If convicted, the 76-year-old, who is already in prison for corruption, could face the death penalty. Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir, who was overthrown last year by the military in the face of mass protests against his rule, has gone on trial in the capital over his role in a coup that brought him to power more than 30 years ago. Al-Bashir, who has been jailed in Khartoum since his removal, faces charges of undermining the constitution, violating the Armed Forces Act and fomenting a coup in 1989 against the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. Before any statements or evidence could be given on Tuesday, the trial was adjourned until August 11 to reconvene in a bigger court to allow more lawyers and family members of defendants to attend. Some lawyers had complained their colleagues had not been able to get into Tuesday's session. Other defendants include 10 military personnel and six civilians, including his former vice presidents, Ali Osman Taha and Bakri Hassan Saleh, as well as former ministers and governors. They are all accused of having plotted the June 30, 1989, coup during which the army arrested Sudan's political leaders, suspended Parliament and other state bodies, closed the airport and announced the putsch on the radio. The man dubbed the true brain behind the military coup, Hassan al-Turabi of the National Islamic Front, died in 2016. Al-Bashir stayed in power for almost 30 years before being overthrown on April 11 last year after several months of unprecedented, pro-democracy demonstrations that eventually forced the creation of a joint civilian-military ruling "sovereign council". The 76-year-old is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), facing charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed by pro-government forces in Darfur. Sudan's new governing authorities, which are tasked with leading the country to elections under a 39-month power-sharing agreement, have yet to hand him over to the ICC for prosecution. Al-Bashir is also being investigated over the killing of protesters while, in December, a Sudanese court handed him a first, two-year sentence on corruption charges. 'First Coup Trial' Ahead of Tuesday's trial, Moaz Hadra, one of the lawyers who led the push to bring the case to court, said al-Bashir and Saleh "have totally refused to cooperate with the commission of enquiry, but they will be present at the court". Hadra told AFP news agency the accused are charged under crimes including Chapter 96 of the 1983 Penal Code, which had been abolished by al-Bashir, and which carries the death penalty for attempting to destroy the constitutional order. The lawyer said "this is the first time someone who launches a coup will be brought to justice" in Sudan, which has seen three coups d'etat since its 1956 independence from Britain. "This trial will be a warning to anyone who tries to destroy the constitutional system," he added. "This will safeguard Sudanese democracy. In this way, we hope to bring an end to the era of putsches in Sudan." One of the 150 defence lawyers, Hashem al-Gali, charged that Bashir and the others would face "a political trial" being held "in a hostile environment on the part of the judicial system against the defendants". "In fact, this trial is aimed at the Islamic movement, and its sole purpose is to present it as a terrorist movement, but we have prepared our defence, and we will prove the contrary," Gali said. He argued that al-Bashir's overthrow of Mahdi took place so long ago that it was beyond the statute of limitations and should therefore no longer be dealt with by a court. The trial takes place at a time when Sudan's joint civilian-military transitional government is introducing a host of reforms and has relaunched peace talks with rebel groups. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's administration has recently abolished rules restricting women's freedom of movement, outlawed the practice of female genital mutilation, scrapped a law against apostasy and relaxed a ban on alcohol. Sudan hopes to soon be taken off the US State Department's list of state sponsors of "terrorism", a major hurdle to receiving foreign aid and investment. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

Genocide Watch has published its second Timestream covering the growing attacks on Muslims in the Assam state in India. The findings in this timeline suggest that Narendra Modi's ascension to power with the Bharatiya Jaranta Party (BJP) in 2014 has resulted in an increase of anti-Muslim attacks and has put India's Assam Muslims in danger of becoming victims of a full blown genocide. View the full Timestream on our page here.

