Watching the premiere of Angelina Jolie’s new film “First They Killed My Father” in the shadows of the ancient ruins of Angkor on Saturday night, Riem Vet was transported back to his teenage years living under the Pol Pot regime. “It reminds us of the pain,” the 55-year-old said. Angelina Jolie arrives at a news conference in Siem Reap province on Saturday. (Pring Samrang/Reuters) “For me, this film is very close to what the Khmer Rouge did to me because they never cared, regardless of whether we were young or old,” he said. “They treated us like animals.” Mr. Vet was one of dozens of survivors who watched the first screening of Ms. Jolie and French-Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh’s adaptation of Loung Ung’s best-selling Khmer Rouge survival memoir, alongside the king and queen mother. The highest-profile film about the Khmer Rouge since 1984’s “The Killing Fields,” the Netflix production depicts how the life of Loung’s family—branded “new people” by the Khmer Rouge—falls apart once the ultra-communists overrun the U.S.-backed Lon Nol regime and attempt to turn the country into a sprawling mass labor camp. The film, and audience, see the regime through the eyes of a child, a point of view that only added to the challenge of vividly recreating the horrors of life under the Khmer Rouge. “It was hard, of course, telling the story through the eyes of what a child sees,” Ms. Jolie said during a press conference before the screening, where she was joined by Mr. Panh and Ms. Ung. “You can’t have a scene where there’s a bunch of men explaining the war. You need to have it from the child’s point of view and so the child picks up pieces.” “There were scenes that were very difficult because you’re not supposed to hug in front of the Khmer Rouge, you’re not supposed to cry in front of the Khmer Rouge, you’re not supposed to say mother or father in front of the Khmer Rouge,” she added. “So these things were very limited, but hopefully in the film that’s explained so you can feel…how they had to hold a lot of emotion publicly, which is really difficult.” The film is rare for offering lighter moments—of Loung playing with her siblings and talking with her father—alongside depictions of death and destruction faced by Cambodians during the three years, eight months and 20 days of Pol Pot’s rule. Angelina Jolie, right, greets Queen Mother Norodom Monineath as King Norodom Sihamoni looks on, at the premier of the film “First They Killed My Father” in Siem Reap City on Saturday. (Amanda Boury) Another child survivor of the Khmer Rouge, Youk Chhang, now the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said that it was the moments depicting beauty amid the grim reality of life that hit him the hardest. “It shows another side of the history—you see the smile. When you see the smile of the child, it breaks my heart, it brought me to tears,” Mr. Chhang said. “You see the vegetables, you see the fruits, you see the beautiful forests. It breaks your heart because it happened in a tragic period,” he added. “I have never seen a Khmer Rouge film with a smile in it. It’s the first Khmer Rouge film where there’s beauty in it.” At the back of the screening area, the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) set up a tent where survivors could receive treatment if they found themselves overwhelmed by the graphic beatings, mine explosions and murders in the film. “Looking at the back of the survivors, most of them were crying,” said Malin Pov, a TPO psychiatric nurse. “It makes them remember the past. Some survivors may not sleep that night or suffer bad dreams.” Nobody sought out treatment after the film. Still, she said, she thought the film would be “helpful for all Cambodians.” Krak Thy, 67, who was still seated after Ms. Jolie had exited the screening through a media scrum and into an awaiting minivan to cheers, said he was left thinking about the family members he had lost to the regime. “It reminded me of seeing so many Cambodians die at the time, including five family members,” he said. However, he believed that the film could help ensure that Cambodia never sees such brutality again. “What I cannot forget is they never gave us enough food. For me, I want there to be more films to show the young generations to prevent it from happening again,” he said. “Please, don’t keep this concealed.” His old friend, Mr. Vet, agreed and said that the pain of the past was worth reliving if it protected future generations from the same fate. “It reminds me of the pain,” he said. “But it’s a good reminder, that in the future no one can forget this serious pain we suffered.” __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Cambodia Daily

Parts of war-ravaged South Sudan are officially in famine, a government official declared on Feb. 20. They predict nearly half the country's population will lack reliable access to affordable food by July. (Reuters) NAIROBI — A severe food shortage has deteriorated into a famine in two counties in South Sudan, the government and United Nations announced Monday, with 100,000 people facing starvation. Joyce Luma, head of the World Food Program in South Sudan, called the famine “man-made,” blaming it on political turmoil in a country engulfed in civil war since late 2013. Luma and representatives of two other U.N. agencies — ­UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) — ­issued the famine declaration at a news conference in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, along with Isaiah Chol Aruai, the head of the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. A formal declaration of famine indicates that people are dying of hunger. “Our worst fears have been realized. Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive,” said Serge Tissot, representative of the FAO in South Sudan. The agencies painted a grim picture of the situation in the impoverished country, saying that 100,000 people are at risk of starvation and that 1 million more are on the brink of famine. About 5.5 million people, or about half of South Sudan’s population, will face severe food shortages by the summer unless more relief is provided, they said. South Sudan, which became independent from Sudan in 2011 with strong support from the U.S. government and the international community, descended into conflict in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir fired his vice president, Riek Machar. The ensuing war took on ethnic overtones, with Kiir’s Dinka group battling members of Machar’s Nuer group. Tens of thousands of people have died, and more than 1.5 million have fled the country. The U.N. officials said that war had disrupted agriculture, the main occupation in many parts of the country, crippling the economy and leaving people unable to feed themselves. People are relying on “whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch,” Tissot said. The two counties affected by famine are in Unity, an important oil-producing state in the north. The U.N. agencies said that more humanitarian aid is needed to prevent the famine from spreading to other areas. “If sustained and adequate assistance is delivered urgently, the hunger situation can be improved in the coming months and further suffering mitigated,” the agencies said in a report. U.N. officials have complained that both government and opposition forces have blocked humanitarian convoys and attacked aid workers, making it difficult to bring assistance to the worst-affected areas. Jeremy Hopkins, head of ­UNICEF in South Sudan, said that more than 250,000 children are severely malnourished and that if they do not receive food immediately, “many of them will die.” The officials said the hunger crisis is the worst since fighting started three years ago. South Sudan has experienced starvation before. In 1998, a famine occurred in the region of Bahr El Ghazal after a prolonged drought and fighting between forces supporting Sudan’s government and rebels seeking independence for the south. The United Nations has been alarmed by the recent deterioration in South Sudan. In December, U.N. officials warned that “ethnic cleansing” was taking place and that an “all-out ethnic civil war” could occur. Last week, Arif Husain, the World Food Program’s chief economist, told Reuters that 20 million people could die of starvation over the next six months in famines in northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. (C) 2017 The Washington Post

King Norodom Sihamoni gives flowers to Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie at the premiere of Jolie’s new film First They Killed My Father on Saturday in Siem Reap. STR/AFP After the ministers, dignitaries and survivors of the Khmer Rouge had filed in Saturday evening, and Angelina Jolie had greeted the arrival of King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath, the lights in the ruins of the ancient city of Angkor Thom finally dimmed for the world premiere of First They Killed My Father. For a brief moment, the rustling of insects was the only sound before the audience of more than 1,000 was transported back to April 12, 1975. An adaptation of Loung Ung’s autobiographical book recounting her and her family’s suffering under the Khmer Rouge, the Jolie-directed film depicts in vivid detail the forced evacuations from Phnom Penh, the journey to the brutal lab our camps in the country’s northwest, and, for Ung, the conscription of children as soldiers into the ranks of the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea. Ung, who is portrayed in a highly emotional performance by child actress Sareum Srey Moch, was five years old when her family was ordered out of the capital. For some fellow survivors in attendance at the world premiere, the depiction on the big screen was a harrowing trip back to the country’s darkest chapter. Say Vorphorn, a 45-year-old doctor in attendance, said that while his experience as a child-survivor of the Khmer Rouge could not be compared to Ung’s, the loss of his own father resonated strongly. “I was 3 years old during that time, but I didn’t suffer as much because my mother was a cook … [but] I feel this deeply inside my heart because my father was killed during that time,” he said. Ma Rynet, the star of The Last Reel, who played an extra in a scene in which a captured Khmer Rouge soldier is beaten by angry villagers, said that seeing the final product brought her to tears. “I hope the world will know Cambodia through this film,” she added. Shot in the country between November 2015 and February 2016, the movie employed more than 3,500 background actors to recreate scenes showing the population transfers and forced collectivization of the Khmer Rouge, as well as battle sequences from the eventual Vietnamese invasion that toppled the regime. The film is in Khmer, with occasional French and Vietnamese, and will be released later this year on Netflix. Angelina Jolie and Loung Ung arrive at a press conference for Jolie’s film First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap on Saturday. Photographer: Eli Lillis In an interview with The Post, Jolie said that beyond highlighting the potential of Cambodia for filmmakers – foreign and domestic – she hopes the film will in some ways reintroduce the country to international audiences. “I hope that people will not just look at this film as a history lesson but they will walk away with a new love and respect for the country,” she said. Attending the film with her six children – one of whom is Cambodian – Jolie has pledged to remain involved in supporting the local film industry. After attending the premiere, Youk Chhang, the executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said the movie represented a new approach to portrayals of the trauma of the Pol Pot regime. “I think that this film, for the first time, would train [a Cambodian audience] to look for a beauty in the darkness,” he said, noting that human scenes, in which Ung shares a cricket to eat with her sister, or is hit by her brother after stealing rice, “really capture the heart”. Himself a child survivor, Chhang felt that it accurately captures the emotional complexities of a childhood experience of mass atrocity. “Children don’t use physical resistance, they use emotion. It’s the only form of resistance to fight [with] … I think Angie [Jolie] captured the complexities of the emotion on the camera.” Jolie, speaking to The Post after the film’s Saturday press conference at the Raffles Hotel, said that rendering a child’s point-of-view on-screen was a central challenge in orchestrating the camera-work with director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle. A difficulty was not just having shots at Ung’s low height but deciding “what she will and will not look at”. “That point of view grows. At a certain point she cannot look at blood, and when she’s older the POV matures and gets hardened and she starts to witness things she didn’t when she was younger,” she said. Loung Ung, in an interview on Saturday, said that she hoped the film may break misconceptions about the emotional experience of surviving war and genocide. “I think people will see that it takes more than anger, [and] it takes more than strength to survive. It takes love, it takes soul and we Cambodians have that in spades,” she said. Another survivor, Sin Nou Visakha, 65, broke into tears as she spoke to The Post after the screening, calling “the image the same as reality”. She hoped the film could educate Cambodia’s youth about the horrors of the past. “I want the young children to watch this, more than old people, because we have been through it and some of them don’t believe that we suffered like that.” First They Killed My Father will be screening in Phnom Penh at Olympic Stadium on Tuesday, February 21, at 6pm and in Battambang on February 23. It will be available on Netflix later this year. (C) 2017 The Phenom Penh Post

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is now in control of the Western Mountains that overlook Lebanon after the jihadist rebels in Serghaya officially conceded the town to the government. Also known as "Jabal Al-Zabadani," the Western Mountains were constantly infiltrated by the jihadist rebels that were entering Syria from the Beqa'a Governorate of Lebanon. While the towns of Al-Zabadani and Madaya remain under militant control, the border-crossings that were entry points for groups like Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) are now under the government's control. North of the Western Mountains sits the Qalamoun Mountains; this mountain-chain is not yet fully under the control of the Syrian Arab Army, despite repeated attempts to force the jihadist rebels to surrender the area. In order to fully seal the Lebanese border, they will need to secure the Jaroud Rankous and Jaroud Qarah crossings from the jihadist rebels and Islamic State terrorists. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 AINA

An Iraqi parliamentary committee on human rights on Monday demanded that Baghdad and Erbil investigate alleged abuses by Kurdish Peshmerga forces against displaced Sunni-Arab civilians. The demand followed the emergence of a video online purportedly showing Peshmerga forces assaulting Arab civilians who had fled Daesh-held parts of northern Iraq. A Kurdish lawmaker, for his part, said the video portrayed an "isolated incident", which, he asserted, was being exploited by "certain parties" for political purposes. On Saturday, online activists shared a video on Facebook purportedly showing armed fighters -- who activists said were Peshmerga troops -- severely beating Sunni-Arab civilians who had recently fled the Daesh-held Al-Hawija district south of Mosul. "We condemn the brutal treatment meted out by Peshmerga fighters against displaced Arab civilians that occurred in the Molla Abdullah area of Kirkuk province," Abdul-Raheem al-Shammari, chairman of the parliamentary committee, said in a statement. "These acts by Peshmerga forces are a flagrant rights violation against unarmed civilians," he added. Al-Shammari also called for an investigation into the incident by officials in Baghdad and Erbil, the latter of which serves as administrative capital of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, where the incident allegedly took place. Mohsen al-Saadoun, for his part, a lawmaker for the Kurdistan Alliance party in Iraq's parliament, said that what appears in the video was an "isolated incident". Nor, he said, did it reflect on the overall performance of Kurdish Peshmerga forces, who, he said, had "provided protection for thousands of displaced Iraqis". "The incident is being exploited by certain groups for political purposes," al-Saadoun told Anadolu Agency without elaborating. The Daesh terrorist group remains in control of much of southwestern Kirkuk, including Al-Hawija and the Al-Riyadh and Al-Zab districts, while Peshmerga forces control the rest of the province. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 AINA

Every child left behind? The Islamic State has set up education programs to groom the next generation of fighters. And they don’t just cover your standard jihadi topics, but also the more banal subjects like math, grammar and the English language. The Islamic State’s built schools, created textbooks, and even developed phone apps, to “educate” children, shedding light on a surreal aspect of the terrorist organization’s reach and strategy. Here’s an app the Islamic State purportedly developed to teach children things like the alphabet… and tanks and guns. From the Islamic State’s mobile child education app: “B is for Bunduqiyya (gun)” “S is for sayf (sword)” “D is for Dababa (tank)” Experts say there is a tactical purpose behind the pedagogy. “There’s a need to physically and mentally prepare children to be the ‘next generation’” of fighters, said Mia Bloom, terrorism expert at Georgia State University told Foreign Policy. “It exposes the children to violence in a routine and daily fashion so it ceases to be shocking and normalizes violence,” she said. Bloom and others at the Georgia State University Minerva research project on children and extremism track these apps, textbooks, and other macabre Islamic State learning tools. She told FP her team already found 35 Islamic State textbooks easily downloadable and ready to use in the dark corners of the Internet. Some are even in English. Whatever they find, they send to U.S. law enforcement and defense officials. The Islamic State doesn’t stop at teaching materials. It has even built schools in eastern Syria in 2015, complete with curriculum, lesson plans and salaried teachers to indoctrinate children. And what school wouldn’t be complete without phys ed? The Islamic State has a textbook on that, saturated in Islamic State imagery, that focuses less on dodgeball and more on tactical fighting moves. Then there’s the math textbook, where children learn to count things like cherries, crayons — and bullets with weapon watermarks in the background. Here’s excerpts of an Islamic State English primer, obtained by the Middle East Media Research Institute: What the Islamic State does actually isn’t uncommon, experts say. Children’s education may be one of the most important — and overlooked — front lines in the battle against terrorism. Terrorist groups from ETA in the Basque Country to Hezbollah use ersatz education programs to lure children into their ranks. “It makes terrorist organizations resilient and makes things like targeted assassinations far less effective,” Bloom said. If a key fighter is taken out, by drone strikes, special forces raids, or otherwise, his children can quickly take his place in the ranks. Officials and experts say it’s too early to gauge the long-term effect of the Islamic State’s educational efforts. After all, the organization has only been around for just over two years. But the group is unusually tech-savvy, likely making its impact more potent. The Islamic State’s use of social media and technology “is more sophisticated than past groups,” said Peter Weinberger, senior researcher at University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism. And the investment pays off. Weinberger told FP once the Islamic State teaches young followers English, they can deploy not just to the frontlines but to meetings with criminal networks, to cities to recruit more fighters, and to the Internet to bolster the group’s online presence in the English-speaking world. But some are used for more gruesome tasks. The United Nations recorded 362 cases of child soldier recruitment in Syria in 2016 alone, of which 274 were attributed to the Islamic State. The terrorist group was reported to use children to carry out raids, engage in fights, and even execute enemies. But the path taken from child to executioner, experts say, all started in the classroom. Image Credits: Middle East Media Research Institute; Georgia State University Minerva Research Project: “Preventing the Next Generation: Children and Violent Extremist Organizations” ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________(c) 2017 Foreign Policy

March 1, 2017 17:30-19:30 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Over the last four years, an intense and polemical debate has unfolded about the legality and morality of autonomous weapon systems (AWS), reaching the agenda of the States Parties to Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Should such weapons be banned at the outset or is it possible to manage and regulate their development to ensure compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law? How to do so? Who bears responsibility for their use? This event, co-organized with the Département de droit international public et organisation internationale of the University of Geneva Law Faculty, will discuss these questions in light of a new edited collection published by Cambridge University Press in 2016 Autonomous Weapons: Law, Ethics, Policy. The volume combines contributions from roboticists, legal scholars, philosophers and sociologists of science in order to recast the debate in a manner that clarifies key areas and articulates questions for future research. Panelists will address some of the arguments raised in this book. MODERATION Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Professor of Law, University of Geneva PANELISTS Nehal Bhuta, Professor of Public International Law and the European University Institute, Co-Editor of Autonomous Weapons: Law, Ethics, Policy Marco Sassoli, Professor of International Law at the University of Geneva and at the Geneva Academy Kerstin Vignard, Deputy to the Director and Chief of Operations, UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) ABOUT GENEVA ACADEMY WEDNESDAYS Geneva Academy Wednesdays are a platform coordinated by Geneva Academy researchers and teaching assistants to foster debate and discussion between academics and practitioners on different aspects of international law or international relations. LOCATION Villa Moynier, 120B Rue de Lausanne, Geneva ACCESS PUBLIC TRANSPORT Tram 15, Direction Nations - tram stop Butini Bus 1 or 25, Direction Jardin Botanique - bus stop Sécheron ACCESS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Villa Moynier is accessible to people with disabilities. If you have a disability or any additional needs and require assistance in order to participate fully, please email info@geneva-academy.ch (c) Geneva Academy 2017

