Cambodians watch the verdict against Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea as it's broadcast in August 2014. (Documentation Center of Cambodia) Genocide Watch staff have published the fifteenth Timestream in a series of critical genocides in the world. This Timestream covers the Cambodian Genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979 in which between 1.5 and 2 million Cambodians died. The Khmer Rouge targeted former regime officials, intellectuals, Chinese, Thai, Cham, Vietnamese, Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians in particular. In 2003, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia was set up following a 1997 request to try the Khmer Rouge leaders and bring justice to the victims of the genocide. See the full Timestream here and view our other Timestreams here.

28 Feb was another big day- where the society is gearing up for nationwide street protests calling for the abolition of the Constitution of, for, and by the military - adopted forcibly in the midst of the devastating Cyclone Nargis. The regime has shown an absolute and callous disregard for human life, the welfare of the people in whose name the Tatmadaw or military justify its existence and role in national politics. I have begun to promote the term Kempeitai Tatmadaw - Kempeitai having been a cross between Nazi SS and Gestapo. While the martyred Aung San, unarguably the most progressive revolutionary and revolutionary intellectual in the recorded histories of Burma, including both the minority regions and the Burmese heartlands of the Dry Zone, was the proxy founder of this national organization it was most influenced by the late General Ne Win, who single-handedly led the Tatmadaw from Feb 1949 until July 1988 as its official Commander in Chief and subsequently as the God Father. Significantly, Ne Win was given intensive and advanced training at the Nakano Kempeitai Training School or Academy in the middle of Tokyo at this large borough called Nakano-ku. I used to live there when I was in between Burmese and US universities, working as kitchen help, at the age of 24 in the fall of 1988. I did not know of Nakano-ku and Kempeitai connection then much less it having been Ne Win's specialized training school. The school was dismantled after Japan's total surrender in Aug 1945. Unmistakably the Tatmadaw has long displayed these Kempeitai features - forced labor, mass rape, torture, summary execution, genocidal killings - heard of Manchu Corp and the rape of Nanjing? - and utter and total disregard for human life. I have been Facebooking LIVE in Burmese regularly, with fluctuating sizes of live views - between 1,000-3,000 - with a total viewership of up 70,000. Mostly inside Myanmar. The phrase KEMPEITAI Tat or KEMPEITAI has gained currency over the last week or so, indicating the popular conclusion that it is NOT simply a single general or a group of generals who are really bad and ruthless. THE institution of the Tamadaw as such has been imbued with Kempeiti codes of operations, ethos, and culture. As unattractive as it may sound to many international policymakers and advocacy groups, the ugly fact that will NOT go away is this: Myanmar Kempeitai Tatmadaw cannot be reformed. No one can do business, in good faith, with this institution. There has so much misunderstanding - and trash - packaged as "scholarship" or "expertise" on the Myanmar military, coming mostly from American and European experts and watchers of my country. One of the scholarly myths about the Tatmadaw is that it is a fiercely nationalistic and patriotic organization. I am writing this as a former military academy admit, whose extended family have served in all branches of this murderous and predatory institution since its founding in Bangkok in Dec 1942. My family KNEW Aung San, Ne Win, Than Shwe, and so on, at a very personal level. I had nothing but admiration for this Anyone who has his or her ears so closed to the grounds the society rests today will tell you the society's rejection of the legitimacy, the political role, and primacy which the generals and the military have claimed for themselves is A TECTONIC SHIFT. No institution can claim to be patriotic or nationalistic when virtually entire PEOPLE, SOCIETY, and NATION - even the most brainwashed majoritarian Buddhist Bama - have unequivocally opposed the Tatmadaw. In my considered opinion, the Tatmadaw is digging in - and digging its own collective grave. I do not have the crystal ball nor will I indulge myself in the act of tealeaf reading. But when the Burmese official representative at the UN risked his life and those of his loved ones, abroad in New York - or back home in Rangoon or wherever in Burma the need to dismantle the Tatmadaw is more than clear. Myanmar envoy Kyaw Moe Tun breaks ranks, urges 'strongest possible' UN action against the military coup. Watch his 12-minute speech, as delivered here. In his words, "Myanmar military is THE existential threat to the country and its polity." This is something I have long argued, against the grain of the mainstream and fundamental policy discourses. I am acutely aware of what happened to post-Saddam's Baath Party and its military. I don't know what awaits Myanmar. The decisions that Min Aung Hlaing and his accomplices are making today will have profound consequences for EVERY COMMUNITY in Burma, and for the future of Burma, or future-lessness as a nation. A year ago I wrote the following Facebook post as part of my early morning venting of deep frustration with the NLD leadership - and equally, the progressively worsening institution of the Tatmadaw - over the coffee. Not in my wildest imagination did I think the Burmese society remains deeply concerned about politics, exploitation, racism, etc. I was pleasantly surprised to have been proven wrong by the unfolding turn of events of today. For so long, I have kept my head low while screaming Foul about my own people's role in the genocide and colonial wars against those who are not part of the dominant public. Today I hold my head high, especially because of the fact that the people have rudely awakened to the irreformable Kempeitai nature of the Burmese military, the need to build an inclusive post-racialist society and the urgency of rising about reactive ethno-nationalisms as well as the parochialisms all around. Maung Zarni © 2021

