GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo - United Nations investigators have discovered five probable mass grave sites in eastern Congo’s Ituri province where an outbreak of ethnic violence has killed at least 263 people, a UN peacekeeping mission said. The report from the mission provides the most comprehensive portrait to date of the human cost of months of violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders since December that has caused one of Africa’s most serious refugee crises. Violence across eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has spiked since President Joseph Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016, eroding state authority and emboldening armed groups. The mostly Lendu-led attacks have forced more than 60,000 people to flee across Lake Albert into Uganda, and the UN refugee agency expects 200,000 refugees to reach Uganda this year. Tens of thousands of others have fled to other towns inside Congo. The investigators did not provide details about the suspected mass graves, but said that about 120 towns and villages were pillaged and destroyed between December and mid-March. According to Hema refugees Reuters interviewed last month in Uganda, Lendu groups typically attack Hema villages shortly after dusk with guns, machetes, axes and bows and arrows. The precise motives for the attacks are difficult to pin down but tensions between the two communities have long been stoked by disagreements over cattle grazing rights, crops, gold mining and political representation. Open warfare between the two communities from 1999-2007 is estimated to have killed some 50,000 people in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease. Aid agencies say the crisis is a “mega-disaster” and are trying to raise over $2 billion to respond but Congo’s government has accused them of exaggerating the situation and boycotted a recent donor conference. © 2018 Eyewitness News | Reuters

April 24, 2018—Israel has admitted in court on Tuesday that its plan to relocate African asylum seekers has fallen through and that currently there is no possibility to forcefully deport the Africans living in Israel. In a statement, the state said it would stop holding per-deportation hearings for the asylum seekers and that any previous decisions on the matter are now nullified. A group of human rights groups petitioned Israel's top court last month demanding that those who face deportation be allowed to see the agreements Israel allegedly signed with Rwanda or Uganda. Both African nations deny the existence of such deals. At the per-deportation hearings, the state tells asylum seekers that they must leave for “a safe third country under the agreements Israel has with both countries,” even though the agreement with Rwanda collapsed months ago and efforts to negotiate a revised agreement with Uganda have failed. Israel said on Tuesday that those who received a deportation date would have their status renewed every sixty days, as was the case before the attempt to deport them. "Israel will continue to act on the issue of the infiltrators" – the term Israel uses to describe asylum seekers – "including attempts to encourage them to leave on their own accord or relocating them involuntarily, in accordance with the law. Israel's immigration officials will continue to refer to infiltrators to the 'voluntary departure' office allowing them to move to a third country, but without conditioning the renewal of their legal status of their willingness to leave to a third country," they said. Eighteen Jewish members of Congress sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, urging him to reconsider the deal his government reached but then canceled with the United Nations on the deportation of African asylum seekers. The members, all Democrats, said they were "heartened" by the signing of the agreement and "disappointed" by Netanyahu's swift decision to retract it on April 3 following strong right-wing pressure in Israel. The UN deal stated that Israel would be able to send as many as 16,500 asylum seekers to Western countries, while allowing a similar number to remain in Israel until a better solution arrives. Israel negotiated the agreement following the collapse of a prior agreement it reportedly had with Rwanda to deport thousands of asylum seekers to that country. After canceling the UN deal, Netanyahu has signaled that he is once again examining ways of forcibly deporting asylum seekers to an unspecified "third country" in Africa – most likely Uganda. © 2018 | Haaretz

April 24, 2018-Representatives of the Government of Sudan, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) met in Berlin on 16/17 April 2018 to discuss a pre-negotiations agreement that would serve as a basis for the resumption of peace talks for the Darfur as part of the broader Sudan peace process. The event was hosted by the German Berghof Foundation. The AU/UN Joint Mediator and Joint Special Representative for Darfur, Germany and the United States served as facilitators. Norway and the United Kingdom were present as observers. The parties engaged and made a serious effort towards a compromise. However, while the parties made progress, they did not reach an agreement in their second Berlin meeting. The facilitators will consider options for further progress together with the parties, partners and interested international actors. We call on the parties to continue to adhere to their pledges to cease hostilities and to remain engaged with the Joint Chief Mediator in order to find a solution to the outstanding issues and enter into formal talks. © 2018 | Reliefweb

When he takes up his new position, Felix Klein wants to establish a national database of anti-Jewish incidents. He's also calling for harsher punishment of crimes with an anti-Semitic component and better prevention. Five days before he officially takes up his post as Germany's first-ever anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Stein is already on the job. Speaking to foreign journalists in Berlin on Friday in the wake of a highly publicized attack on an Israeli, the career diplomat is already calling for Germany to centralize the information it collects about anti-Semitic acts. Thus far the government has had to rely on questionable police statistics. Klein says additional data will change Germany's understanding of the phenomenon. "Police statistics say that more than 90 percent of anti-Semitic crimes come from extreme right-wing circles," Klein said. "But those affected, Jews who live here in Germany, tell a completely different story. They feel that Muslim anti-Semitism is much more dangerous than it appears to be in the statistics. I want to get to the bottom of this contradiction." Anti-Semitism has dominated the headlines in Germany in recent days. Just this week nearly 3,000 Berliners wore the traditional Jewish skull cap, the kippa, to show solidarity against anti-Jewish hostility. Germany's leading music award, known as ECHO, was abolished after a prize went to a rap group that uses anti-Semitic lyrics. "That showed that public pressure really can achieve things in this country," said Klein. "That gives me hope that we can do something about anti-Semitism." Extremists approaching refugees Klein envisions a system in which data will flow from local Jewish groups to police in Germany's 16 federal states and then to his office. That will take some organization, but the commissioner aims to achieve his first results straight away. "I hope we can get the system up and running this year," Klein told journalists. "Next year, maybe we can have another chat, and you can judge me on whether it worked." Once the data is available, Klein says, his office will work toward designing "tailor-made" solutions to combating various forms of anti-Semitism, including hostility towards Jews present among some Muslim migrants and young people in urban schools. Such strategies, he says, will focus above all on education. But he's also calling for punishments to be increased for crimes, if they are motivated by anti-Semitism, and recognizes the need for state authorities to keep tabs on what's going on in Germany's refugee communities. "I think that intelligence-service methods are necessary in fighting anti-Semitism," Klein said. "We've observed that Salafist and Islamist extremists seek to approach refugees in Germany and try to incite anti-Semitism and hatred. It's clearly the job of the intelligence services to take action against this. A video of an Arabic-speaking man in Berlin attacking two Israelis with a belt caused outrage Frank language is important The potential susceptibility of a small minority of Muslims in Germany to anti-Semitism is a very sensitive issue that needs to be handled diplomatically. Having grown up in part in Italy and worked in various South American and European countries after receiving his training from the Foreign Ministry, Klein is well-suited to this part of the job. At the same time, Klein is a specialist. He has been the ministry's expert on Jewish affairs since 2014, and the Central Council of Jews in Germany specifically requested that he be made commissioner. While many in Germany feel uncomfortable talking about "imported anti-Semitism" among migrants, Klein stresses the need to name the problem. "It's a special form of imported anti-Semitism, to use a term that's been established in the press," Klein says. "If it helps us categorize things