In the Bosnian town of Višegrad, the local authorities are trying hard to whitewash genocidal crimes through tourism. I was born in the 1980s to a Bosniak family in Višegrad, an ethnically diverse town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. A couple of years later, my hometown turned into one of the worst places on earth to be born a Muslim. It was a hot day in June 1992. The disappearances and the mass killings of Bosniak civilians at Višegrad’s famous 16th-century Mehmed Paša Sokolović’s bridge, which can be seen from almost every window in town, had intensified. Death and fear were all around me. I was just six years old. We were sitting at home, my mother holding me in her arms, trying to comfort me. I clearly remember telling her: “I wish they’d kill me first.” Death, however scary it may be to a child, sounded better than watching my mom being killed in front of my eyes. At the beginning of July, we fled to Goražde, a nearby town that was under the control of Bosnian forces, but many of our neighbors, friends, and acquaintances stayed behind and faced genocidal violence. Today, more than 25 years after the Dayton Accords officially recognized the ethnically cleansed Serb-majority entity Republika Srpska, where Višegrad is now located, the stories of the horrific suffering of its Muslim residents still haunt me. So it was with anguish and a survivor’s guilt that I opened British journalist Christina Lamb’s recent book Our Bodies, Their Battlefield. It details the use of rape as a weapon of war across the world, including in Bosnia during the war. Lamb’s account of what happened in my hometown reawakened the trauma of the war. Knowing the extent to which the current authorities in Republika Srpska are going to in order to erase these crimes made reading her book that much more painful. Death and rape in Višegrad In 1993, as details of the horrific crimes committed in Bosnia started to surface, the UN Security Council voted to establish the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to prosecute war criminals. The crimes committed in Višegrad particularly stood out. “These courts have heard many accounts but even the most seasoned judges and prosecutors pause at the mention of crimes perpetrated in Višegrad […] Crimes which reached an unprecedented peak of capricious cruelty not seen anywhere else,” one of the judges quoted in Lamb’s book had said. Out of 14,000 Bosniaks who lived in Višegrad before the war, about 3,000 were killed, often in the public executions on that famous Ottoman bridge, which served as an inspiration for Yugoslav author Ivo Andrić’s novel The Bridge on the Drina. The killings on the bridge in June 1992 were on such a mass scale that according to British journalist Ed Vulliamy, Višegrad’s police inspector Milan Josipović received “a macabre complaint from downriver, from the management of Bajina Basta hydro-electric plant across the Serbian border”. The plant’s director requested to “slow the flow of corpses down the Drina”, since “they were clogging up the culverts in his dam at such a rate that he could not assemble sufficient staff to remove them”. On June 14 and 27, 1992, more than 120 civilians, mostly women, and children, including a two-day-old infant, were locked in two houses in Pionirska Street in Višegrad and Bikavac area which were then set ablaze. Zehra Turjačanin, the only survivor of the Bikavac massacre, recalled in her testimony: “The people inside were burning alive. They were wailing, screaming. It’s just not describable what I heard.” When she got out of the burning house, she saw the armed men “lying in a grassy area nearby, seemingly intoxicated”, “playing music very, very loud so no one could hear the sound of the burning people screaming inside”, before running away. Rape and sexual violence, which were “deliberately and methodically used as a weapon of ethnic cleansing and genocide”, as Lamb writes, were widespread in Višegrad and other parts of eastern Bosnia. One of the victims told Lamb there were multiple locations used to carry out mass rape: “The police station, the local sports center, even the Institute for the Protection of Children”. One of the most infamous rape camps was the hotel Vilina Vlas, located seven kilometers (four miles) from town. It is suspected that at least 200 Bosniak girls and women were held at Vilina Vlas and systematically raped “in order to be inseminated by the Serb seed”. “They called us Turks. They told us, ‘You are not going to give birth to Turks anymore, but Serbs,’” one of the survivors told Lamb. After the repeated rape many of them were murdered, thrown into the Drina river, or burned alive. A group of people in the village of Slap, located downstream from Višegrad, retrieved about 180 bodies from the water. The female corpses, they said, were always naked and wrapped in blankets that were tied at each end. Despite these gruesome crimes carried out in Višegrad between 1992 and 1993, there has been only limited justice delivered. A Bosnian court found a member of the Republika Srpska police force, Željko Lelek, guilty of crimes against humanity in Višegrad, including rape, and sentenced him to sixteen years in prison. One of his victims was Jasmina Ahmetspahić, who ended her life by jumping out of a window at the Vilina Vlas hotel, after being raped for four days. Milan Lukić, the leader of the Bosnian Serb paramilitary group White Eagles, who established his headquarters at the Vilina Vlas in 1992, was not charged with sexual violence even though “there was ample evidence about a