Despite escalating terror by the WWII Fascist Kempeitai-created Tatmadaw or military, millions of Myanmar people defied the nationwide order NOT to gather in groups of more than 5. Below is an image from my hometown of Mandalay. After Myanmar Ambassador to UN Kyaw Moe Tun's bombshell speech at the UN last week defying the orders from the coup regime back in Naypyidaw, here is another rather unprecedented development: The senior-most retired generals including the dictator Than Shwe, ex-President Thein Sein, and ex-Speaker of the Parliament intervened with the public letter addressed to the coup leaders, all police and military forces, and the peoples of Myanmar. It openly opposes the coup as "unconstitutional", and makes 5 concrete suggestions: 1) Release all detained political leaders including Suu Kyi, as well as all other detainees; 2) Coup leader and council negotiate with Aung San Suu Kyi for a peaceful resolution of the uprisings, in the presence of the 3-co-signers; 3) All security personnel stop the violence against peaceful protesters IMMEDIATELY; 4) The people be allowed to exercised their basic rights to protest peacefully in accord with and as guaranteed by the 2008 Constitution, and finally 5) the Police and military forces uphold their sworn duties of protecting the people and the country. Maung ZARNI © 2021

Geneva, 1 March 2021 -- After a decade of conflict, tens of thousands of civilians arbitrarily detained in Syria remain forcibly disappeared, while thousands more have been subject to torture, sexual violence or death in detention, according to the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. The Commission of Inquiry’s 30-plus page report, released today, based on over 2,500 interviews conducted over 10 years and investigations into more than 100 specific detention facilities, documents historical and continuing detention-related violations and abuses by nearly every major party that has controlled territory in Syria since 2011. “The wealth of evidence collected over a decade is staggering, yet the parties to the conflict, with very few exceptions, have failed to investigate their own forces,” said Commissioner Karen Koning AbuZayd. “The focus appears to be on concealing, rather than investigating crimes committed in the detention facilities.” The report notes the massive scale of detention, disappearances and patterns of crimes and abuses perpetrated by the Government, and the detention practices of armed groups, including under coalitions of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the Syrian National Army (SNA), and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It also examines the record of the UN-designated terrorist groups Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Commission also outlines how arbitrary detention and imprisonment have been a root cause of, a trigger for, and a persistent feature of Syria’s conflict. Fluctuating waves of arbitrary detention of varying types have been perpetrated by the primary duty bearers – from mass arrests of demonstrators in the early days – to the mass internment of men, women and children today. Tens of thousands of people in Syria have been unlawfully deprived of their liberty at any one time. Arbitrary detention and imprisonment have been deliberately instrumentalized to instil fear and suppress dissent among the civilian population or, less frequently, for financial gain. Armed groups have also targeted religious and ethnic minority groups. On the cusp of the conflict’s eleventh year, parties to the conflict continue to mistreat detainees held arbitrarily in notorious detention facilities across the country. These detainees have endured unimaginable suffering. The report concludes that this has been happening with the knowledge and acquiescence of the governments who have supported the different parties to the conflict and calls on them to bring an end to the violations. The fate of tens of thousands of civilians who were forcibly disappeared by Syrian Government forces, many nearly a decade ago, remains unknown. Many are presumed to have died or been executed, while some are believed to be held in inhuman conditions of detention. The report outlines how the Government, and to a lesser extent, other parties, are deliberately prolonging the suffering of their family members and loved ones. “Hundreds of thousands of family members have a right to the truth about their loved ones’ fate,” said Commission of Inquiry Chair Paulo Pinheiro. “This is a national trauma that needs to be urgently addressed by action from the parties and the international community. Greater attention should be paid to the psychosocial needs of the victims and their families.” The report concludes that no warring party in Syria has respected detained persons’ rights in line with international legal obligations. The report finds: The Government of Syria arbitrarily arrested and detained individuals and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the context of detention. ISIL, HTS, the FSA, the SNA, and the SDF have all unlawfully and arbitrarily deprived individuals of their liberty inside the Syrian Arab Republic. Furthermore, they have committed war crimes in that context. ISIL and HTS have also engaged in crimes against humanity connected with the deprivation of liberty while ISIL carried out a genocide, in part through detention. The report includes several recommendations, foremost among them that all parties must halt and prevent violations, immediately release specific categories of individuals, allow independent monitoring of detention facilities and provide support to victims. “While the Commission has consistently urged such releases based on abhorrent, inhuman conditions of detention, the urgency is even greater now given that overcrowded