Palestinian refugees in Lebanon demonstrate to return to Palestine photo credit: Mideast Eye By Tala Ramadan 1 June 2021 In-depth: Despite rallies and widespread solidarity with Gaza and Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon continue to face endemic discrimination. The 11-day Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip, which killed at least 254 Palestinians, united Arab public opinion in condemnation. The escalation in violence, which began with protests in Jerusalem against the forced displacement of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, saw an outpouring of support across the Middle East, including border marches in Jordan and Lebanon, echoing international solidarity rallies. In Beirut, hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinians marched together to protest the Israeli bombardments, while social media was aflame in support of the Palestinian cause. But for many Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, this outburst of solidarity sharply contrasts with the restrictions and discrimination they continue to face in the country. "Genuine solidarity with Palestine means ending the suffering and discrimination against Palestinians living in camps and ghettos" “What we saw on social media was a great act of solidarity, but we need to do it for Palestinians who are physically closer to us and are with us, Palestinians who are living in our country,” Nasser Yassin, the Director of Research at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, told The New Arab. Despite hosting a large population of Palestinians since the 1948 Nakba, and having endured an Israeli occupation itself, Lebanon's efforts toward justice for Palestinians have been minimal, both at the state and grassroots levels. “I rarely saw any Lebanese outlets commenting on the violence in Gaza, and while I spotted some local outlets posting and supporting, the comments took a different turn,” Manal Makkieh, a Palestinian social worker, journalist, and activist in Lebanon, told The New Arab. A child in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila. [Getty] “Most people were not supporting the cause, claiming that the Lebanese themselves too are going through a crisis”. When Palestinians were forcibly displaced during the establishment of the Israeli state they settled in Lebanon in makeshift shelters. Today, the community of 207,000 lives in 12 UN refugee camps across the country, often in dire conditions. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are legally barred from as many as 39 professions, including law, medicine, and engineering, where membership of professional syndicates is required. They cannot own property and are also denied access to state medical facilities, with their survival almost entirely dependent on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides housing, healthcare, and education. “Genuine solidarity with Palestine means ending the suffering and discrimination against Palestinians living in camps and ghettos, surrounded by security checkpoints, denied the right of movement, ownership, social security, ability to work, and other fundamental rights,” Mohamad Chiblak, a Palestinian activist in Lebanon, told The New Arab. The most vulnerable, including Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria’s war, also get financial assistance to buy food and other necessities. "Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are legally barred from as many as 39 professions, including law, medicine, and engineering" Given the current economic crisis in Lebanon, most Palestinian refugees have found themselves slipping further into poverty. “Even before the crisis began, 65% of Palestinians were below the poverty line, so you can imagine by now almost all of them are rendered into poverty,” Yassin told The New Arab. The pandemic has also had an outsized impact on Palestinian refugees. According to the latest UN figures, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are three times more likely to die with Covid-19 than the population as a whole. Lebanese protesters take part in a demonstration in support of Palestinians on 18 May 2021 in Beirut. [Getty] Yet, because of construction constraints in the camps and restrictions on owning property, Palestinian continue to live in overcrowded housing which is slowly decaying. Last month, 200 protesters marched from Beirut's Mar Elias Palestinian refugee camp to the nearby Shatila camp in support of Sheikh Jarrah, shouting slogans such as "Not east, not west, all of Quds is Arab.” During the same week, Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians marched to the Israeli border, proudly waving Palestinian flags while others waved political party flags. Many Palestinians, however, were barred from attending the protests on the southern border by Lebanese authorities, with the ones that made it had to get official permission and go through security screenings. "Some of these Lebanese political parties have been in parliament and the cabinet over the past two decades. They have done nothing to enhance the lives of Palestinian refugees living for over 70 years in Lebanon" “I went to the demonstrations at the Lebanese borders with occupied Palestine. It was shocking for me to see the significant number of Lebanese political party flags that people carried,” Chiblak told The New Arab. “Some of these Lebanese political parties have been in parliament and the cabinet over the past two decades. They have done nothing to enhance the lives of Palestinian refugees living for over 70 years in Lebanon.” After rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel during the conflict in Gaza, anger erupted among some parts of the Lebanese political class, with historic animosity towards Palestinians resurfacing. Former parliamentarian with the Kataeb Party, Nadim Gemayel, warned that “Lebanon is neither a military base nor a missile platform for Palestinian factions or Iranian militias,” and demanded that the state and security services strike “with an iron fist, for Lebanon today cannot afford to repeat the experience of the 60s.” Such comments echo the anti-Palestinian and anti-refugee rhetoric of Lebanon’s senior politicians, including the president of the right-wing Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and former foreign minister Gebran Bassil, who has also regularly denigrated the presence of refugees, including Palestinians, in the country. Last year, Bassil said that Palestinian refugees hinder Lebanon’s ability to preserve “neutrality” on regional disputes, adding that this principle could be achieved by “removing unpredictable foreign elements at home,” a reference to both Syrian and Palestinian refugees. © 2021 The New Arab

Funeral of Nigerian Christian villagers massacred by Fulani jihadists Credit: Heritage Foundation The Epoch Times May 27, 2021 By Douglas Burton For 34-year-old conflict reporter Lawrence Zongo, Nigeria’s so-called “silent slaughter” struck too close to home this week. “On Monday, I helped bury my cousin, Wiki Moses, and her two small children,” he told The Epoch Times. She was among the 27 citizens of the Northern Plateau state who have fallen victim to terrorist attacks since May 21, he said. “Yesterday [March 24], I attended the burial of my friend, Mangawa Bulus, 32, a beloved gospel singer, who was killed that same day as he was returning with three others from a funeral. In my area of Miango, there were three people killed today. “It’s so dangerous that people don’t want to leave their homes.” Bulus and three friends were walking down a road on May 25 to their homes in Miango after a funeral for victims of the wave of Fulani jihadist slaughters in Plateau that began a week ago. “Suddenly Mangwa fell from a bullet wound to his neck,” Zongo said. “His friends solicited a motorbike from local residents and transported him to the hospital in Miango, but he passed away during the trip.” More than 60,000 Nigerians have lost their lives to attacks by Muslim terrorists since the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency surfaced in 2010. By the estimate of Anglican Archdeacon Hassan John, from Jos, the true number of fatalities is at least 500,000. In a podcast by the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) on May 26, Zongo reported that terrorist attacks over a broad swath of territory in the Northern Plateau are preventing farmers from going to their