After a year that has seen them subjected to a brutal Burmese military crackdown described as “ethnic cleansing” by the UN and US, Rohingya Muslim refugees face the prospect of a concerning new development in 2018 across the border in Bangladesh. Conditions in the camps of Cox’s Bazar continue to deteriorate as more Rohingya arrive, and those trapped here have one of two grim options for the future. In the past weeks, Bangladesh and the Burmese government have assembled a working group to arrange the repatriation of Rohingyas back across the border, which – if forced – international observers say would be unsafe. At the same time, refugees fear being stuck for many years to come in the camps which have ballooned to rank among the biggest in the world. And in a new development along the border, goodwill from local Bangladeshi communities towards their embattled fellow Muslims is being stretched to the limit. Tensions are building over land and wages, while refugees desperate for cash to buy daily necessities are exposed to exploitation by landowners. The Independent has found Rohingya boys as young as 14 are working from dawn to dusk in rice fields outside the makeshift settlements of Cox’s Bazar for as little as 300 taka (less than £3) a day, about half the normal local wage. “I arrived in September,” says Awaz, a 15-year-old from Maungdaw township, just across the border in Burma’s western state of Rakhine. “The military came and opened fire so we fled leaving everything behind,” says the boy, who stays over the road in a plastic tent in Thangkhali camp, with his parents, in their thirties, and five brothers. “Back home we had our own land,” he adds. The latest UN figures suggest an exodus of 655,000 people has taken place across Burma’s northwest border in just four months. After abandoning burning villages, their crops and livelihoods, the refugees have settled along the hilly borders of Cox’s Bazar district – on land belonging to locals. The building tension is piling pressure on the Bangladeshi authorities, who are mindful of the clashes that were sparked in the early Nineties when a more modest influx of fewer than 300,000 Rohingyas crossed the border. Then they were also fleeing persecution in Burma and, again, faced forced repatriation and poor conditions in Bangladesh. According to NGOs working in the area today, Rohingyas are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation by landowners while the massive influx is forcing poor Bangladeshi labourers out of work. “Now there are so many Rohingyas that we are not getting any work,” says 60-year old Aminah Khatun. “We used to get some 500-600 taka, but they are much cheaper,” she says. “And the prices of food, fruit and vegetables have almost doubled. We used to pay 1,200 taka for a sack of rice, now it’s 2,000.” As the humanitarian crisis nears its fourth month, a preliminary agreement between Bangladesh and Burma to repatriate “expeditiously” the Rohingya is setting nerves on edge among the refugees who fear they will have no guarantees for their safety, or equal rights with the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. Bangladesh’s government announced late on Friday that it had prepared a list of 100,000 Rohingya refugees to be repatriated in a first phase. Burmese officials will now consider the list, and both sides say people will only be moved willingly. But many Rohingya remain terrified the Burmese military will force them into detention camps, alongside some 120,000 in central Rakhine who were driven out of their villages following intercommunal violence five years ago. The local community in Cox’s Bazar has so far sympathised with the plight of the Rohingyas. But while some have taken economic advantage of the situation, others ask when the repatriation process will start, even as refugees continue to arrive. “They tell us that they’d been persecuted by the Buddhists at home, that we are Muslims like them and have to help them,” says Aminah. There is no resentment in her voice, but with no short-term solutions on the horizon, she hopes they will go back home soon. In camps such as Unchinprang water shortages at the beginning of the dry season mean more wells are needed. NGOs have to bargain with locals and pay rent as the camps keep expanding. “At the beginning, the owners of the land were asking for money to buy the land from them for some $50 and relatives in Malaysia would send us money. Now the military has forbidden this but the owners complain because people forage in the forest and cut trees for fuel to cook,” explains Safil, a Rohingya in Kutupalong camp. The overcrowded hills were covered with trees just a few months ago, he adds. The influx of aid following the extraordinary humanitarian effort of the past months is also contributing to the bubbling resentment. As across the border in Burma when foreign aid was first delivered in the 1990s to Rohingyas, the local community feels left out. Even the older Rohingya settlers who fled in the past decades are afraid of losing support and land. “We appreciate the pressure of having almost one million refugees in a poor country that needs help,” says Mohammed Abu Asaker, UNHCR spokesperson in Cox’s Bazar. “This is why we try to help the local community as well, providing medical facilities for locals for example,” he says. He points out that when there are so many refugees, locals are exposed to illnesses as well. But UNHCR also notes that the Rohingya are refugees because they crossed the border out of fear of their lives. “It’s not early to talk about repatriation but the situation in Burma is not conducive for people to go back. We strongly recommend no one goes back unless the root causes of the problem, including citizenship and promoting integration instead of confining them in camp, have been addressed,” the spokesperson says. UNHCR also confirms that with the end of the rainy season, smugglers are approaching Rohingyas in the camps who want to risk the dangerous and illegal journey by boat to Thailand or Malaysia. Thousands are believed to have lost their lives at sea in 2015 when a crackdown by Thai authorities led smugglers to abandon their human cargo at sea. Rights activists note that the repatriation agreement, which the two governments are still working out, is likely to exclude many Rohingya as Burma insists on evidence of their former residency. “The truth is that the implementation of the agreement is unlikely and many would not meet the requirements anyway,” says Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an NGO advocating for the rights of the Rohingya for almost two decades. Many refugees fled without documents or do not speak the national Burmese language. “It is not clear what will happen to those who don’t meet the requirements,” Ms Lewa adds. But among the tents packed into Kutupalong camp, many Rohingya men say they have to get out. “I will never stay here. I want to leave. I hope to get a fake passport and go,” says Safil, father of two children. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/rohingya-muslims-myanmar-burma-bangladesh-refugees-local-clashes-workers-food-border-a8121231.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true (c) 2017 Independent

An 88-year-old former police officer serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity committed during Argentina's dictatorship was transferred Friday to house arrest in a beach resort following a court ruling repudiated by human rights groups. Miguel Etchecolatz was in charge of various clandestine detention and torture centers in Buenos Aries during the 1976-1983 military regime and became a symbol of the state's deadly campaign against dissidents. He was considered the right-hand man of Ramon Camps, the feared police chief of Buenos Aires province at the time. The decision by the federal court to let him serve his term under house arrest because of age and fragile health angered human rights groups and neighbors in Bosque Peralta Ramos, an upper-middle class neighborhood in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) south of the Argentine capital. The former police officer was transferred early Friday to his family's residence in Mar del Plata. Activists and leftist militants protested outside the mayor's office under a sign saying: "Common prison and effective punishment for genocidists." The official number of dissidents killed during the dictatorship is 7,000, but human rights groups put the figure at 30,000. http://www.timesunion.com/news/crime/article/Argentina-dirty-war-killer-gets-house-arrest-12462971.php (c) 2017 Times Union