and clarify what we're talking about, that's not a bad thing." The far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has increasingly begun to thematize anti-Semitism among migrants as a way of attacking Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance towards the large number of refugees who arrived in Germany in 2015 and 2016. Klein, who has no political affiliation, says he wants to keep his office above party squabbling and says the AfD is welcome to participate in the debate about how to combat anti-Semitism. But he rejects the AfD's "instrumentalization" of the issue to support anti-immigrant posturing and points out that the Central Council has explicitly distanced itself from the populists. Jewish groups say that anti-Semitic attacks among Muslims are on the rise How much clout? Klein officially starts work next Wednesday after the May 1 public holiday in Germany. But the scope of his office and the resources at his disposal have yet to be set in stone. The commissioner will join Germany's newly expanded Interior and Homeland Ministry, but it is unclear what sort of a budget and staff will be at his disposal. In response to an inquiry by Left Party Member of Parliament Petra Pau, the government said that no decisions had been taken as to how much money Klein would be given or how many civil servants would be assigned to work under him. The Left Party estimates that Klein will need around 50 people and a budget of 3.5 million euros ($4.2 million) to be effective. The government has indicated that Klein will be allowed to draw on Interior Ministry resources, but the ministry is itself waiting for the government to agree on its 2018 federal budget and is, to a certain degree, in limbo. Budget negotiations are set to begin next week and could stretch on until the Bundestag takes its summer break in early July. Only when the money matters are decided will Klein have a better idea of whether he can achieve his ambitious goals. (c) 2018 Deutsche Welle http://www.dw.com/en/how-germanys-anti-semitism-commissioner-plans-to-fight-hatred/a-43564536

The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon is growing deadlier. The Catholic Church could mediate between Anglophone militants and the state, but clergy have espoused clashing views on key issues. The Church should heal its divides so as to be a neutral arbiter that can broker peace. What’s new? Fighting is spreading between security forces and militants from Cameroon’s English-speaking minority. The government largely rejects Anglophone grievances, while armed militants appear inclined to continue fighting. The Catholic Church, representing nearly a third of Cameroonians, could be an arbitrator, but its clergy have taken divergent positions on the crisis. Why does it matter? Other than the Catholic clergy, there are few prospective peacemakers. If no one fills that role, the separatist sentiment already voiced by many Anglophones will continue to grow, fuelling further violence and exacerbating the ongoing insurgency in the Anglophone regions, with elections in late 2018 a flashpoint. What should be done? The Church should bridge its divides and state its impartiality on the thorniest question facing Anglophone regions – federalism versus decentralisation. A clergy able to project a position of neutrality could work with other trusted actors to mediate between Anglophone leaders and the state, and stem a dangerous and growing crisis. I. Overview Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis, which began in October 2016, has morphed into conflict between security forces and increasingly well-armed separatists fighting in the name of the country’s marginalised English-speaking minority. The separatist impulse among Anglophones is growing as President Paul Biya’s government shrugs off the community’s historical grievances. Violence has spread: more than 100 civilians and at least 43 members of the security forces have reportedly died in the last seven months, as have an unknown number of armed militants. Some evidence suggests that separatists control territory; 34,000 refugees are sheltering in precarious conditions in Nigeria and about 40,000 persons are displaced in the Southwest Anglophone region. Many militants apparently believe they are better served by fighting in order to negotiate with Biya’s government from a position of strength. The African Union and Western powers have called for dialogue. The government agrees on the need for talks, but refuses Anglophone activists’ calls for outside mediation and opposes any discussion of federalism. It has jailed Anglophone leaders with whom it was formerly talking. The Catholic Church could help break this dangerous stalemate. Present in all ten of Cameroon’s regions, the Church is one of the country’s strongest institutions. Almost a third of Cameroonians are Catholic, and the Church operates a dense network of schools and hospitals. Cameroonians take its views seriously. At present, however, its public divisions, particularly between Anglophone and Francophone clergy, stand in the way of it playing a constructive role. It is not too late for the Church to bridge these divides. Anglophone and Francophone bishops should come together in a public statement to affirm their neutrality on the issue most contentious in the crisis – that of federalism versus decentralisation – and state their willingness to mediate. The Church also should renew its calls for an end to violence and for Anglophone leaders and the government to enter negotiations. Given that, for now, direct talks between the two sides appear unlikely, the Church, if it is able to project neutrality and win trust on both sides, might play a behind-the-scenes role to allow for indirect communication between them. It could usefully push for prisoner release and some form of amnesty for Anglophone leaders who have fled the country, both likely prerequisites for talks. It could continue working together with other religious institutions, such as the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, which in January 2017 stated its readiness to mediate, and the Cameroon Baptist Convention, as well as credible civil society associations and traditional rulers. As violence appears set to escalate, particularly ahead of Cameroon’s 2018 presidential election, potential mediators and peacemakers are few. The Church should overcome its divisions, position itself as a neutral arbiter and help resolve an increasingly deadly and worrisome crisis. II. A History of Political Engagement and Divisions Cameroon’s Catholic clergy have often been divided at times of political turmoil. The best-known case dates to the 1970s, involving a split over the fate of Archbishop Albert Ndongmo, whom the government claimed supported the insurgent Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (Union des peuples du Cameroon, UPC). The government at the time, headed by President Ahmadou Ahidjo, asked Ndongmo to negotiate with the insurgents, but then arrested him for collaborating with them, and in 1970 condemned him to death (a sentence later commuted to life in prison). Although priests drafted a memorandum denouncing Ndongmo’s incarceration, Jean Zoa, the archbishop of the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé, who was close to the regime, refused to sign it. When Ahidjo pardoned Ndongmo in 1975, Zoa’s archdiocese declined to join the rest of the Church in celebrating his release. Conflicts within the Catholic Church often have an ethnic dimension, pitting priests from the influential Bamiléké community against those hailing from other groups. Rivalries over postings and promotions are common. In 1987, a group of mainly ethnic Bassa priests in the Douala archdiocese wrote a memorandum to the Vatican criticising the appointment of Bamiléké bishops to dioceses outside their region of origin. Among the appointments drawing their ire was that of Christian Tumi, who comes from the Northwest region and is a member of the “grasslands” ethnic groups to which the Bamiléké are related, to the position of archbishop of Garoua, in Cameroon’s North region. The memorandum described Tumi, in barely disguised pejorative terms, as “Anglophone Bamiléké”. A few years later, the Catholic Church was divided once more as Cameroon began a turbulent transition to multiparty politics, replete with crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters. In 1990, the Cameroon Peoples’ Democratic Movement (which had been ruling since 1960, albeit under a different name) organised nationwide rallies against what it termed the “precipitous” introduction of multiparty politics. In Yaoundé, the rallies ended on 30 March with a mass held in the cathedral led by Archbishop Zoa. Tumi, by then a cardinal and figurehead of the democracy movement, objected to what he considered an authoritarian manoeuvre. The Church has established itself as a leading actor in Cameroon’s politics, but [internal] divisions continue to undermine its potential to play a positive role. On 26 May 1990 oppositionists launched a new party in Bamenda named the Social Democratic Front. After police killed six of its supporters that same day, the Anglophone archbishop of Bamenda, Paul Verdzekov, organised a memorial service in his cathedral. In response, Archbishop Zoa convened a counter-mass in the Yaoundé cathedral to, as he put it, “cleanse the image of the Catholic Church from the unholy service” in Bamenda. The