincial capitals and are trying to deprive Kabul of its traditional support from national forces in the north, a senior EU official said on Tuesday. The government has withdrawn forces from hard-to-defend rural districts to focus on holding major population centres, while officials have appealed for pressure on neighbouring Pakistan to stop Taliban reinforcements and supplies flowing over the porous border. Pakistan denies backing the Taliban. The United States has been carrying out air strikes in support of government troops but said it was up to Afghan forces to defend their country. "It's their struggle," John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters on Monday. An internally displaced child from northern provinces, who fled from his home due the fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces, sleeps in a public park that they use as shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 10, 2021.REUTERS/Stringer Taliban and government officials have confirmed that the Islamists have overrun six provincial capitals in recent days in the north, west and south. Security forces in Pul-e-Khumri, capital of Baghlan province, to the southeast of Aibak, were surrounded as the Taliban closed in on the town at a main junction on the road to Kabul, a security official said. Gulam Bahauddin Jailani, head of the national disaster authority, told Reuters there was fighting in 25 of the 34 provinces and 60,000 families had been displaced over the past two months, with most seeking refuge in Kabul. About 400,000 Afghans have been displaced in recent months and there has been an increase in numbers of people fleeing to Iran over the past 10 days, the EU official said. Six EU member states warned the bloc's executive against halting deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers arriving in Europe despite major Taliban advances, fearing a possible replay of a 2015-16 crisis over the chaotic arrival of more than one million migrants, mainly from the Middle East. A resident of Farah, the capital and largest city of Farah province in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran, said the Taliban had taken the governor's compound and there was heavy fighting between Taliban and government forces. Civilians said the Taliban had captured all key government buildings in the city. U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said reports of violations that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity were emerging, including "deeply disturbing reports" of the summary execution of surrendering government troops. "People rightly fear that a seizure of power by the Taliban will erase the human rights gains of the past two decades,” she said. The Taliban, ousted in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, appeared to be in a position to advance from different directions on Mazar-i-Sharif. Its fall would deal a devastating blow to Ghani's government. Atta Mohammad Noor, a northern militia commander, vowed to fight to the end, saying there would be "resistance until the last drop of my blood". "I prefer dying in dignity than dying in despair," he said on Twitter. India sent a flight to northern Afghanistan to take its citizens home, officials said, asking Indians to leave. The United States and Britain have already advised their citizens to leave Afghanistan. The United States will complete the withdrawal of its forces at the end of this month under a deal with the Taliban, which included the withdrawal of foreign forces in exchange for Taliban promises to prevent Afghanistan being used for international terrorism. The Taliban promised not to attack foreign forces as they withdraw but did not agree to a ceasefire with the government. © 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved

© 2021 BBC Bullet holes are seen after a battle between the CJNG and Los Viagras cartels in Aguililla (Photo AFP via Getty Images) Men claiming to speak for Mexico's most powerful drug cartel have released a video threatening to murder a prominent female news anchor over what they deem to be unfair coverage. The warning was made by a man who said it was on behalf of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG). He complained that Milenio Television was favouring so-called self-defence groups organised to resist the CJNG. In the video, journalist Azucena Uresti is threatened directly. "I will make you eat your words even if they accuse me of femicide," the masked speaker, who is surrounded by six heavily armed men, warns. He accuses Ms Uresti and the Milenio network of being biased in their coverage of the battle between the cartel and vigilante groups. Ms Uresti is one of the best-known TV anchors in Mexico and presents Milenio TV's nightly news programme. She gained further visibility when she anchored some of the presidential debates ahead of the 2018 election and was widely praised for her questions to the candidates. Groups representing journalists have come out in her support and demanded that the government offer her protection. Speaking during his daily morning news conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that Ms Uresti "was not alone". The president said the threatened journalist "could count on us" without providing further details of what the government would do to protect her. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist. But while attacks on local reporters are common, such public warnings are rare. In the past weeks, there have been fierce battles between members of the CJGN and vigilante groups in the state of Michoacán for control of the region west of the capital, Mexico City. The vigilantes say they have taken up arms to defend themselves against the cartel whose leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, is one of the country's most-wanted men. The US is offering a $10m (£7.2m) reward for information leading to his capture. But the groups are controversial. Some analysts say they often turn criminal themselves or act as a cover for rival criminal groups. The area has been the scene of clashes between vigilantes and gangs for years but in recent weeks the gun battles have been particularly fierce and sometimes lasted for days. Ms Uresti interviewed one of the vigilantes involved in the fight for control of the town of Ecatepec earlier this month. The vigilante alleged that the CJNG would "kill everyone" in the town if they managed to defeat those defending it. But in the video, the masked man alleges that the vigilante groups are in fact drug traffickers themselves and extort money from the local population.