Asylum seekers allege ‘extreme violence’ at the hands of Croatian authorities, prompting calls for the EU to properly investigate. Refugees and migrants have sustained “severe injuries” after having allegedly been whipped, beaten, and sexually abused at the hands of Croatian authorities during their attempts to reach western Europe for asylum. Last week, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) collected testimonies from more than 70 refugees and migrants at the Miral camp in western Bosnia who said they experienced violent pushbacks by Croatian authorities. The route through the Bosnia-Croatia border is popular with refugees attempting to cross into EU-member Croatia from Bosnia, with the aim of reaching Western Europe. Human rights groups have long accused Croatian authorities of violent pushbacks, while many say refugees have also been robbed of their belongings in the process. But the latest testimonies collected by DRC, sent to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, mark an escalation with reports of sexual abuse and “extreme violence”. The victims include refugees from countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Morocco. According to their testimonies, four Afghan victims aged 16 to 24 crossed the border and were detained by Croatian police. They were transported on October 14 to an unknown location in Croatia and handed over to 10 armed people, dressed in black with their faces fully covered with balaclavas. They were ordered to strip down to their underwear and their belongings were set on fire. They were ordered to lie on the ground, face down. “Midway during the beating, one of the men in black penetrated M.K’s anus forcefully with a branch. The penetration was done over the underwear. During this particular moment, the rest of the men in black were laughing,” DRC said, referring to the 24-year-old Afghan. Croatian authorities continued to beat the victim all over for about eight minutes. The penetration caused bleeding. After the victims pushed to retreat to Bosnia, a doctor who examined them in Bihac said what had been inflicted on them amounted to “severe injuries”. A spokesperson from Croatia’s Ministry of Interior told Al Jazeera its border police has been accused of inhumane treatment “without providing any kind of facts, proof or at least basic information which could be verified”. “Once these accusations were made, the Ministry of the Interior certainly initiated urgent procedures to verify the allegations since it is our objective and in our interest to, on one hand, remove any suspicion of actions taken by Croatian police officers, and, on the other hand, sanction and eliminate irregularities if, by chance, any have occurred,” the spokesperson said. In an email to Al Jazeera, Charlotte Slente, secretary-general of DRC, called the claims “horrifying”. “We need to see action to put a stop to the systematic use of violence. Treating human beings like this, inflicting severe pain and causing unnecessary suffering, irrespective of their migratory status, cannot and should not be accepted by any European country, or by any EU institution,” Slente said. “There is an urgent need to ensure that independent border monitoring mechanisms are in place to prevent these abuses, and to ensure that all reports of abuse are transparently and credibly investigated – and those responsible are held to account.” ‘Naked and beaten’ Refugees and migrants recounted to DRC that after being caught and detained by Croatian police, they had their valuables confiscated – mobile phones, power banks, and hundreds of euros. Like the four Afghans, others said they were ordered to strip naked and saw their essential belongings, including shoes, jackets, and backpacks, thrown into a fire. Beatings were described as “severe” with Croatian authorities using metal batons, wooden sticks, belts, and their fists to beat them. They used their boots to kick them, not watching which part of their bodies were hit, according to the testimonies. In some instances, a Croatian official would immobilize the refugee by standing on his neck while the victim endured the beating. In other testimonies, police were said to have taken selfies with naked victims or ordered naked refugees to lie on the ground next to and on top of each other to be beaten. One refugee from Balochistan said: “We lay next to each other, naked and beaten and the other four were ordered to lie on us, like when trees are stacked, so we lay motionless for 20 minutes.” A refugee from Balochistan said a child refugee who was beaten fainted and was then beaten again. “A minor … fainted after many blows. His friends took him in their arms and one of the police officers ordered them to lay him down, on the ground. Then, they started hitting them with batons. “The minor soon regained consciousness and the officers ordered him to get up on his own. “Before the deportation, police told us, ‘We don’t care where you are from and whether you will return to Bosnia or to your country, but you will not go to Croatia. Now you have all your arms and legs because we were careful how we hit you and next time it will be much worse’.” Medical teams operating at Miral camp in Velika Kladusa, western Bosnia, said these victims suffered the most severe injuries they have witnessed to date. One victim was hospitalized as his calf bone was fractured; he had to undergo surgery. Another victim’s nose was broken. ‘Tacitly encouraged by the EU’ The Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN), a network of NGOs in the Balkan regions, published an investigation on Wednesday, corroborating DRC’s findings. Since October 3, BVMN records show 36 people were pushed back from Croatia, with “extreme physical assaults” involved in each incident in the Cetingrad area, BVMN spokesman Jack Sapoch told Al Jazeera. Sapcoh noted that, according to the Croatian Interior Ministry, Damir Butina of the Karlovac police station which has jurisdiction over Cetingrad, spoke last month at a training event for 36 new Croatian border police leaders on “Frontex certified” border procedures. Human rights groups have previously questioned Frontex, the European Border, and Coast Guard Agency, saying it was failing to respect its mandate to ensure the protection of human rights. “This is only one of many examples of how this violence is tacitly encouraged by the European Union, which has supplied the Croatian state with hundreds of millions of euros of technological equipment to secure the EU’s external border in the last decade,” Sapoch said. Clare Daly, an Irish MEP, has raised the alarm over refugee abuse in parliament in Brussels. See the full video here. Daly told Al Jazeera that the fact that the EU was informed of the abuse previously and yet continued to finance Croatian border authorities makes the EU just as responsible “as those who carried out these atrocious actions”. “It exposes the nonsense that we hear from the commission about European values… We have been given the run-around by the commission, who have ignored our evidence and continued to financially reward the Croatian authorities in the full knowledge that they had not established a human rights monitoring mechanism which they had been required to do so under the funding they were given,” Daly said. “In possession of this knowledge, the commission not only didn’t  reprimand them but gave them an even bigger grant the next time.” Dunja Mijatovic, commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, late on Wednesday called the allegations “extremely worrying” and called on Croatian authorities to stop pushbacks and border violence, and end impunity for human rights violations. “Disturbingly, these reports suggest that violence and dehumanizing acts accompanying pushbacks are increasing, and it seems that Croatian law enforcement officers continue to enjoy impunity for such serious human rights violations,” Mijatovic wrote on Facebook, noting she had called on authorities to conduct an investigation two years ago. See the full article here. Al Jazeera 2020 ©

