No Apparent Military Necessity for Home Demolitions (Erbil) – 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.” 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.” 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

In Pailin, a province in Cambodia established for former members of Pol Pot’s regime, Christianity is offering the redemption that Buddhism’s karma cannot Kong Duong (right), Pol Pot’s former chief propagandist, hosts his Christian radio show. Pictures: Thomas Cristofoletti In 1979, Kong Duong was chosen. Plucked from a group of soldiers preparing to travel abroad, the 18-year-old was singled out by the feared leader of the Khmer Rouge. “We were transported to meet Pol Pot for recruitment to study in China, but Pol Pot fell in love with my voice,” Kong Duong says. “So he asked me to work for his radio station instead.” Kong Duong was appointed chief propagandist and, as the head of the Khmer Rouge radio station from 1979 to 1996, his sonorous timbre became well known among supporters of the genocidal regime. His was, in effect, the voice of Pol Pot during a tumultuous period. After almost four years, during which about two million Cambodians died from starvation, execution and overwork, Vietnamese troops ousted the Khmer Rouge leadership from Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979. The party’s supporters fled west to Cambodia’s border with Thailand, where they continued to engage the Vietnamese in guerrilla conflict. Kong Duong played his part by waging a verbal war of propaganda over the radio waves. Today, he has a very different master: the Lord. Having settled in Pailin province, Kong Duong now professes to be a Christian, and hosts a radio program, New Signs, that broadcasts Christian commentary across Cambodia. And judging by the listeners who call in, his audience remains much the same. “Most of the callers are former Khmer Rouge cadres,” he confirms, speaking in the car park of his impressive Pailin mansion (Kong Duong is also a government official). Conversion from Pol Pot’s ultra-Maoist ideology to Christianity is commonplace throughout Pailin, where a majority of the over-50s are former cadres, this being the country’s last Khmer Rouge stronghold. The soldiers and supporters who once waged war and stoked anti-Vietnamese hatred today seek comfort in the Bible and preach love and compassion in the 22 churches that serve the town’s population of 70,000. Not surprisingly, the Cambodian public remain skeptical of these converts. With some former cadres maintaining that the regime was a just one while others deny that mass killings were perpetrated, Cambodians see the change of heart as a way to avoid addressing complicity in one of the most devastating episodes in modern history. Ing Sophat addresses his congregation at a Khum O Presbyterian Church Sunday service. During the Khmer Rouge’s short-lived rule, societal norms such as traditional family units and religious beliefs were abolished; all loyalties – familial, political and spiritual – had to defer to the angkar, a word that translates as “the organisation” and referred to the party’s leadership. Buddhist pagodas were destroyed and thousands of monks – often seen as a community’s moral leaders – were stripped of their monkhood and killed. Cambodian Christians, Muslims and ethnic and indigenous minorities were also slaughtered, and anyone suspected of harboring “impure” thoughts about the regime was persecuted. The Khmer Rouge’s ousting in 1979 plunged the country into a period of political turmoil. The regime’s stalwarts fled to western Koh Kong and Battambang provinces, where they continued to fight the Vietnamese in jungle skirmishes until 1996, when the new government pledged to carve out a small province for the Khmer Rouge’s leadership. In exchange, the combatants would lay down their arms and reintegrate into Cambodian society. This small pocket of land became Pailin, named for the precious gemstones mined in the region. Foreign Christian mission­aries and religious organisations started entering the area in the late 1990s, to supply humanitarian aid to the former cadres and soldiers, many of whom had lost limbs to land­mines. Food, money, mosquito nets (malaria continues to be a problem in Cambodia) and education were provided – as was the occasional Bible, along with an explanation of its teachings. Moses Seth, a Cambodian pastor who had worked along the border in the early 1980s, says his mission concentrated on the border provinces because the government found it diffi­cult to provide services there. Due to the scarcity of resources, the aid was more appreciated, says Seth during an inter­view at his mansion, which doubles as his church, in the Phnom Penh district of Tuol Kork. Seth has developed a net­work of 1,700 home churches throughout Cambodia and estimates that he has converted more than 4,000 Khmer Rouge cadres to Christianity. Some work as pastors now, he says. The Marist Church of Pailin, in Cambodia. Having survived the regime by pretending to be a farmer rather than the Battambang government officer he had been, Seth appears to hold no bitterness towards the Khmer Rouge. “The key principle is forgiveness, that’s what I tell the people,” he says. “Most of them are uneducated, and the way they did it was to teach each other to hate each other and seek revenge.” Seth believes the appeal of the word of God is in its promise of salvation: “After they read [the Bible], they know this is the only way. They know they have killed people and done bad things to people, so they confess.” Salvation was never supposed to be an easy road, though, and Kong Duong’s path has been paved with contradictions. Before meeting Pol Pot for the first time, the then teenager had received word that his father had been tied to rocks and drowned. He believed the man born Saloth Sar (Pol Pot) to be responsible. “But, when I saw him, I realized that I no longer felt anger. I just felt like he was a good person; I don’t know why,” Kong Duong says. “Maybe it was his gestures, the way he talked and paid attention to his subordinates.” "I don’t believe that [former cadres] consider they have been doing bad things [...] the notion of guilt doesn’t exist" - Anthropologist Fabienne Luco Pol Pot became a mentor to the fledgling radio personality, and the pair had daily meetings to plan broadcasts and trawl international media for coverage of the Khmer Rouge. It was during those meetings that Pol Pot talked about the mass executions that were being whispered about by cadres. “He discussed how in the three years of his leadership, there were many people who died, but he did not have time to solve all the problems,” Kong Duong says. “He compared the regime to a newborn baby that was not yet developed. “I did not witness any executions, though I did notice that people were taken away and they never returned,” he says. “I believe there were mass killings during Pol Pot’s regime, but who are we to blame? I disagree that it was him who committed genocide. It was the village chiefs, the commune chiefs and the district chiefs who did it. They killed without a command from their supervisor.” The defense of Pol Pot and his regime – as well as denial of personal accountability – is something Youk Chhang sees frequently. As head of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, an organisation that compiles research on the Khmer Rouge, Youk Chhang and his staff have interviewed more than 10,000 former cadres, of which only one admitted to having been a killer. A poster hangs in the house of Sok Sem, a military unit commander under the Khmer Rouge who converted to Christianity in 2011. “Who would want to admit that you are responsible if you know there were others involved?” Youk Chhang, himself a survivor of the regime, says at his office in Phnom Penh, a stone’s throw from the Independence Monument. Youk Chhang believes many of the mass executions were carried out in secret, at night, and that there’s a reason ex-cadres choose Christianity over Buddhism. “The Khmer Rouge destroyed pagodas and disrobed and killed the monks, so it would be awkward to speak to a monk as a source of reconciliation,” he says. “But with the Bible [...] it’s considered external [to] Khmer culture. And that way, the Khmer Rouge are more comfortable.” While he appreciates the aid provided by Christian missions, Youk Chhang says missionaries should be sensitive to the nation’s history. “Religion is a source of comfort but it can also be a source of extremism, and it can lead to violence,” he warns. “If the church has a lack of sensitivity to the history of Cambodia, which has gone through genocide, then they might end up playing a role that is more harmful than helpful to the villagers.” He says the pastors preaching to former cadres have a duty to push for reconciliation and accountability, concepts his organisation has been working on for decades. “If you work with Khmer Rouge groups, you must be sensitive to who these people who were responsible for the death of two million are and find the right word in the Bible,” says Youk Chhang. “It must [urge the Khmer Rouge to take] responsibility.” However, according to anthropologist Fabienne Luco, who has been working in the country for about 20 years, the concepts of sin and guilt do not exist in Cambodian society. “It is the notion of karma” that holds sway, she says. “When you do something bad or good, you are responsible. Bad things will follow you in your next life. That’s why people are not so interested in what’s going on at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal [the United Nations-backed court that is currently trying the senior leaders of the regime]. It’s not human beings who will punish [the perpetrators]. They will be punished in their next life. Youngsters rehearse ahead of the Sunday service at the B.P. Presbyterian Church, in Pailin. “I don’t believe that [former cadres] consider they have been doing bad things. I have interviewed so many of them – the notion of guilt doesn’t exist. They say, ‘I was obeying orders,’ ‘I was a perfect civil servant,’ ‘It’s not me, it’s the one who ordered me to do it.’” Ing Sophat joined the Khmer Rouge in 1970, soon after the coup that ushered out King Norodom Sihanouk. Worshipped by the people for having successfully campaigned for Cambodia’s independence from France, the king took to the airwaves and urged Cambodians to join the nascent Khmer Rouge movement to fight against returning prime minister Lon Nol’s administration. Ing Sophat, now a pastor at a home church in Kampong Speu province, was one of many thousands who answered the call. Ing Sophat rose quickly through the ranks and by 1978 was military commander of an infantry unit consisting of more than 300 soldiers. Fighting on the front line against Vietna­mese troops, he had his intestines ripped out by shrapnel. “Since I was a commander for a platoon, I was always on the battlefield, so I did not witness any mass killings. But I did hear about the people who went missing after they were ‘re-educated’,” Ing Sophat says, using a term the regime’s victims often employ as a euphemism for being killed. We’re speaking at Ing Sophat’s Khum O Presbyterian Church, in the Phnom Sruoch district. At the front of the church is a giant cross painted red and a lectern at which Ing Sophat stands to deliver his sermons. Despite his being a military commander, Ing Sophat’s family was not exempt from the regime’s widespread purges. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, he found out that one of his brothers had been imprisoned at Tuol Sleng prison, a former school in Phnom Penh that acted as a Khmer Rouge jail and torture centre. His brother has not been seen since. “At the time, I didn’t know how to say or feel anything. During that regime, we didn’t have time to worry about others. We cared only about ourselves and how to stay alive,” he says, adding that he also struggles to believe that the leadership and ideology he fought for could have been responsible for the deaths of so many. “I am still suspicious about the true cause of my brother’s death. Even though I have been to Tuol Sleng prison two times, I still don’t believe that the geno­cide happened." About two hours from the capital, the Khum O Presby­terian Church is attended mostly by former cadres in the area and their children. “We cannot let our sins remain in our heads; we must take them out,” Ing Sophat urges his congregation on a recent Sunday. An hour after the service, when speaking to reporters, the pastor defends Ta Mok, a senior Khmer Rouge figure who led purges within its ranks: “I never saw Ta Mok killing people; I don’t think it’s fair to call him ‘the Butcher’”; and Kang Kek Iew (aka Comrade Duch), head of the Tuol Sleng prison, who oversaw the torture and execution of more than 20,000 Cambodians: “Duch was kind. Whenever soldiers were hurt, he would go visit them in the hospital.” Such cognitive dissonance bothers survivors such as Pen Soeun, a civilian participant in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. While the 62-year-old agrees that most former soldiers were on the front line and therefore not witnesses to executions, he rejects the “out of sight, out of mind” excuse. "Even though I have been to Tuol Sleng prison two times, I still don’t believe that the genocide happened" - Ing Sophat “These former cadres must acknowledge that their regime was very bad, as we have living witness­es, survivors and mass graves across the country where people were killed,” Pen Soeun says, adding that their new-found faith does not exempt them from taking responsibility. A prime example would be Duch, who converted to Christianity after his wife died in 1995. When he was called to stand trial by the tribunal in 2009, Duch pleaded guilty to the charges and was largely cooperative. On the final day of trial, however, he asked to be acquitted. “We may forgive them [after they confess] in terms of the heart, but we would want to see them still be held responsible in terms of external structure, like having jail time,” says Pen Soeun. While Duch has been more candid than other leaders of the regime – the defendants currently on trial all roundly deny responsibility – Cambodians largely mistrust his religious zeal, says Robert Carmichael, the author of When Clouds Fell From the Sky: A Disappearance, a Daughter’s Search and Cambodia’s First War Criminal (2015), a book about a French-Khmer family irrevocably altered by the regime’s cruel and secretive policies. “But I have no doubt that Duch believes in it, even if he isn’t able to operate as a Christian in a way that other Christians would see is in line with the religion’s tenets: genuine repentance and welcoming the consequences of his actions,” Carmichael says in an email. He echoes Luco’s assertion that karma is difficult to face when confronted with heinous past deeds. “I would say that Christianity has some advantages over Buddhism in terms of the idea of atoning for one’s sins,” Carmichael says. “[In Buddhism], life is a cycle of birth, death and rebirth, and one’s behavior in this life dictates how one will come back in the next life. There is no escaping one’s crimes in Buddhism, and I suspect that for many of the converts, this is a powerful motivator.” A former Khmer Rouge soldier uses a Bible app on his smartphone. The push towards God for Touch Sokhan, chief of Pailin’s O’Tapuk Krom village, came from his daughter, who converted at a young age and today works as a pastor. Touch Sokhan worked as a messenger for the Khmer Rouge, delivering letters between communes in the southern province of Kampot. He fled westward to Pailin with fellow compatriots when the regime fell. “Life was very difficult at that time. We had to be on the move constantly to escape from bullets, and there were mines everywhere,” the 59-year-old says, in his modest concrete and brick house. In Cambodia, civil society is rising up against forced evictions In 1985, he lost his left leg after stepping on a mine, but many soldiers around him lost their lives. By then, Touch Sokhan had lost his faith in the Khmer Rouge’s ideology. “I completely agree that the regime killed Cambodians and it was not a good government. I saw underage children forced to work,” Touch Sokhan says. “We were so scared all the time, we weren’t allowed to see our parents and we couldn’t ask for permission to do anything because we were afraid of being killed.” While speaking, he flips gingerly through his Bible, before stopping at the Book of Daniel, chapter seven, wherein Daniel recounts an apocalyptic vision. In his dream, Earth was populated by four terrible beasts, the fourth of which being the most monstrous, crushing its victims “with huge iron teeth and trampling their remains beneath its feet”. The noble Jew’s dream ends with the destruction of the terrible fourth beast while God watches on in judgment. Daniel wakes up, terrified by his vision. “I can compare this to when we were in the Khmer Rouge. We have seen so many terrible things and felt great disappointment,” says Touch Sokhan. “But when we believe in God, I feel we can confess our sins to make ourselves feel lighter. “As a disabled person, because of God’s teachings, I can live my life with hope.” Additional reporting by Kuch Naren (C) 2017 South China Morning Post

February 14, 2017 (JUBA) – A daughter to South Sudan President, Salva Kiir said she is disappointed about deteriorating security situation faced by civilians in the country. Some of the displaced people heading at a camp in Adjumnani, Uganda (Photo: UNHCR) Achol Salva Kiir, who lives in neighboring Kenya, said political rivalry between the president and armed opposition leader, Riek Machar is a threat to civilians. “I cried about the starvation my people are going through after visiting hospital with no medication, church and situation in the United Nations camp was horrible,” said Achol. She reportedly visited Agok and Apuk counties and that everything was in a "mess". According to the first daughter, women, the elderly and children were suffering from starvation. It however remains unclear who facilitated her visit to the troubled areas. Currently, the U.N estimates that over 3.5 million people have fled the war-torn nation after fighting erupted between the two rival factions in South Sudan. Tens of thousands of people been killed in South Sudan’s worst-ever violence since independence. (ST) (c) 2017 Sudan Tribune

February 14, 2017 (JUBA) – A South Sudanese Anglican Bishop has accused government soldiers of allegedly raping women and young girls as well as detaining men in a village along Juba-Nimule highway, which has lately experienced series of attacks on travelers. South Sudanese SPLA soldiers are pictured in Pageri in Eastern Equatoria state on August 20, 2015 (Photo AFP/Samir Bol) Bishop Paul Yugusuk of Lomega Diocese in Eastern Equatoria said soldiers carried out massive sexual assaults on women in Kubi village, about 50 km on Juba-Nimule road. “We don’t know the exact number of women who were raped but we have five [women and girls] here in Juba Teaching Hospital. Most of them are underage girls and women,” Yugusuk told reporters after visiting the victims in Juba on Monday. According to the cleric, testimonies given by the victims pinned government soldiers stationed in Nesitu, a military outpost south of Juba that provides protection for vehicles traveling from Juba to Nimule, a South Sudanese town bordering Uganda. “46 young men have been arrested and tortured. 42 [of the men] have been released but four are still missing. We don’t know their whereabouts,” he said. Bishop Yugusuk said the village was also looted and the entire population had fled. “There are only fifteen elderly people left there right now,” he added. The South Sudanese military (SPLA) spokesman Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang, however, declined to comment on allegations blamed on pro-government soldiers. “We just heard the allegation and we are still trying to get the truth from field commanders,” Koang told Sudan Tribune by phone on Tuesday. There have been attacks on passenger vehicles on the Juba-Nimule highway in recent weeks, which have been blamed on the armed opposition faction loyal to South Sudan’s former first vice president Riek Machar. The SPLA have started escorting all vehicles on the 192km road leading to Uganda. (ST) (c) 2017 Sudan Tribune