The Champagne and Aishihik First Nations has a long-term vision: to have citizens born and raised with Southern Tutchone as their mother tongue, and have people so fluent in it that it will no longer have to be taught in Yukon schools. Stephen Reid, who goes by his traditional name Khasha, says he envisions this happening in 15 years. He's a language teacher in Haines Junction, Yukon, who's creating a curriculum for an adult immersive Southern Tutchone language program. "We've never been in this position before ... to have to teach our people their own language," says Khasha. Khasha taught Southern Tutchone for 13 years at Elijah Smith School in Whitehorse. This spring, he was at a language conference at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre where Steve Smith, the chief of Champagne and Aishihik, was present. Khasha said he hastily wrote a proposal to Smith on the back of a napkin. "I had this idea to go to Kahnawà:ke myself, so I put this little proposal together … it wasn't anything pretty." Kahnawà:ke is a Mohawk community south of Montreal that's been running a successful immersive language program since 1988. Khasha wanted to go there to learn about the program. Smith recalls the interaction. He says Khasha told him that the First Nation wasn't going to build any speakers, until young adults start preserving and passing on the language. "We at Champagne Aishihik Chief and Council really did seize Khasha's vision," says Smith. Khasha said he expected it to take time, but he says he got an immediate response from the chief: "You're not going to go alone, we're all going to go." As a result, there's a working body of Champagne and Aishihik citizens who share the vision. The First Nation opened Dákwänjē Kų̀ — or 'our language house' — in November. It's a daycare for the community of Haines Junction. Teachers are currently putting together a Southern Tutchone program for the children. Meanwhile, Khasha is next door, writing the new curriculum at the cultural centre, or Da Kų̀, which translates to, 'our house.' The two-year adult immersion program has room for 10 students. It will start in the fall of 2018, also in the Dákwänjē Kų̀ building. Classes will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, following the school calendar. Smith says he wants to see four year olds speaking the language and hear people at grocery stores chatting in Southern Tutchone. He also wants to see the community's public meetings and ceremonies conducted in Southern Tutchone. To Smith, language is the missing piece. Once they bring it back, he says his people will be able to shake off the final vestiges of colonialism — "and really be able to bring us back to the proud and strong people that we are," he says. Along with Khasha, the First Nation has brought in another Southern Tutchone teacher. Smith says he wants non-First Nations peoples to feel as welcome in Da Kų̀ and Dákwänjē Kų̀ as they do in the curling rink or Elijah Smith convention centre. Southern Tutchone signs in the cultural centre, or Da Kų̀. The long term vision of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations is for citizens to be fluent in Southern Tutchone. (Meagan Deuling/CBC) With their long term vision to have the cultural centre be a place where their culture and language will be preserved, elders can rest a little easier, says Smith. For Khasha, it's a big responsibility to know that what he chooses to teach is shaping students, giving them a sense of culture, and how to raise their children. "Our people will be coming in with their varied backgrounds," he says, "but we have to treat them just like a baby, and we have to raise them up." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/southern-tutchone-revitalization-yukon-1.4467314 (c) 2017 CBC News

Hari Sreenivasan: As the war in Syria raged over the past six years, hospitals and clinics were repeatedly bombed. According to the Geneva Conventions, medical facilities are supposed to be neutral parties in war. But, in Syria, as well as Yemen and a number of other conflicts around the world, they continued to be hit. “The New Barbarianism” is a documentary that addresses this additional war casualty. The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies made the film, and it was directed by a former “NewsHour” foreign editor, Justin Kenny. I taped a conversation on this topic earlier in the week, but first an excerpt, with a warning, it does include some graphic images. Narrator: By April 2016, half of Aleppo’s population of three million were gone, displaced, in flight, dead or injured. Many who remained lived under siege with few means to escape, as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military attempted to destroy rebel forces in the city. Aleppo’s medical community, targeted and in collapse, struggled to continue. Dr. Muhammad Waseem Maaz, one of the city’s last remaining pediatricians, was among a small group of doctors who vowed to keep working, despite the dangers. He’s seen here as he began his shift at Al Quds General Hospital. It’s the last time anyone saw him alive. He was killed when aircraft struck the medical facility with missiles. Dr. Rami Kalazi: We were so surprised and shocked when we saw our colleagues covered with their blood and giving their last breaths. Narrator: Neurosurgeon Dr. Rami Kalazi and staff at a nearby hospital tried to save victims of the attack, including severely injured health colleagues. Dr. Rami Kalazi: I don’t know how to describe that. It’s so hard emotionally. It’s like you are losing one of your precious in front of your eyes. Narrator: Fifty-five people died in the attack, among them, two doctors, two nurses, a technician and a guard. Josh Earnest: This attack fits the Assad regime’s abhorrent pattern of striking first-responders. Narrator: The Syrian government and Russia, its close partner in executing the air war, denied targeting the hospital. Hundreds of similar attacks upon civilian infrastructure followed. Hari Sreenivasan: For more on all of this, we turn to Stephen Morrison. He was the executive director of the film and is director of the global health policy at Center for Strategic and International Studies. He served on the State Department’s policy planning staff during the Clinton administration. And Dr. Ahmad Tarakji, he’s a cardiothoracic surgeon and president of the Syrian American Medical Society, a nonprofit medical relief organization that provides assistance to Syrians. He joins us from a hospital in Fresno via Skype. First, Stephen Morrison, let me start with you. Why target hospitals? Stephen Morrison: It’s a very good way to demoralize a population in an area of conflict, if you take away something so fundamental to the functioning of society. You take that away, people lose hope, and it induces mass flight, and it weakens the armed enemy that you are opposing. So, it’s a very, very good tactic of war. And as long as there’s impunity, which, in most of these cases that we have seen, that’s true, then you’re not paying much of a price. Hari Sreenivasan: Dr. Tarakji, first, just to set the stage a bit, tell us a little bit about the type of work your organization does. Our audience might not be familiar with it. Dr. Ahmad Tarakji: My organization is the Syria Medical American Society, known as SAMS. At this time, we have about 120 medical facilities inside Syria, and about 2,000 medical professionals, doctors and nurses, are providing care for people inside Syria. In the year 2016, we provided care for more than 2.5 million people inside Syria. Hari Sreenivasan: So, Doctor, how many of your facilities have been targeted? Dr. Ahmad Tarakji: Starting from 2014 until now, more than one-third of the attacks, documented attacks on health care facilities are against SAMS facilities. Hari Sreenivasan: Stephen Morrison, is there a distinction