Catholic Church, or individual clergy, have continued to express political views since the 1990s, notably concerning the conduct of elections. And differences have persisted between conservative clergy close to the authorities in Yaoundé and those more willing to speak out. The Church has established itself as a leading actor in Cameroon’s politics, but such divisions continue to undermine its potential to play a positive role. The Anglophone crisis is no exception. III. The Church in the Anglophone Crisis In addition to ethnic divides, the Church suffers from fissures between Anglophones and Francophones. There are five ecclesiastic provinces in the country, all under the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC). Four of them are French-speaking, while the ecclesiastic provinces of Bamenda administers the predominantly English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions, under the aegis of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference (BAPEC). Not surprisingly, the six bishops of the Anglophone regions express more concern about the crisis than do those in Francophone areas, reflecting anger among the Anglophone flock at the central government’s actions and the sympathy of the clergy in Anglophone regions for Anglophone grievances. Two issues related to the crisis are particularly divisive among the clergy. The first concerns the structure of the state, namely whether to advocate for decentralisation, federalism or even independence for a new Anglophone state. The national ecclesiastical hierarchy supports decentralisation within a unified state. Touring the affected regions in May 2017, Archbishop Samuel Kleda, president of the NECC, asserted that the conference had asked the government to implement decentralisation, as stipulated by the 1996 constitutional law. Some Anglophone priests have gone so far as to call for the creation of a new state. In contrast, some Anglophone priests have gone so far as to call for the creation of a new state. In April 2017, for instance, Father Wilfred Emeh of the Kumba diocese called for the restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroons (he proposed federalism as a step toward achieving independence). The next month, Father Gerald Jumbam of the Kumbo diocese wrote an open letter to Archbishop Kleda supporting full independence for the Anglophone areas and calling federalists “cowards standing on the fence”. He was joined later in May by Father David Fomanka, former Catholic education secretary of Mamfe diocese, who advocated for independence in an open letter to “Southern Cameroonians”. These three priests all now live abroad. Their stance undoubtedly reflects the frustrations of a section of the Anglophone population. But the vast majority of Anglophone Cameroon’s 350 priests are more cautious, saying little in public and privately supporting either federalism or effective decentralisation – not independence. Furthermore, most respect the Church’s hierarchy and the principle that the voice of the Church should be heard through the bishops. The second division is over whether to support a school boycott declared in January 2017 by Anglophone militants, along with a general strike (they vowed to turn cities into “ghost towns”). The boycott continued throughout 2017 but, in 2018, classes have resumed at many schools, especially in cities. Fomanka, Emeh and Jumbam support the boycott, while Bishop George Nkuo, president of the BAPEC and effective head or spokesperson of the Anglophone part of the Church, disagrees, arguing that children’s education must be respected as a primordial mission of the Church. In this he agrees with the national Church. Still, some disagreements remain at the level of the bishops. In May 2017, Archbishop Kleda pressured Anglophone bishops to ensure that classes resume immediately. Bishop Immanuel Bushu of Buea had a different opinion. Without supporting the boycott, he did say that it expressed the wish of parents and that progress toward resolving the crisis, and thus reopening schools, could better be made if the government released detainees. The position of leading figures within the Church against the boycott has provoked the anger of Anglophone militants and prompted them to threaten clergy. They also have set fire to schools not taking part in the boycott. Militants burned down two Catholic primary schools in Tobin and Kumbo on 5 August 2017 and badly damaged the Sacred Heart Catholic College in Bamenda on 18 September. Despite the polarisation, Anglophone and Francophone bishops share some views, and important Church figures are trying to find middle ground. For the most part, Francophone bishops have remained silent about the crisis, allowing Archbishop Kleda to speak on behalf of the national Church. Nor did they speak out when a government-fabricated consortium of parents filed a series of lawsuits against Anglophone clergymen, accusing them of aiding the school boycott. In April 2017, the Bamenda Court of First Instance summoned several Anglophone bishops, as well as the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon and the executive president of the Cameroon Baptist Convention, in connection with this case, with state prosecutors adding their own charges of endangering national unity, accusing the bishops of making statements that had paralysed the schools. A court in Buea summoned bishops from the Southwest shortly thereafter. Charges have since been dropped, but the government has proved itself willing to put clergy on trial for political reasons. As in the past, the Church is caught between the Yaoundé government and its opponents on the ground. The top-down pressure came even from the papal nuncio (recently replaced), who pushed Anglophone bishops to reopen schools, but expressed no concern about either the schools’ safety from arson or the politically motivated prosecution of bishops. In Yaoundé diplomatic circles, the pope’s emissary was seen as having taken the government’s side in the crisis. Despite the polarisation, Anglophone and Francophone bishops share some views, and important Church figures are trying to find middle ground. For example, despite differences in tone, both Anglophone and Francophone bishops condemned the heavy military crackdown on civilians between September and October 2017. This precedent indicates that greater coherence, and a more constructive role for the Church, are possible. IV. The Church’s Potential as Mediator In order to play a more effective role and help stem an insurrection and counter the risk of civil war in Anglophone Cameroon, the Catholic Church must overcome its internal divisions or at least find enough common ground to project a position of neutrality. Several commentators have called upon the Church to mediate between the warring sides, as it has done in neighbouring countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. If it is to play that role, the Church should avoid taking firm positions on the main issues that divide the protagonists. To this end, bishops, Anglophone and Francophone, could usefully come together and issue a public statement, declaring that they remain neutral on the main issues of concern, especially federalism versus decentralisation, underlining that Anglophone feelings of marginalisation have some justification, denouncing human rights abuses and calling for restraint by all sides. They could then state their interest in mediating the crisis. The details of such mediation would have to be worked out away from the public glare. Such an approach would potentially boost public trust (especially in Anglophone areas) in the church, while helping to remove the spotlight from the more radical and polarising positions taken by some priests. Ultimately, direct talks between the main protagonists are the most promising way to avoid escalation. But the current violence and polarisation suggest that their prospects, even with mediators involved, are slim at present. Instead, the most logical step for the Church, if it is able to position itself as a trusted arbiter, would be to talk separately to both sides to understand their differences in opinion and their red lines. According to Crisis Group sources, such parallel consultations may already be happening, albeit in a dispersed way. They should be strengthened through better coordination between bishops, so that those involved can speak for the Church as a whole, and potentially developed into shuttle diplomacy, with the goal of increasing understanding and reducing the distance between the sides in preparation for direct talks. To do so, the Church could usefully team up with other denominations, especially the influential Presbyterian Church, which has indicated its willingness to play a role and which already collaborates well with the Catholic Church. It could also involve the Cameroon Baptist Convention, as well as credible civil society associations and traditional rulers. Even ahead of direct talks, the Church likely will have to address the exile of Anglophone activists. Many want to return home but are understandably frightened by the government’s continued imprisonment of Anglophone militants. It could push for some form of amnesty, prisoner releases and guarantees for returnees, perhaps in exchange for a ceasefire from the Anglophone armed militias. Without talks and the devolution of power in some form to Anglophone and other regions, separatist sentiment is very