Presentation to the South African Human Rights Commission by Ernst Roets Deputy CEO of AfriForum, 16 February 2017 Anti-white racism in South Africa My name is Ernst Roets. I am the Deputy CEO of AfriForum. AfriForum is a civil rights organisation that operates with the aim of protecting minority rights. Our philosophy is that the test for a healthy democracy is vested in the question of whether minority communities also feel that they are welcome, included and protected. AfriForum’s membership base currently comprises just over 186 000 individual members. Let me state from the outset that if I seem angry or frustrated during my presentation today, it is because I speak for our members. And as a representative, it is my responsibility to convey to you the frustration that our members experience on the issue of racism. However, I am not here simply to convey the frustration, but to explain exactly why our members are frustrated. Firstly, let met state that racism in South Africa is often blown out of perspective. Racism is a problem because of extremists at the fringes of society and not because South Africans are inherently racist. Every study on racism done by independent research organisations that I have ever seen has found that racism is not as big a problem in South Africa as we are led to believe. I mention a long list of statistics in my written submission, which I will not repeat now. It is clear that racism is a problem that deserves attention. To talk of it as if it’s the biggest problem that this country has to face, however, is to reduce a long list of crises that are in fact much more damaging to our society. These include the education crisis, unemployment, crime and corruption, and so forth. Racism and minority rights In South Africa, we frequently hear the argument that white people should stop complaining because white people are believed to be rich. This means that white people are “economically dominant” and as a result do not have a right to protection as a minority community. We hear this quite often. There are many sources – particularly the United Nations – that indicate that communities which are small in number but believed to be wealthy are precisely the communities that need protection. If economic status were the determining factor, it would imply that the vast majority of minority communities across the globe who have fallen victim to genocide or ethnic cleansing in the 20th century would not have been entitled to protection as a minority community. This would include the Jews during the Second World War, the Armenians and Greeks of Anatolia, the Muslims in Serbia and the Tutsis in Rwanda. It is precisely this alleged wealth that necessitates the protection of communities which are small in number. Racism and double standards On the topic of racism, we find alarming levels of double standards in the manner in which society at large deals with racism. These double standards are particularly also manifested in the manner that the media reports on racism. Let me list some examples of how double standards on racism manifest in our society: 1. Penny Sparrow Just over a year ago, Penny Sparrow, an unknown estate agent from KwaZulu- Natal, referred to black people who had littered the Durban beachfront as “monkeys”. In contrast, Velaphi Khumalo, an employee of the Provincial Department of Sport, Culture and Recreation, wrote in response to Sparrow’s post that he wanted to cleanse the country of whites and that whites should be treated in the same way that Hitler had treated the Jews. In a second posting he said that white people in South Africa deserved to be butchered like Jews and be killed. What are the differences between Penny Sparrow and Velaphi Khumalo? - Sparrow was an unknown estate agent, while Khumalo was – and, I believe, still is – a government employee. - Sparrow offended black people, while Khumalo called for a butchering and genocide of white people. - Sparrow was fined R150 000, while Khumalo was only subjected to an internal investigation. 2. Hart vs. Xingwana Standard Bank economist Chris Hart was instantly converted into yet another example of the evil that is white racism when he tweeted that South Africa had an entitlement problem, which had a negative impact on economic growth. On the other hand, Lulu Xingwana, Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, went on international television, making the most atrocious statement imaginable: “Young Afrikaner men are brought up in the Calvinist religion believing that they own a woman, they own a child, they own everything and therefore they can take that life because they own it.” I find this statement extremely offensive. What the Minister did was to go on international television and insult the very core of my identity as a young Afrikaner. What’s the difference between Hart and Xingwana? - Hart was an economist for a bank, Xingwana still continues to be a Cabinet Minister. - Hart made an economic observation based on his research, suggesting that many black South Africans have an entitlement mentality, while Xingwana made a false racist attack right at the very core of what a particular minority community holds dear: their religion. - Hart and Xingwana both apologised; yet Hart was fired, while Xingwana still continues with her job in Cabinet. Now, imagine for a moment what would happen if a white person went on international television and made the following statement: “The problem with black people is that they are brought up in a culture according to which they become lazy and violent, believing that they can steal whatever they want, because the world owes them everything.” It is of course deplorable and I am convinced that millions of black people would never forgive and trust a white person who said something like this, despite an apology. Why should white people ever trust Xingwana again? Or, for that matter, any member of a Cabinet who shelters racists like that? 3. Elsenburg Agricultural College When EFF supporters invaded the Elsenburg Agricultural College and started attacking white students with whips, the university authorities remained silent. When, in the absence of campus security intervention, AfriForum Youth announced that they would arrange private security to protect the students, AfriForum was immediately accused by the university’s management of being divisive and polarising, while the EFF-supporters were left untouched. 4. “Worse than killing whites” During the Shoot the Boer court case, Julius Malema, who was then still the president of the Youth League of the ruling party, was asked why the ANC stopped singing “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” but continue to sing “Dubula i’Bhunu”. This was his explanation under oath: When we were discouraged to sing “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer”, the explanation was that the farmer is directed at a particular group of people. And what is worse is that farmers are not only whites. You are going to even kill people who are part of your struggle if you want to kill farmers, so you are actually pushing away the potential supporters of your struggle when you say “Kill the farmer”. Mr. Chairperson, please let that sink in for a moment. What he said was that they were instructed not to sing “Kill the farmer” because not all farmers are white. Effectively, what he said was that killing white people (or at the very least promoting the killing of white people) was alright, but that killing your own potential supporters was unacceptable. 5. Church Street vs. Zondo Street We have been told repeatedly that the names of towns and streets that are offensive need to be changed. So what we have seen in recent years is that the name of Church Street in Pretoria has been changed, presumably because the name “Church Street” is offensive, while the name of Kingsway Street in Amanzimtoti has been changed to Andrew Zondo Street. Now, Andrew Zondo was really only known for one thing: On 23 December 1985, this ANC operative planted a bomb in the street’s Sanlam Shopping Centre. Three women and two children were killed and 40 people injured. He is now venerated as a hero, while the families of some of his murdered victims still live in Amanzimtoti. He has been honoured by having the street renamed after him. So please tell me, which is more offensive: The name “Kingsway” or driving to work every day in a street that was renamed after the man who had murdered your child? When I asked a representative from the Department of Arts and Culture what the criteria for offensiveness was, he responded that whatever the majority, in other words, black people, regard as offensive woud be treated as such. Now these are all examples of double standards, and I can really keep going. But we also find that these double standards manifest in the media, where, for example, white on black crime is almost always reported as racist crime, whereas black on white crime is almost always reported as “normal” crime, even when the evidence clearly suggests that the crime was motivated by anti-white racism. There are examples of – - White farmers being murdered while the attackers scream “Viva Malema!” or “Apartheid is over!”; and of - Murderers stating that they have murdered white people only because they were white and that they were influenced by the song “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer”. In South Africa, telling a black school girl that she is not allowed to wear her hair in an afro is exponentially more newsworthy, and according to the media more deplorable, than a black person murdering four white people and then publicly stating that he did so because they had been white. As a matter of fact, in the same week in which the so-called racist hair policy scandal hit the news, a student council member at the University of Pretoria, just across the street from Pretoria Girls High, publicly expressed his wish to murder white people with a bazooka. AfriForum issued a press statement about the matter, but it seems that most of the media were too preoccupied with the atrocity of a black girl being told that her hair hadn’t complied with school policy, than to write bothersome stories about a student leader inciting the murder of white people. In November 2016, Marlene Hurford and Grant Short were severely assaulted by three black people in Rustenburg. They were threatened with the words: “Vandag vrek julle, wit bliksems” (Today you white bastards will die). After Hurford had blocked her stolen tablet, one of the attackers called the last number that she had dialled and threatened: “You white bitch, I’m coming for you.” I am aware of only one newspaper that reported on this incident, suggesting that it was a racist act. Now, just imagine if a white person had kidnapped a black woman and said: “You black bastards are going to die!”