prisons are likely breeding grounds for COVID-19, where detainees in fragile health may not survive,” said Commissioner Hanny Megally. The Commission also urges the Government to take urgent, comprehensive steps to reveal the fates of those who have been forcibly disappeared. It also recommends that the international community pressure warring parties to prevent violations, establish a mechanism to account for the missing, and support victims, including Syrians and foreigners held in displacement camps. The report also makes recommendations on ensuring accountability for the crimes it outlines - including by recommending that Member States enact effective legislation to enable the prosecution of individuals, such as that which led to last week’s ground-breaking verdict in Koblenz, Germany, where a former Syrian State official was found guilty of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity in the form of torture and deprivation of liberty. The Commission’s report is set to be presented on 11 March during an interactive dialogue at the Human Rights Council. A more comprehensive report with extensive information on these violations will follow. Background The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, which comprises Mr. Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro (Chair), Ms. Karen Koning AbuZayd, and Mr. Hanny Megally, has been mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate and record all violations of international law since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic. The full report and supporting documentation can be found on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic’s Twitter and its webpage. Media contact: Rolando Gómez, Media Officer, OHCHR, Human Rights Council Branch, rgomez@ohchr.org at +41 22 917 9711 / + 41 79 477 4411 or Matthew Brown, Public Information Officer, Human Rights Council Branch, mbrown@ohchr.orgat +41 22 917 8366 / +41 79 201 0125 © 2020 United Nations Human Rights Council

Senator Leila de Lima Faces Politically Motivated Charges Philippines opposition Senator Leila de Lima, second right, shows the printout of her cast ballot for the country's midterm elections on May 13, 2019 in Paranaque, southeast of Manila, Philippines. De Lima, who has been in police detention since February 2017 on alleged drug charges, was given a 2-hour furlough to vote.© 2019 AP Photo/Bullit Marquez (Manila) – Philippine authorities should drop all charges and release Senator Leila de Lima, who has been in police detention since February 24, 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. A Muntinlupa City court acquitted her of one of three charges against her on February 17, 2021. Prior to her arrest, de Lima, as chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, had begun a public inquiry into the “drug war” killings that started after President Rodrigo Duterte took office in June 2016. The authorities detained her at the headquarters of the Philippine National Police in Quezon City and eventually brought three drug charges against her. In detention, she has been held incommunicado for long periods, not allowed to use electronic devices, faced severe restrictions on visits, and has often been prevented by police escorts from talking to reporters on her way to court hearings. “The fabricated charges against Senator Leila de Lima are not only an outrageous abuse of her basic rights, but also emblematic of the Duterte administration’s oppressive rule,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Philippines authorities should drop the remaining charges against Senator de Lima, free her immediately, and fully restore her rights and privileges as a senator.” The charges against de Lima, most of which are based on dubious testimonyfrom convicted felons, appear intended by the Duterte administration to silence the president’s most outspoken critic, Human Rights Watch said. Early in his term, Duterte vowed to destroy de Lima who, in her previous role as chair of the national Commission on Human Rights, had investigated summary executions by “death squads” in Davao City, where Duterte was mayor for more than two decades. In 2016, President Duterte and his allies stripped de Lima of the leadership of the Justice and Human Rights committee, effectively shutting down the investigation in which former Davao death squad members had testified that Duterte ordered the killings. At the same time, the Justice Department, which de Lima headed before running for the Senate, and leaders of the Duterte-controlled House of Representatives opened a withering and misogynistic vilification campaign against de Lima, fueled by social media. Duterte threatened to release a sex video of the senator and her driver that was later revealed to be fake. The United Nations, foreign governments, and domestic and international human rights organizations have long spoken out against de Lima’s wrongful treatment. In 2018, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that de Lima’s arrest and detention violated international law and that she should be freed. The UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, in its report in June 2020, said de Lima had been “arbitrarily detained.” The US Congress passed a resolution in 2019 urging her release. The European parliament did the same in 2017, repeating the call in September 2020. Amnesty International named her a “prisoner of conscience” in 2018. “Senator Leila de Lima’s unjust detention has had the effect not just of depriving her of liberty, but of intimidating Duterte’s critics, particularly in the political opposition,” Robertson said. “Her continued ordeal is a blot on human rights and democracy in the Philippines.” See article here. © 2021 Human Rights Watch

