March 4, 2019 5.08pm EST Last fall, a group of Indigenous women in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan brought a class-action suit against the Saskatoon Health Authority. They also sued the provincial and federal governments and some medical professionals. They asserted that some Indigenous women had been forcibly sterilized. Others had been tricked into giving consent for sterilization when they were under stress or heavily drugged. They claimed that doctors did this over several decades, up to the 2000s. The UN Committee on Torture recommended in late 2018 that the Canadian government investigate all allegations of enforced sterilization and adopt legislation criminalizing it. Indigenous activists want a new law specifically outlawing forced sterilization, but the federal government argues it’s already illegal. Canada doesn’t have a good history with regard to forced sterilization. The provinces of Alberta and British Columbia forcibly sterilized people from the 1930s to the 1970s. Authorities were responding to the eugenics movement, popular among many influential Canadians. Eugenicists wanted to keep the Canadian “race” pure by sterilizing “unfit” people. “Unfit” people were usually poor people, immigrants and people with disabilities. Indigenous people also were far more likely than others to be sterilized. As Angus McLaren shows in his 1990 book Our Own Master Race, during the last few years of forcible sterilization in Alberta, Indigenous and Metis people were 2.5 per cent of the population but 25 per cent of those sterilized. One aspect of genocide Forced sterilizations are an aspect of genocide. Most people think of genocide as the mass, deliberate murder of large numbers of people. But when the United Nations passed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948, it defined five ways genocide could be committed. Only one of the five means defined in the Genocide Convention is mass murder. The others are: “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;” “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;” “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;” and “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Forced sterilization prevents births. The “Sixties Scoop” removed thousands of Indigenous children from their families and communities in the 1960s. The reason given was to protect the children from abusive situations, but this could be considered an example of forcibly transferring children from one group to another. On Jan. 7, 2019, Premier Scott Moe of Saskatchewan apologized for the Sixties Scoop. Manitoba and Alberta had already apologized. Forcible deportations are a way to deliberately inflict conditions calculated to bring about a group’s physical destruction. Canada deported several Indigenous groups in the Far North from their homelands to other locations. Many died from starvation, exposure and disease. Any removal of Indigenous people anywhere in the country that resulted in a significant number of deaths might be considered genocide by deportation. Canada must remedy its history of genocidal actions The term genocide was originally coined in 1944 by a Polish Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin wanted to include what we now call cultural genocide in the definition. He wasn’t thinking about Indigenous peoples; he was thinking of the cultural genocide of ethnic groups in occupied Eastern Europe by the Nazis during the Second World War. Lemkin thought malicious destruction of works of art and culture should be a crime called vandalism, and destruction of human collectivities should be a crime called barbarism. Although Lemkin lobbied hard for the UN to adopt these crimes of vandalism and barbarism as infractions people could be prosecuted for; it did not. If it had, we could argue that Canada’s system of residential schools was an aspect of genocide, the barbarism of destroying a collectivity. Indigenous children were removed from their communities and forbidden to speak their languages, or practice their customs and cultures. We use the term cultural genocide as a descriptive term, but it isn’t part of the UN’s legal definition. Legally speaking, the UN definition requires proof of intent to commit genocide. In other words, if Canadian authorities claim that the sterilizations of Indigenous women were the accumulation of a taken-for-granted culturally sanctioned practice of many doctors over many decades, then according to the law, Canada wasn’t committing genocide by preventing births. Similarly, if there was no intent to destroy a community by forcibly transferring children, then the Sixties Scoop wasn’t genocide. And if there was no intent to deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about peoples’ physical destruction by deporting Indigenous peoples, then Canada wasn’t committing genocide. But if we add up all the ways that Canadian governments have oppressed Indigenous peoples over the centuries, then those governments bear a weighty burden. They still must remedy the effects of practices that in effect, if not in intent, constituted genocide. Copyright © 2010–2019, The Conversation US, Inc.

December 6, 2018 Last week, a prominent Buddhist teacher defended Aung San Suu Kyi, the Buddhist Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Myanmar civilian leader, against criticism that she is party to genocide. Khin Mai Aung explains why that defense doesn’t hold up. Recently, respected Bhutanese lama Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche posted an open letter on Facebook downplaying Myanmar’s brutal Rohingya genocide and expressing support for the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The politician has come under fire in recent years for her tacit support of the ongoing genocide in her country. In his letter, Rinpoche dismisses these criticisms as Western colonialism. By letting Aung San Suu Kyi off the hook for her complicity in Myanmar’s genocide and largely turning a blind eye to the Rohingya’s suffering, Rinpoche implicitly endorses the anti-Rohingya mindset rampant in Myanmar and the Burmese diaspora. Rinpoche’s stunning failure to exhibit the core Buddhist tenet of compassion for the Rohingya’s suffering at the hands of Myanmar’s military is deeply disappointing. In his letter, Rinpoche makes valid and resonant points about Western double standards, hypocrisy, and paternalism. Vestiges of colonialism endure for both colonizers and their former subjects, even today. As I’ve written before, colonialism is indeed to blame for much of Myanmar’s contemporary troubles. British colonial authorities intentionally stoked tensions between its Bamar Buddhist majority and ethnic minorities through a strategy of “divide and rule,” sowing seeds of resentment between the Bamar and minorities like the Rohingya. Rinpoche further reminds us that atrocities committed by Western powers — before, during, and after colonialism — are frequently downplayed and conveniently forgotten. He’s right that abuses committed by Western powers, like the United States pummelling Laos with an unprecedented number of bombs during the Vietnam war, are not as widely remembered as they should be. On a more mundane level, he is also correct that Westerners sometimes co-opt, decontextualize, and exoticize Eastern traditions and practices (like yoga and meditation) — robbing them