fields during the planting season, which may lead to significant food shortages. Attacks Zongo is among a handful of conflict reporters in Plateau state who rush toward the danger when they hear of terror attacks on hamlets occupied by unarmed farmers within a 50-mile radius of Jos, a metropolis. The police in the Jos area are more cautious. They did approach Dong Village in the North Jos Local Government Area on May 23 after hearing it was under attack by gunmen around 9:00 p.m., Police Commissioner Edward Egbuka told The Epoch Times. Although police could hear shooting in the village, which is 2 1/2 miles from the Rantiya Police Division headquarters, the officers feared going into the village until an armored personnel carrier could be secured, according to the commissioner, the top police official in the state. After the shooting stopped, police entered Dong between 10:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., but by then, the gunmen had left eight residents dead, including a family of 6. “The first responders had to wait for adequate resources to arrive; we needed the APC,” Egbuka told The Epoch Times on May 26. Asked if police could hear the shots from AK 47 rifles, Egbuka said: “The police could hear the shots, but they didn’t know what was going on. Look, you can’t expect the policemen to commit suicide.” A similar attack that same night was launched by gunmen in the Kwi community, an hour’s drive south of Jos in the Riyom Local Government Area. Seven residents were killed. Although the Maxwell Khobe army base is just over a mile from Dong, the Nigerian army didn’t arrive on the scene until 8:00 a.m. the next day, according to Solomon Dalyop, a human rights lawyer in Jos. “There is an army checkpoint barely 90 meters [295 feet] from Dong,” Dalyop told The Epoch Times. Despite the presence of the military and police on May 24, Fulani terrorists reentered the village after the burial of eight victims and began shooting, murdering three senior citizens who couldn’t run, according to Zongo. US State Department Criticized The gangs of gunmen are known by their victims as “herdsmen,” due to the fact that they’re ethnic members of the Fulani tribe, known for cattle herding. The U.S. Mission in Abuja has downplayed the sectarian motivation of the terrorists, who are known to be allies of the better-known insurgencies linked to ISIS, such as Boko Haram and ISWA, or the al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru. The U.S. Mission has attributed such killings to “communal clashes” or farmer-herder conflicts. The U.S. Department of State reports that “land disputes, competition over dwindling resources, ethnic differences, and settler-indigene tensions contributed to clashes between herdsmen and farmers throughout the north-central part of the country,” in its “2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria.” The position of the Nigerian police is that the marauding criminals are “bandits,” not jihadists. “I am not aware that there are any jihadists in Plateau State,” Commissioner Egbuka told The Epoch Times. But few of the families of the murder victims are under any such illusion. ICON has dubbed the rampant killings as Nigeria’s “silent slaughter,” because the atrocities are underreported by Western media and even local Nigerian media. A respected rights watcher has called out the U.S. State Department for inept diagnosis of the sectarian nature of what many are calling a genocide against Nigerian Christians. “The U.S. Ambassador in Nigeria and officials in the Africa bureau in the State Department are in denial,” Gregory Stanton, founding president of Genocide Watch and a former State Department official, told The Epoch Times. “They adhere to the ‘farmer versus herder’ explanation for the massacres, as though they have arisen out of traditional conflicts. In fact, these are genocidal massacres by Islamist Boko Haram, Fulani jihadists, and [ISWA] militias, against Christian civilians. “The Fulani jihadists are taking over land farmed for centuries by Christian villagers. We have strong evidence that the jihadists have deep support from inside the Nigerian army and police, which are led by Muslims from Northern Nigeria. Government support may go as high as the president of Nigeria, who is Fulani. “A full-scale U.N. commission of inquiry must be launched into these genocidal massacres. The investigation should also be pursued by the International Criminal Court. If the Nigerian government tries to block a U.N. commission of inquiry or an ICC investigation, it is evidence of Nigerian government complicity with the Fulani jihad,” said Dr. Stanton. Nina Shea, a religious freedom specialist at The Hudson Institute, said the Nigerian crisis warrants the label of “genocide.” “The government has allowed the Fulani to massacre, kidnap, and pillage with impunity, and for that, in 2020, they were designated a Country of Particular Concern under the U.S. International Religious Freedom Act, placing them among the world’s worst persecutors,” Shea told The Epoch Times. “Now there’s mounting evidence that high-level Fulani government officials are doing something far worse than giving their fellow tribesmen a pass. “The facts suggest that they are complicit in a ruthless demographic conquest of vast areas of the country, in which the presence of other ethnic and religious groups is targeted for eradication, and their communities, at least in part, destroyed. This development is a clear warning sign of genocide.” The Epoch Times © 2021

Soldiers have killed hundreds of civilians in Tigray | The Economist Photo credit: Getty Images Ethnic violence in Ethiopia has escalated since Genocide Watch issued an emergency alert in November 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic allowed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to consolidate his power. His term was extended, national elections were postponed twice, and emergency laws were proposed to restrict freedom of speech. The postponed 2020 elections will be held on June 21, 2021. Minorities within Ethiopian regions remain targeted by ethnic regional militias, particularly in the Oromia, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuuz, Afar, Somali, and Tigray regions. In Amhara and Oromia, tensions between majority and minority populations have resulted in massacres. The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) has targeted Amhara people in Oromia. On April 19, 2021, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency in the Amhara region and deployed federal forces. In Benishangul-Gumuz, the Gumuz militia has targeted ethnic Oromo, Shinasha, Amhara, and Agew minorities. On November 15, 2020, dozens were massacred in an attack on a bus in the region. Ethnic attacks killed 100 civilians in December 2020. On April 22, 2021, an armed group killed civilians and took control of Sedal Woreda county, home of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, near the border with Sudan. Sudan opposes Ethiopian government plans to rapidly fill the dam's reservoir. In Tigray, the war that broke out between the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Force (TPLF) and the Ethiopian government on November 4, 2020 continues. Ethiopian federal troops and Eritrean troops remain in the Tigray region. Ahmed and Eritrea’s President, Isaias Afwerki, are united in their belief that the TPLF is the enemy of their respective governments. Tigray is now victim to systematic violence with genocidal intent. As of April 2021, close to 2,000 victims of massacres of Tigrayans have been identified. On November 23, 2020, Eritrean troops massacred hundreds of Tigrayan people in Axum. ID cards in the Tigrayan language were replaced by ID's in Amharic. Mass rape by Eritrean and Ethiopian troops is weaponized and described as a “cleansing of blood lines”. Food insecurity affects 5.7 million people. Both Eritrean and Ethiopian troops have prevented delivery of humanitarian aid. As of April 2021, more than 62,000 Ethiopians sought refuge in Eastern Sudan because of the violence. On March 17, 2021, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the United Nations agreed to conduct a joint inquiry into the crimes against humanity being committed in Tigray. Genocide Watch considers Ethiopia to be at Stage 5: Organization and Stage 9: Extermination. Because Ethiopia denies allegations of genocidal massacres in Tigray, Genocide Watch also considers Ethiopia to be at Stage 10: Denial. Genocide Watch recommends: The U.S., E.U., and other providers of arms to Ethiopia should cut off all weapons sales. Eritrea should withdraw all of its military troops from Ethiopia immediately. The U.N., African Union, and U.S. should offer to broker a ceasefire between the warring parties in Ethiopia and bring them to the negotiation table to end this civil war. Genocidal massacres by the Oromo Liberation Army against Amhara, and by Eritrean and Ethiopian troops against Tigrayans must be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. The Ethiopian Constitution should be amended to remove the ethnic regions’ right of secession. Ethnic regional militias must be disbanded. Minority rights must be protected in ethnic states. Ethiopian diasporas in the U.S. and Europe should stop sending money to support ethnic war. The Ethiopian government should open Tigray to aid groups to distribute food and medicine. Ethiopian elections should not be postponed again, and they must be free and fair. © Genocide Watch, 2021