. The reality is that violent crimes in which white people are the victims and black people the offenders are not condemned with the same enthusiasm as cases where black people are the victims and white people the offenders. About two years ago, I was personally threatened with murder on twitter, because of the colour of my skin. I went to the police station to file charges. The next day, I was called by the investigative officer who literally told me that he didn’t know what Twitter was, that he didn’t know how to investigate the matter, that he was not going to investigate the issue and that I could expect never again to hear from him on this matter. We heard from the representative of Facebook yesterday. I can tell you that we have reported many people who openly encourage the slaughter of whites on Facebook. In one case, Lindsay Maasdorp, a leader of Black First, Land First was openly calling for the murder of white people. In another case, he posted: “black god needs servants in CT: wind + matches + white owned farms” This man was reported to Facebook and Facebook’s response was this didn’t violate their community standards and that they would not take it down. Now, Mr. Chairperson, in conclusion, the Nelson Mandela and Achmed Kathrada Foundations sat here yesterday, speaking at length about an unknown white person who used the words “those people”. I so wish that I could sit here and complain to you about people describing white people as “those people”. Our reality is that our members are threatened on social media with rape, assault, arson and even genocide, almost on a daily basis. There is nothing that I would like more than to live in a society where I had the luxury of complaining about words like “those people”. Our reality is one in which – - The state president says in Parliament that we must accept that we have less rights because we are a minority; - The ruling party is prepared to go to court to defend their so-called right to sing about how my community are rapist dogs that must be shot; and - The worst thing that a government employee who publicly calls for a white genocide can apparently expect is that he would be reprimanded at an internal investigation; Only in the last two weeks, eleven white farmers were murdered on their farms, some of them tortured to death. But according to Government policy, the theft of copper cables seems to be a higher priority than the torture of white farmers. Mr. Chairperson, we will continue to engage in public discussions about racism, but I have to be honest with you: We have lost faith in the public discourse on racism. Thank you very much. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 AfriForum

(New York) – Syrian government forces conducted coordinated chemical attacks in opposition-controlled parts of Aleppo during the final month of the battle for the city, Human Rights Watch said today. Through phone and in-person interviews with witnesses and analysis of video footage, photographs, and posts on social media, Human Rights Watch documented government helicopters dropping chlorine in residential areas on at least eight occasions between November 17 and December 13, 2016. The attacks, some of which included multiple munitions, killed at least nine civilians, including four children, and injured around 200. Syrian government forces conducted coordinated chemical attacks in opposition-controlled parts of Aleppo during the final month of the battle for the city. The attacks took place in areas where government forces planned to advance, starting in the east and moving westwards as the frontlines moved, Human Rights Watch said. “The pattern of the chlorine attacks shows that they were coordinated with the overall military strategy for retaking Aleppo, not the work of a few rogue elements,” said Ole Solvang, deputy emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “The United Nations Security Council shouldn’t let Syrian authorities or anyone else who has used chemical weapons get away without consequences.” The UN Security Council has yet to take action since a UN-appointed investigation, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism, identified military units responsible for earlier attacks using chlorine in Syria. The Security Council should impose sanctions on senior leaders in the chain of command, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch called on the Syrian government to immediately stop using chemicals as weapons and fully cooperate with the UN-appointed investigation. The 192 state parties of the Chemical Weapons Convention should take steps to address Syria’s continued violation of the treaty’s most basic prohibitions and ensure compliance in order to bolster the customary international norm against chemical warfare, Human Rights Watch said. A still from video shows green smoke from a chlorine attack by Syrian government forces in the Daheert Awwad neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria on November 22, 2016. © 2016 Aleppo Media Center Syrian government helicopters have dropped chlorine on opposition-controlled territory at least since April 2014. Chlorine has many civilian uses, but the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in October 2013, bans the use of the toxic properties of any chemical as a weapon. Human Rights Watch has also documented that Syrian government forces used sarin in attacks in August 2013, and that the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) has used mustard agent as recently as August 2016. The most recent chlorine attacks took place during a final push by Syrian government forces and its allies to wrest control of eastern Aleppo from armed opposition groups. After a period of relative calm, Syrian government forces and its allies resumed military operations in Aleppo on November 17, starting with intensive aerial bombardment. The battle continued until December 13, when the parties agreed to a ceasefire and many of the fighters and civilians in eastern Aleppo were evacuated. The actual number of chemical attacks in Aleppo between November 17 and December 13 could be higher than the eight documented in this report, Human Rights Watch said. On social media, journalists, first responders, medical personnel, and others reported at least 12 attacks in the period. Human Rights Watch included in this report only attacks it has corroborated through both real-time reporting on social media and interviews with at least one witness. Identifying with certainty the chemical used in the attacks without laboratory testing is difficult, but the odor, signs, and symptoms that victims and medical personnel reported indicate that government forces used chlorine. Local residents who were close to the impact site and medical personnel reported a strong odor of chlorine, similar to that of bleach-based household cleansers, near the impact sites. “Those affected had trouble breathing, they were coughing hard, they were nauseated, some people fainted, some had foam coming from their mouth,” a first responder for several attacks said. “The chemicals would affect children most severely…they inhale these smells and they end up suffocating.” Describing the smell as a stronger version of the cleaning detergent, one local resident said: The smell isn’t something you can handle. The moment you’re exposed to it, your throat burns, it’s like a fire rod going in. It won’t let you swallow or breathe. Your neck starts boiling. You feel nauseated. Your eyes burn and you are not able to control the tears. Eventually, you are not able to breathe. It’s not like having your nose and mouth blocked, rather, your body won’t let the air in anymore. High level of exposure to chlorine can lead to suffocation, as the chemical injuries produced from the dissolution of chlorine in the mucous membranes of the pulmonary airways result in severe buildup of fluid in the lungs. Children and older people are particularly susceptible to the effects of chlorine gas. Witnesses also said that they observed a yellow or yellow-green smoke near the impact site of at least four attacks. In two attacks, journalists nearby captured the smoke on video. Chlorine is yellowish-green in its gaseous form. Since chlorine is heavier than air, it sinks, making basements where people sheltered against attacks with explosive weapons potential death traps. One journalist, who decided to leave his neighborhood after a chlorine attack, said: “We got used to bombing and shelling. But with chlorine there is no way to protect yourself. It will suffocate you.” For five of the chemical attacks, Human Rights Watch reviewed photographs or video footage of remnants of the chemical-filled improvised munitions posted online or shared directly with Human Rights Watch. Witnesses sometimes referred to the munitions as barrels or bombs. In all five incidents, the footage shows the same type of yellow gas cylinder. A label still visible on the remnant from one attack shows a warning that the cylinder contained gas. During the final weeks of the battle for Aleppo, Syrian government helicopters repeatedly dropped gas cylinders filled with chlorine, affecting hundreds of civilians. Opposition-affiliated groups, first responders, activists, and journalists reported that government forces conducted chemical attacks in other locations in Syria in the same period as well. While there is no evidence that Russia, the only other party that conducted airstrikes on eastern Aleppo during this period, was directly involved in the chemical attacks, Russian aircraft played a crucial role in the military offensive against opposition fighters in eastern Aleppo. As a military ally of Damascus, it benefitted from the use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces. Furthermore, the UN-appointed Joint Investigative Mechanism found that helicopters that had previously dropped chlorine were operating from the Hmeymim airbase, which is under Russian control. Given this and other reports about past repeated use of chlorine as a weapon, Russian military authorities should have taken steps to ensure that such weapons were not used in their joint military offensive, Human Rights Watch said. The UN Security Council, including Russia, has condemned the use of any toxic chemical, such as chlorine, as a weapon in Syria and stressed that