More than 105,000 people have been arrested in Zimbabwe since March for violating regulations aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus, police say. Around 1,000 were arrested in the last two days for "unnecessary movement" or for not wearing face masks, they add. Restrictions have been eased slightly in the country, where more than 1,500 infections have been confirmed. Critics accuse the government of using the measures to target the opposition and arrest activists, which it denies. Opposition and civil society groups are mobilising for nationwide protests on 31 July to demand that President Emmerson Mnangagwa step down. Under current regulations, all Zimbabweans returning from abroad are required to remain in quarantine for three weeks at a government-approved facility. According to police, a total of 276 people had fled quarantine centres, including some who had tested positive. Almost 30 of them had been arrested, and would be taken to court for exposing their families and communities to the virus, police added. They included two men who had infected seven members of a family, state television reported. Police say they intend to step up efforts to enforce regulations arguing that many people have become complacent. Drinking dens had opened and "beer-drinking binges" were being held in backyards, police said. "We'll be arresting all these violators," spokesman Paul Nyathi was quoted by state television as saying. Zimbabwe's lockdown measures to combat the spread of coronavirus have worsened the country's economic and political crisis. The government expects the economy to shrink by 4.5% this year while annual inflation surged to 785% in June. There are calls for more protests against President Mnangagwa, who appears increasingly intolerant of criticism, BBC World Service Africa regional editor Will Ross reports. If people take to the streets there are bound to be many more arrests, our editor adds. Source: BBC News

A Times video investigation identified Chinese companies using a contentious labor program for Uighurs to satisfy demand for P.P.E., some of which ended up in the United States and other countries. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to drive demand for personal protective equipment, Chinese companies are rushing to manufacture the gear for domestic and global consumption. A New York Times visual investigation has found that some of those companies are using Uighur labor through a contentious government-sponsored program that experts say often puts people to work against their will. Uighurs are a largely Muslim ethnic minority primarily from the Xinjiang region of northwest China. The program sends Uighurs and other ethnic minorities into factory and service jobs. Now, their labor is part of the P.P.E. supply chain. According to China’s National Medical Products Administration, only four companies in Xinjiang produced medical grade protective equipment before the pandemic. As of June 30, that number was 51. After reviewing state media reports and public records, The Times found that at least 17 of those companies participate in the labor transfer program. The companies produce equipment primarily for domestic use, but The Times identified several other companies outside Xinjiang that use Uighur labor and export globally. We traced a shipment of face masks to a medical supply company in the U.S. state of Georgia from a factory in China’s Hubei Province, where more than 100 Uighur workers had been sent. The workers are required to learn Mandarin and pledge their loyalty to China at weekly flag-raising ceremonies. The program is widely publicized in state media as a form of poverty reduction. The Human Rights Investigations Lab at the University of California, Berkeley and the Uyghur Human Rights Project have both collected dozens of videos and social media reports that document the recent labor transfers. Uighurs have long been persecuted by the Chinese government, which says its tight control over Xinjiang is necessary to fight what it calls religious extremism. In a response to The Times, the spokesman for China’s Embassy in the U.S. said the program helps “local residents rise above poverty through employment and lead fulfilling lives.” Quotas on the number of workers put into the labor program and the penalties faced by those who refuse to cooperate, however, mean that participation is often, in effect, involuntary. “There are these coercive quotas that cause people to be put into factory work when they don’t want to be,” said Amy K. Lehr, the director of the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And that could be considered forced labor under international law.” Austin Ramzy contributed reporting. © 2020 The New York Times Company