By Secunder Kermani BBC News, Islamabad Walking to the barber's one evening, Shafiq Ahmed began to suspect he was being followed. The 37-year-old lawyer and social media activist in Pakistan worried he was about to be abducted. A few seconds later, a group of men grabbed him and forced him into the backseat of a waiting car. The kidnapping in December 2019, in the eastern city of Okara, was captured on CCTV. Mr Ahmed can be seen desperately trying to fight back, while his attackers appear to threaten bystanders against intervening. After Mr Ahmed was bundled in the car, no-one would hear from him for weeks. He believes that the men who abducted him worked for Pakistan's intelligence services. Mr Ahmed was a forthright critic of the government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, as well as of the country's powerful military, which many allege plays a controlling role in politics from behind the scenes. Mr Ahmed's disappearance and torture appear to be part of a wider crackdown in the country on dissenting voices, designed to suppress allegations that Pakistan's military is interfering in the political system and helped manipulate the 2018 elections in Mr Khan's favour - allegations the military and Mr Khan deny. Speaking from the hospital room where he was recovering, Mr Ahmed told the BBC what happened after he disappeared from the frame on the CCTV footage. "They put handcuffs on and blindfolded me," he said. He was then taken to an unknown location. "They dragged me out of the car and threw me into a room and started torturing me. They didn't ask me anything, they just stripped me naked … and began beating me continuously with leather belts and wooden sticks, on my back and the soles of my feet." The beatings lasted for five to six days in small, windowless cell, Mr Ahmed said. He didn't think he would survive. "They told me, 'We will throw your body into the river.'" Video filmed by Mr Ahmed of his injuries after his release shows extensive bruising on his body. Since then, the crackdown appears to have only intensified. Last week, a journalist was tied up and beaten at gunpoint by men identifying themselves as members of Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI. In April, a commentator was shot and injured while walking in a park. Pakistan is currently ranked 145 out of 180 countries on a Press Freedom Index compiled by the charity Reporter's Without Borders. Neither the army nor the government responded to requests to comment from the BBC about allegations intelligence officers have targeted journalists and activists although the ISI has publicly denied involvement in last week's assault. According to Mr Ahmed, during his interrogation the men holding him asked: "Who is really behind the posts you put up on Facebook and Twitter?" "I told them, 'No-one is telling me to write them. I have my own independent beliefs about the importance of civilian rule.' But they weren't prepared to listen to me." He said he was also asked about who was "funding" him; and what his links were to other liberal activists and the Pashtun Protection Movement, which has held large demonstrations accusing the military of human rights abuses. It sounded to Mr Ahmed like his interrogators had printed copies of his social media posts. "I was blindfolded, but could hear pages turning as they said, 'What have you written here about the military spokesman? You've said this or that about the army chief and Prime Minister - why are you criticising them?'" Pakistan censorship: 'Hovering above the mute button' Why a media mogul was arrested in Pakistan Mr Ahmed had been targeted before in a similar fashion. In April 2019, he was formally accused of uploading "defamatory posts against Agencies of Pakistan", but the court case against him stalled. Then in June he was abducted, beaten, and warned to stop his social media activity before being dumped by a road around 50km away from his home in the early hours of the morning, he said. Prior to letting him go, he said, his abductors shot a video of him while he was naked, forcing him to declare: "I won't criticise anyone on social media again." He alleges that they threatened to make the video viral and then kill him if he resumed his activism. When he did just that, he was detained again in December, this time for two weeks. Pressing mute on dissent Others have apparently also been targeted for their online activity. The journalist Asad Ali Toor began posting videos on YouTube to bypass the largely unofficial censorship on what local TV channels can broadcast. Most "live" TV political talk shows in Pakistan are in fact transmitted with a slight delay, allowing producers to mute guests who stray too far in their criticism. In one programme last year, a commentator was even muted while criticising the lack of press freedom in the country. A legal notice was filed against Mr Toor for using "derogatory language" about the army. The case was dismissed in court in November, but last Tuesday three men barged into his apartment in Islamabad, Mr Toor told the BBC. After tying him up, one of the men began hammering violently on his elbows with a pistol, Mr Toor said. When the BBC visited his home, there were bloodstains on the floor of his bedroom. Mr Toor said the men forced him chant, "Long Live the ISI, Long Live the Pakistani Army." CCTV later captured him staggering out of the apartment and collapsing. Police are investigating the case. The ISI has denied involvement, describing the allegations as a "conspiracy". Anger as video shows Pakistan reporter's abduction The women fighting for digital equality When the BBC approached Pakistan's Information Minister Fawad Chaudry to ask about the alleged attacks on journalists and activists, he said he would only agree to an interview if the BBC also devoted a programme to Pakistan's "great success in war against Covid," dismissing media coverage of the issue as being agenda driven. Press freedom has long been a problem in Pakistan, but the situation appears to be deteriorating under Prime Minister Imran Khan. He has dismissed allegations of attacks on the Pakistani press as a "joke" and claimed he faces "unprecedented criticism" from the media. Some government figures have condemned individual incidents, but the same officials have also frequently attempted to downplay abductions and assaults, suggesting the intelligence services are not to blame. In an interview with the BBC's Hardtalk programme, Information Minister Mr Chaudry claimed that there was a "history" of people "using" the name of the intelligence agencies in order to get asylum abroad. Despite CCTV evidence, no culprits have been identified in a host of previous incidents. In April, Absar Alam, a prominent commentator survived a shooting by an unknown gunman, and last year an established journalist, Matiullah Jan, was abducted for a number of hours by unidentified men. Many in Pakistan bitterly joke that "everyone knows" who such "unknown" figures really are. Leading TV anchor Hamid Mir, shot twice in 2014, told the BBC, "We are losing our freedom very fast". After making a fiery speech at a protest last week, criticising the military and calling for an end to attacks on journalists, Mr Mir was taken off air. Opposition politicians do regularly appear on Pakistani TV. But a leading media analyst, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the BBC he