Roberto Lovato’s “Unforgetting” explores the traumatic history of a country torn apart by wars and gangs—and the dangers of not facing the past. Government militias patrol a village in northern El Salvador during the country’s brutal civil war. In 1982, Joan Didion famously wrote of El Salvador that “terror is the given of the place.” At the time, the country was in the midst of a civil war, which pitted the leftist guerrillas of the Faribundo Martí National Liberation Front, or FMLN, against the country’s military, supported and armed by the United States. During the war, which lasted from 1980 to 1992, some 50,000 civilians were killed, with the lion’s share of atrocities committed by the military. The conflict compelled more than a quarter of the country’s 4.5 million people to seek safety in nearby countries as well as the U.S., where most were denied asylum despite the bloody conditions they were fleeing. Roberto Lovato has no illusions about the violence that has permeated the history of El Salvador. However, his debut book, Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution, is determined to unravel the many stereotypes that outsiders like Didion have perpetuated about the country, to make room for new insights about the trauma that generations of Salvadorans have endured. Unforgetting by Roberto Lovato Lovato, who is Salvadoran-American, claims early on that his book seeks to explore the roots of gang violence in El Salvador, but it is about much more than that. Unforgetting covers a lot of ground, jumping between time periods, characters, countries, and even genres. It is part memoir, part reported narrative, and even part crónica, or chronicle, a genre first made famous by Gabriel García Márquez that straddles the line between fiction and journalism. Sections of the book narrate Lovato’s childhood in the Mission District of San Francisco in the 1970s, where he was raised by two immigrant parents. Another, set in the 1920s, reconstructs the childhood of his father, with whom Lovato has a tense and occasionally violent relationship. Significant portions take place during the Salvadoran civil war, when Lovato was deeply involved in solidarity efforts with the FMLN. Another part of the book takes place in 2015, when an interview with a Salvadoran child held in immigrant detention in Karnes, Texas, motivates Lovato to report on what has driven so many to seek refuge outside of El Salvador. The book illuminates the depths of violence that have shaped El Salvador: from the wiping out of large swaths of Indigenous people during the colonial period to the 1932 matanza, or massacre, carried out by the army, which the historian Anders Sandberg, quoted by Lovato, calls one of the “most violent episodes of the modern era.” Then there are the atrocities of the civil war, like the 1981 El Mozote massacre, during which military officers, funded and abetted by the U.S., wiped out an entire town in the course of one day. The violence didn’t end with the war, and U.S. policy was a large reason why. El Salvador’s most notorious gangs, or maras, were established in Los Angeles, and thousands of their members were deported after the war ended. In the U.S., Salvadoran youth had established the maras to protect themselves from larger street gangs, and dealt mostly in petty crime. But once they returned to postwar El Salvador, with few educational or job opportunities, they built ranks. Since then, they’ve grown more lethal and violent. The government has promoted various mano dura, or hard-fisted, militarized strategies against them, executed by an underpaid police force well-known for abuses. As Lovato writes, many of these strategies have been underwritten by the U.S., and some even developed out of the broken windows policing that emerged in our inner cities in the 1990s. This messy soup of violence and terror persists, Lovato concludes, because of the country’s inability to reckon with its past, on both the personal and political level. During the course of the book, he experiences firsthand “the Salvadoran state’s need to silence the slaughter that has made it one of the most consistently violent patrias since the nineteenth century.” During a 2015 reporting trip, authorities force him to delete recordings of his interview with a researcher who works on uncovering and identifying the remains of mass graves, where gang members—and, it’s suggested, police and military-affiliated death squads—bury their victims. Covering up this trauma has rendered Salvadorans “half-dead,” in the words of the Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton. El Salvador is an “amnesiac country,” as a researcher explains to Lovato. Hence the title of Lovato’s book: “Unforgetting” is both a salve and a way of exposing the truth. This principle has served as the basis for the establishment of truth-and-reconciliation-style commissions in El Salvador and elsewhere. However, paired with broad amnesty laws that let state perpetrators of violence off the hook, such commissions have often fallen short of their intended goals, an issue that has been explored extensively in scholarship on historical memory, in books like Martha Minow’s Between Vengeance and Forgiveness, as well as in a number of popular works such as Patricio Guzmán’s documentary on the Chilean dictatorship, Nostalgia por la Luz. Yet because Unforgetting is so personal, it has much to add to the conversation on historical memory. The insights Lovato gleans about his own country’s history ultimately allow him “to understand my family in a more complicated way, one that accommodated both its lightness and its darkness,” he writes. Much of the book’s power comes from its exploration of Lovato’s own wide-ranging life experiences, from child bookworm to teen vagrant to revolucionario to independent scholar and activist. Memoir gives the book an authenticity lacking in works by authors like Didion. He neither judges nor romanticizes the gang members he meets, speaking honestly to their struggles while never absolving them of their often violent behavior. Lovato’s writing about memory and reconciliation speaks powerfully to a truth that Didion never took the time to really see: that terror is never a given but rather a consequence of how power is wielded in history. © The New Review 2020

ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, pays a visit to Sudan to meet with members of the Sudanese government to discuss collaboration. On Saturday, October 17, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC),  Fatou Bensouda, and her team paid a historic visit to Sudan and met with various members of the interim government of Sudan to discuss possible collaboration on the way forward for the case of Darfur. Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) welcomes this important development in  ICC  relations with  Sudan and applauds the persistent work of their office to create this breakthrough. DWAG also expresses support of Prosecutor Bensouda’s demands that former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir must face immediate justice for his alleged war crimes and genocide in Darfur. We further call on all international actors working in the ongoing peace process to continue to expose al-Bashir’s crimes and hold leaders accountable for delaying to bring him and others responsible for the genocide in Darfur to justice. Prosecutor Bensouda arrived in Sudan last Saturday to commence several days of discussions about bringing three internationally wanted individuals, al-Bashir and two other former officials, to trial for accusations of war crimes and genocide in Darfur. This trip was significant because it was the first visit to Sudan in over a decade and the first time that an ICC delegation had visited Sudan since al-Bashir was overthrown last year. On Sunday, October 18, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdock, Cabinet Affairs Minister Ambassador Omer Manis, and Justice Minister Dr. Nasr-Eddin Abdel-Bari met in-person with  Prosecutor Bensouda. Prime Minister Hamdock announced that his transitional government was committed to bringing justice to those responsible for the genocide in Darfur, not only because justice is central to the international obligations of his transitional government, but it is also a reflection of Sudanese popular demand. On Monday, October 19, 2020, Prosecutor Bensouda separately met with Sovereign Council Deputy Chairman and RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan and member of the Sovereign Council Mohamed El Taayshi. Following these meetings with senior officials in Sudan’s transitional government and civil society organizations, Bensouda expressed on Tuesday, October 20, that she “welcomed the assurances of support and cooperation” by these authorities. The productive discussions about cooperation between her and officials on long-overdue legal accountability for war crimes encouraged both the ICC and international community seeking to finally bring al-Bashir to justice. The ICC first opened an investigation into the conflict in Darfur back in 2005, following a referral by the United Nations Security Council. In March 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on 7 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, which was extended in July 2010 to include 3 additional counts for of genocide waged against the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa tribes. As President of Sudan in 2003, Bashir ordered the Sudanese Armed Forces and allied janjaweed militia to commit genocide against the indigenous African populations in Darfur. Rape was