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Armed men killed at least 12 villagers in central Mali, local officials said on Thursday, while in the capital Bamako West African mediators held talks on how to end a wave of protests against Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Several mass protests since early June have demanded Keita’s resignation, accusing him, among other things, of failing to quash violence by jihadist groups and ethnic militias that has killed hundreds of civilians this year. In the latest attacks, armed men on motorbikes targeted seven villages inhabited by Dogon farmers in Mopti region, said Ali Dolo, the mayor of a nearby town. “Among the dead, 10 were cultivating their fields,” he told Reuters. “This means the attacks are aimed at preventing people from farming.” Another local mayor placed the final death toll at 13. In Bamako, meanwhile, Nigeria’s former president Goodluck Jonathan arrived on Wednesday to lead a delegation from West African regional bloc ECOWAS. The delegation is due to meet with Keita, opposition leaders and the electoral commission in an effort to end violent clashes between protesters and security forces that have killed at least 11 people since last Friday. “With the cooperation of you and people of good will who want the problem to be resolved, I am hopeful that the crisis will end,” he told the state radio station on Thursday. Last Saturday, Keita promised to move to implement recommendations made by a previous ECOWAS delegation last month, including that the government “reconsider” the results of disputed March legislative elections that helped spark the protests. The violence over the past week has hardened the opposition’s calls for his resignation, although it has called off a planned mass prayer in the heart of Bamako this Friday that some feared would lead to fresh violence. Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Alexandra Hudson © Reuters 2020

At least nine were killed and 20 injured in an attack on a camp for internally displaced people, UNAMID says. The joint United Nations and African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has condemned the violence in Sudan's North Darfur province, including a deadly attack on a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs). In a statement on Tuesday, the peacekeeping mission expressed deep concern about the "violent incidents" that erupted in the town of Kutum on July 12 and the attack by unidentified armed men the following day on the Fata Borno IDP camp that left at least nine people dead and 20 wounded. "It is regrettable that these incidents have taken place while the transitional government of Sudan and the armed movements are close to concluding negotiations expected to bring peace and stability ... to the Darfur region and the whole of Sudan," UNAMID said. Over the past week, unidentified gunmen have waged attacks in the war-scarred region on protesters staging sit-ins to demand better security and a civilian state government. State governor positions in Sudan are held by military officers despite the overthrow last year of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in the face of mass protests. The Sudanese Professionals' Association, which spearheaded the demonstrations against al-Bashir, condemned the attack in Fata Borno. It said the attackers burned houses and a market and looted livestock in the area. UNAMID also said it regretted the physical damage to government buildings and private property "caused by such violent acts". In Kutum, authorities in said the violence erupted when a government convoy came under attack after a meeting between security officials and the protesters to discuss their demands. Mohammed Ibrahim Abdel-Karim, acting governor of North Darfur, said in a statement that security officials, who met with the protesters on Sunday, immediately met some of their demands and pledged to work on the rest. He said the officials left the area on a plane, but that "lawbreakers" wielding stones and knives attacked government vehicles carrying reporters, guards and other officials, forcing them to shelter in a police station. Abdel-Karim said the men then attacked the police station, burning it to the ground, along with a dozen vehicles, including the convoy cars. On Monday, the provincial government in North Darfur declared a state of emergency across the province. It said in a statement that more troops would be deployed to Fata Borno and nearby towns to restore security and stability. The conflict in Darfur started in 2003 after mostly non-Arab rebels rose up against the central government in the capital, Khartoum. Government forces and mainly Arab militias, which moved to repress the revolt, have been accused of widespread atrocities. Some 300,000 people were killed in the conflict, according to UN estimates. There has been no serious fighting for years, but the conflict remains unresolved as Arab armed groups are still present and control land they seized. Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after the military's removal of al-Bashir in April 2019. A civilian opposition coalition agreed to joint governance with the military in a three-year transition towards free elections, but key parts of the deal, such as appointing civilian state governors, have not been implemented. The transitional government has pledged to end the conflict in Darfur and is holding talks with some of the rebel groups that had fought al-Bashir's government. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