believed they were permitted in order to retain a superficial appearance of democratic values, but that clear "red lines" existed that must not be crossed. Among those red lines, undoubtedly the most sensitive is criticism of the army, which has ruled Pakistan directly for nearly half of its existence, and is widely believed to continue to play a key role in politics. When Gulalai Ismail, an award-winning women's activist, joined the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM), which strongly criticised the military's record on human rights, she was accused of "anti-state" remarks. She has alleged that intelligence agents tortured people close to her in an effort to track her down and arrest her. In fear of her life, Ms Gulalai fled the country in 2019, seeking asylum in the US. But her elderly parents remain in Pakistan. Despite being well known for their liberal and progressive views, they have been charged with providing support for deadly terrorist attacks by extremist groups. Ms Ismail described the court case as an example of "collective punishment". The aim, she said, was to demonstrate "that if parents are to raise a daughter who will speak truth to power … then this will be the fate. Not just the daughter will suffer but the parents will also suffer". The increasing pressure on those who criticise the government has coincided with a push by Pakistani officials to improve the country's troubled relations with its external neighbours. That includes a role in helping persuade the Afghan Taliban to reach a negotiated settlement, and jailing a number of anti-India militant figures. Some, like Ms Gulalai, worry that those developments, coupled with the global aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, will lead western countries to largely "turn a blind eye" to domestic human rights abuses by the state. Shafiq Ahmed, the lawyer and social media activist, said he was being hounded by intelligence agents to such an extent that clients no longer approach him for work and neighbours in his hometown are afraid of being associated with him. But he vowed to continue speaking out. "How long can I just sit here silently?" he said. See article here. © 2021 BBC News

Rockets being fired from the Gaza strip into Israel © JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images The current conflict between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza has caused hundreds of civilian deaths. The threat is compounded by an eruption of religious violence between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel. Both the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas are committing war crimes. Since May 10, Hamas has launched mointo Israel. Hamas rockets have killed 12 Israeli civilians, including two children. Hamas taregets civilian areas, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol II, Article 13. Israel was created by the United Nations and has a right to defend itself. Israel has responded to Hamas rockets with bombing that targets Hamas leaders and tunnels. Nighttime bombing without evacuation warnings to civilians violates Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol I, Article 51 (5b). Despite IDF claims that it seeks to minimize civilian casualties, the civilian death toll in Gaza has now reached 212 in May 2021, including over 100 women and children. IDF airstrikes have destroyed civilian infrastructure in Gaza and displaced over 52,000 Gazans. Palestinian girl in Gaza rubble after Israeli bombing Credit: The Current Since 2006 when Hamas won elections in Gaza, the IDF has killed more than 4,000 Palestinians in military campaigns in Gaza. Israel has imposed a suffocating 15-year blockade on the two million residents of Gaza. Hamas rockets and Palestinian terrorist attacks have killed over 1000 Israelis since 2000. Hamas leaders and the Hamas covenant express genocidal intentions, explicitly calling for the destruction of the state of Israel. Since 2000, Israeli forces have killed over 10,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. People hold Hamas flags as Palestinians gather after performing the last Friday of Ramadan to protest over the possible eviction of several Palestinian families from homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, in Jerusalem's Old City, May 7, 2021. REUTERS/Ammar Awad The latest Israel-Gaza conflict erupted over eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Palestinian protests were met by Israeli restrictions on access to Muslim holy sites during Ramadan. Israeli police and ultra-nationalist groups, including the Jewish extremist organization Lehava, clashed with Palestinians, and chanted “Death to Arabs.” This incitement was supported by right-wing parliamentarian, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called for “disloyal Arabs” to be “[thrown] out of the country.” Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque, injuring hundreds of Palestinians during evening Ramadan prayers. This Israeli invasion of the third-holiest site in Islam provoked the first round of May Hamas rocket fire. Riots in Jewish-Arab cities such as Lod, Haifa, and Bat Yam, long hailed as centers of Jewish-Arab coexistence, caused destruction of property, including “Jewish” and “Arab” shops and attacks on synagogues. The IDF responded to protests in the West Bank with live fire, killing at least 20 Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Jewish nationalist partners have systematically discriminated against Israel’s Arab population. The 2018 ‘‘Basic Law’’ removed Arabic as an official language of Israel. It defines Israeli self-determination as uniquely for the Jewish people, excluding Israel’s 21 percent Arab minority. Genocide Watch recognizes the situation in Israel-Palestine to be at Stage 3: Discrimination, Stage 6: Polarization, and Stage 8: Persecution. To prevent further violence in Israel and Palestine, Genocide Watch recommends: The Israeli government and Hamas must strictly honor their agreed ceasefire to prevent the further loss of civilian life and destruction of civilian infrastructure in Israel and in Gaza. Israeli and Palestinian officials must relaunch direct talks in a peace process that seeks a just resolution to their conflict based on the national, political, and human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians. Israel must halt the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and stop the dispossession of Palestinians, including those in Sheikh Jarrah. The United States should condition its annual $4 billion in military aid and weapons sales to Israel on Israeli adherence to a ceasefire, peace talks, and a halt to new Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

U.K. Parliament holds inquiry into Myanmar crisis (BANGKOK, May 25, 2021)–The Government of the United Kingdom should take immediate action to deprive the Myanmar military junta of natural gas revenues, weapons, and political legitimacy, and ensure accountability for its past and present mass atrocity crimes in the country, Fortify Rights said today in a submission to the U.K. Parliament. Fortify Rights today submitted evidence to the U.K. Foreign Affairs Committee, which is holding an inquiry into the U.K. government’s response to the crisis in Myanmar following the February 1 coup d’état. The committee will also hear oral evidence from U.N. Special Rapporteur Thomas Andrews, Myanmar National Unity Government (NUG) Minister Dr. Sasa, human rights defender Thinzar Shunlei Yi, and others. The committee will then draft a report and make recommendations to the U.K. government. “The U.K. can and should do more to end the junta’s impunity and ongoing reign of terror,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “The targeted sanctions imposed to date are important but incomplete. The U.K. should join other governments to deprive the junta of its financial lifelines and means of killing, while also redoubling support for human rights and accountability.” The Fortify Rights submission recommends the U.K. “work with relevant governments and foreign operators of Myanmar gas fields to ensure the junta is unable to access natural gas revenues from its accounts and ensure revenues are effectively held in trust until democracy is restored.” Fortify Rights urged the U.K. to sanction the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise and other specified entities to ensure the country’s natural gas wealth is not