of their core meaning and essence. Rinpoche says that criticism of Suu Kyi is “a sign of the insidious colonialism that continues to strangle Asia and the world.” He’s wrong. But his defense of Aung San Suu Kyi’s heartbreaking complicity in the Rohingya genocide based on these legitimate concerns is where Rinpoche swerves off track. Rinpoche says that criticism of Suu Kyi is “a sign of the insidious colonialism that continues to strangle Asia and the world.” He’s wrong. The global outcry over Rohingya persecution — and Aung San Suu Kyi’s failure to denounce it — is not the paternalism of the West imposing its values on Myanmar. Rather, it is a valid response to the Burmese military’s bloody subjugation of a profoundly disempowered minority (using tactics the military has also deployed against other ethnic and religious minorities for decades), and the unwillingness of the country’s elected civilian leadership to even question this brutality. Rinpoche sets up an East-versus-West dichotomy and cloaks his defense of Aung San Suu Kyi in the righteous language of anti-colonialism, writing “we are expected to kowtow to western morality” and “it’s time to restore the dignity of our own great eastern wisdom traditions and legacies.” In doing so, Rinpoche unwittingly lends support for Myanmar’s alternative narrative of its mistreatment of the Rohingya. This framing opens the door for Burmese apologists — including but not limited to political leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi — to cast abuse of the Rohingya as part of Myanmar’s noble effort to preserve its ethnic and religious identity in the face of Western oppression. In this narrative, Myanmar is merely casting off the yoke of colonial rule by purging the country of “Bengali” foreigners brought into the country by British overseers — not exterminating and expelling a vulnerable and powerless minority group. The contention that the Rohingya are not native to Myanmar is unfortunately reinforced by Rinpoche’s allegation that the British brought “most” Rohingya to Burma during the colonial period as cheap labor to work in rice paddies. It’s true that many people of South Asian descent were imported from the Indian subcontinent into Myanmar by British colonial authorities. But as others have pointed out in response to Rinpoche’s letter, both the Muslim Rohingya and my own ancestors, the Buddhist Rakhine (another ethnic minority in Myanmar), coexisted peacefully for centuries on both sides of the Naf River, which now marks the Myanmar–Bangladesh border. Rinpoche overlooks this important fact, capitulating to and reinforcing the Burmese belief that all or most Rohingya are foreigners from Bangladesh. It is also not accurate to suggest that Aung San Suu Kyi is being judged according to Western morality, when she herself has spent most of her life campaigning for democracy and free speech. In 2010, she said, “The basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech.” If that is her belief, why did her political party bar Muslims from seeking office in Myanmar’s 2015 elections? And why does she remain silent while journalists are thrown in jail for reporting on the Rohingya genocide? Is it colonialist to call on Aung San Suu Kyi to uphold the very principles which she has spent her life promoting? Despite his lengthy excoriation of the West, Rinpoche regretfully omits an obvious and relevant example of Western influence negatively impacting Myanmar. He passionately decries the unfortunate influence of Western society, contending that “We Asians have been taught to disparage our own noble traditions and instead to treasure western values, literature and music, to chew gum and wear faded jeans, to embrace Facebook and Amazon, and to ape western manners and institutions.” Rinpoche misses the fact that the Burmese military has actively used Facebook to spread its propaganda and encourage religious violence. If Rinpoche truly wants Aung San Suu Kyi to cast off the yoke of western colonialism, he should question why she condones the Burmese military’s use of western technology to implement its own version of “divide and rule” by inflaming ethnic and religious tensions in Myanmar. The profound irony of Rinpoche’s statement that “our own holocausts are conveniently forgotten and buried in the dustbin of history” haunts me. Blinded by anger over Western double standards, Rinpoche doesn’t see how his words may help Myanmar bury its own genocide in the “dustbin of history.” His willingness to let Aung San Suu Kyi (and, by extension, the rest of Myanmar’s civilian government) off the hook for failing to advocate for the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar is dismaying. What the international Buddhist community needs is moral and ethical leadership from prominent religious leaders like Rinpoche, and not excuses for politicians unable or unwilling to stand up for the vulnerable. Rinpoche is absolutely right that the Western world can be self-righteous and judgmental toward non-Westerners, and that non-Westerners, in turn, are sometimes unduly deferential to the West. But by viewing foreign criticism of Aung San Suu Kyi only through this prism, he obscures the larger truth of human rights abuses in Myanmar. And, tragically, he overlooks the fact that Myanmar’s civilian leadership has abandoned the core Buddhist belief in each person’s innate human dignity — including that of the Rohingya. ABOUT KHIN MAI AUNG Khin Mai Aung has written about civil rights issues in publications such as the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, and Salon and was formerly a lawyer at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The views contained in this article are solely her own. Copyright 2018 Lion’s Roar

February 28, 2019 Khin Mai Aung reports from the International Conference on Protection and Accountability in Burma, which called attention to the ongoing human rights violations against Rohingya muslims and other religious minorities in the Buddhist-majority country of Myanmar. On February 8 and 9, the Free Rohingya Coalition – a global advocacy group led by prominent Rohingya activists and allies – hosted the International Conference on Protection and Accountability in Burma (now called Myanmar) at Barnard College in New York City. The conference — at which I was an organizer and a speaker — sought to raise awareness about “the twofold need [for] protection and accountability” for the human rights of Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar. Scholars, lawyers, activists, and United Nations officials gathered at the convening to identify strategies to curb serious human rights violations in Myanmar, which include discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, jailing and intimidation of journalists, and other abuses. Within the Burmese diaspora, the event was controversial. On Facebook, a Burmese language post alleged that “all Myanmar and Rakhine people should be wary of this Muslim funded event which advocates for the takeover of the land and religion of Myanmar,” and called for “protection and vigilance… from both inside and outside the country.” The Rakhine are a predominantly Buddhist ethnic minority who have historically lived alongside the Muslim Rohingyas in western Myanmar. Relations between the Rakhine and Rohingya have taken center stage in Myanmar as religious tensions