those who use such weapons must be held accountable. On August 7, 2015, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2235, establishing the investigation to “identify to the greatest extent feasible individuals, entities, groups, or governments who were perpetrators, organizers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons.” At the time, Russia said the investigation would close the gap in identifying those responsible for the use of chlorine as a weapon in Syria. The United States emphasized that “[p]ointing the finger matters.” On December 21, 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing a mechanism to assist in the investigation of serious crimes committed in Syria since 2011. The General Assembly requested the UN system as a whole to fully cooperate and to promptly respond to any request for information. Peace talks between Syria’s warring parties are scheduled to resume in Geneva on February 20. “History shows that peace deals without any form of accountability for past abuses are often fragile,” Solvang said. “Accountability for the chemical attacks in Syria would be a good place to start.” The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the use of the toxic properties of common chemicals such as chlorine to kill or injure. Among other obligations, each member state agrees never to “assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.” The laws of war applicable in Syria prohibit the use of chemical weapons. The use of prohibited weapons with criminal intent, deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime. With 192 members, the Chemical Weapons Convention is one of the most universal international treaties on weapons. Only four UN member states are not party to the convention: Egypt; Israel, which has signed by not ratified the convention; North Korea; and South Sudan. “Almost the entire world has agreed that chemical warfare is so despicable that it should be outlawed entirely,” Solvang said. “Allowing the Syrian government to flaunt this prohibition with impunity runs the risk of implicitly condoning Syrian chemical attacks and undermining one of the most agreed-upon weapon bans in the world, potentially lowering the threshold for other countries to do the same.” Chlorine Attacks in Syria Human Rights Watch published reports on the Syrian government’s use of chlorine in May 2014, April 2015, June 2015, and September 2016. The Joint Investigative Mechanism between the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concluded, in a report published on October 21, 2016, that Syrian government forces had used chlorine as a weapon in three incidents in 2014-2015. The investigation determined that helicopters from Syria’s 63rd helicopter brigade, operating from Hama and Hmeymim airbases, carried out the attacks. The investigation also found the Islamic State (ISIS) responsible for using sulfur mustard, a type of blister agent. November-December Chemical Attacks on Aleppo Human Rights Watch interviewed in person or by phone 22 people with direct knowledge of chemical attacks in eastern Aleppo between November 17 and December 13, 2016. The witnesses were first responders, medical personnel, or people who lived in the affected neighborhoods. Human Rights Watch compared these witness accounts with photographs, video footage, and real-time information posted on social media. Several organizations such as the Syria Civil Defense, the Syrian Institute for Justice and Accountability, and the Syrian American Medical Society helped identify key witnesses. The open source investigative group Bellingcat first compiled and analyzed many of the videos and photographs from chemical attacks and their immediate aftermath. The intensive bombardment toward the end of the battle for Aleppo made thorough documentation of these attacks difficult. Some witnesses struggled to remember the dates and distinguish between the various attacks. First responders and medical personnel told Human Rights Watch that Syrian government forces confiscated phones and laptops with key information during the evacuation and that hospital staff had to leave records behind when they evacuated hospitals. The table below is a summary of the information currently available. The evidence for each attack is presented and analyzed in the subsequent sections of this report. In the morning on November 18, the Aleppo Media Center, a network of local journalists who documented the conflict in opposition-held Aleppo, and Thiqa Agency reported that a chlorine attack had struck Masaken Hanano and Ard al-Hamra. Abu Taim al-Halabi, a cameraman for the Aleppo Media Center, told Human Rights Watch by phone that three helicopters were flying in the air above Masaken Hanano, where he lived, at about 8 or 9 a.m. on November 18. Al-Halabi saw in the distance two of the helicopters dropping four objects, but there was no explosion, leading al-Halabi to believe that they were munitions filled with chlorine. About five minutes later, the third helicopter dropped an object that landed much closer to al-Halabi, on the border between Masaken Hanano and Ard al-Hamra. “After a few minutes I noticed the smell of chlorine so I ran home to warn my family to stay inside and breathe through a wet cloth,” he said. About one hour after the attack, al-Halabi said, he went to the impact site with his camera: The barrel had fallen in the middle of the street. There was still a very strong smell so it was difficult to stand close to it. It became difficult to breathe, my eyes started tearing up and nose started running. The effects were even worse for the children. Alaa Abu Ali, a staff member at Syria Charity, a Paris-based aid organization, gave a similar account by phone. He said that from his home on the morning of November 18 he saw helicopters drop five objects, none of which exploded. He believed four landed in Masaken Hanano and one in neighboring Sheikh Najar, which was on the front line. He said he went to the impact site of the one that landed on the border between Masaken Hanano and Ard al-Hamra. Abu Ali gave video interviews at the site to Al-Jisr News, Smart News Agency, and the Aleppo Media Center. Syria Charity later posted a photograph of Abu Ali with an oxygen mask. Abu Ali and a Syria Civil Defense staff member cited by Smart News Agency said that 12 people were injured in the attack. They did not report any fatalities. Al-Halabi said that about 20 people were injured, including an old woman and five children. Al-Halabi and Abu Ali said that some of the injured were taken to hospitals in the nearby Sha’ar neighborhood. Al-Halabi said he transported three civilians to the Daqaq hospital in Sha’ar. Abu Ali said that he took a woman and a child to the same hospital. Syria Charity posted on its Facebook page a video from the Children’s Hospital, also in Sha’ar, showing a boy wearing an oxygen mask. The boy, between coughs, says that an aircraft dropped a bomb near him in Ard al-Hamra, that there was yellow smoke, and that somebody took him to the hospital. Orient News posted a video of what appears to be the same boy. The same video also shows medical staff examining and giving oxygen to another child and a man. Mojahed Abu Joud, a staff member of the Aleppo Media Center, said that he saw about 30 civilians in al-Sakhour hospital who had been injured in the attack on Masaken Hanano. He said that the people were pale, coughed, and at least one person had foam coming from their mouth. Al-Halabi filmed and took photographs of the remnants of the munition at the site between Masaken Hanano and Ard al-Hamra. The video shows a piece of a yellow cylinder standing on end next to crater in the street. One end of the cylinder has been spilt open and strips of the cylinder have been bent outward, indicating that an explosive inside of it detonated and burst cylinder outwards, releasing its content. November 20: al-Sakhour In the early morning on November 20, the Aleppo Media Center, Shahba News Agency, and Halab Today TV reported that a chlorine attack had struck al-Sakhour. Abu Mohammed, an employee at the Ikhlas Medical Center, told Human Rights Watch that at least two munitions fell in al-Sakhour shortly after midnight on November 20. One fell 75 meters from his house, he said, and another about 200-300 meters away. He put a wet cloth over his mouth and went out to check the neighborhood. In one house, he saw five dead civilians, a mother, father and three children. Their faces were blue. Another 25 people were injured, Abu Mohammed said. One 22-year-old girl started vomiting. Abu Mohammed took them to a nearby house and gave them oxygen, he said. Mahmoud, a perfume seller who lived in al-Sakhour, said that he heard a bomb fall on the night of November 19-20. He went to the impact site the next morning because he had friends in the area. He said: “When I got close it became difficult to breathe, it felt like I had fire in my nose and throat. The bomb had hit a house near a vegetable market. The smell was like the liquid we use when we clean the house.” Friends in the area told him that the attack had killed six members of the same family. Reuters, citing two medics in Aleppo, identified them as members of the Baytounji family. Human Rights Watch has not been able to independently verify the names. A graphic video posted on Facebook by a member of Shahba Press Agency on November 20 shows four lifeless children lying next to each other. They do not appear to have any external wounds. The description says that an aerial attack with chlorine gas killed six people in al-Sakhour. Another graphic video posted by the Aleppo Media Center and archived by the Syrian Archive shows the bodies of the four children on the back of a pick-up truck together with the body of a man. The Local Coordination Committees in Syria reported on November 20 that helicopters had dropped two bombs with chlorine gas on al-Sakhour, leading to the death of six civilians from one family. Thiqa News Agency, Syria Civil Defense, and Aleppo Media Center posted video footage and photographs from what they said was the site of a chlorine attack in al-Sakhour on November 20. The video footage and photographs show the same rubble of a house and remnants of a yellow cylinder amid the rubble. November 20: Tariq al-Bab In the afternoon on November 20, the Aleppo Media Center and Shahba News Agency reported that a chlorine attack had