controlled by the illegal military junta. As the penholder at the U.N. Security Council, the U.K. should table a resolution that includes a global arms embargo, targeted sanctions, and a referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), forcing a veto from China or Russia, if necessary, Fortify Rights said. The U.K. should simultaneously lead efforts beyond the Security Council to build an international coalition to achieve these same aims. Fortify Rights also called on the U.K. government to reverse recently announced funding cuts to Rohingya refugee response efforts in Bangladesh and to conduct an urgent public review of U.K. aid spending in Myanmar to ensure it does not reach the military junta. The U.K. government should also work with countries receiving Myanmar refugees, including Thailand, Bangladesh, India, and Malaysia, to ensure refugee protection. In November 2019, The Gambia opened a case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, alleging Myanmar violated its obligations under the Genocide Convention with regard to mass-scale, army-led attacks against Rohingya men, women, and children. In light of the coup, long-persecuted minorities in Myanmar, such as the Rohingya, face increased existential risks,Fortify Rights said. “The U.K. should formally join the case at the ICJ brought by The Gambia against Myanmar for violations of the Genocide Convention,” Fortify Rights said in its submission. Since the coup, the junta-controlled military and police reportedly killed more than 800 people and arbitrarily detained more than 4,000 nationwide. In a document seen by Fortify Rights, provided by the Myanmar junta to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ahead of an emergency summit to discuss Myanmar last month, the junta claimed it detained 9,848 persons, released 4,511, and charged 5,070 between February 1 and April 15. The junta has also launched airstrikes against villages in ethnic army-controlled border areas, reportedly killing, injuring, and displacing tens of thousands of civilians. The junta also cut internet access and mobile data nationally, preventing the population from communicating with each other and the outside world. On April 16, elected legislators in Myanmar and others formed the National Unity Government (NUG) to fulfill the will of the people as expressed through the November 2020 elections. In its submission to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Fortify Rights recommended the U.K. government recognize and engage the NUG as the legitimate Government of Myanmar. “The U.K. must acknowledge that the sovereignty of a country resides with the people and their duly elected government, not with those who hold the most guns,” said Matthew Smith. “At the same time, the NUG must promote and protect the human rights of all, including the Rohingya, whom the previous civilian government failed to protect from genocide.” In its April 29 announcement launching the U.K. inquiry, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, referenced “deeply distressing reports” of the junta’s human rights violations against peaceful protesters in Myanmar, noting that “[e]fforts to curb the violence and brutality through the imposition of sanctions have, unfortunately, fallen short.” “This urgent inquiry will determine how the Government can improve its response to the crisis, as well as how the U.K. can use its influence in organizations such as the U.N. to help deliver a peaceful resolution for the people of Myanmar,” he said. Access the full article here. Fortify Rights © 2021

Security Council SC/14539 8784th Meeting 3 June 2021 Photo taken on June 3, 2021 shows the scene of a UN Security Council meeting on the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) at the UN headquarters in New York. (Loey Felipe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua) The Security Council decided today to extend the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) until 3 June 2022 and requested the Government of Sudan to swiftly sign a status of mission agreement with the Organization to enable the full, effective and unhindered functioning of the Mission. Unanimously adopting resolution 2579 (2021), the Council also decided that UNITAMS, as part of an integrated and unified United Nations structure, shall — in full accordance with the principles of national ownership — continue a set of strategic objectives. Those objectives include, among other things, assisting Sudan’s political transition, providing technical assistance to its constitution drafting process; supporting the implementation of the human rights and rule of law provisions of the Constitutional Document; and supporting the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement between Khartoum and Sudanese armed groups. Other objectives set out in the eight-page resolution are assisting Sudanese-led peacebuilding, particularly in Darfur and the Two Areas (South Kordofan and Blue Nile), and supporting the mobilization of economic and development assistance and the coordination of humanitarian and peacebuilding aid. Through the text, the Council decided that in line with those objectives, UNITAMS should prioritize support to the following sectors: monitoring the Darfur ceasefire; implementation of the Government’s National Plan for Civilian Protection; peace talks between the Government and Sudanese armed groups; inclusive implementation of the power-sharing provisions of the Juba Peace Agreement; the constitution drafting process; and enhancing civilian-led protection, security and the rule of law. The representative of the United States, in an explanation of position, said that his delegation accepted the resolution on the understanding that the reference to “grave violations against children” in preambular paragraph 10 refers only to the six specific violations identified by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Children in Armed Conflict. The representative of the Russian Federation noted that during negotiations, the sponsors of the text declined to take a comprehensive view of Sudan’s development challenges, preferring instead to shift the focus to the climate agenda. It is impossible to deny that poverty, lack of infrastructure and low donor support are a greater challenge to Sudan’s development than climate change. The meeting began at 10:05 a.m. and ended at 10:12 a.m. © United Nations

By Manish Pandey Published 1 June 2021 Opposition supporters say last year's election in Belarus was rigged | Getty Images It's been called "Europe's last dictatorship". This year it was banned from Eurovision. And now, Belarus has been making headlines because of the detention of an opposition Belarusian journalist, after the Ryanair plane he was travelling on was forced to land. That's led to the threat of increased sanctions on the country by the UK, EU and US - and global protests. So from protests to pandemics - what is life like in Belarus? President Alexander Lukashenko has been in power for nearly 27 years and is nicknamed by some as "Europe's last dictator". Officially, he won the election last year by a landslide - but the opposition movement and Western governments including the UK and EU say it was rigged. President Lukashenko insists he won fairly and has said protests against him are a Western-backed plot. The mass protests led to a government crackdown, with people sent to prison or exiled | Getty Images Maria was born and raised in the capital, Minsk - but is currently living in exile in Lithuania after protesting against the government. The 22-year-old lived in Belarus for 20 years, before moving to London. But in the summer of 2020, Maria found herself going back "for democracy". "I wanted to participate somehow in the future of my country, even though I couldn't vote [because of Lithuanian citizenship]," she tells Radio 1 Newsbeat. Getty Images Maria says "outstanding alternative candidates" to the current president were "Belarusians that you'd want to follow and see as representatives of the country". But many of those candidates were arrested for what Maria describes as "ridiculous" reasons - such as allegations of money laundering. The crackdown on opposition politicians led people to the streets to protest across the country. Maria first protested at the embassy in London - but it was seeing security forces arresting and beating people in her home country that sparked her return to Belarus. "I took the decision to support my friends and relatives and participate in the protests. I didn't realise at the time how big this would be." Maria was prepared for a few nights in prison, but "not for the amount of violence" she'd experience. 