The atrocity-filled raid on a village in Cameroon included the rape of at least 20 women, according to Human Rights Watch. In the predawn hours of March 1, 2020, more than 50 Cameroonian soldiers entered the village of Ebam and conducted an atrocity-filled raid that included the rape of at least 20 women, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch. Over three hours, the soldiers systematically broke into 75 homes, looting money and goods, arrested 36 men, and later tortured a number of them. The soldiers also executed one of those men. This raid appears to be the worse case of mass rape committed by a U.S. ally in Africa in recent years. Over the last decade, the United States aided Cameroon’s security forces to the tune of almost $224 million, according to Security Assistance Monitor, which tracks U.S. security aid and arms sales. Over that same span, U.S. troops trained elite Cameroonian forces and even saw combat alongside them. The U.S. military also built up a network of outposts integral to drone operations in the region. In the wake of revelations of atrocities by Cameroonian forces in recent years, the U.S. government continued to voice strong support for its military partners there. More recently, however, the U.S. scaled back security assistance due in part to Cameroon’s troubled human rights record. Documents obtained by The Intercept via the Freedom of Information Act also show that two U.S. bases in Cameroon may be closed. The documents show that U.S. Africa Command recommended the closure of the outposts in the north of the country — a drone base at Garoua and a separate outpost in Maroua. The documents are vague about the reasons, noting only that the bases were “no longer operationally required” due to a “termination of activities or lack of requirements.” Ebam, where the 2020 attack took place, lies about 570 miles south of Garoua. The Human Rights Watch report provides graphic evidence from survivors. “One of them removed my dress and raped me on the ground,” a 45-year-old woman from Ebam told HRW. “He abused me for over 15 minutes. He searched my clothes, took my phone and money, and left.” She was one of 35 people — 20 of them rape survivors — with direct knowledge of the crimes to speak to HRW. There has reportedly been no Cameroonian government investigation, much less accountability, for these atrocities. “Sexual violence and torture are heinous crimes that governments have an obligation to immediately, effectively, and independently investigate and to bring those responsible to justice,” said Ida Sawyer, deputy director of HRW’s Africa division. “One year on, survivors of the Ebam attack are desperate for justice and reparations, and they live with the disturbing knowledge that those who abused them are walking free and have faced no consequences whatsoever.” The Cameroonian government did not respond to questions from HRW about the abuses. The Cameroonian Embassy in Washington, D.C., similarly ignored The Intercept’s repeated requests for comment. The attack on Ebam occurred in Cameroon’s South-West region, which, like the North-West, has been engulfed in violence since 2017, when armed separatists from the nation’s minority Anglophone regions launched a war for independence. The raid was apparently a reprisal for perceived support of separatists by villagers and is one of a long series of atrocities by Cameroonian forces that have been detailed in previous Intercept stories, including systemic torture of detainees, massacres of civilians, and executions of women and children. The raid on Ebam came just 15 days after soldiers in the North-West region killed 21 civilians, including a pregnant woman and 13 children in the village of Ngarbuh. On January 10, Cameroonian soldiers also looted Mautu village and killed at least nine civilians, including a woman and a child. Four men from Ebam who were arrested by government forces said they were taken to a military base in Besongabang, about five miles from their village, and tortured by soldiers in an effort to force them to admit to supporting the armed separatists. “The military beat us with their hands and other objects,” one of the victims told HRW. “I was hit many times. While they beat us, they accused us of sheltering the Amba boys [separatists]. We had no answers to give about the Amba, so they beat us even more strongly. I had bruises on my back and buttocks for over two weeks and was in pain.” The testimony echoes a 2017 investigation conducted by The Intercept and the London-based research firm Forensic Architecture which found that a Cameroonian military base known as Salak, which was home to American personnel and drones, was also the scene of illegal imprisonment, brutal torture, and even killings by Cameroonian troops. Nearly 60 victims held there described being subjected to water torture, beaten with electric cables and boards, or tied and suspended with ropes, among other abuses. Last year, the U.S. Department of State issued a report that chronicled “unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings” by Cameroon’s security forces as well as atrocities by separatists. After this article was published, a State Department spokesperson told The Intercept via email, “We are aware of a number of military operations in early 2020 that resulted in allegations that government forces killed and/or raped civilians and destroyed homes or other properties. We condemn in the strongest terms any targeting of civilians with violence and extend our condolences to all those who may have been affected. Such behavior by security forces undermines both public faith in authorities and efforts to end this conflict. We strongly urge the government of Cameroon to investigate allegations of human rights violations and hold those responsible to account.” According to the spokesperson, the U.S. has “significantly reduced security assistance because the government of Cameroon had not responded to credible accusations of gross violations of human rights by its security forces.” Nonetheless, between fiscal years 2019 and 2020, the State Department still earmarked $7.2 million in military assistance for Cameroon, including support for intelligence activities, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, and small boat training. “We continue to review security assistance on a case-by-case basis so that assistance we provide aligns with