large number of rapes, murder and other serious crimes being committed at the Vilina Vlas”, according to Dermot Groome, who led the prosecution of Milan Lukić at the ICTY. He described the women who were tortured and violated at the Vilina Vlas hotel, as “some of the most traumatized people he had ever encountered in his work as a prosecutor.” The ICTY sentenced Milan Lukić to life in prison for war crimes including murder, cruelty, persecution, and other crimes against humanity committed in Višegrad in 1992 and 1993, including the Pionirska Street and Bikavac fires. The erasure Despite the Bosnian court judgement that confirmed the Vilina Vlas hotel was used as a rape camp and the extensive testimonies submitted to the tribunal, the government officials, and the majority of Višegrad’s Serb residents continue to deny rape, torture, or murder took place there. The denial, which in the words of the prominent genocide scholar, Israel W. Charny, represents a celebration of destruction, renewed humiliation of survivors, and metaphorical murder of historical truth and collective memory is not only widely accepted, but it has been state-supported. In June, as survivors marked the 28th anniversary of the Pionirska Street and Bikavac fires, the administration of the Rehabilitation Center Vilina Vlas, as it is officially called now, announced it is offering government-issued vouchers for discounted stays and use of rehabilitation services. Then in July, the Bosnian media reported that Republika Srpska’s Tourist Board, with the support of the municipality of Višegrad, has started a promotional campaign called “We are waiting for you in Višegrad” and provided gift vouchers as a way to attract tourists. Vilina Vlas was also part of the campaign. Support and encouragement of the denial go far beyond Bosnia. In 1998, shortly after the hotel reopened and the Serb authorities started encouraging foreigners to stay there and help erase the memory of its horrors, Austrian author and genocide denier Peter Handke booked a room. He later wrote about his experience in Višegrad, expressing doubt about Lukić’s involvement in the killings and such crimes happening at all. Despite his appalling genocide apologism, the Swedish Academy awarded Handke the Nobel Prize for the Literature in 2019. And beyond the realm of the written word, the rape and genocide of Muslims in Višegrad and elsewhere in Bosnia are now celebrated and glorified by white supremacists across the world and serve as an inspiration for terrorist acts. It is now becoming increasingly clear the denial and distortion of truth not only constitute an assault on the history of one particular group but also pose a threat to us all. Denial is one of the most certain indicators that a repeat of such crimes in the future is imminent. Therefore, it is more urgent than ever to fight denialism in the Balkans and across the world, to preserve the memories of the victims and remember the unimaginable suffering inflicted upon them. Failing to do so would constitute complicity in ethnic cleansing and genocide. The Serb fighters started that process by killing and then trying to erase any physical evidence of their victims’ existence by burying them in unmarked graves or throwing them in the Drina River. Embracing denial and forgetting the names and lives of these people would complete the process. As Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel wrote, “to forget would be akin to killing them a second time.” We must fight for the victims’ memory and for the triumph of truth. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. See the full article here. Al Jazeera 2020 ©

President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d'Ivoire (credit: BBC News) Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Warning for Côte d’Ivoire. Côte d’Ivoire’s political climate has been toxic for decades. In 1995, President Henri Konan Bédié, an ethnic Baoulé and leader of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), coined the term ‘ivoirité’ to divide ‘true’ Ivoirians belonging to southern (mostly Akan) ethnic groups against people from northern groups belonging to Mandé, Senoufo, Voltaic (Gur), and Bambara ethnicities. Many northerners emigrated to Côte d’Ivoire as laborers during French colonial rule and the presidency of Félix Houphouët-Boigny. They often work on plantations owned by members of southern groups. The strategy was aimed at excluding Muslims of these northern groups from political power, especially Alassane Ouattara, who was falsely accused of being born in Upper Volta (Burkina Faso.) The military dictator Robert Guéï, himself a Mandé, even enshrined this exclusion in the 2000 Constitution, requiring presidential candidates to have both Ivoirian mothers and fathers. Laurent Gbagbo, a southwestern ethnic Bété and leader of the Ivoirian Popular Front (FPI), refused to accept his defeat in the 2010 election by Muslim northerner Alassane Ouattara, leader of the Rally of the Republicans (RDR). Gbagbo supporters, who included security forces and militias, used state media to incite violence against Ouattara sympathisers. Armed groups on both sides targeted civilians. Ethnic violence killed 3,000 people in five months. Muslims were targeted. Pro-Gbagbo mobs burned northerners and West African immigrants alive. Gbagbo was arrested and tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. President Ouattara has since restored stability and has sought to unite the country. In 2013, parliament relaxed the requirements to acquire nationality. The new 2016 