between Buddhists and Muslims surged across the country, as well as a wave of religious nationalism from Buddhist extremists – culminating in Myanmar’s massive genocidal expulsion of the Rohingya in fall 2017. Buddhism has always played a central role in Myanmar’s identity, but growing up Burmese American I saw Myanmar’s significant ethnic and religious diversity through rose-colored lenses. Interethnic and interreligious friendships were common among in my family’s social circle when we lived there as well as after our departure, and I wanted to believe my country of birth was tolerant and inclusive. But as communal tensions flared in recent years, I wondered whether these tensions are really new or if they were always festering beneath the surface. I asked a handful of conference participants and others for their thoughts on these issues. Buddhism and Myanmar are inextricably linked — a connection I believe to be dangerous to the health of democracy in Myanmar and to Buddhism itself. -Hein Win Aung Some of the participants pointed out that even if religious discord is now more commonplace, Myanmar has experienced significant religious turmoil in the past. “Myanmar has a history of cycling between overt intolerance and relative acceptance,” said one Burmese Buddhist who declined to be identified. “Moments of aggressive, physically violent persecution are often sandwiched between lulls of moderate acceptance, though institutional discrimination and social prejudices continue to exist.” Hein Win Aung (no relation to this writer) is a Burmese Buddhist who grew up in the United States. “A look back at Burmese history reveals so-called Buddhist Bamar kings forcing religion and rule over other peoples,” he says. (The Bamar are the country’s predominantly-Buddhist majority ethnic group, which today constitutes about 60% of the country’s population.) Indeed, the 20th century in Myanmar saw bloody riots targeting individuals of Chinese and South Asian heritage – some of whom had lived there for centuries – as well as aggressive Burmanization of ethnic and religious minorities by the Bamar both prior to and after the British era. The root of Myanmar’s ongoing struggle with pluralism lies in its rigid national identity, with Buddhism at its heart. “Buddhism and Myanmar, the nation, are inextricably linked,” said Hein Win Aung, “a connection I believe to be dangerous to the health of democracy in Myanmar and to Buddhism itself.” Maung Aye is a Burmese Muslim who immigrated to the United States. “When I was young, there was much more religious tolerance,” he says. “The more you go back in the past, the more religious harmony you will find… Religious tensions are increasing, especially between Muslims and Buddhists.” Stella Naw, a Christian of the Kachin ethnic minority, says that the increase in Buddhist nationalism has been stoked by the military and the government. “I wouldn’t say Burma has been a religiously tolerant state in my lifetime,” says Naw. “It’s the communities that lived peacefully.” Like Maung Aye, she blames “carefully constructed propaganda” and “nationally designed policies to turn religious communities against each other” and foment religious discord. Naw also pointed out that Buddhists and Bamars dominate Myanmar’s government and military. An officer in the military, she notes, would be “prevented from any further promotion” for marriage to a non-Buddhist. The link between Buddhism and Myanmar is so pervasive and insidious that many are unable to distinguish between the Burmese national identity and Buddhism as a religion practiced by most – but not all – Burmese. One Burmese Buddhist participant told me anonymously, “Until I was into my late teens, I didn’t even know that there were non-Buddhist Burmese… I hear people call Myanmar a ‘Buddhist country’ – as opposed to a Buddhist-majority country.” “People will say ‘I don’t have anything against the Muslims, but they need to act like guests,’” she continued. Today, there is no room within Myanmar’s identity for meaningful religious inclusion. Minorities are automatically accorded outsider status. This othering persists, even during the country’s “lulls of moderate acceptance.” Myanmar needs protection and accountability. In Myanmar today, calls to protect the rights of vulnerable minorities are misperceived as affronts against the majority — a hostile “takeover” by Muslim outsiders of Myanmar’s land and religion. This inversion of reality demonstrates why we must hold Myanmar accountable for its misdeeds, protect the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, support civil society activists in the country, and promote religious inclusion in Myanmar’s national identity. ABOUT KHIN MAI AUNG Khin Mai Aung has written about civil rights issues in publications such as the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, and Salon and was formerly a lawyer at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The views contained in this article are solely her own. Copyright 2019 Lion’s Roar

Photo source: Wikipedia President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday offered Filipino citizenship to Rohingya refugees as he reiterated his willingness to accept them into the country. “I am willing to accept Rohingyas. ‘Yung talagang walang mapuntahan tatanggapin ko ‘yan, gawain kong Pilipino,” he said in a speech before a convention of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines at the Manila Hotel. Duterte said in April last year that the Philippines was willing to provide sanctuary for Rohingya fleeing what he called "genocide” in Myanmar, a remark that prompted a Myanmar government spokesman to respond that the President had no restraint and knew nothing about their country. The President then issued a public apology to Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi for saying genocide was taking place in her country and clarified that he was hitting out at European countries which had accused Myanmar of human rights violations, but did little to help the Rohingya. Hundreds of thousands of people, most of them Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group, have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh in groups since August 2017 when Rohingya militant attacks on security forces sparked a military crackdown. The UN and several Western countries have accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar denies. Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said last year that the Philippines had facilities that could accommodate refugees, citing a processing center in Bataan. Roque added that the Philippine government had an "open-door policy" for refugees. In 1975, the Philippine government accommodated thousands of Vietnamese refugees who fled their country after the Vietnam War ended. The facility Roque cited, the Philippine Refugee Processing Center (PRPC), hosted many of them. The Philippines under then-President Manuel Quezon gave refuge to Jews escaping the Holocaust in the late 1930s. — BAP, GMA News All Rights Reserved 2019 © GMA Network Inc