strategically used as a weapon of genocide, disproportionately against Darfuri women but also against boys and men. Last April 2019, Bashir was finally ousted from power, following months of mass protests in the Sudanese capital city, Khartoum. The end of his rule, which had begun in 1989, was initially celebrated by the international community. Yet immediate concerns began to be raised over many officials from his government, themselves accused of committing war crimes and genocide in Darfur, being included in the new transitional government. It is now 2020, 11 years after the ICC first indicted al-Bashir, and he has yet to be handed over to The Hague. To date, more than 4.7 million people have been impacted by the genocide in Darfur and over 3 million have been displaced, many of which are currently living in IDP camps. Violent conflict still erupts in Darfur to this day, often in the form of sexual and gender-based violence against women, which is also being fueld by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We at DWAG believe that the genocide in Darfur cannot go unpunished. Perpetrators of crimes against humanity must be held accountable and brought to justice. DWAG calls on the Sudanese transitional government to cooperate with the ICC so al-Bashir can finally be brought to justice for his heinous crimes in Darfur. DWAG urges the international community and regional actors to increase their support to the ICC to continue investigating and exposing the systematic attacks against the Darfur people, carried out by al-Bashir’s government military and the janjaweed. DWAG would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to our partners, supporters, and allies who have tirelessly supported our quest for justice. While this visit is only one step forward out of many necessary for justice and peace, this great step would not have been possible without your dedicated efforts to making accountability a priority in Sudan.  This development is an assurance to those of you who believe in justice and that change will only take place if we demand it. Therefore, we commend your courage to stand by our side to advance our effort, and we assure you that your voices matter. We further call on you to join us in speaking up to make our voice louder and to hold our leaders accountable until justice for genocide crimes take its course in Darfur, Sudan at large, and elsewhere in the world. About: Darfur Women Action Group Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) strives to empower and amplify the voices of women, the victims of genocide, and the historically excluded Sudanese. DWAG ultimately aims to enable them to fight for their rights, achieve justice, and to equally participate in the transformation of their society. Niemat Ahmadi, President. Darfur Women Action Group © 2020

Côte d’Ivoire : l’opposition se retire du processus électoral et met la pression sur Alassane Ouattara Empêcher la distribution et le retrait des 7,5 millions de cartes d’électeur, comme du matériel électoral… la tension monte à Abidjan où l’on craint une entrée dans le cercle de la violence avec le boycott des élections par l’opposition. Publié par Le Monde le 15 octobre 2020 - Mis à jour le 16 octobre 2020 Ouattara’s decision to run for a third term has been met with protests - [Diom Celest/EPA] Dès son premier jour, la campagne électorale s’enlise. Jeudi 15 octobre, lors d’une conférence de presse conjointe, Henri Konan Bédié (PDCI) et Pascal Affi N’Guessan (FPI), les deux principaux candidats d’opposition à Alassane Ouattara, se sont déclarés « pas du tout concernés par le processus électoral en cours », estimant même que celui-ci était « illégal ». Le 31 octobre, le pays doit élire son président de la République. L’opposition ne rejette pas seulement la candidature à un troisième mandat du président Alassane Ouattara, jugée « inconstitutionnelle », elle pointe aussi du doigt un Conseil constitutionnel « à la solde du pouvoir », qui a rejeté 40 des 44 candidatures soumises, dont celles de l’ancien président Laurent Gbagbo – qui ne s’est toujours pas exprimé depuis Bruxelles – et de l’ancien premier ministre Guillaume Soro – en exil à Paris. Au PDCI comme au FPI, on demande donc un « report » du scrutin, pour laisser participer à l’élection tous les candidats qui le souhaitent. Mais la demande est restée sans réponse. Boycott par tous les moyens S’adressant à leurs militants, l’ancien président Henri Konan Bédié et l’ex-premier ministre Pascal Affi N’Guessan ont appelé à « faire barrage à ce coup d’Etat électoral que le président Ouattara s’apprête à commettre ». Et les ont invités à « mettre en application le mot d’ordre du boycott actif par tous les moyens légaux à leur disposition ». Au départ, l’initiative lancée sans trop de détails par M. Bédié le 20 septembre était restée jusqu’ici suivie de peu d’effets. Mais ce 15 octobre, quelques instants à peine après la déclaration conjointe des deux opposants, des précisions ont cette fois été apportées aux militants. Un document interne du FPI leur demande désormais « d’empêcher le convoyage et la distribution de tout matériel et affichage électoral ». Ce message enjoint aussi les partisans des opposants « d’empêcher les meetings de campagne » alors même que de nombreux rassemblements à Abidjan comme ailleurs dans le pays sont prévus par le camp du président Ouattara dans les prochains jours. Enfin, ils ont été invités à « empêcher la distribution et le retrait des cartes d’électeur ». Une annonce loin d’être anodine, puisqu’elle intervient au lendemain du début de la distribution de ces pièces dans les bureaux de vote. Organisée par la Commission électorale indépendante (CEI), dont l’opposition exige la réforme, l’opération concerne 7,5 millions d’Ivoiriens. « Cette déclaration de l’opposition consacre donc l’échec du dialogue politique entre les deux camps », observe Arsène Bado, analyste politique et auteur du rapport « Des élections incertaines », publié en 2019 au Centre Simon-Skjodt. Ces dernières semaines, l’opposition tergiversait sur sa participation au scrutin. Mais, se refusant jusqu’à ce jour à utiliser le terme de « boycott », elle espérait surtout une inflexion du pouvoir sur les institutions comme sur le calendrier électoral. Dans les jours qui viennent, des barrages de routes et des manifestations devraient être rapidement organisés, selon des membres de l’opposition. Et, pour beaucoup, l’annonce de ce boycott sonne le début d’une période d’incertitudes dans le pays. Ce jeudi soir, un proche du candidat Henri Konan Bédié se disait même « inquiet par cette épreuve de force qui pourrait mener à des affrontements ». Calmer le jeu Alors que d’un côté se préparait ce boycott, des discussions continuaient avec le pouvoir pour tenter de calmer le jeu. Mais en vain. « Ouattara s’entête, il a déjà mis ses pancartes de campagne un peu partout à Abidjan, il est dans une logique de passage en force et la démocratie fout le camp. Mais nous n’allons pas nous laisser faire, et cela mènera sans doute à la violence car les Ivoiriens sont dépassés », observait jeudi le secrétaire national du Front populaire ivoirien (FPI), Arthur Kesse. Les soutiens des forces d’opposition avaient encore quelques interrogations jeudi soir. « Sera-t-on suivi par les autres leaders politiques de l’opposition ? En a-t-on réellement les moyens ? Quelle sera la suite si on échoue ? », s’interrogeait un proche d’Affi N’Guessan, avant de répondre que finalement, « tout cela, c’est la grande inconnue ». Le PDCI et le FPI se disent encore prêts à s’installer « à la table des négociations » avec le pouvoir. « En politique, tout est toujours possible. S’il y a une inflexion, on pourrait nous aussi faire un pas vers eux », assure même un proche de M. Bédié. Mais, pour l’heure, rien ne semble altérer la sérénité du clan Ouattara, sûr de sa victoire au premier tour. On y estime même que, « s’ils n’y vont pas, c’est un forfait de leur part qui ne disqualifie pas l’équipe victorieuse. De toute façon, la CEI a déjà imprimé les bulletins. Leurs scores seront donc comptés. » Une assurance de façade, qui vient ajouter encore un peu de discrédit dans cette élection déjà bien délicate. © 2020 Groupe Le Monde