Constitution, accepted by referendum, only requires presidential candidates to have one Ivoirian parent. While this aimed to put an end to ‘ivoirité,’ tensions persist, and minority groups like the nomadic Fula are not recognized as citizens. A flawed transitional justice process has hindered reconciliation. Accused human rights violators from the Republican Forces of Côte d’Ivoire (FRCI), loyal to Ouattara, have not been brought to justice for the massacre of over 800 people in Duékoué in 2011. Some hold senior roles in the security forces. Government critics have been arrested, raising tensions between groups. An Abidjan court acquitted Gbagbo’s wife, Simone Gbagbo, of war crimes charges in 2017, and Ouattara granted her amnesty in 2018. The ICC dropped charges against Laurent Gbagbo in 2019, granting him conditional release. Many of Gbagbo’s victims remain traumatized. President Ouattara announced that he would step down after two terms, in accordance with term limits in the Constitution. However, the death of Ouattara’s chosen successor, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, led Ouattara to run for re-election. This reversal of Ouattara’s pledge to step down has sparked violent protests. Gbagbo and former northern leader Guillaume Soro have been barred from running for President. The FPI has chosen Gbagbo’s former Prime Minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan as their leader, and the Constitutional Council approved only four out of 44 candidates - Bédié, Nguessan, Ouattara, and independent candidate Kouadio Konan Bertin. On October 18, the opposition called for an election boycott. In Bongouanou, N’Guessan’s stronghold, ethnic Agni started violent clashes with pro-Ouattara Dioula, who burned N’Guessan’s house. Genocide Watch considers Côte d’Ivoire to be at Stage 6, Polarization. Genocide Watch recommends: · All presidential candidates should pledge that they will abide by the results of the coming election. · The Côte d’Ivoire government must protect all civilians from electoral and post-electoral violence. · Election observers from the AU, EU, UN, and NGO’s should have free access to monitor the election. · The U.N., African Union, and France should prepare to send peacekeepers if Côte Ivoire explodes.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) voiced “serious concerns” on Tuesday over the situation in Myanmar – including rights violations and proliferation of hateful speech against minority communities – as the country prepares for general elections next month. UNICEF/Nyan Zay Htet: Women and children from a local community at a health centre in Sittwe, in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state. (file photo) Minority groups, including the Rohingya Muslim community and ethnic Rakhine population, have been disproportionately affected, said a senior OHCHR spokesperson in Geneva. “While the elections represent an important milestone in Myanmar's democratic transition, the civic space is still marred by continuing restrictions of the freedoms of opinion, expression and access to information, and the use of language that could amount to incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence”, said Ravina Shamdasani at the regular media briefing in Geneva. She also voiced concern over Government and military leadership’s intolerance towards opposing views or criticism of its policies and actions, in the run up to voting. Over the past two months, dozens of student activists have been charged – and four of them sentenced to over six years’ imprisonment – under various laws after they called for an end to the conflicts in the northern Rakhine and Chin provinces and for reinstatement of mobile internet services in those areas, as well as for the release of other detained student activists. “We urge the Government to drop charges against all those facing legal action for exercising their right to freedom of expression – a right that is particularly precious in a pre-electoral context,” said Ms. Shamdasani. The elections are scheduled to be held on 8 November. Muslim minorities ‘largely excluded’ from citizenship Myanmar’s discriminatory citizenship and electoral laws confer different rights to different classes of citizens, most clearly affecting Muslim minorities who are largely excluded from any citizenship rights, according to the UN rights office. There has also been significant disenfranchisement resulting from the Union Election Commission’s announcement on 16 October, that elections would not be taking place in 56 townships, including in Rakhine province. “The Commission did not provide public justification for its decision – which curtails the right to political participation in areas with ethnic minority populations in a discriminatory fashion”, added Ms. Shamdasani. Internet shutdown She noted that an internet shutdown effectively remains in place in eight townships in Rakhine and Chin provinces, severely limiting the ability of residents to receive and deliver reliable information, including on COVID-19 and polling procedures. “Blanket internet shutdowns may be counterproductive and contravene international law,” said Ms. Shamdasani. ‘Unrelenting proliferation of hateful speech’ The spokesperson also voiced deep concerns over “unrelenting proliferation” of hateful speech against Muslims on the Facebook social media platform. Facebook has made an effort to identify and remove such content, she added. “We call on the Government of Myanmar to take action in line with the Presidential Directive 3/2020 of April this year to denounce such hateful language publicly and to promote tolerance, non-discrimination and pluralism in speech by public officials and electoral candidates”, said the OHCHR spokesperson. COPYRIGHT © UNITED NATIONS