likely to continue growing. The precise agenda of eventual talks between Anglophone leaders and the government cannot be determined in advance. But even preliminary discussions need to take account of the Anglophones’ deep feelings of alienation. The government cannot continue to dismiss this sentiment and should be open to discussions of federalism, even if that is not the only option for addressing Anglophone concerns (decentralisation that devolves real authority to regions likely would go a long way in that direction). The issue of separatism is trickier. A growing number of militants, tired of what they see as Yaoundé’s bad faith, are attracted to this option (which they tend to term “restoration of statehood”). But it remains a red line for Yaoundé, and supporting secession remains a treasonable offense. At the same time, separatist movements have established themselves on the ground and cannot simply be ignored. Whether the government’s engagement in genuine dialogue with Anglophone leaders and either meaningful decentralisation or federalism would suck the oxygen from those movements remains uncertain. But without talks and the devolution of power in some form to Anglophone and other regions, separatist sentiment is very likely to continue growing and the conflict to escalate further with a risk of mutating into civil war. V. Conclusion Cameroon faces critical risks going into this electoral year. Boko Haram remains active in the Far North, instability prevails along the eastern border with the Central African Republic and popular discontent continues to roil large cities. But the insurgency in Anglophone areas, and the clumsy government response, is now the main threat to the country’s stability. A negotiated solution is vital. The Catholic Church, if it can resolve or keep under wraps its internal divisions and project neutrality, would be well placed to help bring it about. International actors should support Church initiatives and encourage greater unity among the clergy. But the onus is also on the Church itself to display greater coherence. (c) 2018 International Crisis Group https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/b138-cameroons-anglophone-crisis-how-catholic-church-can-promote-dialogue?utm_source=Sign+Up+to+Crisis+Group%27s+Email+Updates&utm_campaign=9decaa1889-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_04_25&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1dab8c11ea-9decaa1889-359909993

Artists like Juliana Fervo have painted murals of Marielle Franco across Rio de Janeiro. (Photo: Kiratiana Freelon) They walked 2.5 miles to the site of her assassination, all the while dancing, chanting and crying. On that hot and muggy night on April 14 in Rio de Janeiro, more than 3,000 people gathered at the center of Rio to demand police action in the murder of Afro-Brazilian politician Marielle Franco and to mark the one-month anniversary of her death. Franco, known for her initiatives to help favela dwellers, blacks and the poor, was assassinated March 14. Armed men gunned the councilwoman down in her car in the center of the city with nine shots—four to the head. Her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, also died. Soon after her death, police matched the bullets that killed her to a lot that was sold to the federal police more than a decade ago, leading people to believe even more that her death was caused by someone connected to the police. Local police have yet to arrest anyone. As news of her assassination spread across the world, celebrities and activists like Ava DuVernay, Angela Davis and Janelle Monáe signed a letter demanding action from the Brazilian government. Black activists shut down a major highway in Sao Paulo, denouncing what they describe as state-sponsored violence against black people. Artists in Rio de Janeiro and across the world are creating artwork inspired by Franco. Marielle Franco’s name now even graces a street and a library in Rio de Janeiro. That peaceful April protest reached a tense high point when protesters passed police headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. The police stood silently as the crowd projected their pent-up anger toward them and the building in a nonviolent way. The chants grew larger and people danced harder. One woman, a follower of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé religion, handed the police officer a white flower. Followers of the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé participated in the protest. (Photo: Kiratiana Freelon) “O guerra não acabou, tem quem acabar, eu quero o fim da Polícia Militar,” they chanted. “‘The war hasn’t ended, it needs to end. I want the end of the military police.’” The war they were referring to is the war that happens in poor neighborhoods across the country when police enter these communities and kill residents with impunity in pursuit of drug traffickers. Franco spent much of her short political career fighting and denouncing this war and the mounting deaths of black and poor people it often causes. Many Afro-Brazilians refer to this endless killing of blacks as the “o genocído do povo negro,” or the “genocide of black people.” “Marielle’s principal action was defending the human rights of people in the favela,” said Jurema Werneck, executive director of Amnesty International Brazil. “Brazil is the country with the highest homicide rate in the world. This murder rate at this size, which is mainly young black and poor youth, this speaks of a lack of will by the state to protect these young people.” A genocide happens when there is the deliberate, daily and systematic killing of a specific group of people by the state—in this case, Afro-Brazilians. Afro-Brazilians only need to point to the statistics to prove it. Afro-Brazilians make up just over 50 percent of Brazil’s population. According to the Atlas of Violence, more than 59,000 people were killed in Brazil in 2015. Of every 100 people murdered in Brazil, 71 are black. Black people have a 23 percent greater chance of being victims of homicide than people of other races. Of the total number of murders, more than 30,000 are young people between the ages of 15 and 29, and 72 percent are black. A black person is assassinated every 23 minutes. At most, only 10 percent of these murders are investigated, so there is a culture of impunity that allows this genocide to persist. The death rates were so alarming that Amnesty International created a campaign in 2014 called Joven Negro Vivo (“Young Black Alive”) to mobilize civil society to bring about the end of the extermination of black people. It is unclear how many of these murders were committed by police nationwide because high-quality data does not exist or is underreported. The state of Rio de Janeiro has one of the deadliest police forces in Brazil—last year the police force was responsible for more than 1,000 killings. Policemen also suffer from a high mortality rate. Last year, 134 policemen were killed, most of them black. Afro-Brazilians in the black movement also point to the history of Brazil, a country built on genocide, they say. “The Brazilian state is the product of genocide,” said Negro Belchoir, a columnist with CartaCapital magazine. “There were almost 400 years of slavery, and the genocide of this population originated with the indigenous people and the genocide of the African population and their descendants. The result of this is a state that kills blacks and then creates conditions that allows people to kill blacks. “The police and justice system was designed to imprison and kill blacks,” Belchoir contniues. “Genocide also happens when, through its institutions, the state supports historical racism and stigmas that make black people the target of general violence. Then, on top of this, there is the denial of basic human rights to black people. When the government implements policies that takes away the rights of workers, and reduces money in social initiatives that help reduce racial inequality, it is also murdering black people.” Amnesty International wasn’t the first organization to bring attention to this modern form of genocide. Reajá ou Será Morto (“React or Be Dead”) is an organization based in Salvador that has been working to bring attention to the issue since at least 2005. The group, led by Hamilton Borges and based in Salvador, has been leading a campaign against the genocide of Afro-Brazilians for the last 13 years. Since 2013, it has sponsored a protest march every August against the genocide of black people. In 2015, Reajá even brought a formal complaint against the military police to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States. The first person to publicly acknowledge this genocide was Abdias do Nascimento, considered Brazil’s foremost black thought leader. Nascimento, an actor, artist and professor of black studies, published the book The Genocide of the Black Brazilian: Process of a Masked Racism in 1977. In the book, Nascimento described how Brazil, over the course of 100 years, has attempted to erase the black population by suppressing their numbers in the census, encouraging miscegenation and limiting social assistance to poor, favela neighborhoods. The memorial site of Marielle Franco’s murder reads, “Black Lives Matter.” (Photo: Kiratiana Freelon) “The political, economic, social and cultural repression experienced by black peoples of Brazil is deplorable,” Nascimento wrote. “Its ultimate objective is the obliteration of the Black as a cultural, physical or ethnic entity. ... To be silent would be to give tacit approval to the exploitation and destruction of one race by another through systematic oppression and racial ignorance. It would condone genocide: a criminal act which perpetuates an unjust society totally iniquitous to Blacks and native Indians in Brazil.” Marielle Franco was never silent on black genocide. One of the laws she proposed as a councilwoman was to acknowledge June 20 as the day of the fight against the incarceration of black youths. Unfortunately, Franco’s death didn’t slow down the genocide against black people that she fought relentlessly against. In the month since Franco’s assassination, there have been at least three massacres in Rio de Janeiro that have killed more than 15 young men, a majority of them black. Two days after Franco’s murder, a 2-year-old child, Benjamin, was shot in the head during a shootout between police and drug dealers. One week later, eight young men were killed by police in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela. One-and-a-half weeks later, five young men, known for their involvement in hip-hop, were shot in the head outside an apartment complex. Militia members, typically off-duty police officers who extort communities for protection, are suspected of killing the teens. (c) 2018 The Root https://www.theroot.com/genocide-of-black-people-the-killing-of-afro-brazili-1825500610

A Rwandan worker cleans a mass grave outside the church in Nyanza April 4, 2004. As Rwandans prepare to go to the polls on August 9, though, rights groups say political repression is on the rise. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and some western diplomats believe Rwandan President Paul Kagame's strong-handed leadership style and refusal to permit the birth of a critical opposition now threaten the very stability and growth he has nurtured. Picture taken April 4, 2004. To match Special Report RWANDA/ REUTERS/Radu Sigheti/Files (RWANDA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - GM1E6851EAP01 Radu Sigheti—Reuters (KIGALI, Rwanda) — Mass graves that authorities say could contain more than 2,000 bodies have been discovered in Rwanda nearly a quarter-century after the country’s genocide, and further graves are being sought nearby. The new discovery is being called the most significant in a long time in this East African nation that is still recovering from the 1994 killings of more than 800,000 people. Some Rwandans are shocked and dismayed that residents of the community outside the capital, Kigali, where the mass graves were found kept quiet about them for so many years. “Those who participated in the killing of our relatives don’t want to tell us where they buried them. How can you reconcile with such people?” asked a tearful France Mukanagazwa. She told The Associated Press she lost her father and other relatives in the genocide and believes their bodies are in the newly found graves. The discovery of the graves in Gasabo district came just days after Rwanda marked 24 years since the mass killings of ethnic Tutsi and moderate ethnic Hutus. “It is very disturbing that every now and then mass graves are discovered of which the now-free perpetrators never bothered to reveal to bereaved families so that they can get closure,” the daily newspaper The New Times said in an editorial this week. “Definitely some very cruel people still live in our midst,” it added. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people are thought to be buried in the graves based on the number of area residents who went missing during the genocide, Rashid Rwigamba, an official with the genocide charity Ibuka, told AP. The information leading to the discovery came from a local landlord who at first refused to answer questions about the suspected mass graves until threatened with arrest, Rwigamba said. Houses and toilets that had been built on top of the graves have been destroyed to make way for the search. “The exercise is ongoing and we have identified another house we suspect was built on a piece of land where victims were buried,” Rwigamba said. Bodies found so far include those of babies, based on the clothing that has been found, he said. At least 207 bodies have been exhumed from one of the graves and 156 have been exhumed from another, said Theogen Kabagambire, an Ibuka official from Gasabo district. It was not immediately clear what would be done with the bodies or the graves. During the genocide, a roadblock manned by Hutu militias was established meters away from the sites of the mass graves, survivors told the AP. Authorities have launched investigations and those found to have participated in the killings will be prosecuted, Kabagambire said. (c) 2018 Time http://time.com/5255876/rwandan-genocide-mass-graves-discovery/

File photo showing Houthi militia fighters attending a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, April 26, 2018. (AFP) LONDON: The UN special envoy to Yemen has returned to the country armed with a new political settlement to end the ongoing war. Sources were quoted by Al Sharq Al-Awsat that Martin Griffith the UN special envoy to Yemen hopes to float a new-old blueprint to end the war by getting the parties to agree to a political settlement based on a transitional period to be followed by elections if both parties to the conflict agree to his plan. Griffith hopes to start political talks without addressing the armed groups and their weapons, in the hope of addressing this sensitive issue later. The proposed talks center around a negotiation process between a legitimate government and the proponent of the coup carried out by the Houthi militia backed by Iran in September 2015. Yemen’s foreign minister Andel Malek Al-Mekhlafi said that his government is willing to work with the Houthis in a unity government in a transitional phase, as long as weapons are decommissioned; “so that we don’t legitimize the coup and its gains,” Al-Mekhlafi said. While Yemen awaits practical steps to apply the UN special envoy’s vision, many experts in Yemen question the Houthi militia’s intent and commitment to any political settlement, with many believing that they will wait for orders from the Iranian government. (c) 2018 Arab News http://www.arabnews.com/node/1292091/middle-east

Children looking at Statue of Liberty, June 4, 1939; on view at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) 4/22/2018 - Standing outside the entrance to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s exhibition “Americans and the Holocaust,” which opens April 23, co-curators Rebecca Erbelding and Daniel Greene disagreed on how to grade Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s efforts to save Jewish refugees during World War II. Erbelding, an archivist at the museum, gave FDR a B-minus, while Greene, who teaches at Northwestern University, was stingier with a C-plus. Both agreed that visitors to the museum in the past would have marked the former president considerably lower. “We are not trying to apologize for FDR in any way or to put a finger on the scale,” Greene says on a walk-through of the exhibition, which contains artifacts, documents, video footage and a deluge of digital documents and facsimiles. Erbelding, author of the new book “Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe,” allows that her scholarship on the War Refugee Board, which FDR created to circumvent State Department logjams, might predispose her to look more favorably upon Roosevelt than her colleague. But both agree that it is time for an exhibition that puts the Holocaust in the context of the war and of U.S. public opinion at the time. “Here FDR is a main character,” Greene says. The former president, who served from 1933 until his death on April 12, 1945, has long had a checkered legacy when it came to helping Jews fleeing Nazi oppression. Many know of the German ocean liner St. Louis, whose approximately 900 Jewish refugees the United States refused to admit in 1939. The following year, Roosevelt suggested in a news conference that Jewish refugees could be Nazi spies, and when the United States entered the war, FDR’s government prioritized military victory over saving Jewish lives. Exhibit labels and posted poll questions, which viewers can flip to reveal results, center on what Americans knew about the Holocaust when, and the degree to which the public welcomed refugees. In November 1936, for example, 67 percent of respondents to one poll thought there would be another serious Depression. Three years later, 66 percent of the public said they wouldn’t support the Wagner-Rogers Bill, which proposed allowing 10,000 refugee children from Germany to come live that year with U.S. families. One of the most powerful artifacts is a set of telegrams that FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt exchanged in 1941, which comes from the FDR Presidential Library and Museum. When the latter asks whether she ought to speak out about the bill, FDR responded that she could, but “it is best for me to say nothing.” Greene hopes visitors will emerge with an understanding that even the U.S. president faces constraints, and weighing public opinion, FDR decided not to expend political capital to rescue Jews. This posthumous makeover for FDR at the museum comes amid a new and contentious wave of scholarship, which promises to change the way people think about the former president’s legacy. In addition to the museum’s three-year exhibition and Erbelding’s book, Barry Trachtenberg of Wake Forest University recently wrote “The United States and the Nazi Holocaust: Race, Refuge, and Remembrance.” “There is clearly a generational shift in the thinking of the U.S. and the Holocaust,” he says. “In spite of occasional articles challenging it, there hasn’t been a systematic and non-polemical reassessment of this relationship until now.” U.S. officials process alien registration documents, June-November, 1940. After Germany invaded and annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939, hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Jews, applied to immigrate to the United States. (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services History Office & Library) Erbelding’s book centers on a group that surfaces toward the end of the exhibit as well, the War Refugee Board, which FDR created by executive order in January 1944. The board, staffed largely by Treasury Department employees, was formed to circumvent State Department staffers, some with reputations as anti-Semites, who opposed efforts to save Jewish refugees. It is credited with saving up to 200,000 Jews, creating a refugee camp in New York, negotiating ransoms with Nazis and even laundering money past a friendly government to move humanitarian aid. “They do extraordinary things,” Erbelding says. “They worked incredibly hard. They followed up on everything that was suggested to them, and they really went to the mat on a lot of things with other government agencies.” It was, she adds in the book, the only time in U.S. history that the government created an agency to save an enemy’s victims. “There has been a tendency to focus our attention and ire on the U.S.’s lack of coherent response to the Holocaust, mainly on FDR and on the State Department,” Erbelding says. “FDR and the State Department are not the entirety of the government. There hasn’t been as much attention paid to what Americans by and large were thinking and feeling about this.” Jewish refugee children wait to board SS Mouzinho in Lisbon, Aug. 20, 1941. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) In addition to the poll showing that two-thirds of Americans wouldn’t accept 10,000 refugee children, Erbelding notes a later poll in which 83 percent of respondents wouldn’t support their members of Congress proposing any increase in immigration. “So it’s 67 percent against the children, but 83 percent against everybody,” she says. Erbelding hopes that visitors will learn from the exhibit how complicated things were during the Holocaust, in a country that had recently emerged from the Great Depression and was grappling with nuanced and difficult national security and economic concerns, as the nation does today. Rather than throwing their hands up and saying the challenges are too great, the public and lawmakers should realize how difficult things were during the Holocaust — and yet a few individuals managed to make a big difference, she says. “There’s a space for all of us to look at the history and figure out what our part is in it, because every day is a day in history. It will be when we look back on it. Do we feel like we are doing the right thing?” she says. “If this exhibit sparks civic engagement, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.” But not everyone who studies FDR agrees with this telling. “The very few scholars who have argued that FDR did the best he could have made their case not on the basis of new documents that they uncovered, but by trying to put a positive spin on the sad story that previous historians have documented,” says Rafael Medoff, founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. (Wyman, a historian of the Holocaust, died last month.) Crediting FDR for the successes of the War Refugee Board is a mistake, according to Medoff. “The Roosevelt administration fights tooth and nail against the proposal to create the board,” he says. “One might say FDR was against it before he was for it. He established it only because of strong political pressure, on the eve of an election year, from the Jewish community, Congress and his own Treasury Department.” FDR afforded the WRB only “token funding,” Medoff adds. David Woolner, a senior fellow and resident historian at the Roosevelt Institute, the nonprofit organization associated with the FDR Library in Hyde Park, N.Y., says it’s important to correct misconceptions about FDR without apologizing for his behavior. “We have a much better understanding of where people did act, even though of course the responses — we now know — were inadequate,” Woolner says. Between 1936 and 1940, he says, the United States allowed more German and Austrian Jews to enter the country than did any other nation in the world, and that was partly thanks to FDR. “Of course, these numbers pale when compared to the hundreds of thousands of refugees who were hoping to get out of Europe at the time. But letting in significant additional numbers would have required a change in the law, and under the political circumstances of the time, this was deemed virtually impossible,” he says. “Even to raise the issue was considered unwise, as many members of Congress and the public wanted to cease immigration altogether.” (c) 2018 The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/holocaust-museum-rethinks-fdrs-world-war-ii-refugee-legacy/2018/04/20/b5fc96fa-369b-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html?utm_term=.e1e13f8bb1ec

Security was tight this week in Istanbul for the trial of journalists and managers from Cumhuriyet, Turkey’s oldest independent newspaper. Credit Yasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images ISTANBUL — A Turkish court convicted 13 employees of Cumhuriyet, Turkey’s oldest independent newspaper, of terrorism-related crimes on Wednesday, and handed down stiff sentences for several of them even while ordering the release of the newspaper’s chief executive. The defendants — journalists, managers and two lawyers, most of whom had been released from jail during the monthslong trial — received sentences of two to seven years in prison, but they will remain free while their cases are appealed. The chief executive, Akin Atalay, the executive chairman of the Cumhuriyet Foundation, which manages the newspaper, was the last of the group still in jail. The court ordered his release on Wednesday evening, but he was barred from traveling abroad. Mr. Atalay, along with several other defendants, was acquitted of a charge of misuse of authority but convicted of helping terrorist organizations. Supporters and press freedom groups denounced the verdicts as travesty of justice. Despite the court’s ruling, the journalists remained defiant. “This neither scares me nor Cumhuriyet newspaper,” Murat Sabuncu, the newspaper’s editor in chief and one of those convicted, said in a statement after the verdict. “I see this as an attack against us and against all the journalism community, against all our colleagues for us not to practice journalism in Turkey, to be scared while doing it,” Mr. Sabuncu added. “We can go to jail one more time if necessary. We will go on doing journalism with courage.” The defendants convicted on Wednesday were part of a larger group of 18. Three were acquitted, and the cases of two others — as well as two not associated with the newspaper — will continue. The case against Cumhuriyet began in 2016, as part of the widespread government crackdown against dissent in the aftermath of the failed coup in July of that year. Twelve of the group were arrested in early-morning police raids on their homes on Oct. 31, 2016. The defendants were charged with lending support to several terrorist organizations, including the movement of an Islamist cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by the Turkish government of masterminding the failed coup of 2016 from exile in the United States; the Kurdish separatist movement; the Kurdistan Workers’ Party; and an extreme-left party known as the DHKP-C. Prosecutors accused members of the group of helping terrorist organizations, through telephone and internet contacts, and in some cases through an encrypted telephone application called ByLock. The executives and board members were also accused of changing the editorial direction of the newspaper to support the groups. The prosecutors had demanded lengthy prison sentences for all the defendants, ranging from seven years to 43 years. The defendants and the management of Cumhuriyet denied all the charges and have accused the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of organizing a political trial to silence its critics. Defending themselves against the charges, some of the journalists offered examples of their work to show that they had been critical of the same organizations they were accused of supporting. Mr. Atalay had been in detention for more than 17 months, including months of pretrial detention. Mr. Sabuncu, the editor in chief, and the others were released at different stages during the trial, which began last July. Their lengthy pretrial detention — it took prosecutors nine months to produce an indictment — and the lack of convincing evidence supporting the charges, led to accusations from the journalists, their lawyers and press freedom organizations that the trial was politically motivated. In a statement before the verdict was announced, the Vienna-based International Press Institute said Cumhuriyet and its journalists were prosecuted because they critically reported on the activities of Turkey’s government and the governing Justice and Development Party. “Prosecutors have produced no concrete evidence for the charges of links to terrorist organizations,” Caroline Stockford, the press institute’s coordinator for Turkey, said in the statement. “Anything other than a complete acquittal and compensation for the defendants for the violation of their rights will be an outright injustice.” In their statements in court on Wednesday, the defendants expressed a determination to continue their work as journalists. “We, Cumhuriyet, will never give up resisting against evil, which is the reason of our existence,” Mr. Atalay said. Kadri Gursel, a senior columnist and an adviser to the newspaper’s board, said: “We were arrested because we are journalists and exercise journalism. We will continue to exercise our profession no matter how hard it is to do so in the absence of law and justice.” Musa Kart, the newspaper’s cartoonist, said, “With this trial, months have been stolen from our lives, but they cannot steal our hopes for a better future for our country.” There are about 160 journalists currently behind bars in Turkey, most of them detained in a government crackdown that closed 170 news media outlets in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt. (c) 2018 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/world/europe/turkey-journalists-trial-cumhuriyet.html

Aung San Suu Kyi once said: “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it.” Aung San Suu Kyi has remained tight-lipped about the state-sanctioned massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters) Once hailed as one of the world’s most revered human rights defenders, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s stunning fall from grace has left heads spinning around the globe. The freedom fighter-turned-politician has watched impassively as a genocide unfolds before her eyes, and she continues to ignore international pleas for action. Suu Kyi spent decades fighting against Burmese military rule, including nearly 15 years under house arrest as a political prisoner in Yangon. Her remarkable rise to become Myanmar’s de facto leader in 2016 brought hope to a nation long plagued by oppression. But just two years into her tenure, the democracy darling’s blatant disregard for an ongoing campaign of state-sponsored abuse that has driven 700,000 Rohingya Muslims out of the country has left many of her countless admirers bewildered and outraged. Suu Kyi has dismissed reports of atrocities committed against the minority Rohingya population ― including documented killings, rapes, shootings, arson and torture ― as “misinformation.” Her inaction and repeated refusals to grant access to humanitarian parties and investigators have even spurred calls to revoke her Nobel Prize, which she claimed in 1991 for her “non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.” The disgraced leader’s departure from the values she long championed has drawn mounting rebuke, and begs the question: Why? Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since August 2017. (Kevin Frayer via Getty Images) Political Priorities By neglecting to take action or even speak out, Suu Kyi is not just apathetic ― she is complicit in the Rohingya crisis, according to Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. “She could have pushed to allow journalists and international aid groups to work freely in Rakhine State. She could have publicly called for an investigation into military leaders in Rakhine State who are [accused] of violence,” he said. “But she may feel that because many people in Myanmar don’t care about the Rohingya, that it’s not good policy.” Although she’s been scorned on the world stage, Suu Kyi remains popular in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where Rohingya have endured decades of discrimination and little sympathy is evident for their suffering, especially from state-controlled media. Her party, the National League for Democracy, has also shown little concern for the violence against Rohingya in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State. “It’s possible that she really doesn’t care about the Rohingya,” said Kurlantzick, who noted that Suu Kyi’s silence on the crimes long predates her time in office. “She may think it’s not worth taking a stand because her other priorities are more important to her.” Some observers speculate that after a lifetime of tirelessly pursuing Burmese democracy and prosperity ― causes her father lived and died fighting for ― 72-year-old Suu Kyi’s desire to remain in power has eroded her commitment to protecting human rights. South African anti-apartheid leader Desmond Tutu, Suu Kyi’s fellow Nobel laureate, warned his “dear sister” of the perils of power last September, weeks after a provocation by Rohingya insurgents unleashed an explosive retaliation by Myanmar security forces. “Your emergence into public life allayed our concerns about violence being perpetrated against members of the Rohingya. But what some have called ‘ethnic cleansing’ and others ‘a slow genocide’ has persisted ― and recently accelerated,” he wrote. “If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep. A country that is not at peace with itself, that fails to acknowledge and protect the dignity and worth of all its people, is not a free country.” According to Suu Kyi herself, maintaining authority can be a dangerous pursuit. “It is not power that corrupts but fear,” she once said. “Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it.” Burmese militants have killed, raped, beaten and tortured Rohingya without consequence from Suu Kyi.(Kevin Frayer via Getty Images) Limited Power Suu Kyi’s election was a watershed moment for her country, but she did not secure the presidency: As a mother to foreign-born children, she was constitutionally barred from assuming that office. Instead, after her party’s landslide victory, she named herself state counselor ― a specially created position intended to be “above the president.” But even at the head of Myanmar’s government, Suu Kyi’s authority remains restricted by the military-drafted Constitution. As such, the military still controls Myanmar’s police and security forces, as well as key cabinet positions. Experts on authoritarian governance, including American Enterprise Institute fellow Clay Fuller, contend that Suu Kyi’s extremely limited power over the military extends to the military-driven massacre of the Rohingya. “I don’t believe she’ll publicly come out for the Rohingya. I think, privately, inside, she thinks this is abhorrent ... but the internal politics of Myanmar prevent her from doing that, largely because the military is still in control,” Fuller said. “Holding an election doesn’t make [Myanmar] a democracy.” He believes that in Suu Kyi’s mind, it is risky to publicly denounce the military’s campaign of targeted abuse because they “have their fingers on all the levers to remove her.” “I think she is calculating that she shouldn’t say anything because she can do better good if she stays where she is. But if the pressure from the international community mounts on her enough to actually convince her to come out and take a stand against the government, she could go back into house arrest, and Myanmar could go back down the route of extreme military control,” Fuller said. He has been disturbed to see Suu Kyi excoriated by public condemnation while Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces, remains relatively unscathed. “Why are we wasting all our time attacking her? The military of Myanmar is the enemy. They are the government, they are the dictators, they are the ones committing genocide,” said Fuller. “They’re murdering children and we’re sitting here trying to revoke a Nobel Peace Prize. It just seems like a waste of time.” In a searing editorial titled “As Aung San Suu Kyi’s biographer, I have to say that the only good thing she can do now is resign,” Irish author Peter Popham wrote that instead of challenging the military, Suu Kyi “is now its poodle, its patsy, its flak-catcher in chief,” while Min Aung Hlaing “is off the hook.” “Today she finds herself the most powerful civilian in the government, but with no right to stand up to, let alone overrule, the government on crucial issues such as Rakhine.” (c) 2018 The Huffington Post https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/myanmar-suu-kyi-rohingya-genocide_us_5ab14dd7e4b008c9e5f1fc90

WASHINGTON/COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - The U.S. government is conducting an intensive examination of alleged atrocities against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, documenting accusations of murder, rape, beatings and other possible offenses in an investigation that could be used to prosecute Myanmar’s military for crimes against humanity, U.S. officials told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugees cross the Naf River with an improvised raft to reach to Bangladesh at Sabrang near Teknaf, Bangladesh November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo The undertaking, led by the State Department, has involved more than a thousand interviews of Rohingya men and women in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, where almost 700,000 Rohingya have fled after a military crackdown last year in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine State, two U.S. officials said. The work is modeled on a U.S. forensic investigation of mass atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region in 2004, which led to a U.S. declaration of genocide that culminated in economic sanctions against the Sudanese government. The interviews were conducted in March and April by about 20 investigators with backgrounds in international law and criminal justice, including some who worked on tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the U.S. officials said. The information will be analyzed in Washington and documented in a report to be sent to the State Department’s leadership in May or early June, the officials said. It’s unclear whether the Trump administration will publicly release the findings, or whether they will be used to justify new sanctions on the Myanmar government or a recommendation for international prosecution. “The purpose of this investigation is to contribute to justice processes, including community awareness raising, international advocacy efforts, and community-based reconciliation efforts, as well as possible investigations, truth-seeking efforts, or other efforts for justice and accountability,” said a document used by the investigators in the sprawling refugee camps and reviewed by Reuters. Three U.S. officials in Washington and several people involved in the investigation on the ground in Bangladesh disclosed details of the fact-finding operation to Reuters. A State Department official, asked to confirm the specifics of the investigation conducted in the refugee camps as reported by Reuters, said “the program details are accurate.” The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. government was using all available information and a wide range of tools, but added: “We cannot get ahead of the deliberative, policymaking process.” After the Massacre: Survivors of Myanmar killings tell their story (click to read testimony) As of publication, the Myanmar government and military had not responded to questions from Reuters. Myanmar has said its operations in Rakhine were a legitimate response to attacks on security forces by Rohingya insurgents. The interviewers in the camps asked the refugees basic demographic questions, the date the person left Myanmar, and to recount their experiences during the wave of violence unleashed against the Rohingya in Rakhine State by the Myanmar military and local Buddhist residents. The investigators also asked refugees to describe the battalions and weaponry used by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State during operations against the Rohingya, said one person involved with the investigation in the camps, which are located in the Cox’s Bazar district in southern Bangladesh. The investigators have received names of individual perpetrators and the identities of specific battalions allegedly involved, this person said. FILE PHOTO: A boy sits in a burnt area after fire destroyed shelters at a camp for internally displaced Rohingya Muslims in the western Rakhine State near Sittwe, Myanmar May 3, 2016. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/File Photo A second person involved in the project on the ground said 1,025 refugees have been interviewed and the assignment may include a second phase focused on military units. Zohra Khatun, 35, a Rohingya refugee in the camps, said she told investigators that soldiers waged a campaign of violence and harassment in her village in Rakhine State starting last August. They made arrests and shot several people, driving her and others to flee, she said. “One military officer grabbed me by the throat and tried to take me,” she told Reuters, clutching her shirt collar to demonstrate. The military, she said, burned homes in the village, including hers. The investigation coincides with a debate inside the U.S. government and on Capitol Hill over whether the Trump administration has done enough to hold Myanmar’s military to account for brutal violence against the largely stateless Rohingya. The Rohingya are a small Muslim minority in majority-Buddhist Myanmar. Though they have been present in what’s now Myanmar for generations, many Burmese consider them to be interlopers. Violence against them has increased in recent years as the country has made a partial shift to democratic governance. In November, following the lead of the United Nations and the European Union, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that the Rohingya crisis constituted “ethnic cleansing,” a designation that raised the possibility of additional sanctions against Myanmar’s military commanders and increased pressure on its civilian leader, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The Myanmar government has denied the accusations. The United States responded in December by imposing targeted sanctions on one Myanmar general and threatening to penalize others. Washington has also scaled back already-limited military ties with Myanmar since the Rohingya crisis began. Human rights groups and Democratic lawmakers in Washington have urged the Republican White House to widen sanctions and designate the violence as “crimes against humanity,” a legal term that can set the stage for charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. “No decisions have been made on that front, but it’s something being looked at very carefully,” a senior Trump administration official told Reuters. A Reuters investigation published in February provided the first independent confirmation of what had taken place in the village of Inn Din, where 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys were hacked to death by Rakhine Buddhist villagers or shot by security force members. The story was based on accounts not only from Rohingya refugees but also from soldiers, police officers and Buddhist locals who admitted to participating in the bloodshed. Pictures obtained by Reuters showed the men and boys with their hands tied behind their backs and their bodies in a shallow grave. Two Reuters journalists were jailed while reporting the story and remain in prison in Yangon, where they face up to 14 years in jail on possible charges of violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act. So far, there has been resistance by lawyers in the White House and State Department to adopt the terms “crimes against humanity” or “genocide” in describing deaths of Rohingya in Myanmar, the U.S. officials said. The State Department itself has been divided over how to characterize or interpret the violence against the Rohingya, the officials said. The East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, staffed largely by career diplomats and representing the view of the embassy in Myanmar, has held at times “to a success narrative” on Myanmar since the lifting of sanctions was announced in October 2016 and the strong public role played by the U.S. government in the historic 2012 opening of the country after decades of military rule, one official said. Diplomats in Yangon have also been reluctant to jeopardize Washington’s relationship with Suu Kyi, a democratic icon who has faced criticism for failing to do more to rein in the violence against the Rohingya. Some senior U.S. officials still believe Suu Kyi remains the best hope for a more democratic Myanmar, one official said. “They are reluctant to upset that relationship.” That contrasts with the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, based in Washington, which has pushed for tougher sanctions, the officials said. Bridging that gap has been made more difficult because the State Department under President Donald Trump has yet to fill many important diplomatic positions, the officials said. Officials described the process in the refugee camps of documenting the abuses as rigorous. Each interview was coded with key words according to the alleged crime, such as killing, rape, sexual violence and lynching. Different categories of alleged perpetrator also have codes – from civilians to insurgents, Myanmar military personnel and police. “After the 1,000 interviews and statistical analysis, we can draw certain conclusions about the perpetrators of crime and patterns of crime,” one official said. The official said one possible result from the documentation of abuses against the Rohingya could be a vote by the United Nations General Assembly to establish an international body to investigate the most serious crimes committed against the Rohingya, similar to what it’s done with Syria. The State Department did not respond to questions about divisions within the administration over how to characterize the violence and criticism that the administration was too slow in acting to halt abuses. Subiya Khatun, 29, who fled her Rakhine home in September and reported seeing three dead bodies in a canal on her way to the Bangladesh border, said she hoped for justice and a safe return to Myanmar. “They said they have come from America. ‘This investigation will be used for your help,’” she said she was told by the people who interviewed her in the camps. “If Allah wishes, we will get justice and our demands will be fulfilled.” Additional reporting by Clare Baldwin in Cox's Bazar. Edited by Peter Hirschberg. (c) 2018 Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-investigation-usa-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-team-in-refugee-camps-investigating-atrocities-against-rohingya-idUSKBN1HW1N9