KABUL — The news footage from a remote northern city Monday showed only the rubble that remained, hours after a Taliban car bomb and gun attack left 11 Afghan intelligence workers dead and at least 60 civilians wounded. But although most Afghans never heard the explosions, gunfire and screams ring out, the incident reverberated across the demoralized country. Following weeks of relentless insurgent ground assaults and bombings — some in areas that had long enjoyed relative calm — the brazen attack in Aybak, ­capital of Samangan province, seemed to many Afghans like one more nail in the coffin of long-stymied talks between Taliban and Afghan delegates. Insurgent spokesmen said that the blast targeted an intelligence agency compound and that all the dead were agency employees, but Afghan officials said gunmen then attacked the next-door city hall building, busy with public visitors. Scores of civilians were injured including children, hospital officials said. “This is what the Taliban have to offer the Afghan people. Destruction, destruction and more destruction,” Javed Faisal, a spokesman for the government of President Ashraf Ghani, tweeted Tuesday. One council member in Samangan, a fertile northern region that was an ancient center of Buddhism, said the Taliban presence there is “stronger than any time in the past 20 years.” In Kabul, Shah Hussain Murtazawi, a senior aide to Ghani, tweeted that the attack had “closed the doors of peace.” Across Afghan society, the attack seemed to deepen growing feelings of disillusionment with the peace process and fears for the future. Over the past week, a variety of observers said they now believe that the Taliban will eventually return to power through a combination of force and political maneuvering, and that the more than 18-year-long civil conflict may continue indefinitely. In Washington, meanwhile, concerns about the faltering peace process and mounting violence, following reports of Russian bounty payments to the Taliban to kill American troops, led to calls to rethink U.S. strategy, including a slowdown of planned troop reductions. The top civilian official for NATO in Afghanistan, Stefano Pontecorvo, said Tuesday that the Taliban’s “insistence on continuous violence is jeopardizing the unique opportunity for peace.” The insurgents, he said, must “cease bloodshed and engage constructively” in negotiations.” But the Taliban seems to remain undeterred, racking up day after day of attacks. On Monday, insurgents carried out 30 ground assaults and remote bombings in 17 provinces, killing 19 people in addition to the toll in Aybak, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry. The incidents included assaults on a prayer ceremony in the western province of Faryab and a district headquarters in the northern province of Balkh, once a showcase of stability and economic development. On Sunday, there were 44 insurgent attacks or bombs in 21 provinces, including Nangahar in the east, Paktika in the south and Daikundi in the center of the country. A total of 21 security troops were killed. Many incidents were checkpoint attacks with few or no casualties, but in the northern province of Baghlan, an ambush killed five soldiers and wounded four police officers. The reports do not specify whether attackers are from the Taliban or other groups. “The Taliban are in a state of glorification, and the country is in a state of resignation,” said Rangin Dadfar Spanta, a former Afghan foreign minister who has criticized the U.S. government for making too many concessions to the insurgents in a rush to withdraw troops. “They have only one goal — not a sharing of power but a transfer of power.” Afghans are especially concerned about the high rate of civilian casualties. According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, the first six months of this year saw 1,213 civilians killed and 1,744 injured in conflict incidents. It said 48 percent of casualties were caused by the Taliban, 27 percent by unknown groups and 15 percent by government forces. One of the few public figures who remains upbeat is Zalmay Khalilzad, the State Department envoy who spearheaded months of talks with the insurgents that led to a bilateral agreement in February. The pact publicly called on the insurgents to stop attacking American troops and begin talks with Afghan leaders in exchange for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces. But U.S. officials later said Taliban negotiators also agreed to reduce violence until a general cease-fire took place. In a tweet Tuesday, Khalilzad declared that “a key milestone” had been reached with the completion of a “first phase” of work toward implementing the pact, including the vacating of five U.S. military bases. He condemned the Samangan attack, saying that it “contradicts” the insurgents’ pledge and that Afghans “continue to die in large numbers for no reason,” but he noted that “no American has lost his/her life” in Taliban attacks. The Taliban, in a statement, praised the recent U.S. force reductions and called it “unfortunate” that an ongoing dispute over prisoner releases had delayed inter-Afghan talks. But they also complained that U.S. and Afghan forces carried out airstrikes against civilians in eight provinces. They called such actions “blatant violations” of the U.S. agreement. While expressing optimism about the peace process, Khalilzad reiterated that U.S. dealings with the Taliban would continue to be based on its meeting certain conditions. Elsewhere, the revelations of Russian bounties to the Taliban amid continued insurgent attacks have spurred calls to rethink President Trump’s Afghan exit strategy. In an op-ed in The Washington Post on Monday, retired Army Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said the United States must respond “forcefully” to such Russian actions. He also recommended that the United States “pause” the ongoing withdrawals of U.S. troops, now down to 8,600, until the Taliban meets the conditions set out in the peace agreement by cutting ties with al-Qaeda, beginning peace negotiations with Afghans and reducing violence. The statement Tuesday by Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the attack in Samangan and other “escalations of violence” were only “reactions” to Afghan government attacks. He cited a June 29 incident in Helmand province where 23 civilians died in a chaotic bombing and mortar attack on a market. Taliban and Afghan officials blamed each other for the deadly episode. Mujahid called for a “swift and complete” implementation of the February accord and urged that the situation be “stopped from spiraling towards further mistrust.” The Ghani government has created an elaborate peace apparatus with a negotiating team of more than 100 leaders and a separate ministry, but little progress has resulted. Some critics blame Ghani for the delays, while others charge that the U.S. deal spearheaded by Khalilzad gave the Taliban too much leverage and has emboldened the insurgents to flout its conditions. “After the agreement, we had hope that they would keep their promise to reduce violence, but they have not kept it,” said Fawzia Koofi, a member of the negotiating team. “I still have to be optimistic about bringing peace because people are being killed every day. The Taliban feel more power now, but people are fed up with war. If they expect to conquer Afghanistan by force, history proves that they will fail.” Sharif Hassan contributed to this report. © The Washington Post 2020

The trial of a Malian fighter accused of demolishing Timbuktu's shrines has begun at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, 42, who was active in Timbuktu during 2012 and 2013, has been charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape and sexual slavery. ICC has identified him as a member of Ansar Dine, an al-Qaeda-linked armed group that sought to establish strict Islamic law in Mali, saying he was the "de facto chief of Islamic Police". The charges cover a period when Ansar Dine exploited an ethnic Tuareg uprising in 2012 to take over cities in Mali's volatile north. Al Hassan did not immediately enter a plea as the trial started on Tuesday before going into a closed session so judges could read out the allegations without putting victims at risk by having their identities read in open court. The defence and the legal representatives of alleged victims will deliver their statements at a later date when evidence is presented to the court. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, some participants in the trial will take part remotely. 'Despicable' violence Fighters who swept into Timbuktu, dubbed the "Pearl of the Desert", considered the shrines there to be idolatrous and wrecked them with pickaxes and bulldozers. Built between the fifth and the 12th centuries by Tuareg tribes, Timbuktu has also been dubbed "The City of 333 Saints" who were buried there during the golden age of Islam. ICC prosecutors said there were "substantial grounds" to convict Al Hassan for "crimes against humanity ... torture, rape, sexual slavery (and) other inhumane acts including, inter alia, forced marriages, persecution and war crimes". "Al Hassan is alleged to have exercised powers and functions on a daily basis within the Islamic police," said Presiding Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua. The fighters imposed draconian measures on the city's residents who lived in constant fear of "despicable" violence and repression, prosecutors said. They cited an example in which a man had his hand amputated after he was accused of petty theft. Al Hassan is the second Malian fighter to face trial at the ICC for the destruction of the Timbuktu shrines, following a landmark 2016 ruling at the world's only permanent war crimes court. In the court's first case to focus on cultural destruction, the ICC judges found Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi guilty of directing attacks on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012. He was sentenced to nine years in jail. Timbuktu's tombs were rebuilt after the fighters were pushed out, but the city remains in the grip of insecurity and tourists who once flocked there are now scarce. © Al Jazeera 2020

UN report says attacks by ADF fighters in eastern DRC could constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes. Intensified attacks by an armed group in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over the past 18 months have killed at least 800 civilians, according to the United Nations, which said the assaults may amount to crimes against humanity. In a report released on Monday, the UN's Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) in the DRC documented a series of "widespread, systematic and extremely brutal" rights abuses by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). ADF, which was formed in 1986 by groups based in neighbouring western Uganda, has long been active along the border and in recent years has been blamed for a wave of killings in the region. The UNJHRO report said that between January 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, 793 people were killed by ADF fighters in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. According to the report, assailants used heavy weaponry during attacks against villages, including AK47 rifles and mortars, and also machetes and knives. They often burned down entire villages, destroyed health centres and schools, and abducted and recruited men, women and children. "In the majority of cases, the means and the modus operandi of the attacks indicate a clear intention to leave no