'We've seen terrible things' She says she was arrested and beaten by security forces. "On one of the nights, I was lucky to escape. I was separated from my friends and they started to attack us with stun grenades and continued shooting," she said. "It was just an awful night." "We've seen terrible things, what they were doing to people, how violent and brutal they've been. We were lucky to survive." Security forces have been accused of a violent suppression Maria says the violence she faced caused her to develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Eventually she fled to Lithuania with her husband out of fear of persecution and further violence. The EU and UK has imposed sanctions on members of the Belarus government for repression and intimidation against protesters, and called for new free and fair elections with all political prisoners released. The Belarus government has denied widespread allegations of abuse. From Portugal to Poland, global protests like this one in Warsaw have been taking place in solidarity with Belarus | Getty Images Maria says she was "raised as a normal kid". "You're taught to be kind and caring towards others, but [you are] brought up in a system from kindergarten to university - unless you can escape," she says. She says Belarus is "a strict country where you always have to fight for your rights". This begins at school, "where you don't always get the right education because there's a lot of propaganda". Many attended rallies supporting opposition candidates in the elections | Getty Images When Maria visited her grandma in England, at the age of eight, she felt "a massive difference" between the two countries. "I'd seen the democratic atmosphere and the ways of education where teachers appreciate and try to help your ambitions," she remembers. After that experience, she regularly compared life in Belarus with "the British way". There are some similarities between the two countries - Maria feels people in the two countries share a caring nature and a desire to fight for individual rights. But she says one of the big differences is "the freedom" individuals have. 'Outside and inside freedom' "Not just outside, but your inner freedom - that you can be someone who you like and just depend on yourself," she says. She points to the lack of acceptance for LGBT people in Belarus, with the country previously calling LGBT relationships "fake". In recent months, the media has become a government target - with journalist Roman Protasevich making headlines across the globe when he was detained after a Ryanair plane was forcibly diverted to Belarus. When the intercepted plane landed in Minsk, he reportedly told a fellow passenger: "A death penalty awaits me here." Belarusian state TV said Roman faced up to 15 years in prison, primarily for "organising large-scale mass unrest" and "inciting hatred towards government and police". But Belarus does still pass and carry out death sentences - it's the only country in Europe still to do so. Maria says news of Roman's detention "was a massive shock to everyone". "You don't feel safe anywhere. People who have had to flee the country and are still activists can't feel protected or secure." President Lukashenko has rejected international condemnation that the plane diversion was an act of "air piracy" or "hijacking", staged to arrest a political opponent. He insisted there was a genuine bomb threat and that he'd acted "legally" and to "save lives". Belarusian residents in Portugal protested against the detention of journalist Roman Protasevich Maria says another stark difference between the UK and Belarus is how they've tackled coronavirus. As the pandemic took hold and the UK went into lockdown, football matches and large gatherings in Belarus were still going ahead. The president suggested vodka or a sauna could help to prevent infection. Maria was in London at the start of the pandemic and felt there would "be no support or protection" from the virus if she returned to Belarus. Though Maria is currently in Lithuania and says she's been banned from Belarus for five years, it hasn't stopped her campaigning for her country. "I'm still connected with Belarus. It's a massive scar on my heart and mind, and it's not healing," she says. "We need to bring changes in our country as quick as possible. It's not just about loud words." © 2021 BBC

Officials make grim discovery near Kamloops, British Columbia First Nation chief says causes and timings of deaths not known Tracey Lindeman in Ottawa Fri 28 May 2021 16.27 BST The Kamloops Indian residential school was established in 1890 under the Roman Catholic church, and closed in 1978. Former attendees described harsh conditions. Photograph: Canadian Press/Rex/Shutterstock A mass grave containing the remains of 215 Indigenous children has been discovered on the grounds of a former residential school in the interior of southern British Columbia. The grim discovery at the former school near the town of Kamloops was announced late on Thursday by the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc people after the site was examined by a team using ground-penetrating radar. “We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths,” said Rosanne Casimir, chief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, in a statement. Some of the remains belong to children as young as three years old, but the causes and timing of their deaths are not yet known. “At this time we have more questions than answers,” said Casimir. The Kamloops Indian residential school was established in 1890 under the leadership of the Roman Catholic church, and closed in 1978. It was part of a cross-Canada network of residential schools created to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children by removing them from their homes and communities, and forbidding them from speaking their native languages or performing cultural practices. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse were rampant within these institutions, as was forced labour. At least 150,000 children attended such schools in what a historic 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission described as a “cultural genocide” targeting Canada’s Indigenous people. In documents submitted to the commission, former Kamloops attendees described the harsh conditions of the school, which did not receive enough per-capita funding from the government to pay for its costs. George Manuel, who attended in the 1920s, said: “Every Indian student smelled of hunger.” The school was described as being cold in winter and unsanitary. The same documents mention that students were exposed to outbreaks of measles, tuberculosis, influenza and other contagious diseases, and many died. In a 1935 report on a death from measles at the school, an agent noted that “the sleeping accommodation for 285 pupils in the school consists of five dormitories, which are crowded. During an epidemic it is impossible to properly isolate the patients and contacts.” Wooden stakes mark areas where bodies are believed to be buried on the site of the former Kamloops school.Photograph: Canadian Press/Rex/Shutterstock Violence against the Kamloops residential school students continued until its closure. The TRC recounted that in the 1960s, the school principal at Kamloops advocated for putting older boys who got into fights into a boxing ring. “Put them in the ring with gloves and supervise a boxing match until both boys are too tired to care any more.” Indigenous communities have long believed mass graves of residential school students existed, and proving it has been a decades-long process. “It matters because the story of secret residential-school mass graves is an urban legend,” said a column in British Columbia news outlet TheTyee.ca. The TRC has calculated at least 3,201 residential school deaths, although the true total may never be known due to unaccounted deaths and destroyed files. (This article was amended on 31 May 2021. An earlier version erroneously quoted the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission as describing a “culture of genocide”, rather than “cultural genocide” targeting Canada’s Indigenous people.) See article here. Read more on the discovery here.