U.S. interests, including promotion of human rights,” the spokesperson said. “U.S. law requires those receiving our security assistance be vetted prior to receiving assistance.” According to HRW, more needs to be done. “We call on the United States, as well as on Cameroon’s other international partners, to express concern about the human rights abuses we documented, including sexual violence, and urge Cameroon’s government to ensure a rights-respecting counterinsurgency strategy in the Anglophone regions,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, the senior Central Africa researcher at HRW. “As a member of the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. should press to add the situation in the Anglophone regions as a priority item into the agenda of the Security Council so that human rights abuses committed by soldiers and by armed separatists can be addressed and perpetrators held accountable.” © The Intercept 2021

Eleven million persecuted Uighurs and other Muslims in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region got the first taste of justice on January 19 when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the Chinese government is committing genocide against them. History has shown that condemning genocide is an essential initial step to stopping it and preventing it from happening again. Although some media figures downplayed the Uighur genocide determination as merely Pompeo's “parting shot” at China, this is the single most important U.S. human rights measure of the past four years. It came after a months-long deliberative process by the State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice. The determination was based in critical part on new information showing that forced birth prevention measures inside Xinjiang reeducation camps are aimed at suppressing Uighur demographics and are part of a destructive state campaign against minorities in the region. Both President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken expressed agreement with the genocide determination. But whether they will keep the pressure on an angered China remains to be seen. The Uighur genocide is an inconvenient fact for the administration’s foreign policy climate change priorities. Barely a week after Pompeo's statement, U.N. Secretary-General Guterres pleaded in the interest of a “climate action” partnership for a U.S.-China “reset” to put aside “different views” on human rights—including, presumably, the U.S. genocide determination. By his sights, the U.S. will have to make hard choices about its China policies. After the Holocaust, genocide was criminalized under the international Genocide Convention of 1948 and became the most heinous human rights crime in American popular conception. A genocide branding affects foreign affairs, which helps explain why only twice before has the United States applied it to ongoing atrocities. Pompeo was able to move forward on the Uighur genocide declaration by making it a “policy” determination. In 2016 the genocide of Middle Eastern Yazidis and Christians was a “personal designation” of then Secretary of State Kerry. The 2004 Darfur genocide determination was a “legal” one, backed by department lawyers. But no matter what the determination is called, genocide requires a U.S. policy response. Last May, then Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Morse Tan took up the Uighur’s plight, to assess whether it fit the Convention’s genocide definition of an ethnoreligious community targeted for destruction “in whole or in part.” The State Department’s religious freedom reporting since 2017 documented the destruction of two-thirds of the Uighur mosques, the detention for alleged Islamic extremism of over a million Uighurs in reeducation camps, and other egregious acts of repression. The former ambassador told me in a phone interview that he had amassed additional evidence from open sources, which department lawyers promptly classified for 25 years. He directed me to Pompeo’s statements for further insights. In a January 19 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Pompeo emphasized “key” evidence of plunging Uighur birthrates. Noting that the Genocide Convention encompasses “measures intended to prevent births within the group,” he cited “the Communist Party’s efforts to stop Uighur women from giving birth via forced abortion and sterilization,” and “involuntary contraception measures, such as forced insertions of intrauterine devices.” Specifics can be found in a 2020 report by Jamestown Foundation expert Adrian Zenz, which revealed Chinese government documents verified by the AP. They showed that Xinjiang birthrates dropped some 24 percent from 2018 to 2019, compared with a 4.2 percent decline in China overall. They also indicated that violation of government birth limits—set below replacement level for the minority—is the most common reason Uighur women are detained. This official data supports anecdotal accounts from Uighur refugees. For example, former detainee Gulbahar Haitiwaji wrote of being forcibly sterilized by injection. “That was when I understood the method of the camps, the strategy being implemented: not to kill us in cold blood, but to make us slowly disappear. So slowly that no one would notice,” she recounted. In 2018, Rep. Chris Smith chaired congressional hearings where former detainee Mihrigul Tursun testified about being restrained and tortured with electrical currents and mocked for her belief in God. Others described the brutality behind China’s forced abortions. Pompeo also cited “arbitrary and indefinite detentions” in camps, where Uighurs were tortured, raped, and forced to do hard labor. In these camps, deaths occurred in unexplained circumstances. He noted Xinjiang’s draconian high-tech surveillance. Last week, the BBC reported on rape by electric prods and police gang rapes in the camps. These are all red flags, with the evidence of birth prevention constituting the smoking gun. Beijing remains defiant about its repressive governance. Last September, President Xi declared that the Xinjiang strategy is “totally correct and must carry on for a long time.” As for the horror about Uighur women detainees, China’s Washington embassy tweeted a jaw-dropping boast on January 7 (deleted by Twitter on January 8) that seemed consciously patterned on the Nazis’ “work sets you free” messaging at Auschwitz: ''The minds of Uygur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent.'' Were the U.S. State Department to quietly drop its concern about the Uighur genocide for the sake of climate change partnership with China, it would be tragic for the Uighur Muslims. It would also thoroughly betray the 73-year genocide pledge of “never again” and Americans’ human rights values. This will be a defining issue for the Biden administration. Nina Shea is the director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. Access the full article here. First Things © 2021

February 1, 2021, will live in infamy. It was the day the Myanmar military overthrew the elected government in a military coup d’etat, sparking nationwide protests that continue today. Here is a round-up of the past three weeks. Fortify Rights put together several (short) films on the current events unfolding in Myanmar. These films can be accessed through the hyperlink above and here. More can be found on the webpage of Fortify Rights. Fortify Rights © 2021

Scores of Rohingya reportedly adrift at sea (COX’S BAZAR, February 23, 2021)—Regional governments in South and Southeast Asia should support safe disembarkation and humanitarian assistance for scores of Rohingya refugees on a boat reportedly adrift at sea. “Too many Rohingya lives have already been lost at sea due to the callous inaction or pushbacks of regional governments,” said Amy Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights. “Regional governments in South and Southeast Asia should urgently protect those on board to prevent any further loss of life.” Fortify Rights spoke with Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, Bangladesh, and India, who made phone contact with passengers on the boat. A Rohingya on the boat told a family member in Bangladesh by phone that there are 90 people on board, including 65 women. The stranded Rohingya also told family members that the boat departed Bangladesh on February 11 and that the boat went adrift after the engine failed. Fortify Rights received taped phone conversations between Rohingya refugees, who claimed to be on the boat, and their relatives. “More than five people died today,” a Rohingya man says on one recording. “Please try to send water by any means.” In another audio recorded on February 22, a Rohingya man on the boat says: “The India Navy is helping us. They provided food to us. Please tell my mother to pray for us. We can drink water now.” After locating the boat on February 22, the Indian Navy reportedly provided food, water, and first aid to the refugees on the boat. According to Reuters, a senior Indian Coast Guard official confirmed they tracked the boat to an area off the coast of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. On February 22, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)–the U.N. agency mandated to protect refugees–called for the “immediate rescue of a group of Rohingya refugees in distress on the Andaman Sea.” The statement said: “Many [of the Rohingya refugees] are in a highly vulnerable condition and are apparently suffering from extreme dehydration. We understand that a number of refugees have already lost their lives and that fatalities have risen over the past 24 hours.” “Mohammed Jubar”–not his real name–in Kutupalong refugee camp told Fortify Rights on February 22 that his brother departed on the boat more than ten days earlier. He said his brother called him from the boat on February 21, saying he and others were out of drinking water and stranded at sea. “I heard people are dying on the boat,” Mohammed Jubar told Fortify Rights. “If they have to stay on the boat, my brother will also die.” Mohammed Jubar told Fortify Rights that on February 21 he received a call from a dallal–a term in the Rohingya language to describe an intermediary involved in human trafficking–requesting a payment. “[The dallal] told us to give 200,000 Bangladeshi Taka [US$2,300],” Mohammad Jubar said. “If we pay him, he said on the phone he will bring my brother home.” The name of the trafficker is on file with Fortify Rights. Another Rohingya refugee in Malaysia, who spoke to a relative on the boat, told Fortify Rights that his relative and others on the boat “need water and food.” “Pushback” actions and policies violate the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the “rejection at the frontier, interception and indirect refoulement” of individuals at risk of persecution. The principle of non-refoulement is part of customary international law and binding on all states. Under this principle, all countries are obligated to protect Rohingya from being returned, including through returns that are informal, such as pushbacks out to sea. In February 2020, at least 15 Rohingya from refugee camps in Bangladesh reportedly drowned in the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean after their boat, carrying more than 100, capsized en route to Malaysia. In April 2020, Fortify Rights documented killings, beatings, and severe deprivations of food and water by crew members on boats of Rohingya refugees. In March 2019, the National Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and Fortify Rights published a 121-page report, “Sold Like Fish,” based on a multi-year investigation into mass graves and human trafficking of Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Malaysia from 2012 to 2015. On February 1, the Myanmar military overthrew the democratically elected Government of Myanmar. The junta has arrested more than 600 people and used lethal force in its crackdown on peaceful anti-coup protesters. Rohingya continue to face genocide and other international crimes in Myanmar, and migration routes available to them remain deadly. There are more than a million Rohingya refugees in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, where the government continues to restrict the basic freedoms of Rohingya refugees. “We’ve seen this emergency before, and it can be avoided,” said Amy Smith. “Governments should urgently rescue and provide immediate protection to Rohingya stranded at sea.” Access the full article here. Fortify Rights © 2021

UN Human Rights Council Should Press for Accountability Last week, the United Nations published a new report concluding that the North Korean government continues to commit rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity. The report, by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, found that North Korea currently engages in torture, wrongful imprisonment, and forced hard labor under exceptionally harsh conditions against anyone held in its short-term detention facilities system and its long-term hard labor prison camps for ordinary crimes, or kyohwaso – widespread and systematic abuses that could amount to crimes against humanity. The UN report documents starvation, severe beatings, the prolonged use of stress positions, and psychological abuse. It also details the denial of medical care, sanitation, and hygiene products, all of which make for severe mental and physical suffering. These findings go beyond the landmark 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report that, for the first time, put the UN spotlight on North Korea’s systematized, horrific rights violations. The COI report documented crimes committed before 2012 and were focused on crimes against humanity against certain groups the North Korean government considered serious criminals or enemies of the state (those held in political prison camps, ordinary prison camps, those forcibly returned from China, religious or subversive groups, and abductees). These findings are consistent with Human Rights Watch’s own research on pre-trial detention and interrogation facilities (kuryujang) in North Korea. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged the international community to “prioritize justice and to take immediate steps to prevent further infliction of serious human rights violations against the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.” To do so, the UN Human Rights Council should continue to provide adequate resources to the UN Human Rights Office, including its Seoul office, to work on North Korea. When the council meets later this month, member states should work to adopt a strong resolution on North Korea, extending the mandate of its staff working on accountability, which ends in March 2021, and provides access to the Seoul office to specialized experts on financial accountability. The resolution should also strengthen the Seoul office’s existing mandate to “collect, consolidate, preserve, and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law,” as well as to “facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings” in accordance with international law. As the UN report underlines, “there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity.” Access the full article here. Human Rights Watch © 2021

Thu 25 Feb 2021 10.42 EST Andrew Roth Nikol Pashinyan addresses a rally of his supporters at Republic Square in central Yerevan on Thursday. Photograph: Stepan Poghosyan/Photolure/ÒÀÑÑ The Armenian prime minister has accused the armed forces of an attempted coup against his government after top military officers signed a letter calling on him to resign, in an escalation of the political crisis sparked by Armenia’s defeat in the war in Nagorno-Karabakh last year. Tensions between Nikol Pashinyan and the military erupted into open conflict on Thursday as the chief of the armed forces general staff, Onik Gasparyan, and other senior commanders accused the prime minister of bringing Armenia to “the brink of collapse”. In response, Pashinyan dismissed Gasparyan and called his own supporters to rally in Yerevan’s Republic Square, the site of the popular revolution that brought him to power three years ago. A video broadcast showed Pashinyan in a suit arriving at the square on Thursday and addressing his supporters through a bullhorn. “The army cannot get involved in the political process,” Pashinyan said in a speech. “The army should only obey the people and the political leadership elected by the people.” There have been no reports of the military being mobilised to seize government buildings or otherwise unseat Pashinyan. However, discontent has grown against the prime minister over Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war with Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh last year. As part of a Russian-brokered ceasefire, Armenia was forced to make painful concessions to Azerbaijan, handing over towns and villages it had won in a war after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but populated by ethnic Armenians. Opponents of the ceasefire called it a capitulation and stormed parliament and Pashinyan’s residence the night it was signed. Protests have simmered since and Armenia has been in deadlock, with the administration paralysed but the prime minister ignoring calls for snap elections. On Thursday, Pashinyan told Armenians he had “thought about resigning”, but added that “the people will decide whether I resign or not”. Thousands of his supporters marched behind him through the streets from Republic Square. There were scuffles as the march passed by a counter-protest organised by the opposition but no serious clashes took place. Earlier this week, Pashinyan had dismissed Tiran Khacharyan, Gasparyan’s first deputy, for ridiculing the prime minister’s claims that Russian-supplied Iskander missiles used in the conflict mostly failed to explode on contact. In response, Gasparyan, along with his deputies and other senior commanders, signed an open letter on Thursday saying: “The prime minister and the government are no longer able to make reasonable decisions in this critical and fatal situation for the Armenian people. Due to the current situation, the Armenian armed forces demand the