struck Tariq al-Bab. Ismail Abdallah, a member of the Syria Civil Defense, told Human Rights Watch that he was sheltering in a basement in Tariq al-Bab because of ongoing airstrikes when he heard a loud noise. He rushed out and saw that a yellow gas cylinder had hit the street nearby. Abdallah described a very strong odor near the impact site and yellowish smoke. “Close to the site I started getting a headache, my eyes teared up, it became difficult to breathe,” he said. Mahmoud was with a friend who lived near the impact site, about 500 meters away. He said: “About an hour after the attack we tried to go there to pick up some of my friend’s belongings, but couldn’t get closer than 100 meters. It smelled like the same gas as in al-Sakhour [earlier in the day]. We had to turn back.” Mahmoud said that by the time of the attack there were very few civilians left in the district. Abdallah said that the Syria Civil Defense took at least one old woman to the hospital. Othman Khodr, a lawyer for the Syrian Institute for Justice and Accountability gave Human Rights Watch a similar account and said that the attack happened about 3:30 p.m. The Aleppo Media Center published a video on its YouTube channel showing a yellow cylinder that had split open. The Syrian Institute for Justice and Accountability published photographs and a video showing the same remnant. A partly visible label on the cylinder includes some letters, which the Syrian Institute for Justice identified as standing for a producer of chlorine gas. Based on the Syrian Institute for Justice video, Bellingcat concluded that the video had been filmed in the street separating the districts of Daheert Awwad and Tariq al-Bab. November 22: Karm al-Qaterji, Daheert Awwad, Karm al-Jazmati In the afternoon on November 22, the Aleppo Media Center and Shahba News Agency reported that a chlorine attack had struck Karm al-Qaterji. Thiqa News reported that an attack had also struck Daheert Awwad. Mojahed Abu Joud, a staff member of Aleppo Media Center, said that he and a colleague saw a helicopter drop three objects on Daheert Awwad and one on Karm al-Jazmati between 4:30 and 5 p.m. on November 22. There was no explosion, but they filmed yellow-green smoke rising from the place where the object landed. Abu Joud said that they tried to reach the impact site, but the odor was too strong. Abu Ali, the Syria Charity worker, said that several days after the Hanano attack, just before the sunset prayer at 4:32 p.m., he and Abu Taim al-Halabi from the Aleppo Media Center saw helicopters drop two objects on the al-Qaterji district, two on the Karm al-Myasser district, and two more, though he did not remember where they landed. They went to al-Qaterji, but couldn’t get close to the impact site because the smell was so strong. “It was the same smell as in Hanano,” he said. Al-Halabi confirmed the account. The time and location of Abu Ali’s and al-Halabi’s observations indicate that they witnessed the same attacks as Abu Joud and his colleague. Othman Khodr, the Syrian Institute for Justice lawyer, also said that he saw three helicopters drop two munitions each in the course of one hour in late November, in the area where Karm al-Myasser, Karm al-Qaterji, Karm al-Jazmati and Daheert Awwad meet. In a daily report, Syria Civil Defense reported that chlorine attacks in Karm al-Qaterji and Daheert Awwad about 8 a.m. on November 22 injured 15 civilians. There are no other reports of chemical attacks in the morning on November 22, so the report might refer to the afternoon attacks. November 23: Karm al-Jazmati In the evening on November 23, Shahba News Agency and Halab Today TV reported that a chlorine attack had struck Karm al-Jazmati. Mojahed Abu Joud, a member of the Aleppo Media Center, said that he went to the site of the attack in Karm al-Jazmati the following day. There was still a very strong odor of chlorine in the area, he said. The munition had penetrated the roof of a house. Neighbors said that a woman had been in the house during the attack, but that nobody had been able to enter because of the gas. “The smell was still so strong that it felt like a fire in my throat when I got close,” Abu Joud said. “It felt like I would cough up my lungs. At one point, somebody opened the door to the house while I was interviewing a girl out in the street. The smell was so strong that we had to stop the interview to move further away.” Othman Khodr, the Syrian Institute for Justice lawyer, said that he also went to the site. The cylinder was stuck in the roof, he said, but still leaking gas. He saw four or five dead pigeons in a nest nearby. When he came down from the roof, he said, he inhaled some of the gas. “It had a terrible, suffocating small. It doesn’t let you breathe. It was painful. I was coughing and breathing nonstop.” Khodr said he and a journalist went to a nearby hospital where they were treated with oxygen. Syria Civil Defense reported that an attack with poisonous gas at about 10 p.m. on November 23 injured 10 people in Karm al-Jazmati and neighboring Ard al-Hamra. Orient News reported that 13 people were injured in the two districts and posted two photos, each of two young children receiving oxygen in what looks like a medical facility. In a video interview, a local resident said that the attack had killed their 55-year-old neighbor, a woman. The Violations Documentation Center also recorded that toxic gas had killed an unidentified woman in Aleppo on November 23. Syria Civil Defense reported the following day that toxic gases had killed one woman in Aleppo. The woman may have been killed in the November 23 attack, since there were no reported chemical attacks on November 24. November 28: Karm al-Qaterji, Qadi Askar In the early afternoon on November 28, the Aleppo Media Center and Shahba News Agency reported that chlorine attacks had struck Karm al-Qaterji and Qadi Askar. Thiqa Agency and Halab Today TV reported the attack on Karm al-Qaterji. The Local Coordination Committees in Syria reported the attack on Qadi Askar. Firas Badawi, a photographer with the Aleppo Media Center who used to live in Karm al-Qaterji, said that they ran to seek shelter when they saw a helicopter in the afternoon on November 28. There was a sound of something crashing into the ground, he said, but no explosion. When they emerged from their shelter they saw that the munition had hit a playground in a public park. Badawi said: There was smoke all over the place. It was yellowish, slightly greenish, moving around with the wind. The smell was incredibly strong. We rescued 11 or 12 people who had sought shelter in surrounding buildings, fearing an explosive barrel attack. Most had lost consciousness and there was foam coming from their mouths. We thought they had died. Others couldn’t breathe and were screaming from pain in the chest, coughing and burning in the eyes. Badawi said that another 11 people were injured even further away when a strong wind blew the gas towards the south. Badawi also said that two people died in the attack, but Human Rights Watch has not been able to independently verify this. Badawi shared with Human Rights Watch photographs and video footage showing an impact crater and a deformed, yellow gas cylinder in what appears to be a playground for children. Omar Arnaout, a photographer, said that he saw a helicopter drop an object near a cemetery in Qadi Askar at about 3 p.m. on November 28: Suddenly, yellow smoke started spreading followed by the smell of chlorine a few minutes later. It’s the smell of the liquid that we use to clean toilet, but more intense, much more intense. People were unable to breathe, they are coughing. Some children were throwing up. The smell was everywhere. Arnaout said that about 20 civilians were injured in the attack and taken to hospitals for treatment. A still from video shows green smoke from a chlorine attack by Syrian government forces in the al-Fardous neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria on December 8, 2016. © 2016 Aleppo Media Center December 8: al-Maghayer, al-Fardous, Kallaseh Between 4 and 5 p.m. on December 8, the Aleppo Media Center and Shahba News Agency reported that chlorine attacks had struck Kallaseh and Bustan al-Qasr. Human Rights Watch believes that these reports refer to possibly three chlorine munitions that struck al-Maghayer neighborhood in the Bab al-Maqam district, al-Fardous, and Kallaseh. Abu Nadim al-Khattat, who lives in al-Maghayer, said that one attack struck the street outside his home around 4 p.m. on December 8. About 15 minutes later, a second struck close to al-Hayat medical clinic in Kallaseh, where he was located at the time. He said that dozens of people, including his mother-in-law, her daughters, and their husbands, had gathered in the area, trying to leave the city: When the barrels fell, everybody went inside to hide, fearing that they would be hit by shrapnel. But the barrel didn’t explode. The chlorine gas leaked out and spread everywhere, seeping into places where people were hiding. They inhaled the gas and started experiencing shortness of breath, foam was coming out of their mouth, some experienced dizziness, headaches, they felt weary and drowsy, they were drained of energy. Al-Khattat said that around 50 people were injured, including 20 children. Abu Rajab, the former administrator of al-Sakhour hospital, confirmed that a chlorine attack struck about 100 meters from the al-Hayat clinic on December 8, saying that more than 70 people were brought there for treatment. “We could even sense a faint smell of chlorine from the clinic,” he said. Al-Khattat said that the attack killed two people: Ammar Shohaiber, around 40, and Mohammad Abrach, around 50: Ammar’s house was very close to the impact site and it was full of chlorine gas. We gave him first aid and he seemed to get better, but at night his conditions worsened. By the time we took him to the Bustan al-Qasr clinic he was barely alive and eventually passed away. Abrach seemed better at first, but his condition also worsened, al-Khattat said: “We took him to the al-Quds hospital, but it was so crowded they could barely help him. He died as well.” Dr. Salim Abu al-Nasser, a dentist working in the Bustan al-Qasr Medical Center, said that the center had received two civilians in the evening of December 8 who had been injured in a chlorine attack. He said he saw the body of one patient, a