WASHINGTON: October 21, 2020 – The Canadian Parliament’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights and International Development has designated the Chinese Government’s atrocities against Uyghur and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan as genocide as defined under the UN Genocide Convention. Canada’s action followed US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brian’s statement last week describing China’s atrocities in East Turkistan as “something close to a genocide.” The Canadian Parliament’s Subcommittee issued a statement earlier today condemning the Chinese Government’s persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan. The Subcommittee determined that “the Chinese Communist Party’s actions constitute genocide as laid out in the Genocide Convention” following evidence put forward during the Subcommittee hearings in 2018 and 2020. The Subcommittee’s determination was based on evidence and witness testimony of mass detention and inhuman treatment, forced labor, pervasive state surveillance, population control, and control through repression. Since 2017, more than 3 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and others have been forced into concentration camps, prisons, and slave labor camps as part of China’s brutal colonization campaign, genocide, and occupation in East Turkistan. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghur and Turkic women have been forcibly sterilized, while some 500,000 Uyghur and Turkic children have been forcibly separated from their families. The concentration camps’ victims testified of facing psychological and physical torture, forced medication, sexual abuse, and forced starvation. The Subcommittee urged the Government of Canada to condemn and recognize China’s actions against Uyghurs and Turkic peoples in East Turkistan as a genocide, impose sanctions on Chinese officials, and work with allies and multilateral organizations to gain unfettered access to East Turkistan. It also urged the Government of Canada to support civil society organizations who are raising awareness about the persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan. While the US has been seriously considering recognizing the genocide, the Canadian Parliament is the first government body in the international community to publicly acknowledge China’s atrocities in East Turkistan as genocide while bringing much-needed attention to its severity and the urgent need resolve this humanitarian crisis. Recognizing the genocide would put a moral and humanitarian responsibility on governments to uphold the UN Genocide Convention and take urgent and substantial action to bring an end to the genocide in East Turkistan. “We thank the Canadian Parliament and all those who worked tirelessly to get this much-needed recognition of China’s atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples as a genocide,” said Salih Hudayar, the Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. “This is a crucial step towards obtaining justice and bringing an end to China’s prolonged campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation in East Turkistan.” “We urge Prime Minister Trudeau and the Canadian government to enforce the Canadian Parliament’s proposals to ensure that Canada will not stand silent to a Holocaust like Genocide taking place in the 21st century,” Mr. Hudayar Continued There is no doubt about what China is doing in East Turkistan against Uyghur and other Turkic peoples is a genocide as defined under the UN Genocide Convention. For years, the East Turkistan Government in Exile has been striving to seek international recognition of China’s atrocities as genocide while also recognizing the fact that East Turkistan is an Occupied Country. For 71 years, China and its Communist Party have been waging a systematic campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation to eradicate East Turkistan and its people. To more effectively seek justice using international law, the East Turkistan Government in Exile filed a formal complaint this past summer, urging the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute Chinese officials for genocide and other crimes against humanity in East Turkistan. We urge the Canadian Government and all Governments worldwide, especially those who are signatories to the Rome Statute, to support our case at the International Criminal Court. To effectively bring an end to this 21st Century Holocaust-like Genocide, the international community must acknowledge and address the underlying root of the problem: East Turkistan was invaded and occupied by China since 1949. Thus, we urge all governments worldwide to formally recognize China’s atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples while also recognizing East Turkistan as an Occupied Country and take more decisive and urgent actions to end China’s prolonged campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation in East Turkistan. See the full article here. ETGE 2020 ©

In front of a TV audience on Oct. 15, President Donald Trump declared that he knew “nothing about” QAnon, before correcting himself to say: “I do know they are very much against pedophilia.” What he didn’t do was disavow what has been referred to as a “collective delusion.” Part of that could be down to QAnon followers holding up Trump as some sort of savior – someone playing four-dimensional chess against shadowy political insiders and power players known as the “Deep State.” But that is only part of what Anons – followers of QAnon – believe. What Trump didn’t mention is the atrocious claims that underlie this supposed chess match, and the demonic imagery and language that are used in the course of the conspiracy. As a professor of religion who teaches courses on the cultural significance of monsters, I see many similarities between Anon claims and prior rumor panics that employed satanic rhetoric. Moreover, given the growing popularity of the QAnon conspiracy – and its encroachment into mainstream politics – I believe that ignoring this rhetoric risks harm to those targeted by the conspiracy. Accusations of evil The QAnon conspiracy theory started with an anonymous 4chan post in October 2017. The author, who later signed his or her posts as “Q”, remains unknown. Since then Q has posted anonymous messages, known as Qdrops, on 8chan and now 8kun – on both online message and imageboards. The conspiracy claims that deep-state politicians and the “Hollywood elite” are involved in a large child abduction network that harvests the chemical compound adrenochrome — which is obtained from the oxidation of adrenaline — from sexually abused children subjected to satanic rituals. Anons say that adrenochrome is consumed by some Democratic politicians and Hollywood elites for its psychedelic and anti-aging effects and is more potent when harvested from a frightened victim. Trump, they believe, is planning a day of reckoning that will see the arrest, conviction, and even execution of dozens of current and former government officials for their involvement in child sex trafficking. In analyzing the Qdrops, I have noted a discourse of evil woven throughout Q’s nearly 5,000 messages. Peppering the Qdrops are claims like “many in our government worship Satan.” According to Anons, Trump is engaged in a battle of cosmic significance between the “children of light” and the “children of darkness” and is working to dismantle pedophile networks that are abducting children for satanic rites. In using such language and imagery, Q does not portray perceived political adversaries as merely having a difference of opinion, but as being downright evil. For example, in an Aug. 10, 2018, Qdrop titled “Many in Power Worship the Devil,” Q states: “PURE EVIL. HOW MANY IN WASHINGTON AND THOSE AROUND THE WORLD (IN POWER) WORSHIP THE DEVIL?” On Aug. 26, 2020, Q posted an image suggesting that the 2020 Democratic National Convention logo resembled a Satanic Baphomet pentagram, which incorporates a goat’s head and a five-pointed star. Accompanying text asserts that one party – Republicans – discusses God while the other party – Democrats – discusses darkness. Such dialogue rises beyond the level of us versus them. Instead, for Q and Anons it elevates the conspiracy to a matter of cosmic good versus monstrous evil. This, I believe, is of grave concern. Presenting opponents as monstrously evil dehumanizes them. Through that process, Anons may see themselves as would-be monster-killers ready to use violence to remove the evil. Remembering the past This process of using the language of evil to dehumanize a perceived enemy is nothing new. It was seen in conspiracies such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Protocols, a fictional document first published in Russia in the early 1900s, link a satanic Jewish cabal to the Antichrist. Examining past rhetoric targeting Jews reveals how such a discourse lubricates the machinery of violence – Hitler called the Protocols “immensely instructive.” Jewish communities faced the blood libel — the idea that Jews kidnapped children for blood sacrifices — for centuries before it resurfaced in the Protocols. In the Middle Ages, this was driven by a fear of Jewish magicians kidnapping and stabbing children for evil rituals. The blood produced from these rites was rumored to be ritually consumed as a drink or mixed into matzo. It was a demonic fantasy not based in any reality. It is noteworthy