resignation of the prime minister and the government, at the same time warning to refrain from using force against the people whose children died defending the homeland and Artsakh [the Armenian word for the Nagorno-Karabakh territories].” The prime minister reportedly responded with Gasparyan’s dismissal and called his supporters to the streets. “I consider the statement of the general headquarters as an attempted military coup,” Pashinyan wrote in a statement on Facebook. In his remarks on Thursday, Pashinyan called for “an end to velvet”, a reference to the lack of violence or reprisals in the country’s 2018 revolution. In his remarks, he threatened opposition leaders with arrest, saying: “There is a line. If you cross it, you will be arrested.” Armenia’s president, Armen Sarkissian, whose role is largely symbolic, called for restraint on all sides. “Reaffirming the role of the presidency as a balancing body, I am taking urgent measures to defuse tensions and find ways to resolve the situation peacefully,” he said. He had previously called on Pashinyan to resign to trigger early elections. The opposition has been backed by the former president Robert Kocharyan, who on Thursday called on Armenians to back the military against the government. “The authorities who have lost the war and surrendered the land must go,” he said. By evening, members of the opposition had blocked a central Yerevan avenue and were reported to be erecting tents. Link to the original article The Guardian© 2021

February 25, 2021 9:44AM EST| Stunning Admission Highlights Need for UN Inquiry Still image captured from video of Philippine Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra disclosing initial findings of a departmental review into the deaths of drug suspects during anti-drug operations in the Philippines to the UN Human Rights Council on February 24, 2021.© UN Web TV (Geneva) – The Philippine Department of Justice admitted police culpability in thousands of “drug war” killings, Human Rights Watch said today. The surprising admission provides further reason for the United Nations Human Rights Council, meeting in Geneva, to investigate President Rodrigo Duterte’s abusive anti-drug campaign. In a speech before the Human Rights Council on February 24, 2021, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra disclosed the initial findings of a departmental review into the deaths of drug suspects during anti-drug operations in the Philippines. He said that in many cases, police made no effort to examine recovered weapons, verify ownership, or conduct ballistic examinations. In most of the cases the Department of Justice reviewed, police failed to follow standard protocols in the coordination of drug raids and in the processing of crime scenes. His statement seriously undermines the usual government claim that drug suspects were killed because they fought back, Human Rights Watch said. “The justice secretary’s astounding disclosure is the first time the Duterte administration has admitted many police are to blame for ‘drug war’ deaths,” said John Fisher, Geneva director at Human Rights Watch. “The UN Human Rights Council should recognize this admission as reason enough to create an independent, international commission of inquiry.” The Philippine police have killed thousands of mostly urban poor men since the “war on drugs” started after Duterte took office in June 2016. Thousands more have been murdered by unidentified assailants that Human Rights Watch research has linked to the police or other authorities. Domestic and international human rights groups have called on the Human Rights Council to undertake an independent international investigation into the killings, while the International Criminal Court continues its preliminary examination into alleged crimes against humanity. In justifying the police killings of drug suspects, the Philippine government has repeatedly claimed that drug suspects “fought back.” But research by Human Rights Watch and others have shown that this claim frequently had no basis and that, in fact, police routinely planted evidence, such as weapons and drugs on the bodies of victims, to justify their killing. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in its June 2020 report, found that many of the guns recovered at the crime scene often had the same serial numbers, suggesting that these weapons were recycled. During the Human Rights Council session in October, the government committed to take certain steps to address concerns raised over the “drug war,” offering to review some police killings. Guevarra, in his February 24 speech, said the Department of Justice referred its findings to the police, which, he said, promised to take action. Allowing the police to investigate the Justice Department’s findings is unrealistic and may even frustrate efforts to seek justice, Human Rights Watch said. Since international scrutiny of the “drug war” began, the Philippine government, particularly the police, has refused to cooperate with investigations conducted by the national Commission on Human Rights. The Office of the Solicitor General, the government’s lawyer, has actively tried to undermine the investigations. The police’s own Internal Affairs Service has had a lackluster record in investigating police complicity in crimes while other government agencies, such as the Office of the Ombudsman, have also failed to take action. Only a handful of cases out of thousands reported are being investigated, while just one case in which police officers were implicated has resulted in a court conviction. “The justice secretary tried to show that their findings are proof of what he called ‘functioning accountability mechanisms,’” Fisher said. “Concerned governments should not be fooled by this unconvincing attempt to head off a Human Rights Council investigation. If the Philippine government now admits that its previous denials of police misconduct were false, what else are they hiding? This only makes an international inquiry by the UN even more imperative.” See article here. © 2021 Human Rights Watch