Opposition supporters take to streets as electoral commission says Alpha Condé won almost 60% of vote Published by The Guardian on October 24, 2020. Confrontation between the youth and police in Conakry, October 21, 2020 [JOHN WESSELS/AFP] Guinea’s president, Alpha Condé, has won a controversial third term with 59.49% of the vote, the National Independent Electoral Commission declared on Saturday. His victory came amid widespread protests that were violently suppressed by security forces. Some people went on to the streets to protest immediately after the announcement. Such demonstrations have occurred for months after the government changed the constitution through a national referendum, allowing Condé to extend his decade in power. Opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo received 33.50% of the vote, the electoral commission said. Voter turnout was almost 80%. Political tensions around the election in the west African nation turned violent in recent days after Diallo claimed victory ahead of the official results. Celebrations by his supporters were suppressed when security forces fired teargas to disperse them. At least nine people have been killed since the election, according to the government. The violence sparked international condemnation by the US and others. A policeman was killed in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, on Wednesday during clashes with opposition supporters who burned barricades in the streets after initial results from Sunday’s presidential election showed Condé in the lead. “Today is a sad day for African democracy,” said Sally Bilaly Sow, a Guinean blogger and activist living abroad. The government should take into account the will of the people who have a desire for change, he said. On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the country in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in Conakry. This was the third time that Condé had faced Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea’s largest ethnic groups. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Release Those Held Arbitrarily; End Crackdown on Dissent Published by HRW on October 19, 2020. A demonstrator in Cameroon carries a sign calling for the liberation of detained activists [Getty Images/AFP] (Nairobi) – Cameroonian security forces fired tear gas and water cannons and arrested hundreds of people, mainly opposition party members and supporters, to disperse peaceful protests across the country on September 22, 2020. Many peaceful protesters were beaten and mistreated while being arrested and in detention. Cameroon’s authorities should immediately release all those held for their political views or for exercising their right to peacefully assemble. The African Union (AU), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and Cameroon’s other regional and international partners should publicly denounce the crackdown on Cameroon’s political opposition and other dissenters. These groups should press the Cameroon government to hold to account those responsible for violations of the rights to assembly, to liberty, and to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment. “African and regional bodies should call out Cameroon’s government for its repression and rampant abuses,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “As the end of the AU’s 2020 theme, ‘Silencing the gun,’ approaches, it’s crucial for these institutions to send strong messages to President Paul Biya’s administration that flagrant violations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other human rights treaties are unacceptable.”  According to the opposition party Cameroon Renaissance Movement (Mouvement pour la renaissance du Cameroun, MRC), over 500 people were arrested on September 22, only 155 of whom have been released. Lawyers for the party say that 21 were taken before a civilian court on various charges, including rebellion and participating in an illegal demonstration; 107 have been taken before a military court on various charges including terrorism and insurrection; 63 others continue to be held without charge, while the situation of others still in custody is unclear. In a statement on October 14, Cameroon’s communications minister said that 294 people were arrested on September 22, of whom 176 have been released. Human Rights Watch, between September 22 and October 10, interviewed ten leaders and members of the opposition party MRC, five lawyers, three journalists and four relatives of men who were arrested and beaten by the police on September 22. Human Rights Watch also reviewed photographs and video footage showing the September 22 demonstrations and the security force response. In early September, Cameroon authorities banned demonstrations across the country after the MRC encouraged people to take to the streets over the government’s decision to call regional elections in December. The party has said the government should revise the electoral law and resolve the crisis in the Anglophone regions – where violence has been acute since late 2016, as separatists seek independence for the country’s minority Anglophone regions – before holding these elections. The territorial administration minister then announced that anyone organizing or leading demonstrations would be arrested, claiming that protests would endanger lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. The communications minister warned political parties on September 15 that protests could be considered “insurrection” and that illegal demonstrations would be punished under the anti-terror law. The wife of a 32-year-old MRC member who was arrested in Yaoundé, the capital, on September 22 told Human Rights Watch: “I went to the central police station where my husband is being held. His eyes were red and swollen. He told me that the police beat him up when they arrested him.” A party member who visited his 36-year-old friend at the Yaoundé central police station after his arrest, said: “Policemen beat him so savagely that his wrist is now dislocated. He’s being held in a small dirty cell with 20 other people with no light and a non-functioning toilet.” At least eight journalists were among those arrested on September 22, and it appears that at least some were deliberately targeted. Radio France Internationale (RFI)’s correspondent in Yaoundé, Polycarpe Essomba, told Human Rights Watch: “I had finished covering the demonstrations, and I was in a hairdresser shop preparing my radio show when six policemen came in and pointed at me. One said: ‘That’s him whom we are looking for. That’s him who’s spoiling Cameroon’s image abroad.’ They put me in their truck and forced me to lay down. Then they kicked me, and one hit me with a truncheon.” The reporter, who was taken to the central police station in Yaoundé, was released three hours later. The other seven journalists were also released over the course of that day and the following day. Maurice Kamto, the MRC leader, who had been arrested in January 2019 after countrywide peaceful protests and released following a presidential decree in October 2019, has been held under de facto house arrest since September 22. Dozens of police and gendarmes surround his residence in Yaoundé, refusing to allow him to leave. On October 5, his lawyers filed a request before the Yaoundé Court of First Instance seeking to free the leader, but the court rejected the request the following day “for lack of urgency.” On October 11, Kamto’s lawyers filed a complaint against the state of Cameroon, accusing the authorities of holding the leader under house arrest illegally. The first hearing, scheduled for October 15 before the Yaoundé Court of First Instance, was postponed until October 29. Two other prominent MRC leaders – its treasurer, Alain Fogue, and its spokesperson, Bibou Nissack – were also arrested, on September 21 and 22 respectively. They are being held at the State Defense Secretariat (Secrétariat d’Etat à la défense, SED) without charge. While their lawyers and family members can visit them, their lawyers say they cannot talk to their clients privately and that visits are only allowed for less than 10 minutes. Nissack is being held in solitary confinement and is not permitted to have reading material. On October 1, following the announcement of a protest, policemen and gendarmes surrounded the headquarters of the opposition party Cameroon People’s Party (CPP) in Yaoundé and the residence of its president, Edith Kahbang Walla, known as Kah Walla. “Police initially informed me that I was under house arrest, but then backed down when I demanded to see the court judgment authorizing such an arrest,” Kah Walla said in an October 9 statement. The right to peaceful protest is guaranteed by Cameroon’s constitution and international human rights law. Arbitrary arrests, mistreatment in detention, and unnecessary use of force to disperse protesters violate those guarantees and Cameroon’s international obligations. Protesters should instead be protected by the authorities. While the authorities used the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to ban the demonstrations, detaining hundreds of people in cramped conditions poses serious risks to public health and could be considered a right-to-health violation. Human Rights Watch has urged governments around the world, including Cameroon, to reduce their jail and prison populations, given the heightened risk of Covid-19 for detainees and staff. For the same reason, authorities should only make custodial arrests when strictly necessary. Especially given that those arrested during the September 22 protests were not engaged in violence and presented no immediate threat to commit violence, there was no justification for custodial arrests. Cameroonian authorities have arbitrarily arrested critics of the government and political opponents on multiple occasions, and security forces have used excessive and indiscriminate force to stifle other opposition-led demonstrations. In late January, Kamto, the MRC leader, and some of his closest allies were arrested alongside another 200 party members and supporters after they held countrywide protests. In June 2019, security forces arrested at least 350 MRC members and supporters across the country as they tried to hold demonstrations. Some, including the party vice-president, Mamadou Mota, remain in detention on politically motivated charges. “We feel as if there’s a normalization of repression,” a Cameroonian human rights lawyer, Michelle Ndoki, told Human Rights Watch. “The international community should know that the political space for opposition groups to express themselves freely is getting smaller every day.” On October 12, 14 United Nations independent human rights experts called on Cameroon to release Kamto and others arrested during peaceful protests, and to stop the intimidation of political activists. On October 14, the communications minister said that the UN human rights experts’ statement is “partial and biased” and “based on false information.” “As further opposition-led demonstrations are expected across Cameroon in the coming months, the AU and the ECCAS should press President Biya to end the wave of repression and promote respect for human rights,” Allegrozzi said. “African and regional bodies should not remain silent in the face of escalating repression and should rally support from within their institutions to hold Cameroonian authorities to their human rights obligations, including by calling for the immediate charge or release of all arrested demonstrators and political opponents.” © 2020 Human Rights Watch