Soldiers, Police, Gov't Abducted 2000 Persons, Disappeared 500 & Killed 140 Since Jan 2021 Nigeria protest against police violence credit: Human Rights Watch Onitsha-Nigeria, 26th May 2021 It is the new finding by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, a leading research and investigative rights group that no fewer than 2000 law abiding citizens of Eastern Nigeria have since January 2021 been abducted by soldiers of the Nigerian Army and operatives of the Nigeria Police Force, Nigerian Navy, Department of the State Security Service and others; and out of this number, at least, 500 have disappeared or feared killed in secret custody of the Army or made victims of unlawful executions who will never return alive. The abductions involved the victims being secretly arrested at ungodly hours, falsely and criminally labeled without conclusive investigations; held secretly amidst torture and other degrading treatments or punishments; and treated ‘extra jus’ detention without fair court trial and access to the victims by their families, physicians and lawyers. It is also our finding that out of no fewer than 140 killed in the two regions by the named security operatives especially soldiers and police since January 2021, at least 120 are independently found to be civilians or victims of extra-judicial killings. The military and police killings involved not less than 40 killed in Imo, 30 in Akwa Ibom, 20 in Abia, 15 in Rivers, 13 in Anambra, 10 in Ebonyi, 8 in Cross River, 5 in Enugu and none in Delta. All the States mentioned are collectively the victims of the military abductions and disappearances. The above findings followed our recent review of the ongoing ethnic and religious profiling and cleansing embarked upon by Nigerian military in the East particularly in the States of Imo, Abia, Rivers, Ebonyi, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Delta and Cross River States; discreditably and questionably code-named: Operation Restore Peace”. The new review shows that Imo State topped the list of the abductees with no fewer than 500, followed by Abia, Ebonyi, Rivers and Akwa Ibom with average of 300 abductees; Anambra 200 and average of 100 abductees each Cross River, Enugu and Delta States. These abductions, killings, maiming, torture and disappearances by military and police also bear stark evidence of persecution, hate and crude policing and solidering as 99% of the victims cutting across the three heinous crimes are members of Christian faith with most of them belonging to Igbo Ethnic Nationality. Intersociety did not find any evidence showing that such violent clampdowns are also extended to members of Fulani Muslim population resident in the East whose jihadist elements have since 2016 killed over 400 rural and urban Igbo Christians and their neighbors and forcefully occupied over 500 of their farmlands, bushes and forests. Further checks also indicated that the non indigenous Muslim population in the regions are pampered and treated sacredly by the drafted Muslim dominated and controlled security heads. In the area of inter-agency responsibility as regards to the abductions, killings, and disappearances, etc; soldiers of the Nigerian Army are the most crude, brutish and unprofessional; accounting for many of the killings and most of the disappearances. In Imo State alone, soldiers accounted for many, if not most of the 40 deaths including ten passersby or residents of the State killed at Army roadblock checks and during patrols. Soldiers also accounted for most of not less than 20 killings in Abia State; falsely labeled “IPOB/ESN members”. In a recent repelled “unknown gunmen” attack at an Army roadblock in Aba, for instance, soldiers including members of the reinforcement military squads opened fire and killed scores of passersby including Keke riders and later labeled them “IPOB/ESN members”. This was after the attackers had retreated safely having been out-gunned. During the recent Orlu shootout between soldiers and the “unknown gunmen”, out of eleven bodies displayed and labeled as “slain IPOB/ESN gunmen”, at least six were civilians; same was the case in another attack that took place few days ago in Awka-where out of seven displayed slain bodies of “IPOB/ESN gunmen”, at least five were civilians. Soldiers also shared same responsibility with police and SSS (DSS) in the area of late night house raids and instant killing of sleeping or resting citizens and their abduction. A clear case in point was in Iriebe, Rivers State where soldiers and police raided a house at late night and opened fire killing a single mother of two and three others and labeled them “IPOB members”. Instances are many to mention. Soldiers also took the lead and accounted for over 90% of the 500 disappeared persons. This they did by abducting large number of lawful citizens at roadblocks and during late night raids, etc and falsely labeled them as “IPOB/ESN members”. The soldiers after abducting the citizens are found on several occasions to have refused to hand them over to the Police as required by Nigerian Law, but abducted them to unknown locations where they run high risks of being killed and buried in secrecy. Till date, soldiers are still holding 110 abducted Obigbo residents in far away Nigerian Army Commando Base in Bida, Niger State; and out of the number; two have been tortured or starved to death. The victims were abducted in Obigbo, Rivers State since October/November 2020 or since past seven months. Soldiers, police and DSS shared responsibility for abducting no fewer than 2000 Easterners since January 2021. This they jointly did through late night house raids, house-to-house search, stop-and-search and other forms of operational patrols. While police personnel abducted and kept most of the abductees alive amidst torture and other inhuman treatments including detention without trial; soldiers and DSS are notoriously known to abducting and taking the abductees to their secret dungeons where access to their families, physicians and lawyers is totally blocked and denied. DSS operatives and soldiers including personnel of the Nigerian Navy are also noted for holding their captives for several months or years outside public knowledge, official records and court trial. The most shocking of all was our recent discovery of the secret transfer of between 300 and 350 abducted Eastern citizens to Makurdi Prisons (Correctional Facility) in Benue State. They were among those abducted in Imo, Abia, Anambra and Ebonyi, etc and held in secrecy for months before being secretly transferred to the named Prison facilities. The abductees also represent the bulk of those abducted by Police. Information concerning the whereabouts of those abducted by soldiers and DSS including the estimated 500 disappeared citizens has remained unavailable; thereby raising serious concerns over their safety, including whether they are still alive or not. Survivors among them, likely in their hundreds are strongly suspected to have been secretly transferred to secret military dungeons in the North using hired rogue commercial transport companies. Finally, apart from soldiers of the Nigerian Army being at the forefront of the ongoing killings in Christian Eastern Nigeria, they are also responsible for many of the referenced abductions and most of the disappearances. These killings, maiming, torture, abuses, abductions and disappearances are fueled by domination and control of the officer corps of the military formations in the two regions by Muslims who wantonly exhibit jihadist and hateful attitudes towards the general citizens of the two regions including seeing and treating them as “infidels”. In Delta State, such killer military operations are coordinated by 63 Brigade under same domination and control of Muslim officers and non indigenous others. Same goes in Anambra State under Onitsha 302 Army Artillery Regiment and Ogbaru Navy Base, Imo State under 34 Brigade Obinze, Abia State under 14 Brigade Ohafia and 144 Battalion at Asa and Aba and Navy School of Finance and Logistics at Owerrenta; Rivers State under 343 and 5 Battalions, Elele and 6 Division in Port Harcourt; Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa States under 2 Brigade, Uyo and 16 Brigade, Yenagoa; Cross River State under 13 Brigade and its 130 Battalion and 341 Artillery Regiment in Ogoja; Ebonyi State under 24 Army Support Engineering, Abakiliki; and Enugu State under 82 Division and its 103 Battalion, Awkunanaw. Signed: Principal Officers: · Emeka Umeagbalasi Criminologist/Board Chair · Barr Chinwe Umeche · Barr Obianuju Igboeli · Barr Chidimma Udegbunam Contacts: Phone/WhatsApp: +2348174090052, Email: info@intersociety-ng.org, Website: intersociety-ng.org The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law © 2021

Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Emergency Alert for North and South Kivu and Ituri provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Banyamulenge, Hema, and other groups face a grave risk of genocide (Stage 9). They are targeted by the false narrative that “Bantu” people are the “indigenous” inhabitants of the DRC, while “Nilotic” people are “invaders” from the Great Rift Valley. The same narrative was used to justify the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. The Banyamulenge are closely related to the Tutsi of Rwanda. Their citizenship has been contested in the DRC since independence in 1960, despite records of their presence in the Congo in the 19th century. The Banyamulenge sided with Rwanda during the Congo Wars (1996-2003). They have been attacked by Mai Mai militias and by Hutus who fled to the DRC after the genocide in Rwanda. The Banyamulenge have been impoverished by large-scale cattle raiding in the Fizi, Itombwe and Uvira regions since 2016. The Congolese army (FARDC) may support attacks on the Banyamulenge. The United Nations (U.N.) reports at least 74 people were killed and 110,000 people displaced by violence between the Banyamulenge and the Bafuliro, Babembe, and Banyindu communities in South Kivu from October 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020. Hate speech has incited massacres of the Banyamulenge by militias from the other ethnic groups. The attackers are allied with Hutu militias from Burundi. They are closing in on Minembwe, where thousands of displaced Banyamulenge live. Lendu militias have also targeted the Hema for being “Nilotic,” based on the same “indigenous vs. invader” narrative used to justify genocidal massacres of the Banyamulenge. A U.N. report in January 2020 said 701 Hema were killed in attacks between December 2017 and September 2019. Hema women have one of the highest rates of rape in the world. The “indigenous vs. invader” narrative has also been used to foment attacks on Kasaians of Luba origin. In Ituri province, the U.N. reports that at least 531 civilians were killed by armed groups between October 2019 and May 2020. The hunter-gatherer Batwa also face severe persecution. The rebel Rwandan Hutu militia, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, has also massacred the Banyamulenge, Hema, and other Kivu civilians. North Kivu’s insecurity problem has been compounded by attacks on civilians by a Ugandan exile group, the Allied Democratic Forces. Despite the presence of the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation in the world, MONUSCO, the eastern DRC remains an area of chaos, no effective government, rampant corruption, Ebola and AIDS epidemics, and total insecurity for its people. It is a case study in anarchy. Until the DRC establishes effective government, the Kivus and Ituri will remain a human rights catastrophe. Genocide Watch urges the U.N. and the DRC government to take forceful action to stop the persecution and extermination of the DRC’s minority groups. The lack of state security in the DRC has provided fertile ground for scores of murderous militias. They are threats to international peace and security. Defeating them demands disciplined, forceful action by the DRC government, U.N., African Union, and African states in the region. UPDATE: This report was corrected on June 6, 2021 to say the U.N. reported at least 74 people were killed and 110,000 people displaced in violence between the Banyamulenge and the Bafuliro, Babembe, and Banyindu communities in South Kivu from October 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020. The report previously said that at least 110,000 Banyamulenge specifically had been displaced in South Kivu during this eight-month period. The report also did not include the death toll of 74 people provided by the U.N. for these ethnic groups during this period.

The Biden administration has a chance to reassert the United States’ moral authority on human rights issues. Minara Begum, 22, in her shelter at Balukhali refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, March 5, 2018. Credit: UN Women/Allison Joyce Justice delayed is justice denied. As lawyers who have advised nearly every international criminal and hybrid tribunal, as well as over two dozen peace negotiations around the world, we have seen firsthand the consequences of ignoring atrocities in the name of preserving peace or alliances. The Biden administration is faced with an historic opportunity. By labeling the atrocities committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State as genocide, the Biden administration has a chance to reassert the United States’ moral authority on human rights and to lead the international community on issues of justice and accountability. The Biden administration should speak out firmly and clearly in favor of holding Myanmar and the individual perpetrators accountable for “the crime of all crimes.” We know firsthand the gravity of the atrocities committed against the Rohingya. In March and April 2018, our pro bono law firm, the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), at the request of the U.S. Department of State, undertook a large-scale, comprehensive human rights documentation investigation mission in the refugee camps and settlement areas in eastern Bangladesh. Our investigation mission aimed to provide an accurate accounting of the patterns of abuse and atrocity crimes perpetrated against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and to help inform the policy decisions related to accountability in Myanmar. Our team of expert investigators interviewed over 1,000 Rohingya refugees in the Cox’s Bazar camps, documenting shocking patterns of violence, abuse, and widespread human rights violations committed against the Rohingya. Among the abuses are widespread killings, torture, persecution, rapes, and other sexual violence. Our team, including many former State Department lawyers, analyzed 15,000 pages of interview responses from 1,024 questionnaires. The evidence led us to conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe that genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes have been committed against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine State. When we sent our factual findings report and data to the State Department in 2018, the Trump administration chose not to label any of these crimes as genocide or crimes against humanity, thereby excusing the United States from any legal or moral obligation to take action. This April, the Biden administration demonstrated its willingness to acknowledge the crime of genocide in another context, as President Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to formally call the crimes committed against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire genocide. The United States should not wait 106 years (or even 106 days) to similarly label the crimes committed against Rohingya civilians. By acknowledging the Rohingya genocide, the Biden administration has the rare opportunity to reverse a previous wrong and lead with moral clarity on the international stage. As the international community has stayed largely silent in the face of the Rohingya genocide, we have already begun to witness the consequences. Over 18,000 Rohingya have been relocated from the camps in Cox’s Bazar to a remote island in Bangladesh in the past six months. Those still living in Cox’s Bazar have faced deadly fires and suspiciously consistent destruction of their homes and livelihoods. In Myanmar itself, this silence and complicity has eroded the legitimacy of democratic government and empowered the military. As Aung San Suu Kyi defended the actions of Myanmar’s military against the Rohingya population before the International Court of Justice, she both undermined her moral authority to lead a democratic Myanmar and emboldened the military to bring an end to her leadership role, as seen in this year’s coup and unrest. To secure a durable peace in Myanmar and to provide justice, redress, and a hopeful future for the victims of the Rohingya genocide, the United States must use its position of power on the international stage to lead with values of human rights and recognize the Rohingya genocide. As an international leader, America may be “back,” but it should not be back to business as usual with delayed recognition of genocide. © 2021 DIPLOMAT MEDIA INC.