February 28, 2019 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir who is also the leader of the ruling party has appointed the deputy chairman of the National Congress Party (NCP) as the acting chairman of the majority party in a move indicating as he is preparing to move away from the party. As a result of the nationwide protests that continue for more than two months, al-Bashir sacked his government and the NCP leadership as they appeared unable to defend his government programme and realisations Following its weekly leadership meeting held on Thursday, the party confirmed the appointed of the former North Kordofan Governor Ahmed Haroun as the NCP deputy chairman replacing Faisal Hassan Ibrahim. Speaking after the meeting, Haroun who indicted of by the war crimes court in The Hague told reporters that the president informed the meeting of his decision to him as the acting chairman of the party. "The meeting took note of the decision of the President of the Republic, the Chairman of the Party, to delegate his powers and responsibilities to the party’s Deputy Chairman, Ahmed Haroun, to lead the party and conduct the organizational activities so that the President can devote himself to the national tasks expressed in his speech to the nation last Friday," he said. On Friday 22 February, al-Bashir said asked the parliament to stop considering constitutional amendments to allow his re-election for a new term. He added that he would stand at the same distance from all the political forces and called for a national dialogue on the basis of the National Document of the dialogue conference held on October 2016. The head of the National Intelligence and Security Services, Salah Gosh on the same day said al-Bashir would abandon the chairmanship of the ruling party and continue as President of the Republic so that the party can nominate another candidate for the 2020 elections. Haroun said the party renewed its support for the presidential call for a new dialogue in the country based on the National Document adding that it can be opened for discussion and to build on it. Haroun further stressed the NCP readiness to engage dialogue with all the political forces to achieve national reconciliation and to speed up the negotiations with the armed groups. The opposition forces rejected the presidential call for a new dialogue with the regime and called on al-Bashir to step down, as they propose the formation of a transitional national unity government to end armed conflicts and achieve democratic reforms before to hold new elections. (ST) Copyright 2019 Sudan Tribune

A delegation of Namibian lawmakers is in Berlin to vigorously push for an agreement with Germany on the genocide it committed against the Nama and Herero people of Namibia more than 100 years ago. 23.02.2019 Between 1904 and 1908, German colonial troops stationed in what was then known as German South West Africa violently repressed attempted uprisings by the Nama and Herero ethnic groups. For many years, Namibia has been pushing Germany to accept the genocide committed against its people when it was still its colony, but the snail-pace at which Germany has handled the issue has often led to frustrations among ordinary Namibians, particularly the communities that were most affected. Now a delegation of Namibian lawmakers has arrived in Berlin where it will attempt to reach an agreement with Germany based on the German parliament's 1989 resolution to accept historical and political responsibility for Namibia. They also hope to foster closer ties with their German counterparts on issues of mutual interest. Peter Hitjitevi Katjavivi, a Namibian politician and Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia spoke to DW's Daniel Pelz about the visit. DW: Germany and Namibia have been negotiating a German apology for the genocide for years but have not been able to reach a conclusion. Why are you here in Berlin? Peter Hitjitevi Katjavivi: The mere fact that we're here should underscore that there is a need for us as two parliamentary institutions to maintain very close ties. But we are also here to underscore the fact that for some time now our two governments have been negotiating the question of genocide with a view to finding an amicable outcome. We believe the two parliaments can reach an understanding and agreement on the genocide and that is being negotiated now. The time has come for us to act according to the resolution that was adopted by the German parliament as far back as 1989 that calls for historical and moral responsibility to Namibia. Shouldn't the parliaments put more pressure on the governments to conclude this process as soon as possible? I think our two governments do not need to be reminded of this. I think the top leaders who are involved in the negotiations are two honorable people who are absolutely seriously engaged and concerned and are very anxiously looking forward to finding an amicable solution. But I think at the same time there are issues that can be changed and discussed between the two parliaments. Our visit here is basically aimed at underscoring the urgency of the matter. Since our arrival here, I have discovered that there is that sense of urgency and appreciation of the fact that we need to cement the already cordial relationship that exists between our two countries. Various motions have been tabled in the German parliament over the past year demanding a German apology but no motion so far has been passed. Does that disappoint you? Not at all. Because I am aware that the current negotiations do involve an agreement that there must be an apology. When you are accused of having done something, there will always be a readiness to say "I'm sorry." It sends the right kind of signal that there is that acceptance of the fact that we in Namibia have been wronged. But to the best of my knowledge that apology will be forthcoming once we have an agreement. Then there will also be an understanding of the need to have a very clearly defined program towards healing the wounds of the past. In other words, a comprehensive program which is designed to provide development assistance to the affected communities in particular and to Namibia in general. A group of Nama leaders have announced that they want to go to court in Germany to prevent a German museum from handing over a Bible and a whip to the Namibian government which belonged to the legendary freedom fighter Hendrik Witbooi. Is this a sign that the divisions over how to deal with the colonial past are actually widening in Namibian society? What we need to do now is reach out to our compatriots with a view to convincing them that we should all be part of the negotiations. Obviously, there are always doubting Thomases in any given society. But I would like to emphasize the fact that to the best of my knowledge the doors are open for other Namibians who might have reservations [to discuss the issue], and there could be genuine reservations about the intention and the scope of this whole exercise. Is the current relationship between Germany and Namibia only defined by the memory of the genocide against the Herero and Nama, or are there other aspects that we are actually overlooking in this present debate? I think I am persuaded to believe that. Yes, we accept the fact that we have ties based on our historical past. In our respective constitutions we are saying to ourselves and to the rest of the world that never again will we subject our people to the hardship and destruction that was witnessed in our respective history. Now that is something obviously that brings us together. So we are picking ourselves up. We have emerged out of the ruins and we vigorously see ourselves as being champions of democracy and the rule of law.I think I am persuaded to believe that. Yes, we accept the fact that we have ties based on our historical past. In our respective constitutions we are saying to ourselves and to the rest of the world that never again will we subject our people to the hardship and destruction that was witnessed in our respective history. Now that is something obviously that brings us together. So we are picking ourselves up. We have emerged out of the ruins and we vigorously see ourselves as being champions of democracy and the rule of law. Peter Hitjitevi Katjavivi is a Namibian politician and Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia This interview was conducted by Daniel Pelz. It has been edited and condensed for clarity. © 2019 Deutsche Welle

The peace accord between the government of the Central African Republic and armed groups that was signed on February 6, 2019 should not deter or displace efforts to deliver justice for the gravest crimes committed during the conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The accord to end a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives was negotiated by the African Union during 18 months of talks with the groups, while they continued to carry out brutal attacks on civilians. Violence in the northern and eastern parts of the country has intensified in recent months, including multiple attacks on camps for internally displaced people. About 1.2 million people are displaced by fighting across the country. “With multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during this conflict, and over a million people displaced, many across the Central African Republic are desperate to see it end,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “But efforts to bring those responsible for the worst crimes to justice need to be an integral part of the resolution, and a general amnesty should be out of the question.” The accord was finalized in Khartoum, Sudan but signed by 14 armed groups in the Central African Republic. Members of some of the groups are suspected of numerous grave abuses against civilians, including murder, rape, sexual slavery, torture, looting, persecution, and destruction of religious buildings. The people responsible for these acts can be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The accord is vague on steps needed to ensure post-conflict justice and does not mention specific judicial processes, or recent efforts to promote justice in the country, though it recognizes the role impunity has played in entrenching violence. Among the recent efforts in the country has been the establishment of the Special Criminal Court, a new court in the domestic system mandated to try war crimes and crimes against humanity. It formally began operations in late 2018, with international participation and support. In addition, at the request of the then-transitional government, in May 2014 the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened investigations into crimes committed since August 2012. The court arrested two leaders of the anti-balaka militias that were parties to the conflict, Alfred Yékatom and Patrice Edouard Ngaissona, in late 2018. The government and its international partners should continue to support the national judiciary, the Special Criminal Court, and the ICC’s investigation and prosecution of grave crimes, Human Rights Watch said. One example of the recent violence was the killing of at least 19 men and a 14-year-old boy on January 20 in Zaorossoungou, in Mambéré-Kadéï province, in the southwestern part of the country. Earlier, on January 12, unknown assailants killed at least three Peuhl herders, two of them women, outside of Zaorossoungou. “I hid in the bushes when the attack started,” a 45-year-old woman who survived the January 20 attack told Human Rights Watch. “When it was over, I went out and there were bodies everywhere. I saw the body of my son, Jean Claude [20-years-old]. He had been shot in the back.” Central African victims, activists, and justice practitioners continue to reaffirm an urgent and unequivocal demand for justice for the war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country since the crisis started. This sentiment was expressed on December 10, 2018, when survivors of sexual violence took the floor in parliament to mark Human Rights Day. “The slowness of justice is yet another crime for victims of sexual violence related to the conflict,” Bernadette Sayo, an activist, said at that gathering. National consultations from May 4 to 11, 2015, known as the Bangui Forum, prioritized justice over amnesty, and stated that “no amnesty” would be tolerated for those responsible for and acting as accomplices in international crimes. The forum brought together more than 800 representatives of community and other nongovernmental organizations, political parties, and armed groups from across the country. It recognized that the lack of justice in the Central African Republic since 2003 was one of the main causes of successive crises. However, a key sticking point at the Khartoum talks was the issue of amnesty, sought by almost all armed groups. On January 29, during the talks, Abakar Saboun, the spokesman for one of the armed groups, the Popular Front for the Renaissance in the Central African Republic (Front Populaire pour la Renaissance de la Centrafrique, FPRC), told journalists, “If we want peace, we need to give amnesty to certain persons… I ask the Central African people… to accept an apology from those who have committed crimes, a sincere apology. We must have amnesty to have peace.” The FPRC, which controls large parts of the country’s northeast, has committed numerous serious abuses since 2014. The Bangui Forum remains the only formal effort to ascertain the will of the Central African people and its clear stance on impunity should be respected, Human Rights Watch said. Any attempt at amnesty, as many armed group leaders now demand, would defy international commitments the Central African Republic has undertaken to ensure investigations and prosecutions of grave crimes. “The Special Criminal Court is an unprecedented effort to help deliver justice and needs support now more than ever,” Mudge said. “The court remains one of the best chances to provide justice and to end the cycles of violence that have plagued the Central African Republic for decades.” The Central African Republic’s current crisis began in late 2012, when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President François Bozizé and seized power through a campaign of violence and terror. In response, anti-balaka groups were formed and began carrying out reprisal attacks on Muslim civilians in mid-2013. African Union and French forces pushed the Seleka rebels out of the capital, Bangui, in 2014. After two years of an interim government, relatively peaceful elections were organized and Faustin-Archange Touadéra was sworn in as president in March 2016. Violence and attacks against civilians have continued under Touadéra, with Seleka factions and anti-balaka groups still controlling large swathes of the country, especially in the eastern and central regions. The Khartoum Peace Deal The peace accord seeks to “definitively eliminate” the causes of the conflict and promote national reconciliation. Armed groups promise to end “all hostilities