Governments convene to raise US$1 billion for Rohingya relief. (BANGKOK October 21, 2020)—Donor governments seeking to raise one billion dollars in aid for Rohingya should acknowledge the crimes perpetrated against them in Myanmar as genocide and crimes against humanity, Fortify Rights said today. Tomorrow, the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and the U.N. refugee agency will co-host a virtual donor conference to raise humanitarian funds for displaced Rohingya and host communities. “Genocide is the root cause of the humanitarian needs, and governments should acknowledge that,” said Matthew Smith, Fortify Rights Chief Executive Officer. “If we ever hope to live in a world free from genocide, we have to diagnose it as it’s unfolding. Any failure to address the root crimes will only invite this annual scramble for funds, year after year.” This week, Fortify Rights joined Refugees International and 33 other organizations in a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, calling on the U.S. Government to make a genocide determination with regard to the crimes committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar. “A genocide determination would send a sense of urgency to spur the kind of multi-lateral diplomatic engagement and pressure needed to ensure that Myanmar refrains from committing further atrocities and, ultimately, creates the conditions conducive to the safe, voluntary, and informed return of Rohingya refugees to their homeland,” the joint letter said. Rohingya people have long decried the acts of violence committed against them as genocide. Unpublished quantitative data collected by Fortify Rights and a team of Rohingya researchers found that 100 percent of Rohingya respondents in Bangladesh believe the Myanmar military is intent on destroying them. The U.S. Government has never publicly determined the Myanmar military committed genocide or crimes against humanity. On October 23, The Gambia will file a “Memorial” in its lawsuit against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, making its case for how the Government of Myanmar is responsible for genocide against Rohingya in Rakhine State. The same day, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Tom Andrews is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly. In 2016 and 2017, the Myanmar Army led a campaign of massacres, mass rape, and mass arson, forcibly deporting more than 800,000 Rohingya men, women, and children to Bangladesh. Up to 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar and continue to face genocide and other international crimes. In 2018, Fortify Rights, and later a U.N. Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, determined that attacks against Rohingya in 2016 and 2017 amounted to genocide. While funding for the international relief effort is vital, the international community must also address the root causes of the crisis, including the disenfranchisement of Rohingya and denial of citizenship rights, Fortify Rights said. Under Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law, the government denies access to full citizenship for individuals who do not belong to certain “national” ethnic groups determined by the Government of Myanmar. The government relies on an arbitrary and disputed list of 135 recognized ethnic groups that excludes Rohingya, and the government is disenfranchising Rohingya from national elections November 8. The Government of Myanmar also continues to confine more than 125,000 Rohingya to more than 20 internment camps in five townships of Rakhine State, and it continues to enforce draconian, discriminatory restrictions on Rohingya, including severe restrictions on freedom of movement. In 2015, Fortify Rights and the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School found these policies were deliberately designed to be destructive to the existence of Rohingya in Rakhine State. “The generosity of the international community towards Rohingya relief is crucial and commendable,” said Matthew Smith. “Governments must unite in condemning genocide and mass atrocities. Silence on the nature of these crimes only benefits the perpetrators.” Click here to read the Joint Letter. See the full article here. Fortify Rights 2020 ©