that Anon claims about child abduction and blood consumption are linked to prominent Jewish figures such as billionaire philanthropist George Soros and the Rothschild family. Joel Finkelstein, of the anti-hate watchdog the Network Contagion Research Institute, has noted that the QAnon conspiracy is becoming increasingly anti-Semitic. Indeed, renowned genocide scholar Gregory Stanton warned in an article in September that QAnon’s demonic fantasy was “a rebranded version of the Protocols” and noted that the conspiracy was gaining traction in neo-Nazi circles. ‘Satanic Panic’ For those who remember the “satanic panic” of the 1980s, these Anon narratives will sound hauntingly familiar. The satanic panic was based on a series of rumors spread by concerned parents and authority figures, ranging from therapists to law enforcement agencies, convinced that a demonic cabal had infiltrated society to its highest levels. Organizations set up to counter this perceived threat, like Believe the Children, argued that children were most at risk in daycare centers run by secret satanists. Prosecutors accepted, with apparent earnest seriousness, the claims being made about child sexual abuse, secret tunnels, and satanic rituals at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California. Similar sensational charges were brought against the Fells Acres Day School and the Wee Care Nursery School. Charges were eventually dropped or reversed in many of these cases. As the unjust prosecutions demonstrate, the satanic panic damaged the reputations and livelihoods of innocent people. QAnon is poised to cause similar disruptions in the lives of innocent people. Already there have been incidents including the apparent QAnon-inspired shooting of a mob boss and a live-streamed effort to “take out” Joe Biden. Anons are beginning to show a willingness to take matters into their own hands. Why it matters now It is tempting to dismiss QAnon as too small and fringe to lead to the violence associated with prior satanic panics. However, the emerging influence of Q is evident. It is seen not only in the growing number of supporters – QAnon Facebook pages alone boast 3 million followers – but also in Washington with a president who declines to disavow the conspiracy and a Republican QAnon supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, looking set to head to Congress in November. The size of the QAnon community is difficult to estimate. It is, by no means, mainstream. But past experience has shown us that when a minority drapes its cause in a cosmic discourse of good versus evil, atrocities can follow. See the full article here. The Conversation © 2020

Human rights groups calling for a probe into president Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-narcotics crackdown say abuses continue. Government figures show at least 8,663 people have been killed in anti-drug operations, but estimates suggest the true figure is triple that number. Photograph: Mark R Cristino/EPA The UN human rights council has been accused of a “collective failure” over its decision not to call for an investigation into the tens of thousands of killings alleged to have occurred under Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”. Human rights groups and UN experts had repeatedly called for an inquiry into the anti-narcotics crackdown, launched by the president after he won the 2016 election on a promise to rid the country of drugs. The exact death toll from anti-drug operations is not known: government figures show at least 8,663 people have been killed, other estimates suggest triple that number. At least 122 children are among those who have died. It follows a landmark report by the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, who warned of “near impunity” for widespread extra-judicial killings, despite credible evidence, and of “the vilification of dissent” in the Philippines. It also verified the killings of 208 human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists between January 2015 and December 2010. Obstacles to justice in the country were “almost insurmountable”, it said. Since mid-2016, there has been only one conviction for the killing of a drug suspect in a police operation. In a statement, Amnesty International said the human rights council had “failed to advance justice for bereaved families” and had let down “the brave human rights defenders, journalists and others who have engaged with the UN in good faith and pursue their work at huge personal risk”. The resolution passed on Wednesday, led jointly by Iceland and the Philippines, requested that the UN human rights office supports the Philippines through “technical assistance”. This could include assistance with domestic investigations and data gathering on alleged police violations. The resolution recognised cooperation between Duterte’s government and the UN country team, and the government’s efforts “to further broaden positive engagement with the United Nations system”. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque reiterated on Wednesday that Duterte does not support the use of unnecessary force in the crackdown on crime. However, critics pointed out numerous comments in which Duterte has endorsed violence. Just months ago, at the start of lockdown, Duterte told police to crack down on curfew violators and anyone causing trouble, stating: “Shoot them dead.” The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines said earlier this week that, despite suggestions that the Philippines is engaging with the UN, abuses continue. “Killings have not abated, harassments continue, ‘lawfare’ remains and non-cooperation persists as prevailing practice, specifically on investigation on killings resulting from the administration’s ‘drug war’,” the commission said. Over recent months, between April and July, 155 people were killed during drug raids, according to Human Rights Watch analysis of government data – an increase when compared with the four months leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic. Government attacks on the media and activists have also spiraled. The country’s biggest broadcaster, ABS-CBN, which had been repeatedly threatened by Duterte, was forced off-air in May, while prominent journalist Maria Ressa is facing up to six years in prison after she was found guilty of “cyberlibel” charges. The case against her has been widely condemned as politically motivated. A new antiterrorism act, passed by lawmakers in July, has also prompted concern among rights groups. The law allows warrantless arrests, weeks of detention without charge and other powers. In a statement, Human Rights Watch said the human rights council decision was a “collective failure” that “fails to reflect the gravity of the situation on the ground”. “At the same time, it is quite clear that Duterte and the state forces behind the brutal campaign are not off the hook and will face continued examination,” added Laila Matar, deputy UN director for Human Rights Watch. “States at the Human Rights Council should follow up and ensure an international investigation is launched in the event that the killings and crackdown on civil society does not end,” she said. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies

A survivor describes how she kept a secret notebook in which she recorded the abuses committed against her and others. Layla Talu never imagined that her neighbors would betray her. But when former friends from the villages surrounding her home in the Sinjar district of northern Iraq gave away her location, her family was forced to flee. At 7 am on the morning of August 3, 2014, Layla, her husband, Marwan Khalil, and their two children, who were aged four and 18 months, left their home. Like tens of thousands of other Yazidis, they hoped to take shelter on Mount Sinjar. But they never made it. Within a matter of hours, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) had encircled the city of Sinjar and its surrounding villages. Layla’s family was captured on the road and taken with dozens of other Yazidis who had tried to escape. The men were separated from women and children. That evening, Layla and her children were transported with others to Baaj district, southwest of Mosul, where they were held for four days. From there, they moved to Tal Afar, where they were detained in a school before being transferred again a week later to Badush prison. When the prison was bombed by coalition aircraft, they were sent back to Tal Afar. The women and children were beaten, insulted, threatened, and starved, Layla says. Then, after eight months of this, when many were exhausted by illness, they were transferred to the Syrian city of Raqqa, ISIL’s stronghold. Three meals a day, served with beatings “We were transported to Raqqa in large buses with hundreds of other Yazidi women,” Layla recalls. “The way they dealt with us was not different from the way you deal with sheep and animals; they did not even provide us with adequate food and drink. We slept on the floor, and we received three daily meals along with beatings by ISIL operatives.” Layla spent 40 days with her two children in a prison, before being moved to an apartment in the Al-Nour neighborhood of Raqqa. It was the home of a senior member of ISIL. The man was a surgeon. He was in his 40s, and short, with green eyes, fair hair, and a full face, Layla says. “He was tying me and beating me hard with a whip because I refused to submit to his brutality, so he raped me,” she says. He later sold her to another man. This man came from Mosul, she says, and was in his 30s with dark skin and “black eyes”. “He raped me several times, and then he sold me for a profit.” The man who “bought” her was from Baghdad, she says, and around 40 years old. When Layla fell pregnant, she was forced to have an abortion. “They used to call us ‘spaghetti’,” she says, “and tell us ‘you deserve nothing but death and being treated like slaves’.” After this, Layla was raped by a Saudi man, who she says would beat and strike her with a whip. When she became pregnant again, her pregnancy was again forcibly aborted. During this time, Layla was living in a small house with her two children, cut off from the outside world, and with no knowledge of what had happened to her husband and the rest of her family. She says the next person she was passed on to was a 33-year-old Lebanese man who would rape her with the help of his Dutch wife. While she was with him, she says many other men also raped her. After two years in Raqqa, Layla was told she and her children would be freed following negotiations between her family and a Syrian smuggler, in exchange for more than $20,000. Tell the world Now aged 33, Layla shows the notebook she kept during her time in Raqqa. In it, she recorded some of the horrifying details of the experiences she and other Yazidi women and girls endured. It was not without risk. She knew that if her captors found it, she would be in great danger. But, for Layla, the need to show the next generation the oppression, persecution, and displacement of those who came before them was even greater. She also hoped that by recording the atrocities committed against them, she might help secure justice for the victims. Once she was freed, Layla’s thoughts turned to how she would be received by her community. Her fear of being rejected initially prevented her from talking about what had happened to her and the other Yazidi women and girls. But gradually, as she heard the stories of other survivors, she started to open up. Now she hopes that by sharing her story, she can help to prevent this from happening to other women in the future. “I hope that telling my story will help me convey my suffering and the suffering of all Yazidis, especially women, to the world so that they may know the truth of the oppression, persecution, rape, murder, and displacement that happened to us,” she says. Plagued by fear Layla considers herself one of the “lucky” ones because she and her children survived. “A girl named Zairi committed suicide after she was raped,” she says. “She slashed her wrists with a sharp blade. Many Yazidi women did the same.” But still, Layla is plagued by panic and fear whenever she remembers her time in captivity. The pain, emotion, and shortness of breath that accompany these memories worsen when she shares them with other women from her community who were also taken captive, she says. Sometimes she wonders how she will be able to continue living like this, she reflects. Layla hopes to one day be able to give evidence to the authorities about what happened to her and other women and girls. But for now, she lives in the ​​Dohuk Governorate in northern Iraq, in a rented house paid for by one of her brothers. Her father died in January after losing hope that his oldest son would ever return, she explains. See the full article here. Al Jazeera © 2020

Researcher says Xinjiang files reveal government strategy of long-term social control. Thousands of Uighur children appear to have been left without parents as their mothers or fathers were forced into Chinese internment camps, prison, and other detention facilities, according to evidence from government documents in Xinjiang. Records compiled by officials in southern Xinjiang and analyzed by the researcher Adrian Zenz indicate that in 2018 more than 9,500 mostly Uighur children in Yarkand county were classified either as experiencing “single hardship” or “double hardship” depending on if one or both parents were detained. The files, part of a cache of documents downloaded in the summer of 2019 from online networks used by local officials, showed that all the children had at least one parent in prison, detention, or a “re-education” center. No Han Chinese children were on the list. Zenz said: “Beijing’s strategy to subdue its restive minorities in Xinjiang is shifting away from internment and towards mechanisms of long-term social control. At the forefront of this effort is a battle over the hearts and minds of the next generation.” Authorities are believed to have detained more than 1 million Muslim people in re-education and other internment camps in the far north-western territory. It is part of a campaign that researchers and rights advocates say is aimed at wiping out the local culture and suppressing the growth of the Uighur population. Chinese officials defend their policies in the name of poverty alleviation and counter-terrorism efforts. Children are often placed in state orphanages or high-security boarding schools where students are closely monitored and almost all classes and interaction must be carried out in Mandarin instead of their native Uighur language. According to Zenz’s research, a total of 880,500 children – including those whose parents are absent for other reasons – were living in boarding facilities by 2019, an increase of about 76% from 2017 as China’s internment system expanded. The impact of the detentions on children and family structures is one of the less scrutinized aspects of China’s increasingly criticized policies in Xinjiang. Witness accounts from those outside China have revealed what experts say is a systematic policy of separating families. If the figures from Yarkand county were extrapolated across the region up to 250,000 Uighurs under the age of 15 may have had one or both of their parents interned, according to The Economist, which first published Zenz’s findings. Other files obtained and analyzed by Zenz detailed cases of children in orphanages. One list of 85 “double hardship” students under the age of 10, whose parents were in internment center or prison, included a one-year-old living in a Yarkand orphanage. In another family, a three-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl were in an orphanage because both parents were in a “re-education” center. In recent years, spending on education in Xinjiang has exceeded that of security as schools emerge as a key frontline in the government’s efforts to root out the possibility of dissent. Schools often feature multi-level defensive intrusion systems, full-coverage surveillance, electric fencing, and computerized patrol systems. Despite mounting criticism of alleged abuses in Xinjiang, Beijing appears to have intensified its strategy with new reports emerging of forced labor and of forced sterilization of Uighur women. In a speech late last month the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, said the strategy for governing the region was “absolutely correct”. “The sense of gain, happiness, and security among the people of all ethnic groups has continued to increase,” he said. In response to the report, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called Zenz a “notorious gun for hire” for the US government. “We have said many times that the Xinjiang issue is not a matter of human rights, ethnicity, and religion, but an issue of countering violence, terrorism, and separatism,” he said at a regular press briefing on Friday. “This so-called suppression of Muslims and crimes against humanity is a sensational topic made up by anti-China forces for the sake of suppressing China.” See the full article here. The Guardian 2020 ©

On September 22, hundreds of citizens in Cameroon took part in an organized anti-government protest. But the numerous opposition parties are under scrutiny for lacking clear leadership or a strategy. Published by Deutsche Welle on September 25, 2020. Cameroonian opposition leader Maurice Kamto speaks during a press conference (Reuters/Z. Bensemra). Cameroon's opposition parties have much in common with one another. They all agree that the political landscape is in dire need of change following President Paul Biya'salmost 40 years in power. They also wish to see an end to the ongoing Anglophone crisis in the country's south and are pushing for a free and fair electoral system. Despite this, however, the parties have consistently failed to present a united front in practice. A planned nationwide protest on September 22 organized by the leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) party, Maurice Kamto, failed in its aim to facilitate the resignation or ousting of Biya. Ako John Ako, the founder of the Cameroon Youth Movement Association (CYMA) says the opposition's inability to come together is the main reason these demonstrations regularly unravel. "The call for protest was unilaterally done by head of the MRC party, Maurice Kamto," Ako told DW. "There should be a pre-consultation of all the opposition forces in Cameroon, before any nationwide protest is called." While the MRC branded the parties who did not join the demonstration as "afraid," the president of the Cameroon People's Party (CPP), Edith Kah Walla, says for her party "and several other organizations, it was a question of timing." Bruised, but not beaten With the much-anticipated September 22 protest having come and gone, many opposition supporters are now feeling the anti-climax. But the MRC party has taken an optimistic view of the situation, claiming it still succeeded in sending a "strong message" to the government. The party's secretary general, Christopher Ndong, has decried the heavy-handedness of the Cameroonian military and use of state intimidation to silence protesters. "Over 300 people have been arrested, two people died in Douala, over a hundred wounded," Ndong told DW. While lawyers are beginning to galvanise efforts to ensure those who were arrested are soon released, the MRC says it will not give up its aim to unseat Biya from power and is urging other parties to join them at the forefront. "Let other parties now come in and take the lead, we are ready to join them too, whenever they are ready," Ndong added. History repeats? On the day of the protest, news quickly spread that Kamto and other MRC party leaders had been placed under house arrest. The government's swift attempt to quell the demonstration came as no surprise to many. "Cameroon has for several decades been led by a repressive regime," Ako said. "In the 1990s, more than six months of protests led by the opposition had a similar response – and they did not remove Biya from power." Observers have begun to question if Kamto has an alternative plan to delegate leadership of the opposition, should history repeat itself. The lack of a strategic, coordinated plan has been highlighted by some as one of the reasons why the wave of protests in the 90s faltered under Biya's rule. Ndong disagrees. Instead, he argues that the opposition "didn't succeed because of the heavy presence of military forces, violating the constitution and rights of Cameroonians to march against Biya. People who are only fighting for change. Deploying soldiers to fight unarmed civilians was an intimidation tactic." Protests amid a divided opposition A total of seven opposition political parties and civil society groups signed and endorsed the call for the latest nationwide protest. But with Kamto under house arrest, there was no obvious candidate to take his place as leader. The MCR's Ndong puts the blame on the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) party and the CPP. "We took the initiative to bring everyone on board, others are pulling us back," he said. Kah Walla agrees that finding a solution to the Anglophone won't be found in the ballot box, but through peaceful protest. But she believes that taking to the streets without a proper plan will prove futile for the opposition movement. "We have to establish a clear strategy, we have to establish clear communication," she explained. "All of this was impossible to do before the 22nd so our movement said, 'please, go ahead. We will not be a part of it'." But opinions are also divided within the MRC party. Key allies including Paul Eric Kingue, Celestin Djamen, Michelle Ndoki – who were jailed alongside Kamto for challenging Biya's 2018 presidential election victory – have remained curiously silent over the issue. Kamto remains defiant Kamto – whose Yaoundé residence is still under military surveillance – has meanwhile taken to Twitter to celebrate the movement's "victory." "The peaceful, patriotic and republican Marches of 22 September 2020 were a resounding success. Warm congratulations to the Cameroonian populations who have gone out in large numbers," he wrote. While some observers believe the September 22 protest did manage to debunk myths surrounding the government's invincibility, possibly emboldening civilians, Biya still remains in power, while the opposition has no apparent strategy going forward. Ako warns that any protest perceived to be a "one-man-show" cannot succeed. "If we honestly want change, there should be a better plan," he explained. "We have a common problem as Cameroonians, whether you are of the ruling CPDM, SDF, or a soldier. We are struggling to get the tyranny out and put our institutions on track." © 2020 Deutsche Welle

Tuesday, October 13th 2020 - 09:02 UTC Government claimed the protests were organized by the opposition and accused some of the leaders of been inspired in hate and even worse promoting contagion. Photo: REUTERS Thousands of Argentines flying the national colors on Monday took to the streets across the country's main cities to protest against the government of President Alberto Fernandez and his policies, which after over 200 days of quarantine/isolation have been unable to contain the pandemic, left the economy in shatters and threaten democratic institutions. The spontaneous gathering responded to the hashtag *12O (12 October) and in Buenos Aires City protestors flocked on foot and in cars to the obelisk in an impressive outburst, according to drone pictures, many with banners protesting the quarantine, insecurity, loss of economic activity and jobs, corruption, trampling of the constitution and individual freedoms. Last Friday president Alberto Fernandez announced the extension of “preventive isolation” measures for another two weeks, precisely when the coronavirus cases are peaking in contagion numbers and death toll, despite the many months of a strict lockdown. This is the fourth/fifth protest in which Argentines take to the streets with flags to show their support for the republic and no specific political party, and basically to complain the dual presidency ruling the country. In effect, Alberto Fernandez is formally the president, but real power and the most important decisions rest on vice-president Cristina Kirchner and her think tank Patria (Fatherland). On several occasions the different approaches have been exposed, with the president having to back step. This has infuriated most participants in the demonstrations who are convinced that Cristina Fernandez is determined with her party's majority in the Senate, to make the necessary changes in the Judicial branch to ensure all corruption cases against her and her children are annulled or thrown out. The protests with flags was repeated all over the country with residents of each major city emphasizing or complaining about their plight, but the trampling of the constitution and individual freedoms was high in the list. Government claimed the protests were organized by the opposition and accused some of the leaders of been inspired in hate and even worse promoting contagion, by ignoring pandemic measures such as face masks and social distancing. President Fernandez said that dissenting with government is part of democracy, demonstrating even with the risk of the pandemic also, but “promoting a protest at the home of a person only increases the gap and damages democratic coexistence” . The presidential tweet included the hashtag *ArgentinaUnida. There were two weak points in the demonstrations when some convened in front of Cristina Fernandez home in Buenos Aires City and outside the presidential residence in Olivos, This gave foot to claim the protests were organized by the opposition, and in Olivos security forces formed a barrier between demonstrators with flags and banging pots and pans, and a group of most probably contracted militants who said they had come to defend the government of president Fernandez. But besides these minor incidents the rally convened and disbanded peacefully, and most probably will be holding further “banderazos” (flag waving protests) But government will not remain paralyzed: they are organizing a major display of supporters and militancy for October 17, which is a sacred day for the Argentine labor movement and their icon ex-president Juan Domingo Peron. Link to Original Article ©2020 Mercopress.

L’opposition ivoirienne a organisé samedi un grand meeting pour afficher son unité contre la candidature contestée d’Alassane Ouattara à un troisième mandat le 31 octobre. Publié par Jeune Afrique le 11 octobre 2020. Mis à jour le 12 octobre 2020. Henri Konan Bédié, lors du meeting de l'opposition, le 10 octobre à Abidjan. [REUTERS/Macline Hien] C’est la fin de journée et le soleil descend doucement sur la lagune Ebrié. Davy quitte le quartier du Plateau à Abidjan où il a assisté au meeting organisé par l’ensemble de l’opposition ivoirienne. La trentaine, militant du Parti démocratique de Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) depuis les années 2000, il porte un t-shirt vert en l’honneur de sa formation et de son chef, Henri Konan Bédié. Il se dit pourtant un peu déçu : « C’était important d’être là pour dire que nous sommes opposés au 3e mandat d’Alassane Ouattara. Mais j’attendais un mot d’ordre clair. Nous sommes prêts. Mais on doit savoir exactement ce qu’on attend de nous. Nos leaders ne peuvent plus se cacher. Il faut assumer. » Ces derniers jours, les proches et communicants de Bédié ne se cachaient pas pour l’annoncer, montrant volontiers les muscles : ce meeting allait marquer le grand début de la désobéissance civile. Après avoir lancé ce mot d’ordre le 20 septembre, Henri Konan Bédié allait enfin en préciser le contenu. Pas de grosse annonce DE GROSSE ANNONCE Prenant la parole pour clôturer l’évènement, le chef de file de l’opposition, en sa qualité de doyen et d’ancien chef de l’État, Bédié n’a pourtant fait aucune grosse annonce. Tout juste a-t-il assuré que « la dictature du RHDP (Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix) unifié sera vaincue dans quelques jours ou quelques semaines » et appelé le « secrétaire général de l’ONU, António Guterres, à se saisir du dossier ivoirien pour la mise en place d’un organe électoral indépendant crédible avant l’élection présidentielle ». Faut-il en déduire qu’il espère finalement y participer ? Ces derniers jours, le Sphinx de Daoukro avait laissé entendre en privé que son combat contre Alassane Ouattara passait désormais avant la question de sa candidature. « Bédié a envie d’être candidat, mais il est coincé par la pression mise par Guillaume Soro et Laurent Gbagbo. S’il n’a pas su galvaniser les militants ce samedi, quand aura-t-il l’occasion de le faire ? Le pouvoir ne nous laissera plus nous réunir de cette manière », estime un de ses proches. L’élection est toujours prévue le 31 octobre, et la campagne doit se dérouler du 15 au 29. Véhémence Avant lui, les autres personnalités de l’opposition réunies au stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny s’étaient montrées bien plus offensives. Pascal Affi N’Guessan, dont la candidature a aussi été retenue, a appelé à une transition politique pour la renaissance de la Côte d’Ivoire ». « Demain et après demain, soyons en action sur le terrain pour le départ d’Alassane Ouattara », a poursuivi l’ancien Premier ministre, présent au côté d’Assoa Adou, représentant de la branche rivale du Front populaire ivoirien (FPI). Albert Mabri Toikeusse et Marcel Amon Tanoh, dont les candidatures ont été rejetées par le Conseil constitutionnel, se sont montrés particulièrement véhéments à l’encontre du chef de l’État ivoirien, dont ils étaient les alliés il y a encore quelques mois. « Aujourd’hui, nous devons nous lever dans les villes et les villages pour barrer la route à Ouattara », a lancé l’ancien ministre de l’Enseignement supérieur, évoquant « une patrie menacée par des gens sans foi ni loi », « une équipe mafieuse ». Compagnon de route d’ADO pendant plus de trente ans, Amon Tanoh s’est adressé à celui dont il fut le directeur de cabinet et le ministre des Affaires étrangères : « Dites-lui de libérer notre pays. Nous sommes prêts à mourir pour notre pays ». Relents xénophobes Selon les intervenants, les attaques contre Alassane Ouattara ont parfois eu des relents xénophobes. « Nous allons le chasser de notre pays. Il va reconnaître d’« où il vient », a lancé Apollinaire N’Guessan de la plateforme Agir, à l’encontre de celui qu’il a appelé « le mosi », en référence à ses origines burkinabè. En tribune officielle, ces propos ont jeté un froid, plusieurs personnalités demandant à ce que l’intervention cesse. S’ils n’ont pas totalement rempli le stade, les militants de l’opposition ont tout de même répondu présent. Les accès au Plateau bouclés, beaucoup ont dû marcher de longues minutes pour s’y rendre. Toute la matinée, des centaines de personnes ont ainsi défilé le long du boulevard lagunaire. Comme Ange, venu de Yopougon, tous racontaient la même histoire : « Nos véhicules sont bloqués par la police, qui veut nous faire croire que le stade est déjà plein. » Militant du FPI, Jean-Marie explique de son côté que son véhicule a été attaqué alors qu’il venait de la commune proche de Koumassi. Les organisateurs ont de leur côté annoncé que plusieurs cars de militants avaient été bloqués à Aboisso, Grand-Bassam ou Bonoua, d’autres attaqués à Yopougon ou Port-Bouët. En cours de meeting, un jeune accusé d’être un « microbe » –  nom générique donné aux enfants en conflit avec la loi – a été passé à tabac par une foule importante. Il ne doit sa vie qu’à l’intervention du service d’ordre. © Jeune Afrique 2020, tous droits réservés.