survivors. Entire families have been hacked to death," the report said. "Under international law, the human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law committed by ADF combatants could constitute, by their nature and scope, crimes against humanity and war crimes," it said. Between January 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020, human rights abuses attributed to the ADF, including abductions, forced labour and attacks against hospitals and schools, rose to 397 - a 67 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to UNJHRO. The ADF is one of multiple armed groups operating in eastern DRC, a legacy of the two Congo wars in the 1990s and 2000s that pulled in neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda. The group originated in neighbouring Uganda but moved to DR Congo in 1995. In the 2000s, it focused on establishing a "business network" with people in the security apparatus of the DRC, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania who provide them with ammunition and protection in exchange for economic and financial benefits from the trafficking of gold, timber and agricultural products, the report said. Last year, the DRC's army launched a campaign against the group that led to an "intensification of deadly attacks" by the ADF, it added. The report also said DRC forces had also committed human rights violations, including the extrajudicial killing of eight civilians. Originally published by Al Jazeera on July 7, 2020. © 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network

July 11 marks the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, the worst atrocity on European soil since the Holocaust. In July 1995, Serb forces systematically killed more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in the so-called UN-protected enclave in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. But what led to the massacre? In the nineties, American genocide scholar Gregory H Stanton, examined the stages of genocide, which eventually became his "10 stages of genocide" theory. Genocide is not committed by a small group of individuals, rather a large number of people and the state all contribute to genocide. At each stage, preventive measures can stop the situation from deteriorating further, Stanton noted. Bosnian Australian anthropologist Hariz Halilovic later added an eleventh stage particular to Bosnia's case - "triumphalism". Here is how Stanton's 10 stages - and Halilovic's eleventh - relate to the Srebrenica genocide: Stages one, two, three: Classification, symbolisation and discrimination The idea of a Greater Serbia (including the territories of Bosnia, Kosovo, Croatia, Montenegro and other neighbouring countries) dates back to the 19th century, and was revived following the death of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980. With the decline of the Communist bloc, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Serbian nationalists saw a chance to mobilise the masses in support of establishing a homogenous Serbian state. In Milosevic's famous address to a crowd in Belgrade in 1989, he presented himself as the saviour of Serbdom and Europe. It enforced the notion of "us [Serbs] vs them". Bosniaks were typically called Turks, Balije (a slur for a Bosnian Muslim) and branded as "terrorists" and "Islamic extremists". Stage four: Dehumanisation Many Serbs dehumanised Bosniaks, regarding them as Muslims who posed a threat to the Serbian hegemonist project. "In order to mobilise domestic public opinion against the Muslims and to justify future acts against them in the eyes of the West, the Serbian leadership needed an image of Islam as a totalitarian, inherently violent, and culturally alien system on European soil," writes Fikret Karcic, professor at the University of Sarajevo, in his paper, Distorted Images of Islam: the case of former Yugoslavia. "Such a distorted image had been provided by some influential Serbian orientalists, the Orthodox Church, and some historians." Just as Nazis identified the Jews during the Holocaust, Biljana Plavsic, a genetic biologist who served as president of Republika Srpska (Bosnia's Serb-run entity) and is now a convicted war criminal, claimed in the early nineties Bosnian Serbs were racially superior to Bosniaks. In 1994 she said she and other leaders of Republika Srpska were unable to negotiate with Bosniaks due to their genetic deformity. Plavsic said: "It was genetically deformed material that embraced Islam. And now of course, with each successive generation it simply becomes concentrated. It gets worse and worse. It simply expresses itself and dictates their style of thinking, which is rooted in their genes. And through the centuries, the genes degraded further." Stage five: Organisation A plan to destroy Bosnia and "completely exterminate its Muslim people" was drawn up as early as the 1980s by the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army, according to Vladimir Srebrov, a politician who co-founded the SDS party with convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic. Known as the RAM (frame) plan, its aim was to carve up Bosnia into a Greater Serbia and a Greater Croatia. In the plan, the officers explained how artillery, ammunition and military equipment would be stored in strategic locations in Croatia and Bosnia. A secret police force was planned to arm and train local Serbs to create police and paramilitary units in Bosnia. One document, written by the army's