and forms of violence” against, among others, aid workers and civilians and eventually to dissolve. Some fighters from armed groups will be incorporated into “special mixed security units,” which would also include members of the country’s national security forces. All signatories commit to “renounce the use of armed force” and are subject to international sanctions if they don’t. A key sticking point in the talks had been the question of amnesty, which was a priority for the armed groups. Hassan Bouba, the political coordinator for Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (Union pour la Paix en Centrafrique, UPC), told Human Rights Watch on February 16 that for the UPC the peace deal means a general amnesty, despite a change in the accord’s language, which leaves the word “amnesty” out. “If the government arrests a member of an armed group, then there is no more accord,” he said. The self-proclaimed General Sidiki Abass, the commander of 3R, a rebel group based in the Ouham Pendé province that also signed the accord, told Human Rights Watch that the recommendations of the Bangui Forum were irrelevant and that all judicial cases should stop so that transitional justice can be put in place. “If the Special Court and the national courts continue work [on crimes committed during the conflict] it will cause problems,” he said. The accord notes that all signatories recognize “the fight against impunity” but does not mention amnesty. The accord also acknowledges that impunity has “entrenched an infernal cycle of violence, weakened the judiciary, led to massive violations of human rights, international humanitarian law, and the mistrust of the population with regard to the state.” However, the accord does not mention specific judicial processes to bring justice for the crimes. Instead, it calls for the establishment of a Truth, Justice, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (Commission de la verité, justice, reconciliation et reparation,CVJRR). It also calls for establishing an “Inclusive Commission,” consisting of all parties to the accord, which will “examine all aspects related to the tragic events of the conflict” and “make proposals on justice” to the Truth Commission. A February 8 presidential decree mandates that the government to appoint eight members on the “Inclusive Commission,” whereas armed groups will have five. Accounts from Survivors of Attacks in January 2019 Residents of Zaorossoungou said that women fled the village after the Peuhl herders were killed on January 12 when the people heard that fighters from 3R, “Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation,” were coming to seek revenge for the three Peuhl killed on January 12. 3R has killed at least several dozen civilians in the Ouham Pendé province since 2015, including in De Gaulle on September 27, 2016, when they killed at least 17 people and raped at least 23 women and girls. Human Rights Watch was not able to confirm if 3R was responsible for the January 20 attack on Zaorossoungou. Another armed group, linked with 3R and called Siriri (“peace” in Sango, the national language), maintains a presence in the area. Human Rights Watch spoke with four residents of Zaorossoungou who saw the attack on the village. The mother of 19-year-old Michel Bekondou and 14-year-old Gideon Dobele told Human Rights Watch how her children were killed just outside the village: We were walking back to the village from some fields when we heard the attack. We moved forward slowly and suddenly the attackers found us. They told us to sit down, and then they shot Michel in the back. Gideon got up and started to run, but they shot him down too. One pointed his gun at me, but another fighter said, “Don’t kill the woman.” Later I found some people who helped me bury their bodies. I don’t know what to say about this. All I can say is that I wish the attackers had killed me too. I have nothing to live for. In a meeting with Human Rights Watch in Bangui on February 10, Abass, the commander of 3R, said that his men were not responsible for the killings in Zaorossoungo and that they have never participated in any human rights abuses whatsoever. This assertion directly contradicts Human Rights Watch research and United Nations findings. Human Rights Watch also spoke with six residents of Ippy, including two survivors, who described an incident when a fighter from the UPC killed 15 civilians, including 5 children, on January 23 during a funeral ceremony. The UPC fighter arrived at the burial site, with another UPC fighter, who was unarmed, around 9:30 p.m., while people were singing and dancing. Without warning, the armed fighter, known as Ali, opened fire on the group. “I fell down after I was shot in the stomach,” a 17-year-old survivor told Human Rights Watch. “Once the shooting started, it was total chaos.” “I was with the other people and saw Ali approach us with his gun,” a 12-year-old survivor said. “He took a step back and just shot his gun at us. I was shot in the left ankle.” A 45-year-old survivor said: “When the shooting started, I ran. It seemed to only last a few seconds, but there were so many dead people afterwards…We buried the bodies in a mass grave the next day. There were so many children there. I don’t know why he would shoot on unarmed people like that.” Residents of Ippy told Human Rights Watch that in the days following the killings, the UPC commanders publicly executed Ali and the companion who was with him while he killed the people at the funeral. UPC fighters, who control large parts of central Ouaka province, have killed at least hundreds of civilians, raped dozens of women, and burned thousands of homes since2014. Copyright 2019 AfricaNews

Human rights violations and abuses that have grown routine against civilians and children in the world's youngest country, may constitute war crimes, according to a new report by the U.N.'s Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan outlining acts of brutality committed in 2018. Nearly eight years after South Sudan gained independence from its northern neighbor, Sudan, a civil war has mired the country in a humanitarian disaster. "There is a confirmed pattern of how combatants attack villages, plunder homes, take women as sexual slaves and then set homes alight – often with people in them," said Commission Chair Yasmin Sooka in a statement about the report's findings, which covers 2018. "Rapes, gang rapes, sexual mutilation, abductions and sexual slavery, as well as killings, have become commonplace in South Sudan." The report does not name perpetrators, but says they are believed to come from many sides of the conflict including the army, rebel and armed groups, the National Security Service, as well as two unidentified state governors. A ceasefire was declared in South Sudan in June, 2018, followed by the signing of a peace deal, which resulted in a marked decrease in fighting. However, "hostilities have persisted," the reports says, adding that the peace deal also did not address South Sudan's disastrous humanitarian situation. "Due in large part to the conflict, 60 percent of the South Sudanese population is severely food insecure, and there remain 2.2 million refugees and 1.9 million internally displaced persons." Children make up the majority of South Sudan's displaced. They are often alone — separated from their parents and especially vulnerable to violence. Armed groups have recruited thousands of South Sudanese child soldiers, the reports says, while more children are still being abducted and forced to fight. Sometimes children are caught in the crossfire of ongoing military operations and sometimes they are targeted, the Commission finds. It recounts reports of remarkable brutality, including children being shot in the back as they try to run away, and in one case, a baby being swung against a tree. Sexual and gender-based violence is an ongoing tactic of warfare used "by all parties to sow terror," the report says. Sexual violence against children includes the rape of girls as young as seven. Boys and men also suffer, but their stories of sexual violence are under-reported, due to social stigma, the report finds. "There is no doubt that these crimes are persistent because impunity is so entrenched in South Sudan that every kind of norm is broken even raping and killing the young and the elderly," said Commission member Andrew Clapham at a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday. The Commission says it is continuing to collect evidence of human rights abuses and other crimes with an eye toward their being applied toward justice mechanisms. It says it has three case studies documenting war crimes, which it will pass along for potential prosecution. "We think that through accountability and reconciliation there's the possibility for the South Sudanese to deal with the past and secure their future stability and prosperity," Clapham said. Central to the conflict, the report finds, is South Sudan's near total economic reliance on oil. The "increased militarization and securitization of the oil industry by Government forces," who are working to protect their own economic interests in the oil sector, risk "turning South Sudan into a police state built on fear, rent-seeking and corruption," the report says. Further, oil revenues are being used to fund the fighting. And while the report focuses on last year, Clapham notes that intense fighting goes on in the state of Central Equatoria between government forces and a militant group. "A scorched earth policy" has led to torched homes, civilians being killed and women and girls raped. Thousands of civilians have been displaced in the latest burst of fighting. Copyright 2019 NPR

Rights groups have accused China of engaging in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Muslims [Thomas Peter/Reuters] Ethnic Uighurs have launched a global campaign to press China for video proof that their missing relatives are alive, turning the tables on Beijing's use of video to counter claims that a renowned Uighur had died in custody. The social media campaign was launched on Tuesday under the hashtag #MeTooUyghur after China released a video of a man who identified himself as Uighur poet and musician Abdurehim Heyit saying he was alive and well. The video was made public after Turkey claimed that Heyit had died in a Chinese prison in a statement in which Ankara condemned China for herding vast numbers of Muslim minority Uighurs into "re-education" camps in the country's remote northwestern Xinjiang region."Chinese authorities showed video as proof Mr Heyit is still alive. Now, we want to know, where are millions of Uyghurs?" said Halmurat Harri, an activist in Finland, who created the hashtag.He told the AFP news agency that his own parents had been previously detained, but were released last year. The hashtag prompted posts from around the world, with Uighurs holding pictures of missing mothers, fathers, sons, daughters or friends.A United Nations panel of experts says nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minorities are being held in extrajudicial detention in camps in Xinjiang, where most of China's more than 10 million Uighurs live.Beijing at first denied the allegation, but later said it has put people into "vocational education centres". Many overseas Uighurs have not been able to contact relatives and friends in China for years as phone calls and messaging platforms are under close Chinese surveillance, said Rushan Abbas, a US-based rights activist. She is demanding authorities release a video of her sister, a physician, who she says was "sent for vocational training".Chinese repressionXinjiang has long suffered from violent unrest, which China claims is orchestrated by an organised "terrorist" movement that seeks the region's independence. It has implemented a massive, hi-tech security crackdown in recent years.But many Uighurs and Xinjiang experts say the violent episodes stem largely from spontaneous outbursts of anger at allegations of Chinese cultural repression of Uighurs, and that Beijing plays up terrorism charges to justify tight control of the resource-rich region. Critics and family members say Uighurs in the camps are being brainwashed in a massive campaign to enforce conformity with Chinese society and encourage them to abandon Islam. SOURCE: AFP NEWS AGENCY © 2019 Al Jazeera Media Network

A soldier walks past women carrying their belongings near Benitu, northern South Sudan, February 11, 2017. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, a United Nations Human Rights Council investigative body, has uncovered more evidence of continuing serious violations in the country that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, despite the parties to South Sudan’s long-running conflict signing the revitalized peace agreements in October last year. The report, released today, documents horrific attacks on civilians, destruction of property and forced displacement, and shocking levels of rape and sexual violence against women and girls as young as seven. The report also details many cases of arbitrary detention by South Sudan’s draconian national security agency, torture and abuse of detainees, deaths in custody, and enforced disappearances, as in the case of human rights lawyer Dong Samuel, missing for two years. This is not the first time the commission has documented such grave crimes. In its previous report for the period between 2016-2017, the commission also found evidence of violations that could amount to crimes against humanity. The UN’s human rights officers on the ground and Human Rights Watch have also documented serious crimes taking place in South Sudan since war broke out there in December 2013. Despite mounting evidence, the South Sudanese government has taken no real steps towards accountability. Its leaders have made no progress on the long-promised African Union-South Sudanese hybrid court. Domestic justice efforts to date have been ad hoc and an inadequate response to pervasive sexual violence and other violations. In an environment of near-total impunity for even the worst crimes, the role of the commission to collect and preserve evidence, including information regarding individuals who may be responsible for them, is critical for any future justice efforts – whether at the hybrid court or elsewhere. There’s little reason to believe that the revitalized peace deal will end violence and abuses or bring about justice anytime soon – and it should certainly not be used as an excuse to tamper with the mandate of the commission. Instead, the UN Human Rights Council should double down on its commitment to accountability in South Sudan and ensure the commission continues its vital work for another term.

Egyptian police officers stand guard on June 29, 2015, at the site of a bombing in Cairo that killed Egypt’s top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, who oversaw cases against thousands of Islamists. (Eman Helal/AP) February 20 at 3:31 PM CAIRO — Egypt on Wednesday executed nine men convicted in the 2015 killing of the nation’s chief prosecutor, despite allegations by human rights activists that torture and false confessions were used in the trials. Executions have surged in Egypt since the beginning of the year, fueling more criticism of President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi’s authoritarian policies . Egypt says the men were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist religious, political and social movement. They were found guilty in the killing of Hisham Barakat, the most senior official assassinated in the country in more than two decades. The Brotherhood denied any role in the killing, as did the allied militant Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The nine were among a group of 28 convicted in the case in 2017. Six were sentenced to life in prison. Thirteen were convicted in absentia, including one whom Turkey deported to Egypt in January, human rights activists said. The 13 also face potential death sentences. “By carrying out the executions of these nine men today Egypt has demonstrated an absolute disregard for the right to life,” Najia Bounaim, North Africa campaigns director for the watchdog group Amnesty International, said in a statement Wednesday. “Those responsible for the attack that killed Egypt’s former public prosecutor deserve to be punished but executing men who were convicted in trials marred by torture allegations is not justice but a testament to the magnitude of injustice in the country.” The latest executions brought the total number to 15 this month. Three men were convicted of killing a police officer in 2013 and three in the murder of a judge’s son in 2014, human rights activists said. All the cases were tainted by claims of torture, Amnesty International said. Several of the nine men executed Wednesday were forcibly removed from their homes and tortured to extract confessions, the group alleged. Sissi led a military coup that ousted elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood stalwart, in 2013, two years after the Arab Spring revolt in the country removed longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Sissi, after his election in 2014, clamped down on Islamists and other critics, jailing tens of thousands. The government banned the Muslim Brotherhood and declared it a terrorist group. Hundreds of Brotherhood members have received death sentences. Although only a small percentage of the sentences have been carried out, the number of executions has steadily risen since 2015, human rights activists and defense lawyers said. “The international community must not stay silent over this surge in executions,”Bounaim said. “Egypt’s allies must take a clear stand by publicly condemning the authorities’ use of the death penalty, the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.” Copyright © The Washington Post February 2019

A user shows the Mapping Memories Cambodia app at its official launch at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, February 2, 2019. (Kann Vicheika/VOA Khmer) Feb 14, 2019 The Khmer Rouge regime held power between 1975 and 1979, during which time some 1.7 million Cambodians are estimated to have died as a result. PHNOM PENH — A new student-led mobile app launched this month aims to help young Cambodians learn about sites of importance during the Khmer Rouge regime. The app, Mapping Memories Cambodia, which was launched by the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s media and communication department, is the product of more than a year of investigations by students into the regime. Students interviewed survivors to map the locations and provide guides to the historical events that happened there. Users of the app will be able to submit their own stories to the project team, allowing for ongoing crowdsourcing of data on the Khmer Rouge period. The app sheds light on everyday life under Khmer Rouge rule that is often lost on the historical narrative, its creators say, and includes articles, short films, podcasts and photo galleries. Chan Muyhong, 28, MMC project leader, said: “We're afraid that the evidence and the important sites during the regime will get lost while the survivors are also aging. They're at least 40 years old now. If we don't put in the effort now, we will stand to lose a chance for the next generation to learn of the life experiences during the regime.” “The talk on history is mostly overshadowed by narratives of social and economic development. Thus, the project aims at encouraging the study of history. Once we understand the history, it will help us to think and be committed to building a peaceful society.” Him Sreynea, a civil society worker who attended the launch event on Sunday, said the app and website would make it easier for researchers to study the historical period in granular detail. “I see that they show short documentaries. I think this is good because it's a true story which our parents have gone through. So I think that it helps us get a clear picture of what they have gone through. For me, the video, documents and reports make it convenient for me to access.” She added that the interactive mapping of important sites would also engage users “Sometimes we think that we understand most of our history. But sometimes as I am not a researcher I don't know that the site near me is a historical site. The map makes it possible to know that.” The Khmer Rouge regime held power between 1975 and 1979, during which time some 1.7 million Cambodians are estimated to have died as a result. The Khmer Rouge tribunal, a joint Cambodian-international body established to try the leaders of the regime, has found Noun Chea, the former head of parliament, and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, guilty of genocide. Neth Phektra, Khmer Rouge tribunal spokesman, who took part in the event, said that the project was important for the study and understanding of the Khmer Rouge regime in order to prevent a repeat of history. “The app plays an important role in providing knowledge to the public. Thus, this is in part a contribution to preventing cruel criminal acts such as those committed under the Khmer Rouge regime from returning to Cambodia. Even though the app is just a small part it contributes to providing knowledge to the public.” Phektra added that the agency advocating for victims in the Khmer Rouge court may consider the project as part of the out-of-court compensation process to help mend the emotional wounds of survivors. From 2006 to 2017, the Khmer Rouge tribunal cost $296 million, which was provided by the Cambodian government and donors.