The shooting of peaceful protestors has highlighted the injustice and state brutality that have fuelled this movement. Published by The Guardian on October 21, 2020. Pius Utomi Ekpei - Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Nigeria’s flag is stained with blood once more. Protestors were clutching it as security forces opened fire at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos late on Tuesday. The state’s governor denied that anyone was shot dead, but witnesses spoke of multiple fatalities among the hundreds gathered in defiance of a curfew. The #EndSars campaign against police abuses has drawn high-profile support around the world, but at home has unleashed more state brutality. Around the country, demonstrators had already been attacked by groups of thugs. Although there has been unrest during the protests – participants blame unscrupulous elements taking advantage of the demonstrations, or police provocateurs – the tollgate gathering was peaceful. Official rhetoric towards the movement had hardened, with the army warning that it could step in “against subversive elements and troublemakers”. It now denies involvement, but the governor of Lagos said it had been deployed, and that Tuesday had seen “some of the darkest gradients of our history”. Nigeria has a long history of violent clampdowns on peaceful protest. Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected president five years ago and previously headed a military junta in the 1980s, has a grim record. Amnesty International says security forces killed at least 150 activists and demonstrators in the south-east (a claim denied by the army), and a judicial inquiry found that soldiers killed hundreds of Shia Muslims in Zaria, in the north, in 2015. State violence permeates society. #EndSars, a call for the dissolution of the notorious special anti-robbery squad, gathered momentum two weeks ago as a video apparently showing officers shooting a man dead went viral. Stories and evidence of police harassing, assaulting, raping, unlawfully arresting, extorting and murdering citizens circulated widely. Nigerians across the country have too often been terrorised by those supposed to protect and serve them. A 2016 index of world policing ranked Nigeria’s force as the worst out of 127 countries. The government said it would disband the squad, but added that it would create a new unit. Activists want justice for bereaved families, the retraining of Sars officers and an independent investigative body – but also adequate pay for police, recognising the underlying issues. Some states have now created investigative panels, but the offending police have yet to be arrested. Worse still, deaths in custody have continued. The Lekki shootings show signs of turning a campaign focused on policing but tapping into much deeper anger about the state’s treatment of its citizens into an anti-government protest. Some now call for Mr Buhari to quit. More broadly, people link the state’s response to a failure to meet basic needs. Soaring unemployment, worsened by the pandemic, has fuelled anger. Protestors have grown up expecting the state to do little and receiving worse. It fails to afford them even basic respect. Now they are demanding it. An extraordinary outpouring of support from celebrities worldwide – from Kanye West and Beyoncé to Marcus Rashford and John Boyega – comes in stark contrast to the muted response from leaders in the region. The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who is the chair of the African Union, and Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, chair of the West African Ecowas bloc, spoke out strongly on George Floyd’s death. They appear less keen to address police brutality in their neighbourhood. But Nigerians have good reason to protest. They must be defended. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

En RDC, la querelle se poursuit autour des conditions d’installation de la commune rurale de Minembwe, dont la majorité des habitants sont des Banyamulenge, des Tutsi congolais. RFI a rencontré le bourgmestre de la commune. avec notre envoyée spéciale à Minembwe, Sonia Rolley Publié par RFI le 21 octobre 2020. Le bourgmestre de Minembwe assure vouloir restaurer l’autorité de l’État congolais dans la commune. [RFI/Sonia Rolley] Lundi, le ministre de la Décentralisation, issu de la communauté banyamulenge, a été interpellé par des députés à l’Assemblée. Il a rappelé que c’était dans les attributions du gouvernement provincial, et non les siennes, d’installer la commune. Ce à quoi le ministre provincial a répondu, hier mardi, que c’était sur demande d’Azarias Ruberwa que le PV d’installation avait été établi. L’entourage du ministre d’État a dénoncé le caractère opportuniste de cette réaction, quand le ministre provincial avait tenu des propos contraires quelques jours auparavant. Gabi Mukiza Nzabinesha est le bourgmestre le plus controversé du Congo. Cet ancien professeur munyamulenge, pourtant nommé depuis 2018, a officiellement pris ses fonctions en février 2019, comme son adjoint, issu d’une communauté aujourd’hui rivale. « Lui il est Babembe », nous explique le bourgmestre, mais il est toujours d'accord pour être bourgmestre adjoint. Pour Gabi Mukiza Nzabinesha, derrière la polémique sur l’installation de la commune de Minembwe, il y a un problème de discrimination historique… Les Banyamulenge sont des éleveurs, les Babembes des agriculteurs avec des chefferies coutumières reconnues qui leur donnent un droit sur la terre. « Les Banyamulenge n'ont pas été bien intégrés, même à l'époque de Mobutu. »Elire un député, c'était compliqué, poursuit le bourgmestre. « Des nationalités douteuses sont venues et c'est ce qui rebondit en ce moment... » Un « vieux démon » qui n’a pas lieu d’être, dit le bourgmestre puisque les Banyamulenge étaient installés à Minembwe même bien avant l’indépendance. En témoignent des documents établis par les colons belges, explique-t-il. Quant à la commune elle-même, elle a été instaurée par l’Etat, assure-t-il, pour renforcer son autorité sur un espace considéré comme difficile à administrer depuis l’époque de maréchal Mobutu. © 2020 Copyright RFI - Tous droits réservés.

The Sunni majority is using blasphemy laws to target and murder those they call ‘heretics’ Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad and Hannah Ellis-Petersen Wed 21 Oct 2020 05.00 BST Shia Muslims mourning the death anniversary of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in Karachi on 8 October.Photograph: Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images Syed Kareem* has been in hiding for weeks. He fears if he is seen on the streets of Karachi, the Pakistan city he calls home, he will be a dead man walking. His ordeal began with a Facebook post in early September, where he condemned the killers of a Shia Muslim martyred centuries ago. Though Kareem had meant it as a post of religious devotion, it caught the attention of an extremist Sunni Muslim group, who called him a traitor to Muslims. Two days later, the 21-year-old student found himself the subject of a police report, accused of violating Pakistan’s draconian laws on blasphemy. He is one of over 50 Shia Muslims in Sunni-majority Pakistan, who have been booked under blasphemy and antiterrorist charges over the last month. The youngest was three years old. “I fear they will kill me,” said Kareem, his voice shaking as he spoke from his place of hiding. “I am being targeted because I am from a Shia religious minority. I fear for myself and my family.” With the police on their way to interrogate him, and fearing the violent fate that extremist Sunni groups in Pakistan inflict on those accused of blasphemy, last month Kareem and his family chose to disappear. Over the past month, Pakistan has seen an unprecedented rise in attacks and arrests of its Shia population, who make up between 15% and 20% of the Sunni-majority country, the largest Shia community outside Iran. As well as the 50 who have been charged in the blasphemy crackdown, five have been killed since September and many more Shia families and well-known figures have gone into hiding. Last week, in Punjab, police beat up and arrested 22 Shia Muslims, including seven women, who were taking part in a ceremony to mark a Shia martyr. Blasphemy is a capital offence in Pakistan and even unsubstantiated allegations can lead to mob violence and lynchings against the accused. Bakhtawar Jaffri, a Shia rights activist in Punjab, said she had recently filed a police report for anti-Shia hate speech but it had been ignored. “In contrast, even the baseless and fake cases from the other side are being entertained by police,” she said. The situation worsened further last week when an influential Sunni religious scholar, Maulana Dr Adil Khan, was killed in an attack. Hardcore Sunni groups publicly accused Shia Muslims of orchestrating the attack. The anti-Shia Muslim campaign first began gathering pace on social media in September, demanding that Shia Muslims were declared heretics. The hashtag “infidel, infidel, Shias are infidel” began trending. Then, in mid-September, a march of more than 30,000 people, organised by extremist Sunni Muslim groups, gathered in Karachi over two days to call Shia Muslims “unbelievers” and “blasphemers” and called for their beheading. It was the largest anti-Shia march seen in decades in Pakistan, and was copied in other cities including the capital Islamabad. Shia Muslims also fear their religious freedom is being legislated away. In July, Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam [protection of foundation of Islam bill] was passed by the Punjab assembly, which supported only the Sunni interpretation of Islam, provoking a huge backlash from the Shia community. “Persecution seems to be waiting for the Shia minority,” said Hamza Baloch, a founding member of Secular Shia Voices, an advocacy group. “At first, they used hashtags, then killed us and rallied against us. Now they’re coming up with legislation to eliminate the Shia minority.” At the forefront of anti-Shia campaign in Pakistan are two hardline Sunni Muslim groups, Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). ASWJ had previously been banned in Pakistan under the Anti-Terrorism Act before it was lifted in 2018 but is still globally considered a terrorist organisation. Sectarian persecution of Shia Muslims has been a long-running fracture in Pakistan, exacerbated by the proxy wars fought on Pakistan soil by Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shia-majority Iran, as well as the US ‘“war on terror”. As one senior security official speaking on condition of anonymity, alleged: “We can’t ignore the role of regional and international powers in sectarianism in Pakistan … Iran supports the Shia militia here.” However, the vehement sectarian resurgence began in 2017 when the Pakistani government began making concessions to the extremist Sunni Muslim groups. In 2017, TLP was responsible for forcing a law minister to quit over a perceived softening in the blasphemy laws. Then, in the 2018 election, ASWJ and TLP were allowed to run in the election, winning seats in parliament. In the same election, ASWJ also threw its influential backing behind 70 candidates from Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which won and formed the government. Despite their well-documented extremist positions, over the past two years TLP and ASWJ have been allowed to assemble, make public anti-Shia speeches, carry out rallies, run for political office and mobilise against the Shia community, ensuring their power and influence in Pakistan has gone from strength to strength. The Khan government, meanwhile, has been accused of both turning a blind eye to rising sectarianism from hardline Sunni groups, which reportedly enjoy patronage from state and military officials, and also using their support for political gain at a time when the government is weak and the economy is collapsing. Dr Nauman Naqvi, an associate professor at Habib University in Karachi, said: “Since Pakistan’s economic and political outlook appears increasingly troubled, the ruling power see Sunni majoritarian populism as the only option to secure stability, undercut democratic forces and distract from the grave political and economic crises that hover over Pakistan. “The large-scale presence of these constitution-phobic groups is a clear and present threat to civil and constitutional rule in Pakistan,” added Naqvi. “It threatens to plunge the country into anarchy.” Even Fawad Chaudhry, currently serving as the minister for science and technology in Khan’s government, conceded that sectarianism was an issue that was getting “out of hand”. “Unfortunately, due to the history that Pakistan has had, especially with regards to security, this remains a huge problem,” said Chaudhry. * Name has been changed to protect identity © 2020 The Guardian