that the airplanes are making between facilities that might be supported by clinics or organizations like Dr. Tarakji’s vs. anything else that is providing aid? Stephen Morrison: Well, I think that the national and indigenous institutions in these zones of war, whether we’re talking about Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, there are over 20 countries where we’re seeing documented cases of this. The national institutions are even more vulnerable than those that are international NGOs. These cases go unreported oftentimes. Hari Sreenivasan: Dr. Tarakji, can you give us an example of what happens during one of these strikes? How do you respond? Dr. Ahmad Tarakji: This is going to back to what happened in the city of Aleppo around those attacks that we just witnessed on (INAUDIBLE) hospital. So, around that time, the city of Aleppo was completely besieged. This is in Aleppo. And the goal was to displace the people and collapse the infrastructures in the city. And, as time goes on, those attacks were actually mainly waged against medical facilities. It wasn’t collateral damage. So, when we see those attacks, they follow a certain pattern. You see the attacks are targeting hospitals in the same neighborhood, so that the health facilities will collapse, as well as the airstrikes will start attacking ambulances and so on, so there will be no way to achieve or respond medically. What happened internally among the aid workers is they started communicated with us about documenting, reporting and what to do next. We have seen significant courage of the aid workers that they are not running away. Actually, they’re running into the risk. They’re not even — they’re not leaving their hospitals. They’re not leaving their patients. And the ambulances are rushing out, despite the airstrikes, to save as many people as we can. We had more than five attacks on the same hospital within a week, until that hospital collapsed and got out of service completely. Hari Sreenivasan: I want to ask a two-part question. One is, what sort of measures are you starting to take now? I have heard about hospitals moving into underground locations and caves. And, also, what keeps your doctors going back and putting themselves in harm’s way to do this work? Dr. Ahmad Tarakji: We move many facilities to underground hospitals, and we move them to caves. And a few months back, we published our report showing that the casualties on the medical staff in those underground hospitals, despite the attack, has been zero. Unfortunately, the time we released that report, we witnessed the first medical staff casualty from chemical attack on our facilities in (INAUDIBLE). The other part that we did is what we call fragmenting the hospitals. So, you will see, for example, the pediatric units, it might not be connected to the intensive care unit. And you see all those units around, and that has decreased the casualties. It became a major challenge for all of us. Hari Sreenivasan: All right, Dr. Ahmad Tarakji of the Syrian American Medical Society, and Stephen Morrison from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, thank you both. Stephen Morrison: Thank you. Dr. Ahmad Tarakji: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-are-hospitals-targeted-in-syria-people-lose-hope (c) 2017 PBS

The 21st December 2017 was a taster and a forerunner of what is to become for President Emerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa. A handful but very vocal group of people from Matabeleland were demonstrating at the Zimbabwe embassy in Tshwane where Mnangagwa was having a business symposium with various captains of the industry. We agree with Mnangagwa when he says the voice of the people is the voice of God, if you ignore God's voice the end result is demolition and totally oblivion. The voice of God has spoken, the voice of the Mthwakazi people has spoken unless and until Mnangangwa does not view the people of Mthwakazi as human beings. Over the years the gukurahundi genocide has been ignored and at best suppressed. At this defining moment President Mnangagwa should tackle the issue of gukurahundi head on. Whether he is implicated on the genocide or not, he needs to genuinely engage the issue of the genocide in order to bring finality to genocide debacle. It is hoped that Mnangagwa heard the voice of the people of Mthwakazi loud and clear and the voice says gukurahundi genocide cannot be a closed chapter, cannot be a bygone which the president insinuates when he says let bygones be bygones. Gukurahundi is in our living memory, millions of people who were directly affected by the genocide are still alive. The traumatic wounds are still oozing with blood. We hope Mnangagwa will not squander the goodwill of the people which is currently prevailing. We are of course doubtful that the President will chart any new trajectory which will lead to healing of the people. The greatest mistake which he has done was to elevate the gukurahundi chief architects such as Perence Shiri and Chiwenga to dizzy heights in his government. This is a clear sign that he does not take the genocide seriously and he is not prepared to bring the genocide chapter to closure. If Mutswanga's utterances are anything to go by then it is clear that Mngangagwa means business and that business maybe can be another genocide. How can he let loose his dog of war in Mutswanga form dismiss gukurahundi, he says the country needs a break, a reprieve. A reprieve from what? Doesn't he know that any serious government which will unite the people the first thing it should do is to tackle the issue of the genocide without criminalising the victims. Even Mnangagwa himself has said let bygones be bygones, a clear indication of his intent. Gukurahundi genocide will never be a bygone unless and until justice is served. We feel that the govt of Mr Mugabe did not respect Mthwakazi people and we also think that the govt of President Mnangagwa does not care nor respect Mthwakazi people. As people of Matabeleland we have vowed to change all this come 2018. We need to force the hand of the govt to respect our dead whose white bones lie in shallow mass graves without the performance of any traditional rites to appease their souls and for them to rest in peace. We demand a Truth, Justice and Reparations Commission. It is nonsensical to criminalise the demand for compensation on one hand whilst on the other sweep the effects of the genocide under the carpet. We are aware that the physical genocide prevented development in Matabeleland, but the most dangerous genocide is the one which is currently going-on in the country whose aim is to annihilate the nation of Mthwakazi. We have seen cultural genocide in many guises, we have witnessed psychological genocide whereby many of our people have stopped believing in themselves and their strength as a people. On the 21st December in Tshwane President Mnangagwa was flamboyantly introduced by the creepy-crawley Chinamasa who showered Mnangagwa with all manner of accolades, narrating an illustrious career spanning decades and decades, however, he unwittingly skipped his involvement and the pivotal role he played in the savagery massacres of the Matabeles. This was not a mere oversight, if you look closely it is easy to see that the govt is employing a policy of ignoring the gukurahundi genocide and treating it as if it never happened. Is it not Mnangagwa who equated dissidents to cockroaches which needed DDT to wipe them from the face of the earth. From the recent released confidential documents in SA it has become clear how Mnangagwa collaborated with the apartheid government to cause problems for the Matabele. There is one nonsense which needs to be challenged, the government claimed that the dissidents were killing people, innocent people in Matabelelalnd at that time so it had to send the 5th Brigade to flush them out. If that was the case, how could dissidents have killed people who fed them? What did they stand to gain by killing the people? The other nonsense is that the dissidents killed the 6 tourists, the truth is look no further than the 5th Brigade. Dissidents had nothing to gain from killing the tourists but the government did as it sought and stood to gain international sympathy. The brutality which was meted on the innocent civilians is to be seen to be believed, the callous murder, gang rapes, mass beatings, forced incest, bayoneting of pregnant women, crushing of babies in mill-pounders, was just unbelievable and the govt is now forcing the people of Matabeleland to forget. Is there an insult bigger than this one? We won't forget and we won't forgive, if we are to forgive it will be on our terms. On the 21st December in Mnangagwa's conference I challenged Mr Chinamasa who was giving a glowing profile of Mnangagwa whilst totally omitting the gukurahundi genocide. The security bungled me out of the conference, a clear sign that noone wants to talk about the genocide. If the issue of gukurahundi is not resolved now, two things may happen in the future, that is, the victims of the genocide may seek to revenge and secondly, the perpetrators of the genocide may resort to killing more people in order to silence them. Mnangagwa really believes in his bygones rhetoric, remember he is the one who said that gukurahundi is a closed chapter. The perpetrator prescribing to the victim how to mourn loved ones, what a shame. Zimbabwe is not ready to break away from its past, this can only happen if the government honestly deals with the issue of the genocide. I remember how I also confronted Joyce Mujuru last year on the 16th September in Tshwane and asked her about the gukurahundi attrocities, and she said she knew nothing about gukurahundi. https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-opinion-sc-columnist-byo-125028.html (c) 2017 24 News

Burmese Authorities greed for bribe set the sea route for Human traffickers in trafficking Rohingyas to Malaysia in villages of Phauktaw Township today (29th December 2017), reports a local. Around 100 villagers from village of Sin Tat Maw village track have been trapped by a few traffickers whom are confirmed to be on sail towards Malaysia in the evening today. “ Due to the halting of all livelihood and mounting persecution and starvation these people have decide to take this dangerous journey” Explains a local worrying over the situation. To execute such an illegal activity Burmese Authorities have accepted bribe from the traffickers and have kept the sea route clear for sailing. To sail on these fishing boats each Rohingya were charged 300, 000 Kyats/per head and includes Rohinyas of all age groups from infants to very elderly. Pondering over the situation locals are urging state and union government to rescue this trapped people. The 100 Rohingyas to be on board are mostly displaced people from Kyaukpyu Township, whom have taken refuge in Phauktaw Township after deadly state sponsored violence hit them in 2012. Similar Incidences are inciting in Akyab (Sitwe) township as well, where 50 Rohingyas already had to fled towards Phauktaw for taking such a life risking move. Adding on the situation 12 fishing boats are also heard to be preparing for sailing towards Malaysia. Authorities mounting atrocities and halting of all forms of little existing livelihood like fishing and farming are forcing the Rohingyas to accept this deadly choice to die on the seas. On the other hand Burmese greedy authorities are accepting mass amount of bribes, thus facilitation the traffickers and so called government as well in their plan of expelling the little Rohingyas out of Arakan. http://www.rvisiontv.com/authorities-greed-of-bribe-set-sea-route-free-for-human-traffickers/ (c) 2017 Rohingya Vision

Genocide & The Kurds The Kurdish-inhabited lands of the Middle East - spanning territories in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey as well as the Caucasus - have hosted a complex ethno-religious mosaic of civilizations since ancient times. The region’s fertile soils bear witness to centuries of social cohesion and inter-communal harmony, punctuated by persecution, war, genocide and atrocity committed against its peoples by internal and external historical agents. In the modern era, genocidal strategies have been employed against ethnic Kurds as well as Armenians, Assyrians, and Ezidis, among other groups, as part of the rise of nationalism and nation-states within a larger global context characterized by regional competition and Russian, European and North American imperial interests. At times, Kurds have found themselves caught up in genocidal processes as perpetrators, bystanders, and rescuers, as was the case with the Ottoman Empire’s genocide against its Christian (and Ezidi) populations during and after World War I. At other times, and more frequently, Kurds have found themselves targeted by genocidal violence, such as in the case of the Dersim massacres and policies of linguicide in Turkey; the deprivation of citizenship and the creation of the “Arab Belt” in Syria; and the notorious Anfal campaign in Iraq -- to name but a few cases. Meanwhile, religious communities (such as the Yezidis, Jews, Assyrians and Armenians) who have lived alongside, and sometimes as, Kurds have also fallen victim to similar identity-based persecution. Genocide Studies International seeks contributions to its special issue on the Kurds that engage with the question of genocide in the variously defined territory known as “Kurdistan” and in the diaspora. We welcome submissions from a broad range of disciplinary approaches. In particular we seek to unpack the overlapping politics of genocide recognition for different Kurdish communities and their neighbours in the unique landscape of palimpsestic genocide, with a view to better understanding genocide's impact on the spatial and temporal dynamics of identity construction and the long-standing Kurdish bid for statehood in the Middle East. Manuscripts that explore questions of memory and memorialization, that challenge conventional understandings of genocide, that incorporate the lessons of women’s, gender, and queer studies, and that place events within long-term historical frameworks, are particularly welcomed. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent along with author CVs to GSI editor Elisa von Joeden-Forgey (elisa.forgey@stockton.edu) and guest editor Thomas McGee(thomas.mcgee@cantab.net) no later than January 31, 2017. Initial manuscript drafts will be due by April 31, 2018 and final manuscripts by June 1, 2018. (c) 2017 Elisa von Joeden-Forgey

BAKU -- Niko, a 27-year-old gay epileptic from Baku, recalls being beaten, tortured with electric shocks, and raped by four police officers who detained him during a crackdown on homosexuals in Azerbaijan. “They raped me anally and orally,” says Niko, who asks that his real name not be used because he fears for his life. “The police forced me to swallow their sperm.” Then, he says, he was raped with a police truncheon. “They rammed the truncheon in my anus and I had an epileptic seizure,” Niko says. “I don’t remember what happened after that. When I woke up, I wasn’t even able to walk.” For the next 10 days, Niko remained in custody, where he says the torture continued. After his release in late September, he spent nearly two months trying to stay out of the sight of police who knew about his sexual orientation. But by mid-November, Niko says, he had been victimized four more times by police officers extorting bribes from him or forcing him to perform oral sex in order to avoid being charged again with "refusing police orders." 'They Gave Me Electric Shocks' -- Accounts Of LGBT Crackdown In Azerbaijan Still recovering from shock, he tells RFE/RL about his desperation to leave Azerbaijan and start a new life elsewhere. International human rights groups say Azerbaijan’s crackdown echoes similar roundups during 2017 in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Chechnya. In both places, suspected homosexuals were detained, brutally abused, and forced to name other gays who, in many cases, received similar treatment as the crackdowns widened. Amnesty International says it thinks about 100 homosexuals were rounded up in Azerbaijan’s operation during the last half of September, which the government said was necessary to contain sexually transmitted diseases and improve “morality.” In Chechnya, the rights group says, well over 100 people were detained and tortured, and at least three were killed. Chechnya’s government denies the roundups ever happened there. But Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) say evidence of the Chechnya operations is undeniable -- with reports of the violence shocking the world. Niko tells RFE/RL he was “really shaken” last spring when he first heard about Chechnya’s crackdown. "I felt really terrible,” he says. “There was a sudden fear in my heart. But I didn’t think it would happen in Azerbaijan to the same extent. I never imagined the recent crackdown here could be that brutal." Growing Repression, Violence Rights groups say the increased repression and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in former Soviet republics has been encouraged by Russia’s 2013 law criminalizing the distribution to minors of “distorted ideas about the equal social value of traditional and nontraditional sexual relationships.” Life As A Lesbian In Baku In October, in the Samara region on Russia's Volga River, 27-year-old LGBT rights activist Yevdokia Romanova was convicted and fined under what critics have dubbed the "gay propaganda” law -- despite a June ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that the legislation violates the European Convention on Human Rights. Romanova had posted links on social media to the website of a LGBT rights youth coalition and Western reports on the LGBT movement -- including a BuzzFeed article about an LGBT-rights protest in St. Petersburg. Denis Krivosheyev, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Europe and Central Asia, describes Romanova’s case as “a sad illustration of the desperate circumstances currently faced” by LGBT activists in Russia. INFOGRAPHIC: LGBT Rights Around The Globe (click to view) “Even the simple freedom to share an online story with friends is now limited by legislation that is blatantly discriminatory and homophobic,” Krivosheyev says. Krivosheyev tells RFE/RL that the 2013 law initially encouraged a wave of homophobic attacks across Russia that, by 2017, had spread to other former Soviet republics in the form of official crackdowns, discrimination, and mob violence. In Uzbekistan, where homosexuality is a crime, self-declared “vigilantes” have posed on social media to win the trust of gay men and lure them to meeting places. Erbulat, a gay friend of the victim of one attack that was recorded and posted online by a homophobic gang, tells RFE/RL there have been many similar attacks recently against homosexuals in Uzbekistan but victims are scared to call police. "I also was attacked, threatened, and humiliated in such a video," Erbulat says. "I barely escaped them alive. But if I had reported that to the police, they would have laughed at me. They're homophobes, too." Although Tajikistan rescinded its Soviet-era law against homosexuality in 1998, its government continues to subject gay men to discrimination and rights abuses. It also has forced groups that defend gay rights to stop operating. In October, the Tajik Prosecutor-General’s Office announced it had compiled a list of what it said were 367 gay men and women in the country “in order to protect their safety and to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.” 'I Could Barely Crawl': Gay Russian Alleges Torture In Chechnya But Firuz, a 30-year-old gay man from Dushanbe, tells RFE/RL the LGBT community fears Tajikistan’s “gay registry” will be used for future crackdowns like those in Chechnya and Azerbaijan. “The government’s mind-set is above the law in this situation. They answer only to themselves,” says Firuz, who was added to the registry and underwent forced medical examinations after he was detained during a police raid on a Dushanbe nightclub. Amnesty International also says groups that defend LGBT rights are facing a rise in hostility in parts of the former Soviet Union, fueled by discrimination, homophobia, and what it describes as Russia’s crusade against “nontraditional sexual relationships.” In a December 22 report, the global human rights watchdog said LGBT rights groups in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan were facing an “increasingly discriminatory environment” due to “the extent of Russian influence and the reach of its media.” Nightmare In Baku In Baku, Niko’s nightmare began when he was walking home from his job as a sales consultant for a private supermarket shortly before midnight on September 14. Meeting a gay friend on the street by chance, a transvestite sex worker he had not seen for months, Niko says he stopped to chat just as an unmarked police car arrived. “Police knew my friend because he has worked in the streets," Niko says. “Later on, we learned they were looking for us because another gay friend of ours gave them our names.” Niko says uniformed police threw his friend in the back of their squad car. "I didn't understand what was going on and continued walking," Niko says. "A few minutes later, I felt a truncheon strike the back of my head." Human Rights Envoy Disturbed By Alleged Abuses Of Gay Men In Chechnya Niko says he and his friend were taken to Police Unit 19 in Baku’s Yasamal District, where they were beaten and tortured until 4 a.m. “They started with batons, kicks, and fists,” Niko says, struggling to speak. “Then four of them who were going off shift took me to the deputy police chief’s room." He says it's there that repeated rapes and other abuses took place and continued until he passed out. Later that morning, Niko and his friend appeared in a Baku court where the judge sentenced them to 10 days of “administrative detention” on charges of “resisting police orders” -- the same charge that Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry says was brought against 56 people who were sentenced to up to 30 days of “administrative detention” during the September crackdown. Krivosheyev and other rights activists say the charge is commonly used by authorities in Azerbaijan for arbitrary arrests. “We were sent to the Binagady Detention Center,” Niko says. “But after two days there, we were taken to the Organized Crime Department” -- a branch of the Interior Ministry tasked with combating terrorism, human trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, and other organized crimes. He says “employees of the police unit” beat and humiliated both of them and “tortured us with electric shocks for two more days.” “I witnessed several other gay people being tortured,” Niko says. “I don’t know the exact number of detainees and tortured people.” After he was forced to name other gay and transgender people, Niko says, he was returned to the administrative detention center, where his head was shaved. He was released on September 25 after serving his 10-day sentence. Government Response Homosexuality is not a crime in Azerbaijan but is deeply frowned upon by many in the conservative, Muslim-majority country. Azerbaijani Interior Ministry Ramil Usubov justified the crackdown in an official letter to Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights. Usubov said in his October 13 letter that “appropriate measures” were taken by Baku police against “violations of public order and security” in an operation that lasted from September 15-30. Usubov confirmed that 83 people were detained in various parts of Baku for “violation of public order, offenses to public morality, and willful insubordination” of police orders. He also told the European commissioner there was “no cause” for Brussels to file claims about the “violation of the rights of sexual minority representatives” because the rights of all groups in Azerbaijan are “protected without any restriction.” Usubov said the “situation with sexual minorities in our country is no different from [the] situation in most European states. Echoes Of Chechnya In Russia, President Vladimir Putin's government has faced calls from the United Nations and Western leaders to investigate the crackdown in Chechnya. But the Kremlin has supported Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s denial that suspected gay men were being detained, tortured, and killed. Meanwhile, scores of traumatized Chechen victims have fled to safe houses in other parts of Russia set up by the St. Petersburg-based Russian LGBT Network. Most said they feared being detained and tortured again if they stayed in Chechnya. Many said they could be targeted in so-called honor killings because authorities outed them to their families and have encouraged relatives to “restore family honor.” The Russian LGBT Network confirms that the safety of some Chechen homosexuals at their safe houses has been compromised by relatives, Chechen police, or others sent to hunt them down and return them to Chechnya. Boris Dittrich, the advocacy director for HRW’s LGBT Rights program, says Chechen authorities also raided the Grozny homes of gay men who had fled -- threatening to arrest and torture relatives unless they returned. “They had fled far from home, but it seemed Chechen authorities knew where to find them,” Dittrich says. Rainbow Railroad, a Toronto-based charity, began working with the Canadian government and the Russian LGBT Network amid reports of the roundups in 2017 to provide a pathway to safety for persecuted gay Chechens. In the spring, Rainbow Railroad Executive Director Kimahli Powell traveled to Russia to meet victims hiding at Russian LGBT Network safe houses. Powell tells RFE/RL that the collaboration brought more than 45 Chechen victims out of Russia by early November -- providing travel funds and legal assistance to obtain asylum in Western countries, mostly in Canada. Powell also confirms that Rainbow Railroad is investigating whether it can help Azerbaijani victims. But he says the effort is difficult because the government in Baku has barred organizations like Amnesty International, HRW, and LGBT rights groups from working inside Azerbaijan -- forcing contacts to be made through groups operating outside the country. Outed And Out Speaking in mid-November, Niko said his life in Azerbaijan's capital had been destroyed and he desperately wanted to escape but that he knew of no locally based organizations that would help. In the weeks after his release from detention, he was fired from his job and evicted. His family disapproves of homosexuality and refused to help him, he said. Sympathizers offered Niko temporary sanctuary in Baku to allow him to recover from his trauma, but he knew their help couldn't last forever. And the abuse at the hands of police continued when he was recognized on the street by patrol officers. Niko said he didn’t have the money or documents needed to obtain legal residency in neighboring Russia, where he might get help from the Russian LGBT Network. He said his only option was to flee to Turkey, where he didn’t need a visa, and seek help from an Istanbul-based network that recently has sprung up to assist victims of Azerbaijan's crackdown. Since his arrival in Istanbul in late November, Niko has been sheltering at one of the network's safe houses while he tries to figure out how and where he can build a new life. https://www.rferl.org/a/lgbt-brutal-crackdown-2017-russia-former-soviet-republics-chechnya-azerbaijan/28941039.html (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe

Investigate, Prosecute Armed Group Abuses (Beirut) – Yezidi fighters in Iraq allegedly forcibly disappeared and killed 52 civilians from the Imteywit tribe in June 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. Relatives of victims told Human Rights Watch that on June 4, 2017, Yezidi forces detained and then apparently executed men, women, and children from eight Imteywit families who were fleeing fighting between the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) and Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) west of Mosul. Yezidi forces were also implicated in two other incidents of enforced disappearances of members of the Imteywit and Jahaysh tribes in late 2017. “As the ground fighting against ISIS winds down in Iraq, state security forces need to turn their focus to preventing retaliation and upholding the rule of law,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Past atrocities against the Yezidis don’t give its armed forces a free pass to commit abuses against other groups, whatever their past.” Human Rights Watch spoke to two Imteywit members who traveled through the village where, two hours later, the 52 people went missing. Human Rights Watch also spoke to a member of the PMF intelligence services who had visited the village and saw several mass graves that local Yezidi residents told him contained the bodies of the Imteywit victims. A Yezidi community leader provided to Human Rights Watch a list of five Yezidi fighters who he said told him they had killed the families. In late April, as fighting approached the area just south of the Sinjar region, ISIS forces moved their families from the village of Ain Ghazal in Qayrawan to the desert north of the town of Baaj, two Imteywit men said. They said that on June 4, the Imam Ali Battalions, a PMF unit, retook the area from ISIS, and started moving local families out of the desert in a convoy of 70 cars traveling north toward Tel Afar. The two men and their relatives – 22 men, 20 women, and 10 children from the Imteywit tribe traveling in seven cars – broke off from the other members of the convoy. When one car in the smaller convoy got a flat tire, the other cars stopped and waited for the tire to be fixed. The two men opted to head north ahead of the others, and traveled about 18 kilometers, reaching the village of Qabusiye at about 2 p.m. They said that a car with four Yezidi fighters, one of whom they recognized from home, flagged them down and forced them out of their car. The fighters asked them where they were from and said they would kill the two men as revenge for what ISIS had done to the Yezidis. Just then, the men said, a vehicle carrying Imam Ali Battalion fighters drove up, which ended the altercation, and escorted the two men to safety in the town of Qayrawan. The men said that two hours later they called a cousin traveling in the convoy to warn them about the Yezidi fighters on the road. The cousin said they were arriving at Qabusiye, but then the call dropped, and his phone was soon switched off. The men said their relatives never made it to Qayrawan and the men have not been able to find out any information about their relatives since. The men gave Human Rights Watch a list of the 52 people in the convoy. In early 2017, Yezidi fighters formed the Lalish Brigades and the Ezidkhan Brigades, units under the PMF, a force of the Iraqi prime minister, and therefore part of the state’s armed forces. Two Yezidi community leaders told Human Rights Watch that the Ezidkhan Brigades were responsible for the abduction and killing of the 52 Imteywit tribe members. One said that fighters from the Ezidkhan Brigades told him the unit had detained the families in the convoy and held them for two days in the abandoned village, then killed them. He shared photos of women’s and men’s sandals, jewelry, a woman’s scarf, and tufts of hair that he said belonged to the families. A member of the PMF intelligence services told Human Rights Watch that he was sent to Sinjar to investigate the allegations. With help from local Yezidis he located a cluster of four mass graves in Qabusiye, which he visited on December 5. He said he saw the bones and skulls of at least four children, tufts of women’s hair, and women’s and children’s shoes and bracelets in the vicinity of the graves. In July, a legal adviser to the Ezidkhan Brigades told Human Rights Watch that Yezidi forces were involved in the capture of 52 people, but that members of the Imteywit tribe were “dogs who deserve to die.” Another senior Yezidi military commander said in early December that, “If any members of the Imteywit or Jahaysh tribes try to return to Sinjar, we will kill them.” Other senior Yezidis have alleged that the Imteywit and Jahaysh tribes participated with ISIS in the executions and abuse of Yezidi men and women in August 2014. Members of the two tribes denied these allegations and said that the Yezidis were scapegoating them for ISIS atrocities. Responsibility for investigating and prosecuting abuses against the Yezidis and other groups such as the Imteywit and Jahaysh rests with the Iraqi government, Human Rights Watch said. In July a spokesman from Iraq’s Foreign Affairs Ministry told Human Rights Watch that government representatives in Sinjar had investigated the Qabusiye incident and that their initial findings were that Yezidi forces had abducted the Imteywit civilians as revenge for abuses against Yezidi women. He said that the government intended to hold those responsible to account. Since then, however, Human Rights Watch has received no responses to queries as to whether anyone has been held accountable for the apparent killings. Members of the Imteywit and Jahaysh tribes have reported other incidents in which alleged Yezidi forces have forcibly disappeared and possibly killed their members. An Imteywit man told Human Rights Watch that on August 14, an Imteywit tribal commander and seven farmers went missing when they traveled to their former village to work their agricultural land. The forces in control of the area at the time were a mix of Shia and Yezidi PMF units. Two men from the Jahaysh tribe said that on February 26, when members of the tribe fled their villages as fighting approached, armed men wearing PMF badges disappeared 10 men who were escorting their livestock by foot from the area. Human Rights Watch was unable to corroborate this information or the units implicated. Enforced disappearances occur when a person is arrested or detained by government officials or their agents and the authority refuses to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty, or to reveal the person’s fate or whereabouts. Iraqi criminal justice authorities should investigate alleged criminal offenses by all parties to the conflict in a prompt, transparent, and effective manner, up to the highest levels of responsibility. Those found criminally responsible should be appropriately prosecuted. Summary executions and torture during an armed conflict are war crimes. No armed forces in Iraq should be detaining suspected criminals for prolonged periods, but should instead hand suspects immediately over to judicial authorities to investigate. International law requires that punishment for crimes only be imposed on the people responsible, after a fair trial to determine individual guilt. Imposing collective punishments on families, villages, or communities violates the laws of war and is a war crime. “Allowing the many armed forces involved in Iraq’s civil war to retaliate against any group they think was complicit with ISIS would shatter the rule of law,” Fakih said. “Baghdad needs to assert its authority over the criminal justice process and end armed group vigilantes.” https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/12/27/iraq-yezidi-fighters-allegedly-execute-civilians (2017) Human Rights Watch

To defeat it, Washington has cultivated ties with groups at odds with each other. What happens when their common foe is gone? As 2017 draws to a close, the mood among leading pundits on the U.S.-led campaign to dislodge the Islamic State from Iraq and Syria might seem justifiably upbeat, even jubilant. After all, the accomplishments in the campaign’s first three years are many: eliminating key ISIS leaders, clearing the group from its so-called “dual capitals” of Mosul and Raqqa, and reducing the territorial safe havens from which it can plot attacks. It’s with some justification that, on December 9, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over ISIS in Iraq. But it would be naïve to toast to victory as the new year dawns. That’s not just because the last mile of defeating a terrorist group can be the hardest one, as the United States learned all too well from the lingering remnants of ISIS’s predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq. It’s also because regional challenges that Washington has suppressed by cultivating strategic ambiguity—deliberate vagueness in policy formulation that allows for different audiences to understand the same policy differently, thus allowing flexibility down the road—will become impossible to ignore and difficult to manage. There are four chief strategic ambiguities Washington has perpetuated, partly because they’ve proven useful—perhaps even essential—to the campaign against ISIS. While some predated the campaign and others arose from it, they’ve already proven victims of its success. As these ambiguities prove unsustainable, the United States may be forced to do something very hard where Middle East policy is concerned: disappoint some who thought they could rely on Washington, and prepare for confrontation with others with whom it has tried to delay outright conflict. To be clear: These persistent ambiguities weren’t mistakes on Washington’s part. To the contrary, my colleagues and I in the Obama administration who worked on counterterrorism and Middle East regional issues believed in maintaining these ambiguities at key junctures, even if we didn’t always think of them as “ambiguities” per se at the time. Especially as Washington held together a tenuous set of partners to dislodge ISIS without committing huge numbers of U.S. troops, these ambiguities helped propel the campaign. Moreover, the inability to sustain these ambiguities shouldn’t be viewed as evidence of failure by the Trump administration, which has, to its credit, maintained momentum in the campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. To some extent, these ambiguities were necessarily temporary. We should, however, worry that inept diplomacy and ideological fixation may be hastening their demise—a possibility with dangerous consequences. One carefully crafted ambiguity we managed concerned the future of the Iraqi Kurds. Washington has been clear that its relationship with the Kurds—essential partners in the campaign against ISIS—is a special one. At the same time, Washington has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to a single Iraqi state, understandably a prerequisite for smooth relations with Baghdad, another critical counter-ISIS partner. But what of the Kurds’ yearning for independence, which puts them at odds with Baghdad? For years, a deliberately ambiguous refusal to deal with that issue was Washington’s holding line: The United States simultaneously committed itself to the territorial integrity of a single Iraqi state and to a special friendship with the Kurds in the country’s north. As the past months have shown, however, the issue will permit ambiguity no longer, as Baghdad’s tanks continue to reoccupy Kurdish oil fields in the wake of a Kurdish vote for independence. By allowing those tanks to roll in, perhaps Washington is already signaling its lean toward Baghdad. This points to a second ambiguity involving the Kurds, but on the other side of Iraq’s border with Syria. There, the Syrian Kurds have been indispensable in shrinking the safe haven ISIS once enjoyed, from which the group plotted terrorist attacks worldwide. But the Syrian Kurds, too, have ambitions for at least a certain degree of autonomy, if not outright independence, that cause palpitations in key regional capitals—namely Damascus, which seeks to reassert control over all of Syria, and Ankara, which views the Syrian Kurds as indistinguishable from Kurdish terrorists responsible for years of bloody attacks inside Turkey What of the Syrian Kurds and their desire for at least semi-autonomy within the Syrian state? Washington has remained ambiguous on this question, thus ensuring that the Syrian Kurds remain a vital partner in clearing ISIS from strongholds such as Raqqa while also maintaining Turkey as the host for counter-ISIS operations launched from Incirlik Air Base. But with Raqqa cleared and Damascus—with Moscow’s backing—already consolidating its control over war-torn Syria, Washington will soon be forced to show how far it will go to support the Syrian Kurds. Also jostling for influence in post-ISIS Syria is Iran, another key partner of Damascus. Washington has, of course, never been ambiguous about its view of certain aspects of Tehran’s behavior, such as its support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah. But when it came to Iran’s role in the fight against ISIS in Syria, the United States has clung to a third ambiguity: accepting that the enemy of one’s enemy may be tolerable as one’s friend, in certain respects … for a time. That time is running out. As various military forces collide in ever-tighter, now-ISIS-free spaces in Syria, U.S. forces are shooting down Iranian drones in Syria’s airspace. How to deal with Iran now in Syria seems, as drones fall from the sky, a challenge past the point of ambiguity. Finally, there’s the future of Syria, and Bashar al-Assad’s role in it—and the role of his patron Vladimir Putin. Given the statements emerging from Washington at various times avowing that “Assad must go,” describing Washington’s approach to this issue as ambiguous may seem odd. Of course, that call has never been fulfilled, despite Assad’s butchery. What, then, is Washington’s real “must-have” for Syria’s future? A new constitutional structure that, at least in name, makes Assad something other than Syria’s “president,” even if in practice he retains a dominant governing role? Semi-autonomy for the Kurds? Whatever it is, with ISIS playing less of a role in dictating how the United States thinks about Syria and Russian military forces increasingly provocative toward U.S. forces within Syria’s borders, the window for ambiguity is quickly closing. These ambiguities may have been inherently unsustainable. But poor coordination in Washington, tone-deaf diplomacy abroad, and ideological approaches to foreign policy may both accelerate their demise in 2018 and make them needlessly dangerous. For example, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s ill-timed call for Iranian-backed militias to disband or leave Iraq clearly exacerbated the already serious dispute between Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurds. Likewise, the mishandling of key issues in U.S.-Turkish relations aggravates the question of the Syrian Kurds’ future and raises the odds of a crisis between Washington and Ankara. The retreat from ambiguity would be a difficult path for any administration to navigate—there’s a reason the United States hasn’t taken sides in these fraught rivalries and conflicts. Amid all the chaos within the Trump administration, not to mention the State Department’s emaciated condition, even the fundamental focus needed to find a way through these challenges and lay the groundwork for a more stable region is lacking. The end to America’s carefully cultivated strategic ambiguities in the Middle East may be inevitable. The skillful management of difficult diplomacy is, however, a matter of choice and skill. As we keep our eyes on the winding road ahead, we can only hope for able drivers. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/12/middle-east-isis-syria-kurds-iran-iraq-turkey-trump/549227/ (C) 2017 The Atlantic

Aung San Suu Kyi, the state counselor of Myanmar, refused to earnestly discuss reports of Rohingya women and girls being systematically raped by the country’s security forces, according to an exclusive story published The Guardian. The publication reviewed an internal memo from a meeting between Suu Kyi and Pramila Patten, a senior U.N. envoy on sexual violence in conflict. In a letter to U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres, Patten wrote that the “meeting with the state counselor was a cordial courtesy call of approximately 45 minutes that was, unfortunately, not substantive in nature.” Patten said that Suu Kyi instead promised her she would attend “a number of good meetings” with senior Myanmar officials, who in turn said that claims of rape had been wildly exaggerated. “Moreover, a belief was expressed that those who fled did so due to an affiliation with terrorist groups, and did so to evade law enforcement,” Patten wrote. Suu Kyi has been widely criticized for failing to speak out against the persecution of minority Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state — a campaign of violence that has prompted more than 650,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. Media reports have revealed that Myanmar’s security forces are brutally and systematically raping women and girls as a “calculated tool of terror.” After an internal investigation into allegations of violence, Myanmar’s military cleared itself of any blame. But like many other activists and experts, Patten cast doubt on the results of the investigation. “The military investigation, which consisted of armed men in uniform ‘interrogating’ civilians in large group settings, often on camera, and then presenting rations to communities following their testimony and cooperation, clearly occurred under coercive circumstances, where the incentive structure was not to lodge complaints,” Patten wrote. “Accordingly, over 800 interviews yielded zero reports of sexual or other violence against civilians by the armed and security forces.” The wave of criticism Suu Kyi continues to face has been tremendous. The Nobel Prize laureate has come under fire from some of the world’s most famous people, including Malala Yousafzai, Angelina Jolie, titans of the music industry, and she’s had her prestigious Freedom of Oxford honor withdrawn due to her silence over the issue. And now, everyday parents are demanding that Suu Kyi be removed from a popular children’s book in which she’s featured. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls has been one of the most popular books of the year, and it features stories about some of the world’s most accomplished women, including Hillary Clinton, Serena Williams and Aung San Suu Kyi. Parents who have purchased the book, which is meant for children as young as 6 years of age, have begun posting their outrage at her inclusion in the text and their demands that she be dropped from it on the Facebook page used to promote the book, The Guardian reported. “As much as 99 per cent of book is inspiring, I found it absolutely disgusting that you have included someone suspected of genocide in the book. Aung San Suu Kyi has no place between those women,” one mother wrote, according to The Guardian. “Someone who does nothing and perhaps is directly involved in massacres, rapes, burning of kids alive … I am speechless she is in the book.” http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2017/12/27/aung-san-suu-kyi-reportedly-refused-to-engage-in-discussion-about-sexual-violence-against-rohingya-women/ (c) 2017 The New York Times

The opposition to the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on Myanmar is perplexing. The proposal was put forth by the OIC calling for granting aid agencies access to the Rakhine State and granting full citizenship to the Rohingyas. Despite overwhelming proof that there has been widespread violence (including massacres and rapes) committed against the Rohingya people; it is unfortunate to see countries like Russia and China, which could be key players in brokering a sustainable solution to the crisis, opposing the adoption of the motion. It seems these two major powers are placing more importance on their bilateral relationship with Myanmar than any consideration for the blatant persecution of the Rohingyas and for the impossible burden that Bangladesh, with whom they have friendly ties, is being forced to bear. What is happening in Myanmar is no longer just the concern of Bangladesh; it is a situation that should stir global conscience. Rohingyas continue to face violence and are being driven off their lands on a distorted pretext that they are not citizens of Myanmar. Where the UN's human rights committee stated on November 16 that the situation in Rakhine was similar to “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, ten nations failed to be moved by the plight of Rohingyas and opposed the resolution. Meanwhile only 34 percent of the USD 434 million needed until February 2018 to provide assistance to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, has been raised. With such stubborn resistance from China and Russia especially, the situation is becoming more and more precarious. What are we to make of this? That the UN will remain handicapped because some permanent members turning a blind eye to the horrible crimes taking place there? Will the world body stand by and let this carnage continue? By the looks of what happened at the UN general assembly on December 25 that appears to be precisely the case. http://www.thedailystar.net/shout/editorial/why-the-opposition-1510660 (c) 2017 The Daily Star