man he estimated to be in his sixties, lying lifeless in the corridor, apparently dead. The second patient was transferred to al-Quds hospital, he said, where he also died. The Violations Documentation Center, the Aleppo Media Center, and Shahba News Agency reported that toxic gas killed two civilians in Aleppo on December 8, a man and a woman. The reports likely refer to the deaths of Shohaiber and Abrach. Hazem, an employee at the al-Quds hospital, said that he also witnessed a chlorine attack that day near the vegetable market in al-Fardous. “We thought the bomb had failed to explode, but then we saw yellow smoke coming from the area. There was a strong smell of chlorine.” On the Ground News, an activist news organization, published a video showing a yellow-green gas spreading along the ground, saying that it had been filmed in al-Fardous. Hazem confirmed that the video was from the same attack he saw and provided the map coordinates of the impact site. In the early evening on December 8, a member of the Aleppo Media Center posted a photo of a yellow cylinder that he says hit eastern Aleppo. Human Rights Watch has not been able to establish the exact location where the remnant was found. December 9: Kallaseh Shortly after midnight on December 10, the Aleppo Media Center, Shahba News Agency, Thiqa Agency, and Halab Today TV reported that a chlorine attack had struck Kallaseh. Abu Rajab, the former administrator at al-Sakhour hospital, said that he heard a thump near the entrance of the al-Hayat clinic in Kallaseh at about 8 p.m. on December 9. Soon, he said, a very strong smell started spreading in the clinic. “It quickly became very bad,” he said. “It felt like I had a fire in my chest, my eyes became red. I couldn’t breathe properly. It smelled like chlorine.” About 30 medical staff and patients were in the clinic at the time of the attack, he said. All of them were injured, five of them seriously, he said. They covered their faces with wet cloth and moved to the upper floors. Abu Rajab said that some of the injured were sent to the Bustan al-Qasr Medical Center and the al-Quds hospital. Abu Muatassim, another doctor working in the al-Hayat clinic, gave a similar account, but saying that the attack was around 6 p.m. and that 50 civilians were injured, including people who had been outside the clinic. Abu al-Nasser at the Bustan al-Qasr Medical Center said that he heard about the attack on the hospital’s walkie-talkie. Injured patients started arriving shortly thereafter. He said that the center treated about 40 civilians for difficulty breathing and shock. “Many of them were shaking,” he said. The medical center published four videos of patients receiving treatment on its Facebook page. Abu al-Nasser showed Human Rights Watch a photograph of a boy being giving oxygen and another photograph of two small children, saying all three had been injured by the gas. Abdallah Mahmoud, an administrator working in the al-Quds hospital, said that the hospital treated 47 injured civilians. Their symptoms included red eyes, difficulty speaking and breathing, and coughing. On December 10, the Smart News Agency published on its YouTube channel a videoshowing a yellow gas cylinder that had been split open, saying that bombs containing toxic gases had killed five civilians and injured others on December 10, in Bustan al-Qasr, al-Fardous, and Kallaseh districts, which border each other. Human Rights Watch has not been able to independently verify any deaths or injuries from chlorine attacks on December 10. Abu Rajab shared three photographs with Human Rights Watch showing the same remnant and the crater where it landed. Human Rights Watch has not been able to determine whether the remnants stem from the December 9 Kallaseh attack or separate attacks on December 10. (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch

UNITED NATIONS PRESS RELEASE Statement by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, on the situation in South Sudan The Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, expressed grave concern at the continued level of violence in several areas of South Sudan. “President Salva Kiir has made a commitment to end the violence and bring about peace, yet we still see ongoing clashes, and the risk that mass atrocities will be committed remains ever-present,” said the Special Adviser. The peace process has yet to be accompanied by a complete cessation of hostilities, undermining the likelihood that the National Dialogue proposed by the Government will be seen as credible. More than 52,000 South Sudanese fled to Uganda in January alone, coming primarily from areas in and around Yei, Morobo, Lainya and Kajo-Keji. Some 24,000 arrived between 25 and 31 January, of which 4,500 arrived in a single day, on 28 January. Many have given accounts of the killing of civilians, destruction of homes, sexual violence, and looting of livestock and property, and cite fear of arrest and torture. The Special Adviser is particularly alarmed at the situation in Kajo-Keji, Central Equatoria, (south of Juba), where civilians have fled in fear of violence en masse. The access of the United Nations peacekeeping mission to and around Kajo-Keji has reportedly been restricted despite the serious security situation, as peacekeepers were initially blocked from accessing the area. The freedom of movement of residents has also reportedly been limited. Some have reportedly been instructed to leave Kajo-Keji. Others who fled their homes and moved towards the border area between South Sudan and Uganda were reportedly intercepted by government forces. Those seeking refuge report using a number of informal border crossing points to enter Uganda, as armed groups are preventing the use of major roads, forcing them to travel through the bush often without access to food and water. Various areas in the Equatorias, among other regions, have been similarly targeted, and some 20,000 people were displaced from Wau Shilluk in Upper Nile in the last week, following violence that left many without emergency health care, safe drinking water, food and shelter. In November 2016, the Special Adviser drew attention to the dire situation in Yei River State, following his visit to Yei River town, where credible information suggested that a scorched earth campaign was underway, targeting suspected opposition members and civilian communities believed by authorities to be their supporters. He reported the expulsion of farmers from their land, looting of property and burning of villages, as well as brutal violence against civilians. Despite extensive discussions in the United Nations Security Council in November and December 2016 on a proposal to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan and increase targeted sanctions, agreement was not reached on either proposal. In the meantime, weapons have UNITED NATIONS PRESS RELEASE continued to flow into the country. In the margins of the January 2017 African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and the United Nations in a joint statement expressed their deep concerns over the continuing spread of fighting and risk of inter-communal violence escalating into mass atrocities. “If South Sudan is to achieve peace,” the Special Adviser affirmed, “all belligerents must urgently cease hostilities and invest in the peace process to settle their differences, before the territorial fragmentation and destruction of the social fabric of this young country become irreversible.” For media queries please contact: Taryn Lesser Office on Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/ Phone: +1 917 367 5254 Email: lesser@un.org _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 United Nations

(Kabul, February 13, 2017) – Pakistani authorities have carried out a campaign of abuses and threats to drive out nearly 600,000 Afghans since July 2016. The returnees include 365,000 registered refugees, making it the world’s largest mass forced return of refugees in recent years. They now face spiraling armed conflict, violence, destitution, and displacement in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s has been abusive towards refugees, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is promoting the exodus. Through enhancing its “voluntary repatriation” program and failing to publicly call for an end to coercive practices, the UN agency has become complicit in Pakistan’s mass refugee abuse. The UN and international donors should press Pakistan to end the abuses, protect the remaining 1.1 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, and allow refugees among the other estimated 750,000 unregistered Afghans there to seek protection. (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch

Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. (file) UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré 14 February 2017 – At least 101 people are reported to have been killed by soldiers in clashes between military forces and members of the Kamuina Nsapu militia in central Democratic Republic of the Congo over the last five days, the United Nations human rights wing has said. Some 39 individuals among those killed in the violence between 9-13 February were women, caught in the shooting, when Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) soldiers opened fire indiscriminately with machine guns when they saw militia fighters, Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told the media at the bi-weekly news briefing at the UN Office at Geneva (UNOG), citing information received from several sources. The militia members where reportedly armed mainly with machetes and spears. “We are deeply concerned at the reported high number of deaths, which if confirmed would suggest excessive and disproportionate use of force by the soldiers,” said Ms. Throssell, noting that the UN Joint Human Rights Office is seeking to verify the exact number of victims. Calling on call on the FARDC soldiers to abide by standards under national law and international human rights law in their responses and urged the military commanders to reinforce this message with their troops, she added: “In particular to exercise restraint and to use force only when necessary and proportionate to the threat, to minimize damage and injury and to respect and preserve human lives.” According to OHCHR, this latest violence – said to have occurred in and around the town of Tshimbulu in DR Congo's Kasai Central Province – follows “atrocities” committed by both sides it has documented since August last year, when a customary chief (after whom the Kamuina Nsapu militia is named) was killed by the armed forces. VIDEO: OHCHR calls on the FARDC soldiers to “abide by acceptable standards of national law and international human rights law" in their operations. Credit: UN News Calling on the authorities for a full and independent investigation into the latest violence, the UN human rights office offered its support to investigations into others allegations of serious human rights violations and abuses committed in the context of the ongoing conflict in Kasai Central Province by the FARDC and the militia. “Given the ongoing violence, we also reiterate our call for increased efforts to find durable solutions to conflicts with customary chiefs in Kasai Central Province,” said Ms. Throssell. (c) 2017 United Nations

In Madaya, Rural Damascus, children and their families wait for permissions to leave the besieged Syrian town. Photo: UNICEF/Omar Sanadiki 13 February 2017 – A senior United Nations relief official has today called on all parties to come to an agreement and allow immediate and unfettered humanitarian access to more than 60,000 civilians trapped in four Syrian towns of Al-Zabadani, Al-Fu’ah, Kafraya and Madaya. These four locations were referred to specifically in the so-called ‘Four Towns’ Agreement to facilitate humanitarian access to the people in need. However, these places have remained inaccessible for humanitarian workers since November last year. “The unfair and totally unjustified besiegement is compounded by the tit-for-tat arrangement between the Four Towns, which makes humanitarian access prone to painstaking negotiations that are not based on humanitarian principles,” Ali Al-Za’tari, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, said in a news release. Mr. Al-Za’tari stressed that the situation is a looming humanitarian catastrophe and called on all those directly involved forces and all parties which have influence on them to convince them to allow urgent humanitarian assistance, including medical evacuations, to take place without delay. “This has prevented medical cases from receiving proper treatment and evacuation. People are in need, and they cannot wait any longer. We need to act now,” he underlined. Recalling that the principle of free access to people in need must be implemented the news release noted that civilians trapped in the four towns continue to suffer a cycle of daily violence and deprivation, where malnutrition and lack of proper medical care prevail. The moral and ethical accountability befalls all those who hinder this access, the release read, adding that the UN and humanitarian partners stand ready to provide humanitarian assistance to the Four Towns as soon as negotiations with the parties to the conflict come to conclusion. (c) 2017 United Nations

Racism, Antisemitism, and the Radical Right Conference, September 10-11, 2017 Yale University The Fifth Annual Conference of the International Consortium for Research on Anti-Semitism and Racism (ICRAR) Co-sponsored by the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism and the Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration at Yale University Call for Papers Recent political events in the United States have turned the spotlight on what for many years has been a shadowy phenomenon: the existence of openly racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, homophobic, and misogynistic groups on the far-right wing of the American political spectrum. These groups, including those who call themselves the "alt-right," have gained momentum in recent years, as well as increased visibility. The increase in hate crimes since the Presidential election underscores how urgent it is to understand the origin of these groups and how they function. But while the rise of the racist right in the United States took many by surprise, far-right groups have been gaining prominence around the world over the past decade. The Brexit vote in the United Kingdom; the popularity of such parties as the National Front in France, the Alternative for Germany, and the Golden Dawn in Greece; and the coming to power of far-right parties in Eastern Europe and elsewhere have attracted the world’s attention. The goal of this conference is to map these various iterations of the current far-right, racist, and/or antisemitic ethos, to explore their ideologies and ideas, to consider the features they share in common, as well as their divergences and tensions. Some of the questions we hope to raise include: What are the origins of these various movements? Did they emerge from existing right-wing parties or do they constitute a new phenomenon? What are their links to previous racist movements (the KKK, the Nazi party, conservative and authoritarian religious and nationalist groups, etc.)? What kinds of racism and/or antisemitism do they advocate? Which groups of people do they target and why? What effect has the refugee crisis had on their development? How central is racism/antisemitism to their ideology? What purposes are served by their racism/antisemitism? While the question of racism and antisemitism is central to the conference, we encourage speakers to address the following questions: What connections, if any, exist among groups in different national contexts? Is there a global or transnational movement and if so, what are its causes? Who are the key leaders and their supporters? How are they animated by global and local forces? What techniques do they use to mobilize support? What strategies have been mobilized against them? What are the future electoral prospects of these parties? While speakers may address one national context in depth, we welcome papers that attempt to “map” the relations among different racist parties and across national boundaries. The conference will take place over two days (September 10-11, 2017) at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University. Speakers whose papers are accepted will be responsible for covering the cost of their own transportation and lodging, although the conference hopes to be able to provide financial support for those coming from abroad, especially graduate students and early-career scholars. Please submit an abstract of your paper (no more than 300 words) along with a one-paragraph career summary byMarch 31, 2017 to: inessa.laskova@yale.edu. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) Conference conveners: Maurice Samuels, Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism Stephen Pitti, Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration, Yale University

The number of hate groups in the United States rose for a second year in a row in 2016 as the radical right was energized by the candidacy of Donald Trump, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) annual census of hate groups and other extremist organizations, released today. The most dramatic growth was the near-tripling of anti-Muslim hate groups – from 34 in 2015 to 101 last year. The growth has been accompanied by a rash of crimes targeting Muslims, including an arson that destroyed a mosque in Victoria, Texas, just hours after the Trump administration announced an executive order suspending travel from some predominantly Muslim countries. The latest FBI statistics show that hate crimes against Muslims grew by 67 percent in 2015, the year in which Trump launched his campaign. The report, contained in the Spring 2017 issue of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report, includes the Hate Map showing the names, types and locations of hate groups across the country. The SPLC found that the number of hate groups operating in 2016 rose to 917 – up from 892 in 2015. The number is 101 shy of the all-time record set in 2011, but high by historic standards. “2016 was an unprecedented year for hate,” said Mark Potok, senior fellow and editor of the Intelligence Report. “The country saw a resurgence of white nationalism that imperils the racial progress we’ve made, along with the rise of a president whose policies reflect the values of white nationalists. In Steve Bannon, these extremists think they finally have an ally who has the president's ear.” The increase in anti-Muslim hate was fueled by Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, including his campaign pledge to bar Muslims from entering the United States, as well as anger over terrorist attacks such as the June massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando. The overall number of hate groups likely understates the real level of organized hatred in America as a growing number of extremists operate mainly online and are not formally affiliated with hate groups. Aside from its annual census of extremist groups, the SPLC found that Trump’s rhetoric reverberated across the nation in other ways. In the first 10 days after his election, the SPLC documented 867 bias-related incidents, including more than 300 that targeted immigrants or Muslims. Also, in a post-election SPLC survey of 10,000 educators, 90 percent said the climate at their schools had been negatively affected by the campaign. Eighty percent described heightened anxiety and fear among students, particularly immigrants, Muslims and African Americans. Numerous teachers reported the use of slurs, derogatory language and extremist symbols in their classrooms. In contrast to the growth of hate groups, antigovernment “Patriot” groups saw a 38 percent decline – plummeting from 998 groups in 2015 to 623 last year. Composed of armed militiamen and others who see the federal government as their enemy, the “Patriot” movement over the past few decades has flourished under Democratic administrations but declined dramatically when President George W. Bush occupied the White House. The SPLC also released an in-depth profile of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an anti-LGBT hate group. Leaders of the legal advocacy organization and its affiliated lawyers have regularly demonized LGBT people, falsely linking them to pedophilia, calling them “evil” and a threat to children and society, and blaming them for the “persecution of devout Christians.” The group also has supported the criminalization of homosexuality in several countries. (c) 2017 The Southern Law Poverty Center