A Rohingya child bride who ran away from her husband carries her sister outside a shack she shares with her mother and siblings, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 9, 2017. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin The slight girl in a turquoise headscarf held back tears as she recalled what happened when she fled to Malaysia from Myanmar's violence-hit Rakhine state. Just 12-years-old at the time, she was forced to wed a man she did not know, and who was more than a decade older than her. The teenager, who is not being named by Reuters because she is still only 13, is like hundreds of Rohingya girls escaping persecution, violence and apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, only to be sold into marriage to Rohingya men in neighbouring Malaysia, migrant groups and community members said. Separated from her family while escaping to Malaysia, she said she was caught by traffickers and held for weeks in a filthy and brutal jungle camp near the Thai-Malaysian border with dozens of others. Her captors told her a Rohingya man was willing to give her freedom if she agreed to marry him. "The (trafficking) agent said I had been sold to a man and I asked, how could do they do that?... My heart was heavy and I was scared," the girl said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur. Reuters could not independently verify certain aspects of her story but her mother confirmed she was held in the camp for weeks before being released. The girl's plight is just one illustration of the hardships faced by many Rohingya Muslims, a minority group in Myanmar who are regarded by the nation's government as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, entitled only to limited rights. Since 2012, violence and communal clashes have seen hundreds of Rohingya killed while tens of thousands have fled, seeking refuge in neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh. In the most recent crackdown, security forces and police committed mass killings and gang rapes and burned villages in northern Rakhine, a U.N. investigation published earlier this month found. MALAYSIA CRITICISED It has been common for Rohingya women escaping Myanmar to wed Rohingya men in the country they fled to, usually through marriages arranged between families, rights groups said. Some of these arranged marriages would be for underage girls. But a growing number are becoming victims of human traffickers who sell women and girls to Rohingya men as brides. Matthew Smith, executive director of the Southeast Asia-based migrant and refugee protection group Fortify Rights, said the group had seen a “significant” rise in the number of child brides following increased violence in Rakhine. There are no official statistics on how many girls have been sold into marriage. In 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a report it had identified 120 Rohingya child brides in Malaysia but it was unclear how many were trafficking victims. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has spoken out strongly in the past few months against Buddhist Myanmar over its handling of the violence in Rakhine and the Rohingyas' plight. But rights groups say Malaysia, which has not signed the U.N. refugee convention, has been complicit in the abuse of Rohingya asylum-seekers because they are treated as illegal migrants with no official access to jobs, healthcare or education. They live in poverty working illegally in restaurants or construction sites. The Malaysian government launched a project this month that enables 300 Rohingya people to be employed, a move welcomed by rights groups. The Malaysian government did not return requests seeking comment for this story. CHILD MARRIAGES ALLOWED Child marriages are also tolerated in Muslim-majority Malaysia. Under Islamic law, Muslim girls under 16 can marry with permission from the Shariah court, though in the case of the Rohingya marriages in Malaysia there is no court involvement – Rohingya imams conduct them and while a marriage certificate is printed there is no indication it is a legal document under Malaysian law. The girl who was married was taken to Kuantan, on Malaysia's east coast, where she said she quickly learned that her new husband was controlling and abusive. He confiscated her mobile phone and did not allow his family to see her. She was left alone for days in the house. Eight months into the marriage, she reconnected with her parents and four younger siblings, and was rescued by her father, who had travelled to Kuantan to find her. The girl's husband did not respond to calls seeking comment for this story. She now lives with her family in a one-room shack in a small village on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. While she feels safer now, she said she was afraid that she may have to return to her husband, who has refused to grant her a divorce. Sharifah Shakirah, a refugee herself and founder of the Rohingya Women Development Network, said Rohingyas have no legal status in Malaysia, and their marriages are not recognised. This can make it harder for law enforcement to intervene in domestic abuse cases, even when they involve children. "To ask help from lawyers and police is not easy because they (Rohingyas) don't have legal status. Even when cases of child brides are reported, the police don't take action," said Sharifah, who provides help and counselling to Rohingya women. ALSO IN ASIA Four North Korean suspects fled Malaysia after airport murder: police Vietnamese man believes sister held over North Korean murder 'LIFE OF DIGNITY' According to UN statistics, some 56,000 Rohingya are living in Malaysia, although migrant groups say the number is much higher as many are undocumented. The community is mainly spread across impoverished suburbs around the capital Kuala Lumpur. For young men in this small, marginalized community, finding a partner and having a family is a way of elevating their social status and having a normal life, according to Rohingya men interviewed by Reuters. The lack of eligible women in Rohingya communities in Malaysia has created a demand for brides, while some families see marriage as a way to reduce their financial burdens, said Belal Hossain Shamia, 32, a Rohingya father of three in Kuala Lumpur whose sister was a child bride. A former trafficking agent, a Rohingya man identified only as Ali, told Reuters there is a growing demand for Rohingya brides. Smuggling syndicates can get up to 7,000 ringgit (£1,249) for each girl’s release to their family or sale to a man. Ali kept guard at a jungle trafficking camp near the Thai-Malaysian border. He said women and girls travelling alone or whose families were unable to pay the release fees were sold. "There were girls there who were about 15 or 16. They have no choice..." he said. Yasmin Zokir Ahmad, 18, recalled how her husband, a Rohingya who worked as a grass-cutter in Kuala Lumpur, paid a trafficking agent 3,500 ringgit to marry her two years ago. This was after a harrowing nine-month journey to Malaysia, which included a voyage by sea and a long period in a Thai jungle camp where she was often denied food or water. "I didn't have a choice. I needed to marry him because I need support and protection, and I want to live a life of dignity," Yasmin said. Her husband declined to comment. (Editing by Praveen Menon and Martin Howell) (c) Reuters

John Prendergast gave a talk, “Stopping Genocide and Mass Atrocities by Stopping the War Profiteers” to students, faculty and community members on Feb. 16 in the campus center. Prendergast is a human rights activist, author and the founder of the Enough Project, a nonprofit organization that fights to stop genocide and crimes against humanity in Africa. Prendergast has done vast amounts of work and research focusing on peace in Africa. “Genocide is one of the world’s gravest crimes…eliminating a group of people based on their identity,” Prendergast said, emphasizing the fact that this is a daily reality for many groups in Africa, specifically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kleptocrats such as Mobutu Sese Seko, the former leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, profited heavily from this economic exploitation of minerals. “Kleptocracies use tools of oppression like killing journalists and obstruct humanitarian aid,” Prendergast said. There are armed rebel groups who also profit from these conflict minerals, by exploiting the mining areas and selling them on the international market. This segued into Prendergast’s’ segment on the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative. Prendergast explained that minerals like tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold are all very sought after, as these are crucial in the development of electronics that we enjoy every day. However, the companies that produce these electronics such as Intel and Apple aren’t tracking where these conflict minerals are coming from. He expressed his grief with the lack of effective sanctions and overall lack of support from the international community, and said that we should use a new approach to this problem, such as organizing together. “There are people’s movements that gained traction and started cascading and things change. These things alter the course of human history,” Prendergast said, noting that the University of Massachusetts was one of the first schools to stand against apartheid. He stressed that young people, especially students, are targeted by electronics marketing. Therefore, these students should be gathering and coming together to demand conflict-free minerals. Prendergast is confident that companies will respond to their biggest consumer market and change their practices. Tim Conceison, a sophomore majoring in operations and information management, said he came to the talk because these issues are something he has been interested in since high school. He is also a member of the student government and is going to share the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative with his peers during their next meeting. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Daily Collegian

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced as a direct result of the Horn of Africa’s ongoing unprecedented drought. But it is women and young mothers who are bearing the brunt. Hodan Ahmedan was sexually assaulted two days prior to this photograph being taken, on her way to the open air lavatories. Most women claim cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) are on the rise. They blame gangs of young men who operate in the area photographs by Alice Rowsome “Two days ago four men came, grabbed me and started raping me. Most women and girls in the camp have been assaulted or raped by gangs,” begins Hodan Ahmedan, 23, sitting in her makeshift shelter where she has lived since she arrived from drought-ridden eastern Somaliland to a camp for internally displaced in Maxamed Mooge, Hargeisa. Cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) are rife here. A lack of police presence, inadequate lighting, an absence of sanitary facilities and an increase in the number of female-only households has rendered this camp an ideal ground for SGBV. “The ground is really hard here so we can’t dig to make lavatories. This means we have to go outside and because there is no privacy in the open, we only go once it gets dark,” explains Hodan “and by the time it is dark enough for us to go, it also becomes very dangerous as many gangs operate here. These are the circumstances in which I was raped.” “It happens to all of us, all the time,” concludes Sahra Hussein, one of the oldest residents in the camp. Somaliland, an arid and internationally unrecognised state in the Horn of Africa, is suffering from one of the worst droughts in years, aggravated by one of the strongest El Niño events on record, which has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of Somali rural pastoralists communities. Triggered by weak winds and warm water in the Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate cycle, is according to a new study published by the American Meteorological Society, being worsened by climate change. The study claims that “anthropogenic warming contributed substantially to the very warm 2015/2016 El Niño” and as a consequence is intensifying the cyclical droughts in Somaliland to unprecedented levels. ​Hargeisa, the capital, has been the main the destination for most climate-forced refugees and according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is now home to 85,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). But life here is a far cry from the relief most had hoped for, the situation proving even worse for women refugees. When women arrive in the capital they find themselves cast to the margins, in hostile environments with few employment opportunities. While men have found it possible to find jobs in the city, the multitude of dangers the drought has exposed women to – from sexual assaults, to illegal land grabbing, to lack of sanitary facilities – clearly demonstrates that it is the women who are bearing the brunt of the drought and its consequences. Amina Abdul Hussein sits with her three-year-old daughter Sabrin inside their makeshift tent “I arrived here two months ago. The drought killed my animals. But the lack of water has affected us in many other ways. Just before coming here, I went into labour but I had no water and so I lost my baby. I became very weak and could not stop bleeding,” explains Amina Abdul Hussein, mother of three, inside her makeshift shelter away from the sun’s glare, in a camp for internally displaced in Maxameda. Many women in the camp report they have suffered from miscarriages because of the drought and a recent study in Global Environmental Change found that reduced rainfall and high heat has resulted in low birth rates, stemming from the increased likelihood of miscarriages. “In the very early stages of intra-uterine development, climate change has the potential to significantly impact birth outcomes,” said Kathryn Grace, professor of geography at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. “As soon as my husband saw me in this state [having miscarried a child], he left. I came to Hargeisa and ended up here,” continues Amina. In order to survive, she, like the other women in the camp, picks up stones and sell them at market. They claim to make about 60,000 SOS (approximately £5.60) per ton but as Amina emphasises, “it is difficult work. I suffered many complications following my miscarriage and carrying heavy loads puts me in a lot of pain”. The money is used to pay rent and buy food. The women explain that the land they stay on is privately owned and recount frequent visits by violent landlords. “If we don’t pay, they set our shelters on fire,” explains Amina, “so many have here have been burnt”. This camp, like most of the country, receives no humanitarian support from the international community or the government. Nima Berashe, 45, explains that although various agencies have come to ask questions and assess the situation, “they have never come back”. Dacar stands among the remains of his livestock But women are not the only ones bearing the brunt of the drought. The elderly and their grandchildren, too weak to flee, have also been left to die in the rural areas of Somaliland. The last remaining donkey lies, close to starvation underneath a tree “He is the last of our animals,” sighs Dacar Yusuf Galaydh, 75, as he stands over his donkey, which is lying close to starvation head sunk to the ground. When one of his animals passes away, Dacar carries their limp bodies from his home out to a field. The harshest drought to have the racked the Horn of Africa in two decades has killed off all of his cattle, sheep and goats. “Even our donkeys have died, this is the last one,” he claims. “We’ve had droughts here in the past but I don’t remember one as bad as this one. And look at my age!” says Dacar as he marches towards the dry community well. “We have no water left. Until recently we were still able to walk for a couple hours with our donkeys to fetch water but now there is no water anywhere and we don’t even have donkeys to carry the water back,” says Dacar, “we are facing an emergency.” As aid from the government and humanitarian agencies fails to arrive, those left in the village, he explains, are now relying on water extracted from the roots of old cacti. Hatto Hussain’s livelihood has all but disappeared because of the drought Hatto Hussain, 65, says she used to own 200 goats and cows and would live off the income generated by the sale of milk and meat. “I have one cow left, the rest have died. We have nothing.” Livestock production is the backbone of Somaliland’s economy with around 60 per cent of the population practicing some form of pastoralism. With no income, the community’s food supplies have dwindled to alarming levels. “We have calculated that we have enough food for the next five days and that’s only with one meal a day,” Hatto says. Many of her grandchildren, she explains, are suffering from stomach cramps. They are lucky, she claims, none have suffered complications yet, but Dacar adds that with no water or food he expects a crisis in the coming days. “We urgently need water and food, or we will die.” As most Somalilanders have had their very way of life ripped away from them by the drought – and the lack of national and international support – it is the women and most vulnerable who are bearing the brunt. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Independent

Following the report published last week by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights signaling the incessant perpetration of gross human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State, the Burmese government has announced that it will set up an investigation into allegations of police abuses committed during the military crackdown in the state since October 2016. The plight of the Rohingya minority in the country, whose very existence has been denied by the Burmese government, have increasingly raised alarms in the international community. In late January 2017, the government of Bangladesh revived a plan, which was first suggested in 2015, regarding the possibility to transfer Rohingya refugees to an uninhabited, undeveloped coastal island, called Thengar Char. Brad Adams, the executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said that the proposal to relocate people to an island “that is deluged at high tide and submerged during the monsoon season” is both “cruel and unworkable”. According to what the plan envisages, it is unclear as to whether all Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh would be transferred, or only the new arrivals. On Wednesday, the Burmese military finally put an end to the clearance operations in Rakhine State, which the United Nations (UN) affirm “may amount to crimes against humanity”. The newly appointed security adviser, Thaung Tun, said that “the situation in northern Rakhine has now stabilized […] the curfew has been eased and there remains only a police presence to maintain the peace”. However, the violence perpetrated during the last four months has renewed international criticism of Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused of having inadequately addressed the matter. In particular, she has either remained silent on the worsening situation or participated in official denials issued from the military. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 RtoP Weekly

Armed forces fighting Islamic State (also known as ISIS) to retake a town and four villages near Mosul looted, damaged, and destroyed homes, Human Rights Watch said today. There was no apparent military necessity for the demolitions, which may amount to war crimes and which took place between November 2016 and February 2017. The Iraqi authorities should investigate allegations of war crimes and hold those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said. The United States and other countries providing military assistance to the Iraqi Security Forces should press the government to carry out these investigations. The United Nations Human Rights Council should expand the investigation it established in 2014 on ISIS abuses to include serious violations by all parties, including the Popular Mobilization Forces (known as the PMF or Hashd al-Sha'abi), units that were formed largely to combat ISIS, and are under the direct command of Prime Minister al-Abadi. “Absent a legitimate military objective, there is no excuse for destroying civilian homes,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “All the destruction does is to keep civilians from going home.” Satellite imagery shows building demolition in the village of Mashirafat al-Jisr, southwest of Mosul, Iraq, after it was captured by Popular Mobilization Forces on December 12th, 2016. Before: © 2016 DigitalGlobeAfter: © 2017 DigitalGlobe To the southwest of Mosul, Human Rights Watch documented looting and extensive demolition of buildings in three villages using explosives, heavy machinery, and fire. Witness statements about the extent and timing of the demolitions, between late December and early February, were corroborated by satellite imagery showing the destruction of at least 350 buildings, including the main mosque, in the village of Ashwa during that time. Satellite imagery reviewed by Human Rights Watch showed that the abuses took place after anti-ISIS forces incorporated the villages into a large network of earthen berms and trenches. Locals told Human Rights Watch the only armed forces in the areas taken from ISIS were different groups within the PMF. Human Rights Watch asked a representative of the PMF about the destruction in all three villages. In a written response received on February 12, the PMF stated that some buildings were used as artillery positions by ISIS while other houses were booby-trapped by ISIS in order to detonate around advancing PMF forces. They also said the PMF slowed their advance for nearly two days to avoid destroying infrastructure and private property and that after being pushed out, ISIS forces continued to aim artillery fire at the villages. The PMF did not say how long ISIS attacks on the villages continued and did not provide the number of homes destroyed by ISIS or say which groups within the PMF were in the villages. The statement did not acknowledge that the PMF conducted extensive property demolitions after retaking the areas, let alone provide an explanation for the destruction. Despite the PMF statement about booby-trapped homes, the satellite imagery reviewed by Human Rights Watch shows that the houses were destroyed by explosives, heavy machinery, and fire after the PMF had retaken the villages. Burning, demolishing, or bulldozing homes is a wholly inappropriate mechanism for mine clearance, and would likely detonate any improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In addition, almost all of the burnt buildings still have their load-bearing exterior and interior walls intact, with only the roof missing, which is inconsistent with IED blasts. Given the broader investigation and the continued pattern of destruction for almost two months after the PMF were firmly in control of the area, Human Rights Watch did not find evidence to support claims that the demolitions may have been undertaken for legitimate military reasons. Satellite imagery shows that the PMF incorporated the retaken villages within a security network of earthen berms and trenches. That network suggests that the whole area inside was well enough protected that there would have been no military need for PMF forces to demolish the homes inside the secured zone. In addition, satellite imagery shows no demolitions in other villages nearby; if there was a military need for the destruction, there should be a more even distribution of demolitions in adjacent villages. The laws of war prohibit attacks on civilian property except when an enemy is using it for military purposes. They also prohibit indiscriminate attacks, including attacks that treat an entire area, such as a village, as a military objective. Human Rights Watch also documented looting and burning of homes in two villages southeast of Mosul: in the Christian town of Bakhdida, also known as Hamdaniyah or Qaraqosh, and the mixed Sunni and Christian village of al-Khidir. The looting and destruction took place after they were retaken from ISIS, between November 2016 and January 2017. Multiple forces including the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), the Iraqi military’s 9th Division, local police, and Federal Police were present in Bakhdida, according to military personnel in the area and residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch was unable to identify the specific forces responsible for these abuses. In al-Khidir, 30 kilometers southeast of Mosul, Human Rights Watch also saw evidence of looted homes. Residents said that they fled the village one week before the area was retaken, on November 19, and when they returned home 20 days later, their homes had been looted. During that time there were several PMF units present, including the Christian Babylon Brigades, according to military personnel in the area. Elsewhere in Iraq, Human Rights Watch has documented looting and destruction of civilian property, amounting to war crimes by the PMF and by the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Peshmerga forces, in their operations to retake territory from ISIS. Iraqi authorities should take immediate steps to investigate these alleged war crimes and other allegations of unlawful demolitions, looting, and destruction of civilian property. They should hold armed forces that loot or destroy civilian property to account. The committee established by law to compensate victims of “terrorism and military errors” should process claims of victims of looting and destruction by armed forces. “The Iraqi government may win its fight against ISIS, but it also needs to win the peace,” Fakih said. “That will be difficult if forces under its control violate international laws by looting and destroying the homes of local villagers.” Southwest of Mosul Map of recently constructed security network and building demolition in the villages of Khoytlah, Mashirafat al-Jisr, and Ashwa between December 2016 and February 2017. © 2017 Human Rights Watch Ashwa Human Rights Watch interviewed six residents of the village of Ashwa, who said that on December 12, 2016, ISIS forces who had taken control of the area in June 2014 left the village as fighters belonging to the PMF’s League of the Righteous (Asa'ib Ahl al-Haqq) and the Ali al-Akbar Brigade (Lua Ali al-Akbar) took control of the area. The residents could identify which PMF groups came to the village from their banners, flags, and badges. Once the PMF took over, they told residents to leave the area for a displaced persons camp to the south. Residents said ISIS prevented locals from fleeing by reinforcing pre-existing security earthen berms surrounding the village. Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite imagery that showed ISIS had substantially reinforced the berms by August 2016. When the PMF arrived, the residents said they opened up a section of the berm so that villagers could leave. Satellite imagery of the village shows that after the PMF captured it, they incorporated the pre-existing berms into much larger, newly-constructed security earthen berms to the south and west of the village between December 11 and December 22. Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite images that show 46 buildings were destroyed between December 8 and December 20, and an additional 94 buildings were destroyed between December 20 and February 10. Visible damage signatures were consistent with the use of high explosives, heavy machinery, and fire. One of the buildings destroyed by explosives was the Ashwa Mosque, the primary mosque in the village. Mashirafat al-Jisr Human Rights Watch interviewed three displaced residents of Mashirafat al-Jisr, the neighboring village to Ashwa. One said that on the morning of December 12, at about 10 a.m., he saw four cars with ISIS fighters pull into the village and immediately come under fire. At that time, the majority of the village residents, roughly 100 people, fled by car to a nearby hill, residents told Human Rights Watch, and watched as ISIS forces left the village and fighters flying PMF banners entered. One villager remained behind to protect his property. He said he saw 10 cars arrive, and the fighters who descended introduced themselves to him as members of the Martyrs of Sayyid Battalions (Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada). They told him to leave the area, to which he responded that if the villagers returned to find their homes looted he would blame their unit. Satellite imagery showing the village of Mashirafat al-Jisr, Iraq, before building demolition.© 2016 DigitalGlobe He said he left, joined the other villagers, and traveled on to a camp, where they remained. The three residents said that most villagers did not return home but seven days later, one young villager who was recruited by the PMF inside the camp went back to the village with two other new recruits and sent his relatives photos suggesting their homes had been looted or destroyed. The photos, which Human Rights Watch saw, show at least one house burned from the inside, one house destroyed, and two looted. One of the new recruits said that when he got to the village on December 19, he saw that many homes had been destroyed, and those still standing had been looted, many had also been burned. At that time, the village was under the control of the PMF unit League of the Righteous. He heard one fighter ask a League of the Righteous officer what had happened in the village, and he replied that the homes had been full of IEDs. He also said that the Martyrs of Sayyid Battalions had been in the area at one point, but did not give a date. Satellite imagery showing the village of Mashirafat al-Jisr, Iraq, after building demolition.© 2017 DigitalGlobe The satellite imagery shows that more than 90 per cent of the affected buildings in the village were destroyed by fire. Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite images of the village taken on December 6, January 1, January 24, and February 2. The first set showed no signs of significant building damage, the later images showed that 100 buildings had likely been burnt down or demolished with high explosives. In addition, the village appears to have been incorporated into a military post, with security earthen berms running along the western edge. Khoytlah Anti-ISIS fighters retook the village of Khoytlah from ISIS on December 13, at which point all the residents left and have not yet returned. Federal Police officers at a base in Qayyarah told Human Rights Watch that the PMF retook the village from ISIS and that only PMF fighters remained in the area after the clashes. Human Rights Watch was unable to identify which PMF were present. A local leader who was present in the village under ISIS and withdrew as the village was being retaken by the PMF said that he did not witness ISIS destroying buildings before he and the rest of the villagers left their homes. Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite images of the village that showed armed forces likely demolished at least 63 buildings with explosives, heavy machinery, and fire between December 8 and 22, and an additional 47 buildings between December 22 and February 10. A satellite image taken on January 1 captured a smoke plume from an active building fire, indicating burning continued in the village two weeks after it had been occupied by anti-ISIS forces. Southeast of Mosul Bakhdida In early January, Human Rights Watch researchers visited the Christian town of Bakhdida, 20 kilometers southeast of Mosul, and observed evidence of extensive looting and burning of homes. Human Rights Watch spoke with six residents who had been displaced from the town in 2014 when ISIS took it over and were now living in Erbil. Three said their homes in Bakhdida had been looted and three others said their homes were damaged by fire after anti-ISIS forces took control of the town in October. Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite images of the town from October 18, showing multiple building fires burning across the city before anti-ISIS forces took over, but the displaced residents who spoke to Human Rights Watch said that they visited their homes after anti-ISIS forces took over the town and saw that they had not been impacted by the fighting or intentional destruction under ISIS. In the months following the ISIS withdrawal, no residents were living in the town and it was occupied only by anti-ISIS security forces, according to the residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch. According to local military personnel, the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), an Assyrian Christian brigade within the PMF, the Iraqi military’s 9th Division, and local and federal police took control of the town after ISIS was forced out . Human Rights Watch passed through NPU checkpoints in the town and saw NPU graffiti tags on walls throughout the town. Three displaced residents told researchers that in the days after the town was retaken by a range of anti-ISIS forces, on October 22, they traveled back to their town from Erbil to check on their homes and saw that their homes were not damaged and that most of their personal items were still there. They said that after surveying their property they locked up and returned to Erbil. Afterwards they returned regularly to the town and said that during these visits, from mid-November to early January, they saw their homes had been broken into and the contents looted. Another displaced resident told Human Rights Watch that he visited his home on November 6, and found that the federal police had established a base in the building next door, and the NPU another behind his house. At the time, he said some of his furniture and personal belongings had been moved out onto his lawn but that his belongings were for the most part still there. He said that his home had not been damaged. He returned to the town again on November 21, but this time said that he found that some of his furniture and one room had been burned. He went to the Federal Police base to ask what had happened, and an officer said that the fire had somehow been the result of a recent ISIS insurgent attack, without providing any details. Human Rights Watch could not verify whether such an attack occurred. A fifth resident also displaced to Erbil since 2014, told Human Rights Watch that he visited his home in Bakhdida on December 2, and saw no signs of damage to his property. He said at that point the town was occupied by anti-ISIS forces, including from the local police and NPU, and the situation was calm. He said he left at 3 p.m. the same day, and two days later, his cousin called to say he had seen the house had been burned from the inside. The resident returned to the town on December 5, and confirmed that his house had been set on fire. He told Human Rights Watch he heard a rumor in mid-January that the local police, in conjunction with the NPU, had arrested two men from the Shabak community (a minority group in Iraq) accused of having committed another arson attack, and had sent them to Baghdad. Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm this or to connect these men to any of documented incidents of home burning Another resident, also displaced to Erbil, who had visited his home in Bakhdida on December 26 and confirmed his property was not damaged, received a call on January 10 from a friend who said he heard that his house had been burned. The resident traveled back home the next morning and confirmed it had been destroyed. He said that while there, he saw local police and NPU fighters present in the town and that other anti-ISIS fighters may have also been there. Al-Khidir In the village of al-Khidir, 30 kilometers southeast of Mosul, Human Rights Watch also saw evidence of destruction of a few homes in early January. Three residents said that they fled the village one week before the area was retaken by anti-ISIS forces on November 19, and when they returned home 20 days later, their homes had been looted. During that time, according to military personnel in the area, there were several PMF units present, including the Babylon Brigades. A local commander present in the area throughout the operation, told Human Rights Watch that he had observed the extensive looting, knew which forces were behind it, but would not divulge their identity. His statement, however, reflected that the looting was not done by ISIS fighters before they withdrew from the village, Human Rights Watch said. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch