Hind Safaa has returned to her hometown of Qaraqosh in northern Iraq after Islamic State fighters were pushed out of the town. She and her family left the area two years ago due to fears that Islamic State fighters will target them as religious minorities. Safaa was shocked to witness the destruction and ruins brought upon a town she once called home. Her house where she spent her entire childhood was destroyed. “I can’t describe how I really feel. All of these pieces that have been thrown and destroyed carry beautiful memories,” Safaa said. “These are things that mom and dad worked very hard to build.” Safaa, her parents and siblings were lucky to have left the town in August 2014 two hours before Islamic State took over. Some in town weren’t as lucky. Before IS attacked Qaraqosh, Safaa was going to Mosul’s College of Medicine and dreamed of becoming a doctor. Her family left everything behind, taking refuge in the relatively safer Kurdistan region in northern Iraq. Saffa told VOA that militants have taken whatever they could and destroyed the rest. “In every room, there were shattered parts of furniture, broken plates and torn clothes making it hard to walk through the house,” Saffa said. “It was so messy because IS fighters were planning to burn the house, but for some reasons they didn't.” Saffa added that IS burned hundreds of other houses that belonged to Christian minorities in the area, including the tall church of St. Mary al-Tahira. “IS graffiti has been smeared on its [church] walls, the nave is scorched black by fire and the altar has been vandalized,” Saffa said. St. Mary al-Tahira church was once Iraq’s largest Christian church, and about 3,000 people attended the church every Sunday. Its symbolic significance for Iraqi Christians explains why hundreds of residents rushed back to the town to re-establish the church in late 2016. FILE - An Iraqi Christian man from Mosul, who fled with his family from violence in their country, reads a book at the Latin Patriarchate Church in Amman, Jordan, Aug. 21, 2014. But things for many Christians including Saffa are not the same anymore. The rebirth of the Christian community in Qaraqosh and the rest of Iraq seems difficult as most Christians who fled the town refuse to return, and instead are embarking on journeys to settle abroad. IS blow to coexistence The mass Christian departure from Iraq has made the future survivability of the church uncertain in a region where Muslims and Christians have lived as neighbors for centuries. IS not only targeted minority Christians, but also broke societal fabrics in Iraq. “I don't want to live in this place again. I don't want to ever live next to people who chose to stay under IS rule,” Safaa told VOA. She and her entire family are attempting to leave Iraq and join their community diaspora in Europe. Migration to the West for her is not only an attempt to find safety, but also a door for opportunities. “Two of my friends who moved to France are now preparing to study medicine. And my high school friend, Maryana, has become a great photographer there,” Safaa said. Maryana Habash, Safaa’s friend from high school, left with her family the night IS attacked Qaraqosh as well. “The situation was so complicated that night that I didn’t even know where some of my family members were,” Habash told VOA. “I could think about anything but how to find a safe place for my two little sisters.” Habash and her family took political asylum in France in early 2016. She now lives in Riems, France and began school. Just like her friend Safaa, Habash, too, thinks Qaraqosh is in her past now. “I might want to travel there at some point in the future, but I will never live there again. The values of human rights are non-existent in Iraq,” Habash said. Habash says eight more families from Qaraqosh also are settled in Riems, France, and more are on the way, suggesting that Riems will become their new Qaraqosh in the future. Mass Christian immigration from Iraq is undermining the efforts of Christian leaders who want to establish an autonomous region for Christians in northern Iraq with Qaraqosh as its capital. FILE - Iraqi Christians, who fled violence brought by Islamic State militants in the village of Qaraqosh, seek refuge inside a church building in Irbil, north of Baghdad, Aug. 11, 2014. “Continued mass migration of our people to the West is the greatest danger to our existence as a religious minority in Iraq,” said Romeo Hakari, who heads the Bait-al-Nahrain, Assyrian Christian political party in Iraq. Iraq had 1.5 million Christians There is no official data about how many Christians live in Iraq, but it is estimated that more than 1.5 million Christians lived in Iraq before 2003. According to Iraqi Christian Relief Council, a non-profit organization that advocates for Christian minorities in the country, sectarian violence following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and systematic targeting of religious minorities by IS and other militant groups have forced approximately 80 percent of the Christian population to leave the country. Hakari of the Baitl-al-Nahrain political party puts part of the blame for mass Christian immigration from Iraq on the West for encouraging people to settle in Europe and elsewhere. “European embassies in Iraq, especially the French and German embassies, have facilitated the migration of our people,” Hakari said Western countries have shown more willingness to accept Iraqi Christian and Yazidis, citing continued IS persecution of these groups as a justification. Earlier this year, an official from the U.S. State Department told VOA that the U.S government and Canada were working to permanently resettle hundreds of Yazidis and Christians from Iraq. Iraqi Christian leaders are continuously meeting with the U.S. and European officials to discourage such programs, Hakari told VOA. “Western countries can play a major role in providing us with assistance to rebuild our homes and defend ourselves in an autonomous region,” he added. But for many Christians like Safaa returning is not an option. “With time we have realized that it doesn't matter where we live and what system is in place. What really matters is the people around us.” __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 EMPOWERMENT INSTITUTE

Toppled tombstones at the Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery on Sunday in Philadelphia. Credit Michael Bryant/The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Associated Press The police in Philadelphia found about 100 toppled headstones at a Jewish cemetery on Sunday, less than one week after a similar discovery was made in Missouri. Responding to a report of vandalism at the Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery in northeastern Philadelphia, the police said a man told them that three headstones belonging to his relatives had been knocked over and damaged. Officers said they counted about 100 damaged headstones, which were most likely toppled sometime Saturday night. They did not say if they had identified suspects or a motive. The episode drew almost immediate comparison to a similar discovery last Monday in University City, Mo., where more than 150 headstones were toppled at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery. Also on Monday, 11 bomb scares were called into Jewish community centers nationwide, the fourth wave of such threats this year. A community center in Philadelphia was among those targeted in the first round. State and local officials denounced the destruction at the Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery, describing it as an act of vandalism. “We are doing all we can to find the perpetrators who desecrated this final resting place, and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement. “Hate is not permissible in Philadelphia.” Gov. Tom Wolf, on Twitter, described the damage as a “cowardly, disturbing” act of vandalism. Senator Bob Casey called it “despicable.” President Trump issued on Tuesday his first condemnation of the mounting threats to Jewish people and institutions, after weeks of complaints from Jewish leaders that he had been unwilling to forcefully denounce such acts. After the discovery on Sunday in Philadelphia, three groups offered a combined $13,000 for information leading to the arrests of those responsible, the police said. It will cost at least $450 to $500 to repair each headstone, said Naomi Adler, the chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, which is collecting online donations for the repairs and cleanup. “It’s horrific; it’s a desecration of a sacred Jewish space,” she said. The cemetery’s caretaker could not be reached for comment, but Ms. Adler said the caretaker was working with the police to assist in the investigation and assess the damage. The police have also vowed to step up patrols of local Jewish institutions, Ms. Adler said. There are about 220,000 members of the Jewish community in the Philadelphia area, she said. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The New York Times Company

President Hassan Rouhani election was based on his “moderate” campaign, which seemed to signal a change in Iran on various issues, including human rights. However, the World Report of 2017 indicates that he hasn’t followed through, as executions, especially for drug-related offenses, continued at a high rate. Rouhani faces elections for a second term in May 2017, but with the hardline factions dominating the security apparatus and judiciary continued to crackdown on citizens for the legitimate exercise of their rights. This is in complete disregard of current international and domestic legal standards. Iranian dual nationals and citizens returning from abroad were at a greater risk of arrest by intelligence authorities, often being accused of being “Western agents”. Nazanin Zaghari, who came to Iran to visit her sick mother, has been sentenced to five years in jail. In a letter to her 22-month old daughter, Zaghari writes, “Believe me, I had no idea such a horrifying and painful fate was awaiting you in the country where your mother was born and raised, otherwise, I would’ve never rushed a single moment to pack for or a two-week trip to Tehran in March 2016.” She was arrested in April l, 2016 at Tehran’s airport when returning from her two-week trip to Iran. But the number of executions are the most concerning, as under Iranian law, many non-violent crimes, such as “insulting the Prophet”, apostasy, same-sex relations, adultery, and drug-related offenses, are punishable by death. On August 2, authorities announced that they had executed at least 20 alleged members of a group Iran considers a terrorist organization on charges of moharebeh, or “enmity against God”. Human rights groups believe that these individuals were among a group of 33 Sunni Kurdish men arrested in 2009 and 2010. New amendments in Iran’s penal code also gives judges the ability to use their discretion not to sentence children to death. However, this has not stopped juvenile executions in 2016. On July 18, Amnesty International reported that authorities had hanged Hassan Afshar, who was arrested when he was 17-years old. In March 2016, the United Nations Children’s Rights Committee noted that flogging was still a lawful punishment for boys and girls convicted of certain crimes. On May 25, Iranian media reported that authorities had flogged 17 miners after their employer sued them for protesting the firing of fellow workers. Yet, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as fair trials and the ill-treatment of prisoners have continued unabated. In April, Omid Kokabee, a young physicist who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012, underwent surgery to remove his right kidney due to complications from cancer after authorities delayed his access to appropriate medical treatment. Hundreds of websites, particularly social media platforms, have been blocked in Iran. Intelligence officials continue to monitor citizens’ activities online and hundreds of social media users have been summoned or arrested by the Islamic Revoltionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for commenting on what has been deemed a controversial issue, including fashion. While Iran would argue that human rights are not an issue within the country, there is plenty of evidence to suggest the situation is getting worse for the Iranian people, as the regime attempts to strangle their voice to retain its power. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Media Express

Kachin and Rohingya activists in diaspora launch an international opinion tribunal on Myanmar's atrocity crimes against their communities at home The Rome-based Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) will be holding the inaugural session of its first-ever Tribunal on Myanmar at Queen Mary University of London International State Crime Initiative on 6 and 7 March. The establishment of this people’s tribunal is in response to the requests made by Myanmar’s Rohingya and Kachin victims who have made credible allegations that their respective ethnic communities have suffered international crimes at the hands of Myanmar government troops, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. Subsequent tribunal hearings are envisaged in in USA and Malaysia before the jury reach the verdict later this year. The PPT includes renowned genocide scholars such as Daniel Feierstein, past President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Dr Helen Jarvis, former Public Affairs Officer at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Dennis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary of the UN and winner of Gandhi International Peace Award (2003). The Tribunal is in the process of selecting members of the Panel of Jury from amongst a list of public figures whose nominations are based on their established personal integrity, professional competence and concerns for the victims. Among the experts who will appear before the PPT will be Dr Mandy Sadan, Associate Dean of Research at School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London & author of Being & Becoming Kachin: Histories Beyond the State in the Borderworlds of Burma (Oxford University Press, 2013), Professor Penny Green of the International State Crime Initiative, and Azril Mohammad Amin of the Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (Centhra), Malaysia. “The gravity of Myanmar’s alleged mistreatment of these ethnic communities has been a concern for us at the PPT for a number of years. My colleagues and I are glad to be able to respond positively to the victims’ request for a credible moral tribunal on what appear to be international crimes being committed by the government of Myanmar,” said Dr Gianni Tognoni, Secretary General of Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. The People’s Tribunal has a long history as an effective means of transforming communities marred by state sponsored crimes. It has convened forty-three times to deliver judgments that have guided societies through such struggles as post-colonialism, globalization, war, and economic injustice. It is renowned for its rigorous selection criteria for its jury members. Hkanhpa Sadan, the General Secretary of the Kachin National Organization (KNO), representing many in the Kachin diaspora, said, “Our Kachin people have been crying out for justice and accountability since the Myanmar government unilaterally ended the 14-year ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Organization nearly 6 years ago. While talking up democratic transition in the media, Myanmar government has been bombing – even using fighter jets and gunship helicopters – our communities in Northern Myanmar, displacing thousands of our people, including women, elderly, children and infants from their own homes.” He pointed that Myanmar is blocking humanitarian assistance and supplies to Kachin war refugees while refusing to permit the UN Special Rapporteur Professor Yanghee Lee access to the area last month to travel to the internally displaced people (IDP) camps where IDP thousands of families are freezing in make-shift camps in the high altitude mountainous, with little food or medical supplies. Tun Khin, President of Burmese Rohingya Association UK, a participating organization, expresses his appreciation for the PPT staff for the tribunal. “We Rohingyas are grateful that this tribunal effort is materializing at this crucial juncture. Generations of us Rohingya have suffered what we experience as a genocide in our own ancestral lands.” He continues, “my grandfather was a proud Rohingya parliamentary secretary in democratic Burma in the 1950’s, and in 2017, my family and I are refugees in UK now. We are subject to Myanmar’s policy of extermination because of our religion and ethnicity.” On the western frontier region of Rakhine, Myanmar troops have been accused of “very likely” committing crimes against humanity by the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner’s team. On 3 February the UN Office of High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a 43-page report of interviews with 200+ persecution-fleeing Rohingya men and women in Bangladesh’s refugee camps, which detailed harrowing accounts of rape, gang-rape, wanton killings, arson, helicopter and rocket launcher attacks and other numerous forms of inhumane atrocities against unarmed, peaceful Rohingyas. The UN report states,” “The testimonies gathered by the team – the killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention; massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food – speak volumes of the apparent disregard by Tatmadaw and BGP officers that operate in the lockdown zone for international human rights law, in particular the total disdain for the right to life of Rohingyas.” For decades, the Muslim Rohingya minority in Burma have suffered state crimes that many human rights investigators and scholars conclude amount to crimes against humanity and even a “slow genocide” as stated by Amartya Sen. They have been stripped of their citizenship and rendered stateless; prohibited from travelling even between villages; forbidden from obtaining education or gainful employment; forced into labour; physically brutalized including extrajudicial killings, rape, and torture; driven from their burning homes and villages; and dehumanized because of their faith & skin colour. In addition to Rohingya and Kachin organizations in diaspora, International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University of London, Burma Task Force USA, JUST and the Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (Centhra) from Malaysia, USA-based Genocide Watch, South Africa’s Protect the Rohingya and Burmese Muslim Association are supporting the tribunal. Cambodia Genocide survivor and genocide prevention campaigner Youk Chhang and Burmese genocide scholar Dr Maung Zarni are also among the tribunal’s individual supporters. Within the United Nations, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, has reportedly said that she will be recommending a UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry on Rohingyas in her official Mission report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which she is scheduled to present on 13 March. Myanmar’s hybrid government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the military has responded to these serious international crimes allegations first by dismissing them as “fake news” and later setting up its own “national investigation commission” headed by ex-general and Vice President Myint Swe. UN Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention Adama Dieng has officially dismissed Myanmar’s national commission as “not a credible option” while Ms Yanghee Lee said, “it doesn’t even have the methodology” to investigate the atrocity crimes. (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/permanent-peoples-tribunal-myanmar-state-crimes-against-rohingya-and-other-ethnic-minorities-tickets-31967250908) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Evenbrite

The sudden influx of Rohingya refugees is a cause of worry to Bangladesh. “Why are we punished, we are not involved in any militancy,” says Insan Ali, an elderly man living in the Teknaf refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar. He’s one of the thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar’s Rakhine State in recent months after the Army carried out a four-month long operation against “militants”. Mr. Ali is from Maungdaw in Rakhine and reached Cox’s Bazar, a resort town in southeast Bangladesh, with his family after a perilous journey across the Naf river that marks parts of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Myanmarese authorities launched the military operation in Rakhine, home for most of the country’s 1.3 million Rohingyas, in October 2016 after an attack on a police post. Rohingyas are seen as illegal immigrants by the Buddhist-majority Myanmar and are denied full citizenship. After the operation began, an estimated 69,000 people have taken the dangerous boat journey to Bangladesh. They have found temporary refuge in the Cox’s Bazar region. Most of them are in Teknaf, nearly 80 km from Cox’s Bazar town, and Ukhia, 33 km away. They have horrifying stories to tell. The refugees The Hindu spoke to described stories of Myanmarese army-men torturing people, burning down houses and taking away young Rohingya women to their camps after killing the men. The International Organisation for Migration and Médecins Sans Frontières, which got permission from the Bangladesh government to operate in the refugee camps, provided primary medical aid to rape victims. Bangladesh’s predicament is clearly visible. Initially, its border guards pushed back the boats coming to its shores packed with fleeing Rohingyas. Later, they were allowed to come in. “We have given them only the emergency services on humanitarian considerations,” says a government relief official at Teknaf. “This is only a temporary arrangement.” Recently, Dhaka announced a plan to relocate the refugees to Thengar Char, an uninhabited island in the Bay of Bengal, some 60 km off the mainland. The island, about 30,000 hectares in size, is often flooded during monsoon. The plan has come under attack from human rights groups as well as the UN. Security concerns Refugees have already crowded the areas surrounding Cox’s Bazar, which is daily visited by thousands of tourists looking to enjoy one of world’s longest natural sea beaches. Government officials say the sudden influx of refugees have triggered security concerns. Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmud Ali says human trafficking and narcotics smuggling networks have grown in strength in the region in recent months, exploiting the refugees’ “vulnerable nature”. A journalist in Cox’s Bazar agrees: “The Rohingyas, poor and socially insecure, are known to fall prey easily to unscrupulous people, and are allegedly involved in smuggling and narcotics trade.” Besides, Bangladesh fears that Islamist hard-liners, who staunchly support the Rohingya Muslims, are trying to exploit the situation for their political benefits. Some sections of the Rohingyas have formed armed guerilla groups in Rakhine to fight Myanmar’s Army and operate along the mountainous border. The Bangladesh government says it is opposed to insurgents, domestic or foreign, using its territory for illegal activities. However, experts warn that Bangladesh already faces Islamist challenges, and, if the crisis goes on, it will threaten peace and security in the region. “Unless Myanmar addresses the core issues, the region may turn into a fertile breeding ground for extremist ideologies,” says a UNHCR official in Cox’s Bazar. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Hindu

With their country collapsing, persecution growing, and well-founded fears of genocide and bloody communist revolution, a group of Western-minded Christians in South Africa is preparing for the worst.Meet the Suidlanders, or “Southlanders,” who describe their organization as “the world’s largest non-state civil defense organization.”Their motto is simple but encapsulates their mission well: “Servants of the All-Highest, free before the whole world.”Basically, they refuse to be victims.In media reports from around the world, the Suidlanders have been compared to American “preppers,” people stockpiling supplies in preparation for everything from an economic collapse or an EMP attack to a foreign invasion.But in reality, the situation the white South Africans are facing is much more bleak than what most Americans can comprehend.And their preparations, while completely non-violent and non-military in nature, are much more serious and far-reaching than those of American “preppers” collecting extra beans and rice in the pantry.The Suidlanders organization, which began as an evangelical ministry calling for national repentance but morphed into a group preparing for societal chaos, is made up primarily of “Afrikaners” and Boers, as they sometimes prefer to be called.Jerry McMullen explains all about race in “Right, Write and Race: Understanding America’s Principles,” from the WND Superstore.The estimated three million Afrikaners are the descendants of primarily Dutch Calvinists, French Huguenots, as well as German and Scandinavian Lutherans who originally settled at the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa in the 1600s.It was mostly uninhabited, except for the Hottentot people, who were decimated in an early 1700s smallpox epidemic along with many whites and a handful of nomadic San bushmen.But inspired by an 1838 covenant with God, whose protection they sought amid hopeless odds staring down a massive Zulu army at the Battle of Blood River in the South African interior, the Afrikaners were forged into a unique nation (or tribe, as some see it) in Africa over a period of centuries – complete with a unique language, history, culture, and essence that are all in mortal danger.Once the dominant people group in South Africa, with control over most levers of power, they surrendered that power in a 1992 vote. Since the advent of majority rule two years later, the Afrikaners have become an embattled minority, fighting for survival in the face of official racism, discrimination, and even the very real threat of genocide. So the Suidlanders have good reason to be concerned.And they are coming to America next month to share their story with Americans, who share more in common with the Afrikaner than any other people in the world. The Rainbow Nation collapsing South Africa appears to be on the brink of collapse, even though the mainstream media has done little to report on the looming doom.Infrastructure is crumbling, racial tensions and genocidal sentiments are being whipped up by political leaders, land grabs are accelerating, attacks on free speech are ramping up, university campuses are burning, and the economy is in complete disarray.And even before the latest developments, the country was swirling around the drain, according to many experts who have spoken to WND over the years.This month, the normally soft-spoken former South African President F.W. de Klerk, who along with Nelson Mandela oversaw South Africa’s transition from apartheid to “Rainbow Nation” democracy, sounded the alarm.Specifically, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient who shared his prize with Mandela, blasted South African President Jacob Zuma, the current South African leader, who famously went on national television and sang a genocidal song advocating the slaughter of the European-descended Afrikaners, for his increasingly dangerous actions.“President Zuma is determined to accelerate our descent along the road to state capture, economic crisis and racial confrontation,” De Klerk said at a conference marking 27 years since he announced the release of Mandela from prison.The current rulers are contributing to the nation “stumbling aimlessly down the road to societal collapse,” said De Klerk on February 2.In what some critics derided as a striking understatement, De Klerk also accused the ruling establishment of being “openly hostile” to white people based “on negative racial stereotypes.”The attitude was creating a “negative racial climate” aimed at “taking away the legitimate economic and cultural interests of [white] citizens, based purely on their race,” De Klerk added.If current trends and government racism continue, he added, it will “lead to the disappearance of the white minority in South Africa within the next 50 to 60 years,” the widely respected former South African president warned.Mrs. Marike de Klerk, the former first lady of South Africa, was murdered by a black security guard in Cape Town.During the apartheid era, there were fewer than 20 race-based laws.Today, more than 100 race-based laws discriminating against whites have been created under the guise of “empowering” blacks.The result has been hundreds of thousands of whites excluded from the labor market, living in squatter camps that have recently been garnering international media attention.Estimates suggest as much as 10 percent of the white population is now living in squatter camps, with one analyst classing it an “economic genocide.”More than a few experts predict that the Afrikaner will not survive as a people unless current trends change.Many whites with the ability to do so have already fled South Africa, with estimates suggesting at least a fourth of whites have left the country.And as WND reported in December of 2013, despite some improvements after the fall of apartheid, the nation is crumbling on virtually every metric, contributing to the exodus. Genocide and chaos President Zuma, the controversial polygamous and animist ruler from South Africa’s Zulu people, has also blamed Christianity and whites for South Africa’s escalating problems, painting a target on the backs of Christians.Here’s Zuma singing the genocide song: This month, a massive brawl broke out in South Africa’s Parliament, with members of the genocidal “Economic Freedom Fighters” (EFF) party and members of the far-left African National Congress, which rules South Africa in a partnership with the Communist Party, beating each other amid a speech.The leader of the increasingly powerful and aggressive EFF, Julius Malema of the amaPedi people, has also advocated the extermination of whites and the theft of their property.Like Zuma, he regularly sings genocidal “struggle” songs.Malema also suggested recently that the time to slaughter the embattled minority was fast approaching.“This is our continent, it belongs to us,” said Malema, adding that “no white person is a rightful land owner” in South Africa or anywhere on the African continent.“We are not calling for the slaughter of white people‚ at least for now,” he added, with the genocidal threat sparking alarm among whites and blacks across South Africa.The dire situation, while quickly deteriorating, is hardly a new development. WND reported in 2012 that Genocide Watch chief Gregory Stanton, a former anti-apartheid activist, had visited South Africa that year and warned that white South African farmers were facing a genocidal onslaught and were on the road to facing full-blown genocide.Stanton also warned that racist and communist forces were taking over the nation.Genocide Watch, a highly respected U.S.-based nonprofit organization led by arguably the world’s foremost expert on genocide, had already been sounding the alarm on the genocidal scheming in South Africa for a decade.Over those 10 years, thousands of white South African farmers, known as Boers (the Dutch word for farmer), were massacred in the most horrific ways imaginable.Often, the victims are brutally tortured, with a Bible sometimes being left on their mangled bodies.This month, Tanya Wiers, a 44-year old white South African mother of three, was stabbed more than 20 times before having her eyes gouged out, the Daily Mail reported last week. The area in which she was murdered is dominated by Malema’s Pedi people.Unlike the overwhelming majority of cases, which go unsolved, a young black man was arrested for the crime.Similar scenes of genocidal horror targeting whites especially are a regular occurrence in today’s South Africa.Experts say the ongoing slaughter constitutes a clear effort to exterminate the whites or at least drive the remaining ones – now less than 10 percent of the population – out of the country.In other words, South Africa appears to be facing the literal U.N. definition of geocide.More than 3,000 farm murders have been documented, representing a significant number considering the total number of commercial white farmers is now estimated at around 35,000, down from around 80,000 when Mandela assumed power.Tens of thousands of other whites have been murdered throughout South Africa, too, according to estimates.Because the government refuses to compile crime statistics based on race or ethnicity, many experts believe the true scope of the problem is being deliberately obscured by government. Warning signs Stanton, who has successfully predicted genocides and is widely regarded as the world’s leading authority on the phenomenon, says the signs are troubling.“Things of this sort are what I have seen before in other genocides,” he said of the murdered white farmers after a fact-finding mission to the “Rainbow Nation” in June of 2012.“This is what has happened in Burundi, it’s what happened in Rwanda,” he continued in a speech to the Transvaal Agricultural Union in Pretoria. “It has happened in many other places in the world.”After his fact-finding mission, Stanton also said there was “strong circumstantial evidence of government support for the campaign of forced displacement and atrocities against white farmers and their families.”“There is direct evidence of government incitement to genocide,” he added, calling for Zuma to be impeached and Malema to be put on trial for the crime of inciting genocide.In an email to a prominent Afrikaner monitoring the dangers, Stanton noted that Genocide Watch had raised the Genocide Stage level for South Africa to Stage 6 based on “evidence that the murders of Afrikaaner farmers and other whites is organized by racist communists determined to drive whites out of South Africa, nationalize farms and mines, and bring on all the horrors of a communist state.”At the time, Genocide Watch used an 8-stage model for genocide, with stage 6 representing the planning and preparation phase, stage 7 being the extermination phase, and the 8th and final stage being denial after the fact.Since then, the scale has changed and now has 10 stages. South Africa is now listed by the group as being on stage 6, which is the “polarization” phase, with preparation being the next phase after that.“We returned it to polarization after the ANC expelled Malema and kicked him out of the presidency of the ANC Youth League,” Stanton said.Others say the situation has deteriorated significantly since then.Also added to the list of victims in South Africa were immigrants facing xenophobic attacks, as well as police.And after some racists and others falsely cited his findings to declare that South Africa was already facing a genocide, Stanton emphasized in 2014 that he had never said that.“Dr. Gregory Stanton, Founding President of Genocide Watch, warned that early warnings of genocide are still deep in South African society, though genocide has not begun,” the group said in a 2014 statement.Stanton and Genocide Watch have also urged the U.S. and Australian governments to allow white South Africans permission to immigrate to escape the threat. The Suidlanders are prepping, not leaving For many white South Africans, and the Suidlanders in particular, the warning signs are everywhere.And so, to deal with what they believe is looming catastrophe, the group is involved in extensive preparations.Jerry McMullen explains all about race in “Right, Write and Race: Understanding America’s Principles,” from the WND Superstore.The group says it is dedicated to the protection and welfare of its members, mostly conservative Christian Afrikaners in South Africa.Beside their logo, they often include the following description: “Suidlanders is an emergency plan under international humanitarian law, according to the protocols additional to the Geneva conventions with regard to the protection of victims of armed conflicts of 8 June 1977.”Under the Geneva Convention protocols cited by the group, the protections apply specifically to identifiable groups, such as ethnic groups.In a wide-ranging interview with WND, Simon Roche, chief of the Suidlanders’ headquarters, explained that such protections would have applied to Jews during World War II, Tutsi people in Rwanda amid the genocide there, or Croats in Serbia during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia.“We, as a particular persecuted group – over 74,000 whites murdered by blacks since 1994 and over 3,500 farmers alone murdered by blacks since 1994 – which happens to be white, are no different,” Roche explained, saying the group was not racist but was responding to hate being whipped up against South African whites.Among other problems, the Suidlanders leader, who unlike many Afrikaners speaks perfect English, noted that in 2015, Zuma pointed to the arrival of whites in 1652 as “the start of trouble in this country.”Roche also noted that Zuma regularly sings songs advocating the slaughter of Afrikaners and Boers.Primarily, though, the Suidlanders are a Christian organization, he explained.“We are a unique group whose roots lie deeply in Christianity and whose identity was forged through covenants made with God Almighty,” the group says in its promotional materials.The organization, which says it has around 6,000 active members, 12,000 associate members, and 70,000 family members, estimates that some 800,000 people will participate if and when the need arises to put its evacuation plans into effect.The general plan is to escape the cities and head for well-stocked farms in the countryside.There are hundreds of routes planned to get out of South Africa’s cities in the event of crisis, and hundreds of separate destinations depending on where in the country the members are located.The organization also has a national headquarters, communications systems, refugee coordination, security, and medical preparations in place for if and when they are needed.The Suidlanders were initially founded as an evangelical ministry by former military intelligence officer Gustav Muller, who dedicated his life to the Lord and still believes that his core mission is to call his people to repentance.But over the years, the Suidlanders has become an organization dedicated also to “bringing Boers to the Lord to prepare for a crisis,” Roche said. Raising funds and awareness in America Now, two leading members of the group, including Roche, are coming to America to raise awareness of their plight and try to raise funds for their anticipated flight to rural farms when the time comes.The two men – Roche, who runs the group’s headquarters, and Andre Coetzee, chief of security for the organization – will be giving a series of presentations regarding their preparations for anticipated chaos in South Africa in the months and years ahead.The presentations will begin on March 5 in Lake Mary, Florida, with a presentation in Daytona Beach the next day. They conclude March 25 in San Diego, California.In between are stops in Nashville, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, San Francisco, and San Diego.While a number of events have already been scheduled, the two speakers are trying not to set anything too firmly in stone so that they can remain flexible.Their presentation, which has already been seen by multiple journalists at major publications around the world, will be given free of charge to groups, churches, or individuals that request it, if it can be fit into the schedule.The plan is to go where the Lord leads them, Roche said.“The Suidlanders team will be in the U.S.A for an extended period and they are well-prepared to travel, so don’t hesitate to inquire about hosting an event in your area,” Roche added.Inquiries can be made at: hk@suidlanders.co.za, via Skype by contacting simon.roche3, or by phone at 011 27 84 969 8658, he said.The goal of their tour is to raise awareness of their plight, and funds for preparations such as diesel, trucks, food, medical supplies, communications gear, and similar supplies.All preparations are legal, and all donations are strictly for vital necessities for civilian non-combatants, the group explained.Details on the legal trust that governs all donations to the group are available from the Suidlanders’ administration department upon request.Motivations and propheciesAmong other concerns, the group and its leaders are readying to help get their members out of the cities and population centers and to farms in the event of civil war, revolution, or societal collapse.Many in the organization also take inspiration from a Christian leader who died almost a century ago known as Nicolaas Van Rensburg.Some South African Christians, particularly among Boers, consider him to be a prophet.Among other predictions, Siener (Seer), as he is affectionately known, foretold that South Africa would one day be a democracy ruled by a black government.He also predicted that the first black ruler would be deemed a saint by the world, with leaders from all over the world paying homage at his funeral.While at the time the idea sounded ridiculous, and resulted in a tremendous loss of respect among his contemporaries, present-day supporters believe that prophecy was fulfilled in Nelson Mandela.Van Rensburg also predicted major turmoil for his people, the conservative Christian Boers of South Africa, after the advent of black rule.“Secondly, we are inspired by the very clear temporal evidence around us of an onslaught upon conservative Christian Caucasians in South Africa,” Roche continued, saying the examples were “too numerous to mention.” Outsider view Dr. Harry Booyens, a scientist and prominent Afrikaner author who left his homeland in dismay and moved to Canada, wrote “AmaBhulu – The Birth and Death of the Second America.”The massive book documents the history of the Afrikaner nation from the arrival of some Dutch, French, and German settlers to today.While he is not a member of Suidlanders or even an expert on the group, he does appreciate what they are doing.“I also think they are perfectly correct to prepare for an upheaval, if not a revolution,” Booyens said, adding that they have “strong grounds for their fears.”He speculated that if the Suidlanders lived in the United States, they would be supporters of President Donald Trump and Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.).“They’d be in church every Sunday morning, and they would help anyone who needs help,” said Booyens, adding that their leader was a “perfectly decent ex-military intelligence guy” and that “they insist that they subscribe to all that is stated in the Geneva Convention.” He did question and even criticize some of their views on prophecy, the birth of the Afrikaner nation, and other matters.But he defended them against other critics who think the Suidlanders are being alarmist.“It is easy for liberal folks to sit in the West Cape or, if you wish, elsewhere behind protective walls in urban protected communities, and mock these folks, question their motives or their intelligence,” Booyens told WND. “But, once you have visited a small town like, say, Tarkastad in the East Cape, as I have, you will innately understand.”“I keep telling folks, take the people from Kansas and stick them in Rwanda,” Booyens added. “That is what the eastern half of South Africa now is.”“Take a good hard look at these people,” said Booyens, whose book draws many parallels between the Afrikaners and Americans. “They are ordinary decent White Protestant Christian folks, like most folks in Middle America. This what the West looks like when it comes to an end. Take a good hard look and weep. Then extend a hand to these folks and do something before America slides into the same abyss.:President Trump may well be a very rough diamond, but he represents the reaction of millions of Americans to but one thousandth of what these folks in South Africa have been exposed to,” he added. “That is why I keep telling folks in North America it costs one air fare of around $2,000 to go and see your future… unless you take action NOW.” Over the potential long-term solutions: Over the long term, though, Booyens suggests that white South Africans would be wise to emigrate or move west to the Western Cape, so as to form a majority and eventually consider formal legal secession with help from other embattled ethnic groups in South Africa.“By now there is so much discrimination against ‘Coloreds’ by the ANC that they will go along,” he predicted. “Those feelings will only grow stronger.”With whites numbering fewer than five million in South Africa today – amid a total population of over 50 million – obviously not all of them are on the same page.Other Afrikaners hoping to create an independent homeland are looking to other areas of South Africa.But alongside growing fears and preparations, support for the idea of Afrikaner self-determination is gaining ground among significant segments of the white population and allies among other ethnic groups facing the brunt of ANC-Communist Party rule.Willie Cloete, the leader of South Africa’s newly formed National Conservative Party, is among those seeking self-determination for the Afrikaner people.Citing the deteriorating situation, the fears of genocide, the official discrimination, the end of Bible and prayers in school, and more, he said it was time for Afrikaners to regain control over their own destiny.“All the different peoples of South Africa should govern themselves in separate states with good neighboring relations,” argued Cloete, who said his party is based on Christian values and would like to unify Afrikaners.Cor Ehlers, a South African farmer and anthropologist, believes that without self-determination, Afrikaners will cease to exist as a people.And so, he has made it his mission, as the chairman of the Onafhanklike Afrikaner-selfbeskikkingsekspedisie (OASE) organization, which in English means Independent Expedition for Afrikaner Self-determination, to pursue that goal through peaceful international norms.Citing the South African constitution (Section 231) and a variety of international treaties and covenants to which South Africa is a party, he noted that the Afrikaner people, like all peoples, have the right to self-determination.He believes that, if a fair and internationally monitored referendum were to take place, the vast majority of Afrikaners would support self-determination.“Representing the majority of white people in South Africa, Afrikaners clearly face a very dark future in Africa, if at all,” he said, adding that many Westernized blacks and Indian people would also prefer to live in an Afrikaner nation than under the ANC regime.He added that it would be good for the broader West, too.“We believe Afrikaners enjoying self-determination over specific territory will bolster Western interests in Southern Africa which is increasingly leaning towards Marxism,” Ehlers said.All citizens of the nation, regardless of race or other characteristics, would have equal voting rights, he said, warning of a fringe racist group that also promotes self-determination but does not legitimately represent the Afrikaner people.The negotiations, of course, would be long and arduous, he said.But Ehlers told WND that he believes it is possible, and the best solution for all involved.OASE will eventually be sending a delegation of legal experts to the United States to sound the alarm about South Africa, seek support for Afrikaner self-determination, and more. For now, Ehlers also pointed to Steve Hofmeyr, a prominent and popular Afrikaner singer, as one advantage held by embattled Afrikaners trying to stop the eventual disappearance of their people. Seeking help from Trump Hofmeyr, who apparently has the support of hundreds of thousands of Afrikaners within and outside of South Africa, is hoping to raise money to come to America and meet with President Donald Trump to make him aware of the potential for genocide in South Africa.“I have no doubt the costs will be met,” he said about the fundraising. “But, as an Afrikaner, I am convinced that we’ll have to first survive some in-fighting, some government rage and then the overlooked practicalities of getting such an appointment with POTUS (the president of the United States of America).”“But once there, I would repeat keynotes of my European and UN addresses,” continued Hofmeyr, who, like Trump, is occasionally smeared as a racist by political enemies despite the lack of evidence for such a charge.“Genocide is only one article of it,” the singer said. “The advent of land grabs, the end of freedom of expression and 114 extra race-based laws has turned us into an insignificant communist state, deserving of sanctions – not the lenient U.S. checkbook.”Other South African leaders involved in the struggle, such as Freedom Front Plus (FF+), which has hundreds of thousands of mostly Afrikaner supporters, are working inside Parliament and outside of South Africa at the at the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and other forums to advance their cause.On a practical level, they are calling for a return to the Commando system to protect farmers.The system, which was disbanded by the government in 2003, was a sort of “home guard” defense system for rural areas and farms.Citing the murder this week of four members of the Smuts family on their farm, Werner Weber, leader of the FF+ party in Mpumalanga, said it was time to bring back the Commando structures.South African authorities have also vigorously pursued gun control, leaving many victims defenseless. The attacks on gun rights and the dismantling of the Commando system has also caused observers to sound the alarm about potential genocide, which historically is often perpetrated after the victims are disarmed. Preparing in the meantime While South Africans and Afrikaners in particular try to figure out what to do about their plight, the Suidlanders are praying and getting prepared for the worst.Precise details of their plans are not released to the public, for obvious reasons.But the general idea is that, if and when a severe crisis develops, members will be notified by text message or other means to head for a rendezvous point with their families.From there, they will join up with a convoy to move together toward predetermined “safe areas,” which will be well stocked with supplies to help care for the needy, including refugees who may not have prepared themselves.Members are expected to ensure that they have their own supplies for themselves and their families, too, so that care and available resources can be focused on the many expected refugees who did not prepare.The ANC-Communist Party government is aware of the Suidlanders and their preparations but has so far declined to comment.With problems getting worse, the Suidlanders are hoping to educate their American cousins on their plight, and perhaps even find support. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 WND

A chronology of key events 1899-1955 - South Sudan is part of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, under joint British-Egyptian rule. 1956 - Sudan gains independence. First civil war 1962 - Civil war led by the southern separatist Anya Nya movement begins with north. 1969 - Group of socialist and communist Sudanese military officers led by Col Jaafar Muhammad Numeiri seizes power; Col Numeiri outlines policy of autonomy for south. 1972 - Government concedes a measure of autonomy for southern Sudan in a peace agreement signed in Addis Ababa. 1978 - Oil discovered in Unity State in southern Sudan. Second civil war 1983 - Fighting breaks out again between north and south Sudan, under leadership of John Garang's Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), after Sudanese President Jaafar Numeiri abolishes South Sudan's autonomy. 1988 - Democratic Unionist Party - part of Sudan's ruling coalition government - drafts cease-fire agreement with the SPLM, but it is not implemented. 1989 - Military seizes power in Sudan. 2001 - Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan Al-Turabi's party, the Popular National Congress, signs memorandum of understanding with the southern rebel SPLM's armed wing, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Mr Al-Turabi is arrested the next day. 2002 - Talks in Kenya lead to a breakthrough agreement between southern rebels and Sudanese government on ending the civil war. The Machakos Protocol provides for the south to seek self-determination after six years. North-south peace deal 2005 January - North/South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ends civil war; deal provides for a permanent ceasefire, autonomy for the south, a power-sharing government involving rebels in Khartoum and a south Sudanese referendum on independence in six years' time. 2005 July - Former southern rebel leader John Garang is sworn in as first vice-president. A new Sudanese constitution which gives the south a large degree of autonomy is signed. 2005 August - South Sudanese leader John Garang is killed in a plane crash. He is succeeded by Salva Kiir Mayardiit. 2005 October - Autonomous government is formed in South Sudan, in line with the January 2005 peace deal. The administration is dominated by former rebels. Fragile peace 2006 November - Hundreds die in fighting centred on the southern town of Malakal - the heaviest between northern Sudanese forces and former rebels since the 2005 peace deal. 2008 March - Tensions rise over clashes between an Arab militia and SPLM in the disputed oil-rich Abyei area on the north-south divide - a key sticking point in the 2005 peace accord. 2009 July - North and south Sudan say they accept ruling by arbitration court in The Hague shrinking disputed Abyei region and placing the major Heglig oil field in the north. Independence referendum 2009 December - Leaders of North and South reach deal on terms of referendum on independence due in South by 2011. 2011 January - The people of South Sudan vote in favour of full independence from Sudan. 2011 February - Clashes between the security forces and rebels in southern Sudan's Jonglei state leave more than 100 dead. 2011 May - North occupies disputed border region of Abyei. 2011 June - Governments of north and south sign accord to demilitarize the disputed Abyei region and let in an Ethiopian peacekeeping force. New state born 2011 9 July - Independence day. 2011 August - UN says at least 600 people are killed in ethnic clashes in Jonglei state. 2012 January - South Sudan declares a disaster in Jonglei State after some 100,000 flee clashes between rival ethnic groups. 2012 April - After weeks of border fighting, South Sudan troops temporarily occupy the oil field and border town of Heglig before being repulsed. Sudanese warplanes raid the Bentiu area in South Sudan. 2012 August - Some 200,000 refugees flee into South Sudan to escape fighting between Sudanese army and rebels in Sudan's southern border states. 2012 September - The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan agree trade, oil and security deals after days of talks in Ethiopia. 2013 March - Sudan and South Sudan agree to resume pumping oil after a bitter dispute over fees that saw production shut down more than a year earlier. They also agreed to withdraw troops from their border area to create a demilitarised zone. 2013 June - President Kiir dismisses Finance Minister Kosti Manibe and Cabinet Affairs Minister Deng Alor over a multi-million dollar financial scandal, and lifts their immunity from prosecution. 2013 July - President Kiir dismisses entire cabinet and Vice-President Riek Machar in a power struggle within the governing Sudan People's Liberation Movement. Civil war 2013 December - Civil war erupts as President Salva Kiir accuses his former vice-president, Riek Machar, of plotting to overthrow him. Rebel factions seize control of several regional towns, thousands are killed and many more flee. Uganda troops intervene on the government's side. 2014 January - A ceasefire is signed but broken several times over subsequent weeks, and further talks in February fail to end the violence that displaces more than a million people by April. 2014 April - UN says pro-Machar forces sack the oil town of Bentiu, killing hundreds of civilians. 2014 August - Peace talks begin in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and drag on for months as fighting continues. 2016 April - Riek Machar finally returns to Juba and is sworn in as first vice-president in a new unity government - but is sacked in July after further conflict and goes back into exile. 2016 November - UN sacks Kenyan commander of its peacekeeping mission over the failure to protect civilians in Juba during July violence. Kenya withdraws its troops from the peacekeeping mission. Japanese peacekeepers arrive South Sudan, the first time in nearly 70 years that Japan has deployed its soldiers overseas with a broad mandate to use force if necessary. 2016 December - A UN commission on human rights says a process of ethnic cleansing is underway in several parts of the country, a claim that President Salva Kiir denies. 2017 February - A famine is declared in parts of South Sudan in what the UN describes as a man-made catastrophe caused by civil war and economic collapse. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 BBC News

PARIS — The Muslim member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency on Thursday asked the highest United Nations court to reopen a 2007 case that cleared Serbia of genocide during the war in Bosnia. The request by the Muslim member, Bakir Izetbegovic, is likely to fan the simmering political tension in a region still torn by the war that broke up Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Nationalists and pro-Serb secessionists in Bosnia, who have received support from both Serbia and Russia, could be emboldened by the move, critics said. Moscow has been courting Serbia and Bosnian Serbs, while also covertly intervening in neighboring Macedonia and Montenegro, as it tries to regain its historical influence in the Balkans. In 2007, the International Court of Justice ruled that while a massacre in the Bosnia city of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces killed nearly 8,000 men and boys in 1995, was genocide, it did not find proof that Serbia was responsible for the killings. But the court said that Serbia violated the Genocide Convention because it should have prevented the genocide and punished the military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic. The request to review the case was filed Thursday at the court, which is based in The Hague and settles disputes between nations. The brief argues that the court should review its findings because new evidence about Serbia’s wartime role has become available in numerous trials at another international court, according to Phon van den Biesen, the lead lawyer of the team. Specifically, he said, in the trial of General Mladic, the evidence “in its entirety” offers the most complete view of the war, “because Mr. Mladic’s hands were on all important events in Bosnia.” His trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ended in December, but a verdict is not expected until later this year. Prosecutors in the Mladic case said they had included new details about Serbia’s secret strategy behind its brutal ethnic cleansing campaign to gain more land for Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia. In 1992, at the height of that campaign, nearly 45,000 people were killed or declared missing, almost half of the 100,000 who died in the Bosnian war. (c) New York Times 2017

THE Rome-based Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) will be holding the inaugural session of its first-ever Tribunal on Myanmar at Queen Mary University of London International State Crime Initiative on 6 and 7 March. The establishment of this people’s tribunal is in response to the requests made by Myanmar’s Rohingya and Kachin victims who have made credible allegations that their respective ethnic communities have suffered international crimes at the hands of Myanmar government troops, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. Subsequent tribunal hearings are envisaged in USA and Malaysia before the jury reach the verdict later this year. The PPT includes renowned genocide scholars such as Daniel Feierstein, past President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Dr Helen Jarvis, former Public Affairs Officer at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Dennis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary of the UN and winner of Gandhi International Peace Award (2003). The Tribunal is in the process of selecting members of the Panel of Jury from amongst a list of public figures whose nominations are based on their established personal integrity, professional competence and concerns for the victims. Among the experts who will appear before the PPT will be Dr Mandy Sadan, Associate Dean of Research at School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London & author of Being & Becoming Kachin: Histories Beyond the State in the Border worlds of Burma (Oxford University Press, 2013), Professor Penny Green of the International State Crime Initiative, and Azril Mohammad Amin of the Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (Centhra), Malaysia. “The gravity of Myanmar’s alleged mistreatment of these ethnic communities has been a concern for us at the PPT for a number of years. My colleagues and I are glad to be able to respond positively to the victims’ request for a credible moral tribunal on what appear to be international crimes being committed by the government of Myanmar,” said Dr Gianni Tognoni, Secretary General of Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. The People’s Tribunal has a long history as an effective means of transforming communities marred by state sponsored crimes. It has convened forty-three times to deliver judgements that have guided societies through such struggles as post-colonialism, globalization, war, and economic injustice. It is renowned for its rigorous selection criteria for its jury members. Hkanhpa Sadan, the General Secretary of the Kachin National Organization (KNO), representing many in the Kachin diaspora, said, “Our Kachin people have been crying out for justice and accountability since Myanmar government unilaterally ended the 17-year ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Organization nearly 6 years ago. While talking up democratic transition in the media, Myanmar government has been bombing – even using fighter jets and gunship helicopters – our communities in Northern Myanmar, displacing thousands of our people, including women, elderly, children and infants from their own homes.” He pointed out that Myanmar is blocking humanitarian assistance and supplies to Kachin war refugees while refusing to permit the UN Special Rapporteur Professor Yanghee Lee access to the area last month to travel to the internally displaced people (IDP) camps where IDP thousands of families are freezing in make-shift camps in the high altitude mountainous, with little food or medical supplies. Tun Khin, President of Burmese Rohingya Association UK, a participating organization, expresses his appreciation for the PPT staff for the tribunal. “We Rohingyas are grateful that this tribunal effort is materializing at this crucial juncture. Generations of us Rohingya have suffered what we experience as a genocide in our own ancestral lands.” He continues, “my grandfather was a proud Rohingya parliamentary secretary in democratic Burma in the 1950’s, and in 2017, my family and I are refugees in UK now. We are subject to Myanmar’s policy of extermination because of our religion and ethnicity.” On the western frontier region of Rakhine, Myanmar troops have been accused of “very likely” committing crimes against humanity by the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner’s team. On 3 February the UN Office of High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a 43-page report of interviews with 200+ persecution-fleeing Rohingya men and women in Bangladesh’s refugee camps, which detailed harrowing accounts of rape, gang-rape, wanton killings, arson, helicopter and rocket launcher attacks and other numerous forms of inhumane atrocities against unarmed, peaceful Rohingyas. The UN report states,” “The testimonies gathered by the team – the killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention; massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food – speak volumes of the apparent disregard by Tatmadaw and BGP officers that operate in the lockdown zone for international human rights law, in particular the total disdain for the right to life of Rohingyas.” For decades, the Muslim Rohingya minority in Burma have suffered state crimes that many human rights investigators and scholars conclude amount to crimes against humanity and even a “slow genocide” as stated by Amartya Sen. They have been stripped of their citizenship and rendered stateless; prohibited from travelling even between villages; forbidden from obtaining education or gainful employment; forced into labour; physically brutalized including extrajudicial killings, rape, and torture; driven from their burning homes and villages; and dehumanized because of their faith & skin colour.In addition to Rohingya and Kachin organizations in diaspora, International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University of London, Burma Task Force USA, JUST and the Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (Centhra) from Malaysia, USA-based Genocide Watch, South Africa’s Protect the Rohingya and Burmese Muslim Association are supporting the tribunal. Cambodia Genocide survivor and genocide prevention campaigner Youk Chhang and Burmese genocide scholar Dr Maung Zarni are also among the tribunal’s individual supporters. Within the United Nations, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, has reportedly said that she will be recommending a UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry on Rohingyas in her official Mission report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which she is scheduled to present on 13 March. Myanmar’s hybrid government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the military has responded to these serious international crimes allegations first by dismissing them as “fake news” and later setting up its own “national investigation commission” headed by ex-general and Vice President Myint Swe. UN Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention Adama Dieng has officially dismissed Myanmar’s national commission as “not a credible option” while Ms Yanghee Lee said, “it doesn’t even have the methodology” to investigate the atrocity crimes. Dr Maung Zarni said “Myanmar’s own investigation would be like wolves figuring out who ate the chickens.” There has been a concerted activist campaign worldwide for UN member states to adopt a resolution to establish a UN inquiry. UK government has come under strong criticism from human rights campaign groups for privileging its business interests in Burma while ignoring serious allegations of crimes against humanity committed by Myanmar Security troops which the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) says the British Armed Forces are training on human rights and accountability. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Astro Awani World News

Joint NGO letter to Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the UN Human Rights Council Print Excellency, After another year marked by enforced disappearances, denial of due process, and continued efforts to suppress human rights, we call on your delegation to join with other States to take collective, coordinated action at the 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council to hold China accountable for its human rights record. One year ago today, the High Commissioner released a statement calling on China to address a wide range of human rights violations. The concerns he raised were echoed by many States at the March 2016 Human Rights Council, including through a strong cross-regional statement delivered on behalf of twelve States. These States reiterated the High Commissioner’s call for China to uphold its own laws and international commitments, and urged China to release lawyers and other human rights defenders detained for their human rights work. Human rights defenders, their families, and other activists were encouraged by the strong message of international solidarity sent by the joint statement. The Chinese government, however, seems to have ignored it entirely. In March 2016, States at the Council raised concerns about the following trends; a year later, the reality on the ground remains unchanged, and in some cases has worsened. Arbitrary arrests and ongoing detentions: After more than 18 months, the lawyers and other human rights defenders detained in the ‘709 crackdown’ remain the focus of significant pressure. According to recent counts, eight of them remain in jail awaiting trial. Twenty-six have been released on bail and most of them, despite their apparent release, are unable to continue working and are subject to surveillance, threats and ‘soft detention’. Enforced disappearance and refusal of access to counsel: On 21 November, the Chinese authorities abducted human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong who, though disbarred in 2009 for his work, had continued his work as an active figure within the legal community. His family was informed of his detention nearly one month later, well beyond the legal limit. Despite swift action by the Special Procedures, Jiang remains in ‘residential surveillance in a designated location’. The UN Committee against Torture in its 2015 review of China called for the government to repeal provisions of the Criminal Law allowing residential surveillance, calling it ‘de facto incommunicado’ detention. Extraterritorial actions: Gui Minhai, a Swedish national targeted in a roundup of Hong Kong booksellers, was kidnapped by state security authorities in Thailand in October 2015 and remains in prison in China. His family does not know his location, have little if any access to him, and have not received clarification on any legal proceedings. On 27 January 2017, businessman Xiao Jianhua , a Canadian national, was reported missing from Hong Kong; although media have said he is on the mainland, his precise whereabouts are unknown. Hong Kong: Hong Kong citizens advocating for democratic institutions and respect for human rights work in an increasingly challenging environment. Beijing continues to interfere in Hong Kong’s various institutions, including the courts, and according to media reports delayed the submission of a follow-up report by the Hong Kong authorities to the Committee against Torture. The right to a fair trial: The family and legal representatives of detained human rights defenders remain, in the vast majority of cases, blocked from visits and information on national security grounds. Televised ‘confessions’ continued to be aired. This included a ‘confession’ by lawyer Wang Yu that sought to smear the work of Zhou Shifeng, head of the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm who was indicted in August. Freedom of expression: Advocates for peaceful expression and association, online and off, as well as researchers, writers and journalists, have come under particular pressure. Nongovernmental organisations estimate that in 2016, police arrested over 100 individuals for exercising their right to freedom of expression. This included figures well-known for documenting and disseminating information on human rights violations, such as veteran activists Huang Qi and Liu Feiyue. Their websites, and others including one aimed at facilitating peaceful dialogue within China’s diverse Muslim community, have been effectively shut down. Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti continues to serve a life sentence, and Tibetan activist Tashi Wangchuk has been detained for over a year for requesting Tibetan language classes in local schools. These actions demonstrate that the Chinese government has failed to make progress on almost every point raised at the Human Rights Council. The facts also stand in marked contrast to China’s rhetoric, which has emphasized renewed commitment to the multilateral system, including through its re-election to the Human Rights Council. We urge your delegation to join with others to take collective, coordinated action at the upcoming Council session, through a second joint statement and individual statements, to make clear that systemic human rights violations in China will not go unnoticed and unchecked. In addition to highlighting the inaction on key points from last year’s statement, delegations should: Insist that China uphold its obligations to prevent, punish and remedy torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, including by ordering prompt, impartial, independent investigations into reports of torture of detained lawyers and human rights defenders, including Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang and Xie Yang. Urge China to amend or repeal the Overseas NGO Management law; any efforts to implement the law in its current form will – by definition – run counter to international human rights standards and undermine the independence of civil society. Call for the repeal or revision of the Counter-Terrorism law, and speak out against the increasing use of national security legislation and draft ‘regulations on religious affairs’ to criminalise and harass those exercising freedom of thought, conscience and religion and freedom of expression, recognizing the disproportionate impact this has on Uyghur and Tibetan communities, as well as religious minorities. Denounce the continuing forced evictions and other violations of human rights, including cultural rights, of monks and laypersons at Larung Gar, a major site of Tibetan Buddhist teaching and worship. Call for China to respect the right of everyone to freedom of movement and residence, and the right of everyone to leave and to return to any country, including his or her own, including by removing all travel bans and other restrictive measures that have been imposed on individuals for their activities to promote and protect human rights, and cease arbitrary confiscation of passports, in particular of Tibetans and Uyghurs. In the past, the Chinese government has openly expressed its displeasure with critical scrutiny of its human rights record. Such reactions demonstrate that China is sensitive to international attention. Public recognition at the Human Rights Council that China should be bound by its international human rights obligations will again give hope to thousands of defenders, lawyers, petitioners and others who seek to promote human rights in the country. At a time when human rights are increasingly under threat, the Human Rights Council should ensure that all its members, including China, ‘uphold the highest standards’ of human rights and ‘fully cooperate’ with the Council and its mechanisms, as required by UN General Assembly Resolution 60/251. In so doing, the Council will continue to act in accordance with its founding principles, and in defense of universal human rights everywhere. Please be assured, Excellency, of our highest consideration. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 human Rights watch

An international opinion tribunal has been set up to address crimes of atrocity against the Kachin and Rohingya communities in Myanmar. The Rome-based Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) will be holding the inaugural session of its first-ever Tribunal on Myanmar at Queen Mary University of London's International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) on March 6 and 7. Subsequent tribunal hearings are expected in the United States and Malaysia before the jury reaches a verdict later this year, said the Malaysian Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (Centhra) in a statement. Founded in 1979 by an Italian senator, the PPT holds tribunal hearings like conventional courts would. Its verdicts are not legally binding. "The establishment of this tribunal is in response to the requests made by Myanmar's Rohingya and Kachin victims who have made credible allegations that their respective ethnic communities have suffered international crimes at the hands of Myanmar government troops, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide," said PPT's secretary-general Dr Gianni Tognoni. "The gravity of Myanmar's alleged mistreatment of these ethnic communities has been a concern for us at the PPT for a number of years. My colleagues and I are glad to be able to respond positively to the victims' request for a credible moral tribunal on what appear to be international crimes being committed by the government of Myanmar." The tribunal members are renowned genocide scholars such as Daniel Feierstein, past president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars; Dr Helen Jarvis, former public affairs officer at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal; and Dennis Halliday, former assistant secretary of the United Nations and winner of Gandhi International Peace Award in 2003. Centhra said the tribunal was in the process of selecting members of the jury from among a list of public figures whose nominations are based on their established personal integrity, professional competence and concern for the victims. It added that among the experts who will appear before the PPT are Dr Mandy Sadan from the School of African and Oriental Studies at University of London, Prof Penny Green of ISCI and Azril Mohammad Amin of Centhra. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Straits Times

A group of ethnic militias decided on Friday not to sign the Myanmar government’s nationwide peace pact on the last day of their three-day summit at the headquarters of the country’s strongest ethnic rebel force, but instead formed a committee to discuss a “new path to peace,” a military official from the conference said. Leaders from seven ethnic militias that have not signed the government’s October 2015 nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA)—including the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)—and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), attended the conference which began Wednesday. The meeting, hosted by Wa and Mongla ethnic groups from the mountainous region of eastern Myanmar’s Shan state on the border with China, was held at the headquarters of the United Wa State Army (UWSA)—Myanmar’s largest nonstate militia—in Pangkham, the administrative capital of the militia's territory. Col. Ta Phone Kyaw, general secretary of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), said the participants agreed on nine points, which included not signing the NCA, but rather come up with a new way to forge peace. “Having a nine-point agreement is something through which we can show our ethnic groups’ unity despite sustaining offensive attacks from government military,” he said. Eight ethnic armed groups signed the NCA in October 2015. Other militias did not endorse the pact because they objected to its lack of all-inclusiveness or because they were—and continue to be—engaged in hostilities with Myanmar’s military. “We think that the government military needs to stop its offensive attacks and hold political dialogue,” Ta Phone Kyaw said. The newly formed committee will try to hold discussions with national government and military representatives to determine what the new approach will be, he said. Peace process losing momentum On Thursday, UWSA chairman Bao Youxing told delegates at the meeting in Pangkham that “a new path to peace” is necessary because the government’s efforts to get other ethnic militias to sign the NCA have lost their momentum, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a leaked version of his speech as the source. The civilian-led government plans to hold the second meeting of the 21st-Century Panglong Conference of peace talks in March. But Ta Phone Kyaw said the non-NCA signatory groups cannot yet say if they will participate in the summit. Ethnic leaders said they will try to resolve political problems through political means and discuss with government representatives the 15 points that the UWSA submitted during the first round of the Panglong Conference last August and September. UWSA delegates walked out of the first round of peace talks because they were designated as observers rather than participants. Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been leading efforts to end decades of civil wars between ethnic armed groups and the military and forge peace. But ongoing skirmishes in Kachin and Shan states in the country’s north have threatened to derail the process. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 RFA