special services including experts in psychological warfare, stated the most effective way to create terror and panic among the Bosniak population would be by raping women, minors, and even children. Stage six: Polarisation Serbian and Bosnian Serb media regularly broadcasted polarising propaganda, to dehumanise victims and marginalise the opposition to war. In one case, while Serb forces held Sarajevo under siege, state-run Belgrade TV aired a false story intended to drive hatred, including the line: "Muslim extremists have come up with the most horrifying way in the world of torturing people. Last night they fed the Serb children to the lions in the city's zoo." This was reported on the evening news and was watched by several million viewers. Stage seven: Preparation Organised from Belgrade, Serbia, weapons were distributed to the Serb population by the truckload throughout 1990 and 1991 in Bosnia. "Weapons and military equipment were even flown in by military helicopters to Serbian military officers. It is said that by the end, almost no Serbian house was without an automatic gun," according to a UN report from 1994. "The pretext for the arms deliveries and the rearmament was that this was necessary for the defence against 'the enemies of the people' - the Muslim extremists." Stage eight: Persecution Across Bosnia, influential, intellectual Bosniaks were often among the first to be executed, with their names drawn up in death lists. As Serb troops arrived in each town, they killed non-Serbs, often after torturing them. Bosniak properties were confiscated. As many as 50,000 Bosniak and Croat women, girls and young children were raped in Bosnia from 1992- 1995. In Prijedor, a city in western Bosnia, Bosniaks were forced to wear white armbands to be clearly identified and tie white flags to their doors. Across the country, 200,000 people were deported to concentration camps where they were tortured, starved and killed. Others living under siege, such as in Sarajevo and Mostar, starved while being targeted by snipers and heavy shelling. Srebrenica, which was known as the world's biggest detention camp, was under siege for three years, before it fell to Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995. Serb troops separated boys and men aged between 12 and 77 from the rest of the population and took them to fields, schools and warehouses to be executed. Stage nine: Extermination On July 11 at 16:15 General Ratko Mladic (now a convicted war criminal) entered Srebrenica with Serb forces, including paramilitary units from Serbia, claiming the town for Serbs. Strolling through the streets with the TV cameras rolling, Mladic announced there will be "revenge against the Turks". Panicked residents in the enclave fled to the UN Dutch Battalion base only to find the 400 lightly-armed peacekeepers were unable to defend them. Serb forces had inherited much larger resources of the former Yugoslav army, the fourth largest in the world at the time. On that day, some 15,000 Bosniak men and boys start to make their escape through the woods, forming a column and hiking more than 100km (62 miles) in an attempt to reach free territory controlled by the Bosnian army. The journey was known as the Death March, as they were ambushed, shot at and attacked by Serb forces. Less than a quarter of them survived. Over the ensuing days, more than 8,000 Bosniaks were killed. Women and small children were deported. Stage 10: Denial In an attempt to conceal the killings, Serb forces transported the dead bodies with bulldozers and trucks and buried them in numerous locations, leaving the victims' remains fragmented and crushed. Human bones can be found as far as 20km (12.4 miles) apart, making it difficult for families to give their loved ones a proper burial. According to an Al Jazeera Balkans poll from 2018, 66 percent of Serbs in Republika Srpska deny the genocide. Genocide denial is common in academic and political circles in Republika Srpska and Serbia. The genocide is denied by high-ranking politicians including Milorad Dodik, a Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency and by Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic. Bosnian Serb mayor of Srebrenica, Mladen Grujicic, also denies the genocide. "[Denial] is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres," Stanton wrote. Stage 11: Triumphalism Convicted war criminals today are respected and honoured as war heroes. According to the 2018 poll, 74 percent of Serbs in Republika Srpska consider Bosnian Serb convicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic, guilty of genocide and war crimes to be a hero. © Al Jazeera 2020

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today applauded the U.S. Department of Treasury’s designations under the Global Magnitsky Act and the Department of State’s imposition of visa restrictions on senior Chinese officials responsible for egregious religious freedom violations against Uyghur and other Muslims in Xinjiang. “For years, USCIRF has called on the administration to impose targeted sanctions against Chen Quanguo, Zhu Hailun, and other senior officials responsible for the Communist Party’s genocidal policies against the Uyghur people.” USCIRF Commissioner Nury Turkel stated. “Today’s announcements represent a major victory for religious freedom and an important step toward holding Communist China accountable for its crimes against humanity.” Since 2017, the Chinese government has detained millions of Uyghur, Kazakh, and other Muslims, often targeting individuals engaged in religious practices, such as growing beards or wearing veils. Last week, reports emerged that Chinese authorities had engaged in forced sterilizations and other repressive population control measures against Uyghurs, which USCIRF warned could meet the definition of genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. On July 9, the Treasury Department added the following to the Global Magnitsky Designations List: Chen Quanguo, Communist Party Secretary for Xinjiang; Zhu Hailun, former Political and Legal Affairs Commission Chief; Wang Mingshan, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau; Huo Liujun former deputy party secretary; and the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau. The State Department visa restrictions bar Chen, Zhu, and Wang, as well as their family members, from entry into the United States. These measures follow the enactment of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which directs the administration to impose financial sanctions and visa bans against Chinese government officials responsible for the persecution of Uyghur and other Muslims. “The Trump administration’s actions today demonstrates that the United States is prepared to take concrete steps to protect Uyghurs and other religious groups in Communist China,” noted USCIRF Commissioner Gary Bauer. “We urge the administration to keep up the pressure by refusing to send U.S. officials to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing unless the Communist Chinese government ceases its war on faith.” In its 2020 Annual Report, USCIRF called for targeted sanctions against Chen and other Chinese officials. In February 2020, USCIRF released a factsheet explaining how the new Administrative Measures for Religious Groups could further restrict religious freedom. --- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on threats to religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at media@uscirf.gov or Danielle Ashbahian at dashbahian@uscirf.gov.

At least 239 killed in protests since last week over murder of popular ethnic Oromo singer Haacaaluu Hundeessaa. The death toll from demonstrations and ethnic violence that erupted in Ethiopia last week following the murder of a popular singer from the Oromo ethnic group has risen to 239, according to police. Pop star Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, a hero to many Oromo who saw him as the voice of their marginalisation, was shot dead by unknown attackers on June 29, heightening ethnic tensions threatening the country's democratic transition. Protests broke out in the capital Addis Ababa, as well as the surrounding Oromia region which is the homeland of the country's largest ethnic group, who have long felt economically and politically sidelined in the diverse nation. Officials have attributed the deaths to a combination of lethal force by security officers and interethnic violence. "Due to the unrest that occurred in the region, nine police officers, five militia members and 215 civilians have lost their lives," acting Oromia police commissioner Mustafa Kedir said on state television on Wednesday. Police in Addis Ababa had previously reported 10 deaths in the capital. The total death toll is an increase from 166 fatalities reported last weekend. Mustafa also said there had been "extensive damage and looting" of government and private property. "To control this unrest, more than 3,500 suspects have been arrested. They were anti-peace elements who carried out attacks using the artist's death as a pretext to dismantle the constitutional system by force," he said. "The Oromo population should be inclusive of other ethnic groups that live among it." Ethnic Tensions Haacaaluu's killing tapped into grievances fuelled by decades of government repression and what the Oromo describe as their historic exclusion from political power. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed - the country's first Oromo leader - said the murder was "an evil act". But he added that the subsequent violence represented "coordinated attempts" to destabilise the country. Simmering ethnic tensions in the country of more than 100 million people have posed a major challenge to Abiy, whose efforts to loosen the reins of iron-fisted rule and open up the democratic space have led to increased jockeying for power and influence. Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for ending a long-running conflict with neighbouring Eritrea, has been accused of reverting to the tactics of his predecessors, with a wave of arrests of prominent opposition politicians during the last week's protests. Five senior members of the Oromo Liberation Front were arrested, including Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba from the Oromo Federalist Congress. Eskinder Nega, a longtime government critic who had recently spoken out against government policies he argues favour the Oromo, was also arrested. Haacaaluu, 36, was buried on Thursday under heavy police and military presence in his hometown of Ambo, about 100km (62 miles) west of Addis Ababa. He is survived by his wife and two children. Free and fair elections planned for August have been postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic, as Ethiopia prepares for its democratic transition under Abiy, who is facing the deadliest protests since he took power in 2018. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA