One head off by Nikahang Kowsar, the writers father, a political cartoonist. Originally published here.

What has unfolded since the morning of January 3, 2020 has been incredibly difficult for me to unpack as an Iranian-born Canadian citizen and a U.S. permanent resident. To summarize the sequence of events, the United States, under President Donald Trump launched an airstrike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, sparking an escalation in tensions between the Iranian regime and the U.S.. Iran then launched over a dozen missiles to two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. Four or so hours later, a Ukrainian passenger plane, UIA Flight 752, crashed in Tehran after take-off. After initially blaming the crash of engine failure, the Iranian government admitted to mistakenly launching a surface-to-air missile (some reports now say two missiles were launched).

To put it simply, the recent events involving the Iranian regime have been overwhelming. Although I am against escalating tensions in the Middle East, the narratives of Soleimani and the Iranian regime presented in western media, specifically concerning Soleimanis popularity and the general opinion of the Iranian people, are entirely false. It is disheartening that world powers economically involved with Iran have turned a blind eye to the Iranian regimes ongoing abuse of power and attempts to silence its opposition. The powerful individuals within the Iranian regime are not humans: they are monsters who must be held accountable for all the pain and suffering they have caused their innocent people and those affected by Soleimanis actions outside of Iran.

I am adamantly against the current regime and its treatment of the Iranian people. My family would not have had to leave Iran if the regime allowed its citizens to practice their human rights. As my father likes to say, there may be freedom of speech, but there is no freedom after speech. The Islamic Republic of Iran consists of a broken government, economic disparity and minimal human rights, where the Ayatollahs and the rich become richer and the rest are left to suffer. I have always wished for the fall of this disgraceful regime, and hope the death of Qasem Soleimani could be the beginning of the end.

Soleimani, who dictated Irans foreign policy, was the second most powerful man in the country. He was personally sanctioned by the U.S., the European Union, and the United Nations, and the U.S. even deemed him a terrorist. Until his death, many of you may not have even heard his name. But to many Iranians, he was either seen as a selfless hero or a murderer. Soleimanis minority of supporters was made up of regime sympathizers who favored expansionism and military interventionism in hopes of returning to the glory Iranians once enjoyed during the Persian Empire.

Under Soleimanis leadership, the Quds Force has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan, as well as hundreds of U.S. soldiers in the region. The Islamic Republics financial and military support for its proxies and allies is alarming because it has placed greater importance on power over the condition of the Iranian people.

The Iranian regime declared the days that followed Soleimanis death national days of mourning, closing businesses, workplaces and schools during that period. Protests erupted in some cities with Soleimani supporters chanting death to America. The Iran state media outlets released videos of the streets of major cities packed with black-clad mourners. The funeral procession for Soleimani eventually led to a stampede that killed 70 mourners and injured over 100 other people.

It is difficult to gauge the reactions of Iranians living in Iran because of the restrictions on communication within the country. A prominent tweet reposted by Shaun King, an outspoken civil rights advocate and journalist, claimed 82% of Iranians inside the country looked favorably upon Qasem Soleimani. This statistic originated from a 2019 study conducted by the University of Marylands School of Public Policy. This data was collected by interviewing 1,000 Iranians inside the country via phone interviews. The methodology of this study is problematic because it is a common belief in Iran that the government has all phones tapped, so how could Iranians comfortably express their true opinion over a presumably tapped phone?

A more credible study done in 2018 by the Group Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN) surveyed over 19,000 Iranians, 80% of whom lived inside Iran, through a secure online survey platform shared via social media networks. Only 0.2% of respondents said they would vote for Qasem Soleimani in a free election. While I understand that not all of Soleimanis supporters would vote for him for president, these findings are an indicator of Soleimanis perceived popularity among Iranians.

Prominent American news media outlets have brought on foreign policy experts and political analysts to weigh in on the escalating tensions with the Iranian regime, deafening the public to important matters at hand. Republicans have proudly supported the accomplishment of Trump in ordering the airstrike that killed a terrorist. Democrats have expressed their fears of what the regime and its allies may do, and have focused on how the crisis is Trumps way of diverting attention from his impeachment.

Since the UIA Flight 752 crash, U.S. media coverage has diminished because the crisis no longer appeals to the U.S. public or the political agenda of U.S. politicians. But the crisis in Iran is not just a political matter: it is a matter of human rights and holding a corrupt regime accountable. These events remain relevant to millions of innocent Iranians who continue to live through the dire conditions, even if theyre not deemed important enough to be covered by U.S. media.

U.S. media coverage has diminished because the crisis no longer appeals to the U.S. public or the political agenda of U.S. politicians.

In a recent interview, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked whether she supported the protesters in Iran. She diminished the majority of protesters opposing the regime by focusing her response on protests involving Solemanis supporters because they were protesting against the U.S.. Pelosis disregard for the majority of Iranians is a representation of how the Iranian people have been treated by foreign governments, which have disregarded the regimes oppression of the Iranian peoples rights.

The IRGC has a long history of hindering the Iranian peoples right to freely express their opinions: most recently, over 1,500 were killed during the November 2019 unrest protesting the exponential spike in fuel prices. Since the regimes admission of guilt to their role in the UIA Flight 752 crash, thousands of protesters have flooded the streets of major Iranian cities, chanting Shame on you to the IRGC forces and calling for Ayatollah Khamenei to step down. The IRGCs response? Firing tear gas and sometimes shooting and killing its own people.

Irrespective of international response, the Iranian government will continue to silence its own people with excessive force throughout these protests because this crisis has placed them in a vulnerable position. During these trying times of conflict, I ask you to go after the facts and to not be afraid to question what your favorite politicians may say. Evidence surrounding these events will continue to come out, and the Iranian people will continue to risk their lives by sharing damning evidence on social media platforms displaying the regimes troubling actions in hopes of uncovering the truth that the regime frequently tries to hide from the world. Innocent Iranians have suffered far too long and deserve to be heard. The Iranian regime refuses to give a voice to the voiceless, so as a free society, we must hear those who are trying to speak up.

Niki Kowsar is a member of the Middlebury class of 2021.5

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The crisis in Iran: An oppressive regime and its voiceless people - Middlebury Campus

The opposition parties on Thursday slammed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for warning anti-CAA protesters that azadi slogans raised by them will treated as sedition.

While the Samajwadi Party drew an analogy with the British rule, the Congress termed it a language of dictators.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in a rally in Kanpur on Wednesday had said,If azadi slogans are raised here like they used to be raised in Kashmir, then it will come in the category of sedition and stringent action will be taken by the government.

Reacting to it, Senior SP leader Ram Govind Chaudhary said the British too had described freedom fighters as terrorists.

Now their successors or those who had sided with them are terming those raising azadi slogans traitors, he said.

He said there was no need to to get perturbed by such warnings. Their countdown has started and that is why they are ranting, Mr. Chaudhary said.

The SP leader alleged that the Chief Minister was threatening women against those hell bent on dividing the country.

Azadi is the birthright of all countrymen and those denying it will have to depart in the same manner as Hitler, the SP leader said.

SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary too said the dissent against the CAA is being dubbed as treason by the chief minister, which is against the very essence of a democracy.

The Chief Minister is threatening women who are demanding their rights, Mr. Chaudhary asserted.

When asked about the chief ministers allegation that the SP was funding anti-CAA protests, Chaudhary said, This amounts to making a mockery of peoples emotions.

Protests are on in all the states, including north-eastern region. Are we distributing money in all states, Mr. Chaudhary wondered.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu said the CM is speaking a language of dictators.

If raising voice against the governments oppression and politics of hatred is treason, the government should first arrest me, Mr. Lallu said, adding that since the protests have rattled the government, it is accusing the Congress of sponsoring them.

If people are on agitation path over this issue, why is the government not addressing it, Lallu said.

At a public meeting in Kanpur, the chief minister had said, ...I would like to say from the soil of India, and especially the soil of Uttar Pradesh, that in the name of protests, if azadi slogans are raised here like they used to be raised in Kashmir, then it will come in the category of sedition, and stringent action will be taken by the government.

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Opposition slams UP CM Yogi Adityanath for warning to anti-CAA protesters - The Hindu

The most dangerous saying is: Its how weve always done it. I think that phrase stops people from evolving and creating a society that can be far more inclusive than it is right now.

I appreciate questioning things by looking at the situation and how following the standard practice is hindering people within the system. We need to question things. These questions shouldnt just be wordsmithing or laying blame, but digging deep into the root of the problems. Its these roots that create systems that lead to oppression.

For example, look at common hiring practices. Most non-government jobs will post a job and not list the salary. Then, during the screening process, a potential candidate is asked what they are either expecting to make or what they currently make.

You might be reading this and thinking: Yeah, sounds about right. Whats the issue?

To me, there are plenty of issues. First of all, if someone really needs a job, they will 100 per cent say a lower number than desired to ensure they arent counted out for the position. That lower number is then tied to them.

For people from other cultures, including Indigenous communities, humility is a virtue that is culturally ingrained. Being humble will also play a role in someone proposing a lower salary.

When a position is created, there is always a range of what the employer is willing to pay, usually a range depending on experience.

Lets say there is a position that the employer is willing to pay $60,000 to $65,000 annually, and the candidate said they are looking for a job paying $55,000. I dont think many employers would turn around and say: Weve seen your resum, and you are fully qualified, and we want to offer you the position at $65,000.

If I am wrong, please let me know.

When a candidate discloses their current salary to a potential employer, its saying this is where my current employer values my performance.

There is no denying that there is a wage gap between women and men, minorities and the majority and people with disabilities. If people have been discriminated against in previous positions and had their performance valued as less than, it is going to follow them throughout their career and continue to be an uphill battle.

Theres an easy way to solve this issue, and thats by selecting the salary range for the position, which in most cases is already there, and then paying the new hire that amount. If you take a chance on someone with less experience and they can do the job, why should they get paid less, just because you can?

If someone currently makes $32,000 and applies for a $50,000 job and can do the job, they should get $50,000.

This removes bias from the situation and levels the playing field. I know there is the argument of saving money and not spending more than you have to, but I really think following these archaic guidelines are keeping people oppressed. Not in every situation, but I am sure it happens.

Granted, its important to reiterate that the oppression could have initially taken place early in someones career, and they are continually paying for it. It might not be their current employer, even their past two or three employers who are consciously valuing their performance as less. Its unintentional, and thats what makes this tricky. Laying blame is dangerous, but educating people on the whole picture might change internal hiring practices.

Think of women in your family, a friend with a disability, or other people youve worked with who are minorities.

I think its important to question things, and by question I dont mean openly criticizing without a valid solution to the problem. I want to reiterate that its not wordsmithing, either. Weve all sat at a table where someone doesnt really want to change the content, but the diction, grammar or sentence structure. The wordsmith either wants to make everything perfect, in their vision, or to waste peoples time while trying to demonstrate how smart they are.

Lets not find fault to demonstrate dominance, because thats the whole issue I am trying to address.

Charla Huber is the director of communications and Indigenous relations for Makola Housing Society.

Read more here:

Charla Huber: Pay people what they are worth - Times Colonist

Following French President Emmanuel Macrons outburst at Israeli Shin Bet security officers outside the Church of St. Anne on Wednesday, several Israeli news outlets said his anger about Israeli security officials entering the church was due to the pro-BDS and anti-Semitic organization that is housed in the church.

No one really knows whether that prompted Macrons anger or he just has a bad temper but is there is a genuine reason he is so territorial about the church? The Church of St. Anne is a Roman Catholic church in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem which was given to France by the Ottoman Empire in 1856.

There definitely is a reason and its not pretty. What is indeed known about the Church of St. Anne is that it houses a branch of the organization called the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). EAPPI, founded by the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC), brings activists to Judea and Samaria as tourists, who receive special training and are deployed at Palestinian checkpoints and other sensitive areas to provoke and video confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. The tourists then return to Europe and use their first-hand experience and documentation to advance anti-Israel and pro-BDS campaigns.

The EAPPI activities, which are branded as working toward a just peace between Palestine and Israel, is completely slanted and one-sided with the only goal being to video Israeli oppression of Palestinians while completely ignoring the presence of anti-Israeli and pro-violence propaganda in Palestinian society, not to mention outright terror. Activists are required to have experience with video and digital tools in order to document the Israeli oppression and transfer the material for anti-Israel incitement campaigns as well as have connections with church or political groups in Europe to use as platforms for anti-Israel campaigns.

DMU, an organization that monitors the WCCs actions in Israel, stated: The French government has been tied over and over to activity against the state of Israel. In March 2018, a [French] embassy employee was caught smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip. In July 2019, the French consulate chose a terrorism activist to manage a camp on its behalf in east Jerusalem. Throughout this time, the government continues to provide day-to-day protection to BDS activists. The French government should be pressured to end the free-reign of these activists and remove them from the compound.

A report by NGO Monitor in 2019 called EAPPI: The World Council of Churches Training Camp for Anti-Israel Advocacy said that the EAPPI has brought 1,800 volunteers to Judea and Samaria to witness life under occupation something the WCC does only in Israel and not in any other conflict zone throughout the world.

Despite marketing itself as a human rights and protection program, EAPPI places significant emphasis on political advocacy before, during, and after the trip, the NGO report states. When volunteers return to their home countries and churches, they engage in anti-Israel advocacy, such as BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns and comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany.

EAPPI partners with a number of political NGOs in the region, including groups that support BDS campaigns against Israel and/or that accuse Israel of war crimes.

Furthermore, a senior source told TPS in 2019 that EAPPI activists have directly supported terrorism. EAPPI activists visited the family of Palestinian terrorist Omar al-Abed, who murdered Yosef Salomon, his daughter Chaya, and his son Elad at their home in Neve Tsuf in July 2017. The visit was only a few days after the attack and the activists even gave the family money!

DMU told TPS that EAPPI activists have also visited terrorists homes in Hebron.

Since the EAPPI program is located in St. Annes compound under French jurisdiction, it enjoys diplomatic immunity from Israeli law enforcement officials and Israeli security officials are not allowed to enter the church without the permission of the French government. In other words, France is providing diplomatic power to anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian campaigns in the heart of Jerusalems Old City.

In 2016, the Christian Empowerment Council (CEC) wrote a letter to the French Ambassador to Israel complaining about the French diplomatic protection granted to EAPPI, according to a Jerusalem Post report.

I think that the fact their office is in the area under the auspices of the French government is serious and represents inappropriate relations between friendly nations, CECs leader, Father Gabriel Naddaf, wrote: The French government should take them out of the compound under its territory immediately and without delay and to stop assisting the organization, which is operating illegally.

(YWN Israel Desk Jerusalem)

Read the rest here:

Was Macron's Outburst Tied To The Pro-BDS & Anti-Israel Program Housed In St. Anne's Church? - Yeshiva World News

For many years, I tried to prevent the Holocaust from becoming a defining factor in my Judaism. Sadly, Ive found it unavoidable.

My family comes from a once thriving Jewish community in a small village in Lithuania. My grandfather, Barnett, came to the UK from there at the age of three. After they left, on just one day, Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators rounded up 2,000 Jewish residents, including the rest of my family, threw them into their synagogue and burnt it to the ground with all of them inside.

Keeping the flame of remembrance alive continued with my family. My father, Greville, co-founded the Holocaust Educational Trust with Merlyn Rees. This was key in lobbying for the War Crimes Act (1991) to bring those responsible for Nazi atrocities (and now resident in Britain) to justice; government-sponsored visits to Auschwitz; and for reparations for survivors. In the past I would rarely teach or speak about the Shoah but, after the death of my father, I feel the obligation, the duty as his daughter, to continue the work as best as I can.

I dont think it is possible for us ever to rid ourselves of the taste of destruction that the Holocaust has caused our community. Our task is to turn this devastation into something of meaning which keeps the flame going, to find strength and joy in being Jewish in the post-Holocaust world.

Psalm 100 tells us: ivdu et hashem bsimcha, bou lfanav birnana to serve God with joy and to come into the presence of the Eternal with singing.

That is my kind of Judaism one filled with fun, warmth and learning. Much in common with the Chassidic movement of the 18th century, my Judaism has always been a Judaism of joy over fear.

We cannot give those who seek our harm the victory of making us live unhappily, or partake in our Judaism quietly and furtively. This joy is the first element to keeping our flame lit.

The second way we keep our flame alive is through memories that we revisit and retell which can be a blessing they enable us to act proactively and appropriately when we believe something in our world is going wrong.

We need to use this central Jewish belief to speak out at the right time with conviction.

Yet memories also have the capacity to be a curse, leading us to see threats where they may not be, or as much greater than they really are. Our collective memory has given us a sixth sense for danger, but one we must keep calibrated. By speaking correctly when the time is right, turning the phrase never again into action, we take the second step to continuing to care for the flame of memory we hold.

Finally, we must look outwards. We alone do not have the fuel to keep the flame going we need to share it with others. While the Holocaust is part of the history of our community, it is a history which has value far beyond ourselves.

Sharing the memory with wider society allows other communities to be our allies in ensuring that our pain is never forgotten. More than that, we can share our pain with others who have experienced terrible oppression in history and find common ground to build lasting coalitions, to stand together, fighting against such oppression being carried out again.

We have this flame to carry together, but looking after it need not be a burden. We can take a legacy of pain and together we can transform it into a blessing for us and for our world.

Rabbi Janner-Klausner grew up in London; worked as an educator in Jerusalem for 15 years working with Jews and as dialogue facilitator trainer of Palestinians and Israelis. She is the Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism in the UK.

See the original post here:

Our legacy of pain can be turned into a blessing - Jewish News

DetailsPublished: Sunday, 26 January 2020

On the dawn of January 3, the worldparticularly the people of the Middle Eastwas released from a dangerous threat after Qassem Soleimani was taken out by a U.S. drone.

Soleimani as the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force was responsible for many crimes against the people of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. In the wake of Soleimanis elimination, many Iraqis and Syrians broke to streets and celebrated the news by dancing and distributing sweets.

In Iran, in contrast with the governments propaganda for styling him as a hero, youths distributed sweets to show their rejoicing over this significant occasion. Thanks, President Trump, read on sweets boxes, showing Iranians support for targeting the IRGC commander.

Some while later, protesters in different Iranian cities chanted the slogan, Soleimani is a murderer, as is his leader [the supreme leader Ali Khamenei]. Additionally, they tore down, trampled, and torched Soleimanis portraits to debunk the misinformation campaign run by the Iranian propaganda apparatus, called IRIB.

Now, his successor Esmail Ghaani has vowed to continue Soleimanis luminous path, which means mass killing Iranians, Syrians, Iraqis, and American citizens and troops. If Ghaani follows the same path of killing Americans then he will meet the same fate, U.S. special envoy for Iran Brian Hook told the Arabic-language daily Asharq al-Awsat. However, the new chief of the IRGC-QF has a long-time background in committing crimes against the people of Iran and the region.

Esmail Ghaani Akbarnejad who has just been replaced with the slain IRGC-QF commander, for many years was serving the oppressive, terrorist apparatus of the Iranian government as Soleimanis deputy. He was personally involved in all tracked and non-tracked crimes by the IRGC-QF.

Since 1980, when he was only 20 years old, the fledgling government of Iran dispatched him to Kurdistan to crack down on regional upheaval. During the Iran-Iraq war, he led many teenagers and minors to killing fields by horrendous methods.

Notably, the IRGC commanders were to employ the human wave tactic for sweeping minefields. They literally sacrificed many teenagers by giving them hollow promises about Heaven, and deceived them by giving them key to heaven and sending them to clear minefields. In 1987, Ghaani was appointed as the Ansar Corps Commander to orchestrate IRGC operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Also, several oppressive positions are seen in Ghaanis background. Following the end of the war with Iraq, Ghaani spent some time as the Commander of Intelligence in the Kurdistan region, Intelligence Office Chief of the IRGC Joint Command, and Deputy Intelligence Chief of the IRGC Joint Command.

In 1992, Ghaani played a decisive role in suppressing protests in Mashhad, his birthplace. In July 1999, he along with 23 other IRGC commanders including Qassem Soleimani, Hossein Hamedani, etc. signed a letter to then-President Mohammad Khatami demanding severe oppression of the student uprisings.

Hamedani as Soleimanis appointee for suppressing the Syrian revolt against Bashar al-Assads regime was killed by the Free Syrian Army. It is worth reminding that following Hamedanis death, Ghaani was sent to Syria and assumed command of oppressive operation in Aleppo.

Ghaani has also been involved in warmongering projects of the Iranian government. Since April 2014, he constantly traveled to Iraq to supervise the training and organizing Iran-backed militias, such as Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahle Haq, Badr organization, etc.

Notably, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of the Iraqi version of Lebanese Hezbollah was slain beside Soleimani on January 3. He was responsible for many crimes against the Iraqi people, in addition to foreign citizens, troops, and embassies in Kuwait and Iraq. Al-Muhandis spent the majority of his life in Iran and the ayatollahs considered him as a key implementer of their policy in this country.

Meanwhile, Ghaani played an essential role in expanding conflicts in Yemen by funding and training Houthi militants. The defenders of Yemen were trained under the flag of the Islamic Republic. The enemies cannot confront the Yemeni fighters, said Ghaani in an interview with the state-run TV on May 23, 2014.

The new commander of IRGC-QF like his predecessor was involved in underground transactions. He was responsible for organizing and overseeing the vast smuggling network of the Quds Force. The IRGC-QF pursues this dirty commerce to supply arms and funds terrorist proxies in various countries, including Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. In November 2012, the U.S. Department of Treasury added Ghaani to the list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) in its effort to counter the funding of terrorism.

Go here to see the original:

Terrorism and Suppression, the Core of Iran's IRGC - Iran News Update

Omar Ameen is an Iraqi-American refugee currently housed in a maximum security cell an hour up the road from me in Sacramento. The United States government contends that Ameen is an ISIS commander who infiltrated the refugee stream coming out of the Middle East. He awaits a hearing next week that could result in his extradition back to a certain death in Iraq.

And yet all of the evidence indicates Ameen is not, in fact, an ISIS commander, but instead an innocent man who fled the sectarian violence and bloodshed that we contributed to in his home country in order to live out what was once considered the American dream with his family here.

Its the type of story that every part of you doesnt want to be truebecause if it is true it is so fucking maddening that you cant even see straight. Its enough to make part of you hope that youre missing something; to hope that Ameen might be secret ISIS after-all. Because if he isnt an ISIS commander who infiltrated the U.S. refugee program, then it means something much worsethat the U.S. government is terrorizing an innocent man on our behalf.

Even the person who spent months getting to the bottom of this atrocity wished he had it wrong. Last week, New Yorker writer Ben Taub tweeted that he is closing a story today one which, at every stage of reporting, I wanted to drop, I wanted to find wasnt true. But it is, and its important, and I hate it.

Podcast January 24 2020

On today's Friday Bulwark Megacast, host Charlie Sykes is joined by Jonathan V. Last and Jim Swift to discuss impeachmen...

Taubs story, The Fight To Save An Innocent Refugee From Almost Certain Death, lays out in horrific detail how the FBI, DHS, State Department, and DOJ have been co-opted into a campaign to extradite an innocent man to almost certain death, to make a racist talking point appear to be slightly less of a fiction. It reads more like a dystopian movieEnemy of the Racist Statethan a real-life story.

Except that is real. And you must read every word it.

Taub reports that Omar Ameen left Iraq for Turkey in 2012 on a tourist visa and once there sought refugee status on the basis of his family members death and kidnapping at the hand of terrorist groups. His wife and three children followed suit.

In 2014 they were resettled in Salt Lake City. Ameen found work at a Mormon charity and the family began taking English classes. A few months later the family moved to Sacramento for more familiar weather and to be closer to other Iraqi families. Once there, Ameen worked as an Uber and delivery driversometimes as much as 20 hours per day to support his family.

Three years later, as the Ameen family was starting to really acclimate to American life, out of nowhere their apartment was raided by dozens of armed men.

The Trump administration claimed that he was an ISIS commander who had infiltrated the American homeland. The New York Times headlined their story Isis Member Arrested in Sacramento and included a claim from the extradition report that Ameen was one of the founders of an al-Qaeda affiliate.

The basis of the arrest was an Iraqi extradition case. Ameen had been accused of killing a police officer in his home town of Rawah as part of an ISIS kill squad in 2014. When informed of the charge Ameen felt a brief moment of reliefbecause he wasnt in Iraq in 2014. He was in Turkey, awaiting resettlement. He knew the charge was ridiculous and assumed the authorities would realize their mistake, too.

But such exculpatory evidence didnt prove to make much of a difference. Iraq and the U.S. were eager to implement their extradition treaty. Plus an ISIS chief living a quiet life as an Uber driver in Sacramento was the perfect story for the Trump administration, which was looking for any possible excuse to justify its Middle East refugee ban.

And so a year and a half later, Ameen remains incarcerated, awaiting his deportation.

Why is Taub so sure that the government doesnt have it right?

For starters, the idea that one of the founders of a terrorist affiliate successfully navigated the muliti-agency refugee vetting system would be a remarkable achievement. When looking at the Ameen case, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was confused on this point as well, and requested information on how this could possibly happen. But a year and a half later, the details have not been publicized. Needless to say, an ISIS terrorist trying to come to America has a much much better chance at avoiding the feds by just coming here on a travel visa and staying. Going through a rigorous, years-long U.N. vetting process is a good way to get caught. Why would an ISIS commander have taken that risk?

But lets just pretend for a moment that Ameen is a terrorist founder and financier whorather than using a tourist visa, or flying to Canada and sneaking across the borderdecided to play it straight with the U.N. resettlement process. That he somehow gamed the vetting system. And that he then caught a lucky break in getting sent to the States rather than, say, Germany.

The U.S. governments theory of the case is that right before he completed this masterstroke of long-game deception, Ameen decided to risk it all by traveling from southern Turkey, through war-torn Syria, past the Free-Syrian Army, past various ISIS affiliates, and into al-Anbar provincethe most dangerous part of Iraqall so that he could commit a random murder of a policeman from his hometown.

Again: This all seems highly improbable. At the very least, you would want to have a great deal of evidence to convince you that it might be true.

But in the case of Ameen, the logistics, the evidence surrounding his involvement, and the first hand witnesses to the murder all point to his innocence.

First the timeline. Every Thursday, Ameen was required to sign in at the immigration office in Mersin, Turkey, where he had been resettled awaiting extradition. He signed in the Thursday before the murder. The murder was commited on a Sunday. Ameen then signed back in, at the Mersin office, on the next Thursday. Which means he would have had to make the 600 mile death march from Mersin to Rawahthrough multiple terrorist controlled landsin three days. Two weeks after the murder Ameen had to report to Istanbul for a medical screening, where he exhibited showed no signs of injury, which, again, seems improbable for someone who made two hasty, dangerous journeys and a committed a murder.

There is other evidence. On the day of the murder, Ameen (or someone using his account) liked a Facebook post. Which is important because in the weeks surrounding the murder the internet had been entirely shut down in the Anbar province.

Then there are the witnesses: Multiple witnesses say Ameen never left Turkey during June of 2014. Which makes sense, since part of his refugee agreement was that he was not allowed to leave Turkeyso just the act of leaving the country, even without the commission of a murder, would have put all of that work in jeopardy. Again: Why would an ISIS commander trying to fool the U.N. system take that risk?

But maybe thats not enough for you.

So try this: The victims parents and widow insist that Ameen is innocent.

And the victims final text message contains a LITERAL LIST OF SUSPECTS including those who had threatened [him] and who later showed up in ISIS propganda announcing [his] murder.

Omar Ameen was not on the list.

The United States Government has this exculpatory information. They know that, at minimum, the case against Ameen is deeply flawed.

And yet Ameen still sits alone in a cell. Refusing to eat. Wishing for death. While his family are in a prison of their own, living in a new land without their breadwinner, who stands wrongly accused by powerful foreigners of being a terrorist.

When you look at the Ameen story you see tales weve seen before: The wrong guy being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The broken criminal justice system in desperate need of reform. The cruel government agents who dont care about the truth.

And yes, its a story about all of those things.

But the Ameen story is also about what kind of country we are.

The Ameen family storythe first part, before the men with guns swooped in to ruin his lifeis one we used to pride ourselves on.

Refugees fleeing violence and oppression, seeing a beacon of hope shining across the ocean, and sacrificing everything to make it to America. A family does everything by the book, follows all of the rules to get here, then learns our language, helps at religious charities, joins a community, works hundred-hour weeks to support themselves, and comes to love our country for its beauty and opportunity.

Thats the American story. Or at least it used to be.

Today the American story is about sticking up for your own kind and taking what you think you deserve. Its about blocking others from the bounty. Its about being suspicious of anyone who doesnt look like you and being willing to put a family through the deepest circle of hell to prove that your prejudices are right. Its about accepting literally any story from your government, so long as the people suffering are from the other tribe. Its about being righteously aggrieved at the most minor slight while not blinking an eye at the maximum cruelty being imposed on the other.

Its a story I keep wanting to believe isnt true. But keep being reminded that it is.

And I hate it.

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Were Trying to Send a Refugee to Die to Make a Government Lie Seem True - The Bulwark

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Malaysia has taken top spot in the Asean region on the 2019 Global Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Malaysia shares 43rd spot with Trinidad and Tobago with a score of 7.16 against the best score of 9.87 achieved by Norway in the global ranking of 167 political entities. Timor Leste is ranked the highest in South-east Asia, scoring 7.19 while achieving the 41st global position for democracy.

This is not an evaluation or ranking that most countries give much credence to especially if they are not ranked highly. The socialist and authoritarian countries would be particularly disdainful and dismissive of the ranking attempted.

Korea and Japan ahead

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It is significant that in Asia the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan are ranked the highest at 23rd and 24th position respectively at the top of the Flawed Democracy category. These two East Asian countries are ranked above the United States, which is slotted at 25th position.

This is somewhat of an irony when it is recalled how the famous US General Douglas MacArthur virtually dictated Japans postwar Constitution and saved the ROK from a deep crucible and firmly set both countries on a path of stabilisation, free enterprise and peaceful progress from the late 1940s.

India Downgraded

The most unsurprising element in the latest ranking exercise was India, which fell 10 places to position 51 from 41. India has slid back in many ways under its current government which came into power with much promise. It shows how the worlds largest democracy has receded into a narrow, negative path marshalling majoritarian religious sentiment to bear on its immigration and citizenship regulations. It is, however, heartening that the people of India, belonging to every religious faith, and most intellectuals including prominent writers, have protested and are continuing to protest over this discriminatory piece of legislation.

Malaysia Upgraded

Malaysia has steadily moved up the scale from position 59 in 2017 and 52 in 2018. It is an impressive climb but it does not do justice to Malaysia as it does not capture the difficult situation that the current government has had to navigate in upholding democratic values. In May 2018 the current government inherited a deeply flawed and faulty system from the previous government.

For a whole decade before May 10, 2018, the country had been slowly sinking under the weight of corruption, inefficiency, repressive laws, a huge debt servicing bill, a massive overdose of religion in schools with its concomitant impact of dividing the people and a steadily growing wage and pension bill that exceeded a third of the countrys Budget.

In Malaysias multicultural society the highest priority is the laying of a solid foundation for national unity but that again is conditioned by the reality of a plural system of education where different schools can provide instruction in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin and Tamil.

The effect of these varying systems of teaching is that the cultures of minority groups are well safeguarded and enhanced and ultimately the country has the innate and impressive capacity to communicate and interact with different parts of the world. In recent years Malaysia has also promoted itself as a centre of education and has been able to attract more than 170,000 students from other Asian countries, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. There is a truly cosmopolitan environment in the country on account of these factors.

Malaysias well-known tourism advertisement that Malaysia Is Truly Asia is not an empty slogan.

Given Malaysias central location in South-east Asia, its porous borders and its relative prosperity in relation to some of its neighbours, the country has attracted several million foreigners who have mainly sought employment and easier living conditions.

There are perhaps six million foreigners, more than half of them illegal or undocumented. The undocumented ones could not be expelled as that would have caused a major humanitarian crisis and affect relations with the countrys closest neighbours. Given this situation, Malaysia is in a somewhat awkward position although this government has attempted to fully subscribe to the ideals of democracy, good governance, transparency and accountability.

Sensitive Issues

The current Malaysian government abandoned efforts to ratify the International Convention Against All Forms of Racial Discrimination(ICERD) and the Rome Statute following strong opposition and protests by certain conservative groups. Such agitation, largely race-based was mainly orchestrated by the countrys opposition parties which, while preaching rather liberal policies, were actually practising oppression and restricting freedom of expression. The Malaysian government is unable to proceed with other democratic reforms as it does not enjoy the two-thirds majority required to approve amendments to its Constitution.

In examining the EIU methodology for rating Malaysia it is found that Malaysia achieved a score of 9.17 in the category for electoral process and pluralism and a relatively low score of 5.88 for civil liberties. The other scores were 7.86 for the functioning of government, 6.67 for political participation and 6.25 for political culture. The current government has to endeavour to improve the situation with civil liberties in the country. One strong feature in the current situation is a strong, impartial and fair National Election Commission.

Interestingly the Opposition, given the level playing field, has fared generally well in some of the by-elections held since May 2018. There is scope to further improve on civil liberties, wider political participation and the countrys political culture given a rather proactive Human Rights Commission, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, strong NGOs with good, committed leadership, the role of the press and media especially social media and the space provided by the current government for all these agencies and media to operate in.

The police authorities are largely perceived to be impartial although somewhat underfunded and undermanned. The countrys judiciary remains a strong and stable independent pillar but the ease with which its most senior retiring judges move into the private sector and para-statals is a matter of concern. There should be a reasonable cooling-off period of at least six months between these positions.

There is, however, still widespread concern over at least four missing (allegedly forced disappearances) persons, some unresolved cases of excesses by the security authorities and the politicisation of education.

In Malaysias current situation greater attention has to be paid to education provision which is STEM-based (i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics), neutral in respect of religion and focused on creating a united, vibrant, harmonious and forward-looking society which transcends race, religion and region.

More significantly the results of the last general election on May 9, 2018, seem to have crystallised a situation where the majority Malay-Muslim community feels that they have lost political power. Najib Razak, the former Prime Minister has thrown in his lot rather irresponsibly with this seemingly disenfranchised lot and is proving to be menacingly threatening to a sane and sober government. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad seems to be acutely aware of this fault line and has attempted to fashion policies to address the matter.

It is imperative that this matter is handled delicately and the governments narrative that it represents 99 per cent of the population is more widely known and appreciated. Malaysia has aspired to be not only more democratic but decent to its diverse population.

M Santhananaban

Dato M Santhananaban is a retired Malaysian ambassador with 45 years of public sector experience.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of The Independent Singapore. /TISG

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Dr Mahathir's Malaysia tops democracy index in the Asean region - The Independent

On Monday, the nation honored the towering legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But the progress he demanded remains unfinished, and nowhere more than in the deeply segregated neighborhoods many of us call home. Dr. King understood that where a person lives determines so many of their opportunities, including access to good jobs, schools, health care, food and safety. Barely a week after Dr. Kings assassination, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act with overwhelming bipartisan support in recognition of this truth.

In the more than 50 years since its passage, the Fair Housing Act has helped fight discrimination in mortgage lending, zoning restrictions that prevent people from being able to choose where to live, and local landlord abuses. In 1973, the United States government used it to charge Fred Trump and his son, our current president, with housing discrimination. Rather than fight those charges, the Trumps signed a consent decree requiring changes to the way they managed their properties. The Fair Housing Act was the only backstop for the people the Trump family discriminated against, and now the Trump administration is seeking to gut its protections.

Key to those protections are two principles established by Congress and enforced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where I was secretary under President Barack Obama. The first is disparate impact, which makes clear that policies or practices that discriminate against people of color or other protected groups are illegal even without proof they are intentional. For example, if white couples are regularly approved for mortgages but black couples with the same qualifications are rejected, the bank must fix their loan process, even if its employees didnt have racist intentions. Under disparate impact, its the results that matter.

The second is a mandate that communities affirmatively further fair housing, which requires government to promote greater opportunity and integration as well as fight discrimination. For example, if a citys affordable housing is all located in black neighborhoods with failing schools, limited transportation, and poor health care, that city must make an effort to fix the problems in those neighborhoods and build new affordable housing in other neighborhoods, in addition to ensuring theres no racial discrimination when any of the individual apartments are rented out.

Both of these principles come from the Fair Housing Acts recognition that outlawing intentional discrimination is not enough for people of color to overcome the consequences of centuries of oppression. This is especially true because the Federal Housing Administration and other federal agencies deeply embedded racial segregation into our neighborhoods through government-mandated redlining and other practices. Given this history, eliminating overt instances of intentional discrimination, while necessary, isnt enough.

At HUD, I codified and strengthened these principles. In 2013, the agency issued a formal disparate impact regulation based on decades of unanimous judicial consensus. And in the most important civil rights decision involving housing in a generation, the Supreme Court upheld the disparate impact principle in 2015, recognizing it as consistent with the central purpose of the Fair Housing Act. I also began improving HUDs approach to affirmatively furthering fair housing and my successor, Julin Castro, completed it with a regulation in 2015.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration is now taking steps to dismantle this progress. Last year, the administration issued a proposed regulation that would gut the disparate impact standard. The proposal imposes nearly impossible requirements on those who would bring a disparate impact claim, and insulates the insurance industry and other businesses that rely on technological algorithms in their decision-making, even when they generate bias.

And this month, HUD issued a proposed rule that would fundamentally undermine the affirmatively furthering standard. The proposal would largely strip away the expectation that communities provide housing that fights segregation and increases opportunity, weaken penalties and reinstate a discredited enforcement process. In addition to the obvious conflict of interest for a president who was prosecuted under the Fair Housing Act and stands to benefit personally from these proposed rules, they are reckless and wrong for three key reasons:

First, housing plays a key role in advancing economic opportunity and closing the wealth gap between people of color and white Americans. African-Americans and Latinos have less than one-tenth and one-eighth, respectively, of the household wealth of white Americans, and homeownership remains the largest source of wealth-building for most families. Moreover, where a family lives determines access to jobs, schools, and a healthy environment. If we believe our childrens futures shouldnt be determined by the ZIP code where they grow up, we need the disparate impact and affirmatively furthering standards to weed out and replace unjustifiable policies that limit opportunity.

Second, how we rent or buy a home is changing, as technology upends the traditional way we figure out where to live. From real estate apps to the hidden algorithmic box that determines credit scores and access to mortgages, our housing choices are increasingly driven by online tools and digital determinations. This makes it harder to understand if the creators of the algorithms intended to discriminate, even as research shows that bias is often built into them. By enabling us to test whether they lead to different outcomes, the disparate impact standard serves as a critical check to ensure that technological tools advance legitimate business and consumer interests without discriminating. The affirmatively furthering principle complements this protection by requiring that we go further than minimizing harm, by actively working to level the playing field and build more equitable communities.

Third, untested new rules that will no doubt be litigated for years can create chaos in our housing markets. The decades-long consensus on the disparate impact standard means that everyone with a stake in housing from residents and local governments, to real estate developers and the finance industry should know what to expect and how to conduct their business. And HUDs retreat from a focus on racial segregation in affirmatively furthering raises serious doubts about whether the new rule meets the basic mandate of Congress.

The Fair Housing Act was enacted with bipartisan support and championed by Democrats and Republicans alike over five decades because it aligns with fundamental American values: fairness, freedom of choice and opportunity for all. Instead of undermining these values, the Trump administration should honor Martin Luther King by withdrawing its proposed rules.

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The Trump Administration Is Clearing the Way for Housing Discrimination - The New York Times

In 2008, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Government of India marked January 24 to be celebrated as National Girl Child Day on January 24. This nationally observed day was initiated to raise awareness about the inequality that still persists in the country. Girls face challenges, sometimes even before they are born. From female foeticide, infanticide, discrimination in education, sexual abuse, child marriage, lack of reproducitve care and equal opportunities, girls and young women in the country have had to deal with tough times.

Artwork celebrating the National Girl Child Day. (Image source: C3)

However, just one day is not enough to spread awareness and tackle these issues, says Aparajita Gogoi with HerStory, Executive Director of Centre for Catalyzing Change (C3), an organisation focused on improving the condition of girls and women in the country.

Efforts must be taken everyday to break the cycle of oppression that many girls still face in the country. And work has to be done every day to ensure girls receive the resources that they deserve and achieve their full potential.

For over three decades, C3 has been working in the country to mobilise, equip, educate and empower girls and women to meet their full potential. Beginning in 1987, at the core of its work is the belief that gender equality is essential for development and democracy.

She adds, We specifically focus on girls completing 12 years of education atleast, and preventing child marriage. Then when the girl reaches her reproductive age, we work around ensuring that women and girls have access to information on family planning, contraception, and quality healthcare services. We try to work around the whole life cycle of a girl.

How does this translate to on ground work?

Modules and curriculums are designed to be delivered to girls and women in areas where intervention is necessary. C3 also works in partnership with governments to design and deliver scaled-up programmes. Its in-school adolescent education programme, Udaan is now delivered at every government school in Jharkhand.

Girls take part in digital literacy class. (Image source: C3)

We have two kinds of programmes. One is delivering these programs at scale. So we work through schools, Anganwadi centres, where we can reach maximum girls, she explains . It leverages the public system, the government schools, and collaborates with the government in this method.

Another method is to curate small programmes, such as offering scholarships to girls, where they can learn skilling or take karate classes. Or digital literacy courses where 3000-10,000 girls are learning digital skills. This is the kind of work where we still focus on the girl as an individual. The organisation has a small grants program called Unniti, which is based on the philosophy of small philanthropy that has helped over 2000 girls.

Other programmes include Pahel, which empowers women politically; Youth Life, its digital education program for adolescents; and Do Kadam, an intervention program in Bihar for preventing domestic violence.

The organisations work has helped over 1.9 million girls in the last 30 years.

Several staff, community members, peer educators and volunteers are involved in bringing these modules to the girls. The organisation which predominantly works in rural areas, has a presence in five states in the country.

Aparajita believes that its these on-ground changemakers and their work needs to acknowledged, recognised, and supported.

In Bilaspur, Chattisgarh, community members provided C3 with free space to run itsdigital and financial literacy classes for adolescent girls. In Jharkhand, Suparna Chatterjee, a life skills teacher with C3, helped a girl continue her education after several teasing incidents made her think of dropping out. Poonam Guria, a teacher at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Ranchi has a secret box in her class where girls can ask any question. The questions range from relationship issues with parents to questions around sexuality, which she discusses openly in class. Her question box now gets 50 questions everyday.

Aparajita outlines three priorities that C3 feels hold the key to its endeavours to help girls and young women. One is to scale the model. We have added digital and financial literacy in some geographies. As the needs of young people change rapidly, the question is how do we keep these models relevant

The second is how can we take these cost-effective models to other states. Third is, how do we share what we are learning about programming to people in the sector, so that more people can work for women and girls, she adds.

(Edited by Rekha Balakrishnan)

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[National Girl Child Day] How this organisation aims to help girls achieve their full potential - YourStory

Photograph Source: Chatham House, London CC BY 2.0

Britain and the USA have had close ties, echoes and parallels from our start, some very good, others nasty. One of the latter may now be threatening. Jeremy Corbyns rise in Labour Party leadership offered great hopes for a leftward turn in Britain, away from the worrisome policies of Boris Johnson.

But hopes were dashed in the recent elections by the dirtiest media campaign in many years plus sniping by New Labour phonies like war-loving Tony Blair, who seemed to prefer the Tories to Jeremy. But also in part to denunciations by the Netanyahu wing in Jewish circles, led by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis who, in a key letter to the London Times violated non-partisan traditions by attacking Labour antisemitism, saying Corbyn was not fit for high office, that new poison in the party has been sanctioned from the top. The very soul of our nation is at stake, he wrote, and called on British Jews to vote for any party except Labour!

Such right-wing advice and the whole campaign by organizations falsely claiming to represent all British Jews, were built on lies. There is undoubtedly less anti-Semitism by far in the Labour Party than among the Tories.

As for Corbyn, who has opposed every form of racism all his life, John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons until recently, who is Jewish and a Tory, said that in 22 years of knowing Corbyn he had never detected so much as a whiff of antisemitism.

Of course, the reason for the vicious, often personal attacks was really because Corbyn does not support Israeli policy toward the Palestinians, but opposes all oppression of underdogs anywhere in the world. And Mervis, closely linked to the Israeli government for years, even acted as its unofficial ambassador while Chief Rabbi in Ireland.

I see undeniable parallels, even ties, with the USA election campaign. It is difficult to attack Bernie in the same way, for he is Jewish and even worked in a kibbutz in his youth. But if the possibility of his election increases, this would not just mean electing the first Jewish president in US history.

Far more important, it is causing hatred and panic among the same elements who hated Jeremy, fearful of challenges to their power and their wealth. I predict that they will attack Bernie just as maliciously and falsely as Jeremy, using his support for Palestinian rights to label him by that weird epithet , self-hating Jew, and perhaps by digging up (or constructing) a stupid statement or other by some unknown Sanders campaigner, maybe in Nebraska or North Dakota, in order to denounce his campaign.

There have already been signs of this. While the main attacks against Bernie will most likely be from the red-baiting angle Sanders will bring us Venezuelan socialism! He will steal our eye-glasses or our self-defense AR-15s I fear that the GOPs Sheldon Adelsons, and also some wealthy Democrats, may well be sharpening up the same sword wielded in Britain. I think great alertness and good clear answers have already become very necessary.

Continued here:

The Misuses of Antisemitism in the UK and the USA - CounterPunch

On January 25, anti-war organizers in more than 200 cities across the world answered a global call to action initiated by the ANSWER Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition, CODEPINK, Popular Resistance, Black Alliance for Peace, National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), Veterans For Peace, US Labor Against the War (USLAW) and many more demanding no war with Iran, end the sanctions and remove all U.S. troops from the Middle East. The threat of wind and rain in forecasts across New England did not stop organizers from Manchester, New Hampshire to New Haven, Connecticut from responding to the call. Hundreds came out in support of the demands and to participate in the rallies, marches, and educational events.

Anti-war protesters march through downtown Boston. Liberation Photo.

A vigorous group of over 400 anti-war demonstrators rallied outside of the Massachusetts State House and then marched through downtown Boston to demand no war on Iran and U.S. out of Iraq and the Middle East. The demonstration brought crowds of young people in high school and college, in addition to veterans, union workers and public school teachers.

Nineteen groups endorsed the demonstration, including the ANSWER Coalition, National Iranian American Council, Pride at Work Eastern Massachusetts, I am Harriet Boston, Harvard Bookstore Union UAW Local 1596 and MIT Students Against War. Many speakers condemned sanctions as an act of war that only harm the working and oppressed people of the countries targeted. Others connected U.S. military intervention in the Middle East to the deteriorating living conditions domestically, arguing that the money spent building the war machine could be spent on health care, housing and poverty elimination. During the rally, more than 500 dollars was collected to donate to an earthquake relief organization on the ground in Puerto Rico.

Gerry Scoppettuolo addresses the crowd, speaking for USLAW outside Park Street Station in Boston. Liberation Photo.

Teacher and rank-and-file member of Boston Teachers Union Amrita D spoke about the racism that has anchored the U.S. governments imperialist wars, my students are growing up in a post 9/11 United States where the war on terror has deepened racism against South and Southeast Asians, Arabs and people from the Middle East. We have to talk about war with our young people, they deserve a prosperous and promising future, not a bleak horizon of endless wars for profits.

Mojgun from the National Iranian-American Council told the crowd, I want you all to think about what it means to be at war. Some of us have direct experiences with war. we have a personal connection to war. When I came to the United States in 1983, it was in the midst of the Iran-Iraq War. It was devastating for both countries. I remember at night we had black outs, we would board up our windows and pull the shades and curtains and light our candles and wait for the sirens and bombs. we didnt have cell phones and social media back then to get news immediately, we had to wait until the next morning to see what part of the city was hit and how many people died.

No War or Sanctions on Iran! Liberation Photo.

The march grew as it traveled through downtown Boston, with workers and patrons spilling out of coffee shops and stores to join the march, or take videos and educational flyers. It began to drizzle as the protest was ending, and about 50 energized demonstrators walked back to community organizing hub Encuentro5 to warm up with hot cider and talk about the future of the movement.

Over two dozen activists braved the freezing rain and gathered in front of L3Harris Technologies in Northampton, Massachusetts as part of the Global Day of Protest.

Activists rally outside of L3Harris in Northampton, Massachusetts. Liberation Photo.

Resistance Center for Peace and Justice organizer Miranda Groux explained the significance of this location: L3Harris is one of the top 10 defense contractors in the world, and the company is on track to become the sixth largest, providing the military with surveillance solutions, microwave weaponry, and tools for electronic warfare. The stocks in this company have soared since Trump has threatened to escalate in Iran. Organizer Yoav Elinevsky spoke about how the cost of the war is $5.4 trillion of public money.

Historian and director of the Tri-continental Institute for Social Research Vijay Prashad closed out the rally with a reminder, Its not Iran that has provoked the United States, its not Iran that has intervened in the U.S. political system, its the United States that since at least 1953 has intervened in Iran. He continued, Its important that we stand here against the war that is already going on in Iran, it is important that we stand here against the state that has totally given over to the mechanism of destruction.

Activists gather outside the Rhode Island State House in Providence. Photo courtesy of Mike Malpiedi. Used with permission.

Despite the cold and dreary weather, 50 people answered the global call to action at the Rhode Island State House in Providence. Endorsing organizations included No Endless War or Excessive Militarism, Providence Antiwar, RI based Advocacy Team, Brown War Watch, Rhode Island Anti-War Committee, East Bay Citizens for Peace and Providence Democratic Socialists of America.

ANSWER Coalition organizer Satya Mohapatra said in his speech All U.S. wars and occupations of the Middle East have been based on lies and deception WMD lies; Humanitarian Intervention lies. Many veterans were present to confirm these lies, and several Vietnam War era protest songs were sung during the rally, including Edwin Starrs War and Nat King Coles Aint Gonna Study War No More.

Direct Action for Rights and Equality member Terri Wright said, Lets stop U.S. war outside and war on our communities. The significant impact that the military industrial

Iranians do NOT want a war with the U.S.A. Photo courtesy of Mike Malpiedi. Used with permission.

complex has on communities of color was rightfully addressed during several of the speeches, specifically how military tactics are being taught to local and state police departments and government agencies. Monica Huerata of the group No LNG at PVD said, ICE and policing are the same extension of U.S. militarism.

Michael from the climate action group Sunrise Movement said War is a climate change issue and the U.S. military is the biggest polluter in the world. Matt Ritchie of Brown War Watch, a student anti-war group inside Brown University, stressed that student anti-war activism could boost the general anti-war movement now.

Rally organizer Jonathan Daly-LaBelle called out two Rhode Island Democrats U.S. House Representative James Langevin and Senator Jack Reed for being complicit in Trumps war by supporting the National Defense Authorization Act to increase the military budget.

Members of the local Iranian community brought signs written in both English and Farsi that read Iranians dont want war with the U.S.A. The intimate rally closed with a chant demanding that the U.S. stop this aggression with Iran and a call to action that people continue to stay informed.

Members of the New Haven Peace Council and others rally on the steps of New Haven City Hall. Liberation Photo.

Despite heavy rain, over three dozen people came out to protest in downtown New Haven. Henry Lowendorf of the Greater New Haven Peace Council kicked off the rally: Do we want a war with Iran? The crowd shouted back an emphatic No! Would we like the troops out of Iraq? Yes! The assassination of General Soleimani he said was an act of war and has escalated an economic war on Iran, a war that includes assassinations and sabotage going back to the 1950s overthrow of Mosaddegh.

Ward 3 Alder Ron Hurt, also an organizer with New Haven Rising, said I represent a ward where there is a hunger. The children in my ward go to sleep at nighttime without dinner. Theres an opioid crisis in our land. All this money theyre spending on defense can help curb these situations. Earlier in the week, the New Haven Board of Alders passed a resolution urging the Congressional delegation from Connecticut to support Tim Kaines resolution in the U.S. Senate against escalating military conflict with Iran.

A teach-in held at the New Haven Library on imperialism in the Middle East and the wars at home. Liberation Photo.

Jim Pandreau, an anti-war veteran and organizer reminded the demonstration that as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, the United States government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. King also said that a nation that keeps on spending more on war and the military is slowly approaching spiritual death, Pandreau said, to cheers from the crowd.

After the rally, people went to the New Haven Library for a panel and discussion on U.S. wars at home and abroad. Puerto Rican liberation activist Jason Ortiz drew connections between the movement against U.S. wars in the Middle East and the illegal U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico. Ortiz pointed out that its the same system U.S. imperialism that oppresses people around the world and our fight needs to include all those victims. Finally, Ahmad Abojaradeh, a Palestinian activist and the Founder and Executive Director of Life In My Days, talked about the urgency of raising up and centering the voices of oppressed people in the anti-war movement.

More than a dozen peace activists gathered at Veterans Memorial Park in Manchester at noon. They took turns leading chants to put forward a loud, clear and unified message, and held signs with slogans like Support the Troops End the Wars and U.S. Out of Iraq! End the Occupation!

ANSWER Coalition organizer Jamarr Jabari speaks at the rally in New Haven, Connecticut. Liberation Photo.

Over the course of an hour, the rally engaged with many passers-by. Drivers honked and waved in support. People at the park and nearby bus stop came over to converse. One man shared that he was illiterate and asked what the signs said and meant. He related to the events anti-war goals and shared that his father was a veteran. Many people approached the rally initially out of curiosity and ended up staying to have friendly, productive conversations about the dangers of war and the importance of building a strong anti-war movement in the United States.

At one point, the group circled up and everyone took turns sharing why they came. The majority of people said that they felt responsible to stand up to the violence being carried out by the U.S. ruling class in our name.

Before the action ended, the attendees made plans to follow up. There will be more actions to demand that U.S. troops exit the Middle East and to end the sanctions on Iran. In addition, there will be events joining the anti-war movement with the movement to free political-prisoner Leonard Peltier. One organizer said, just as we oppose national oppression and colonialism abroad, we oppose them at home. The anti-war struggle is also an anti-racist struggle and a struggle to free all political prisoners.

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Anti-war protesters in New England take the streets for global day... - Liberation

On Thursday night, protests calling for the resignation of Puerto Rican Gov. Wanda Vzquez Garced in Old San Juan culminated in violence: Police launched tear gas at the crowd gathered at Calle Fortaleza leading to the governors mansion around 11 p.m. Police Commissioner Henry Escalera told Wapa TV that the decision was made after objects were thrown at officials and claimed there were 14 warnings before gasses were used.Protesters allegedly tried to set fire to a Wapa TV van, which had been spray-painted with embusteros, or liars.

All around the archipelago and throughout the diaspora Puerto Ricans are again mobilizing.

The protest began with a 5 p.m. convening at the Capitol Building. Despite the rainy weather, hundreds of vexed Puerto Ricans attended the demonstration. The call was originally announced by workers syndicates earlier this week, but it was quickly supported by various unions, movements and resistance groups. An extra push was added with the endorsement of two famous Puerto Ricans: rapper Residente, who spoke at the protest, and Major League Baseball player Yadier Molina, who for days has battled back and forth with Puerto Rican senator and president of the archipelagos pro-statehood party Thomas Rivera Schatz on social media. Bad Bunny and Ricky Martin have also expressed support.

Throughout the protests, which began in Old San Juan on Monday, multiple guillotines have appeared. Demonstrators rallied around the execution apparatus on Tuesday evening at the corner of Calle Fortaleza and Calle Cristo as well as during Thursday nights rally. The device complements a new protest chant condemning Vazquez as an assassin who deserves the guillotine.

Protestors carrying a guillotine march in Old San Juan demanding the resignation of Puerto Ricos Gov. Wanda Vzquez Garced and Senate President Thomas Rivera Shatz on January 23, 2020 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Photo by Jose Jimenez/Getty Images

All around the archipelago and throughout the diaspora Puerto Ricans are again mobilizing with posters, chants and cacerolas. Like the #RickyRenuncia movement, which ousted former Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossell in the summer of 2019, the biggest concentration is in Old San Juan, where daily protesters stomp the same cobblestones of last years historic events. Only now theyre calling for the resignation of Rossells successor, Vzquez.

This is our pueblo. We are the people who get up every day and fight for this country.

But Puerto Ricans have some other demands, too. Some hold signs indicating theyre protesting on behalf of everyone in the south, where thousands have been displaced into shelters and encampments while earthquakes and aftershocks have almost hourly rattled the region for nearly a full month. Others brandish placards about being fed up with governments corruption and lies. There are references to the estimated 4,645 people who died as a result of the crisis following Hurricane Mara, and there is outrage over the discovery last weekend of a warehouse in southern Ponce, a town hit hard by the earthquakes, stocked full of undistributed disaster aid, presumably intended for survivors of the 2017 disaster several items, like bottled water, bore 2017 expiration dates.

Despite the switch of figures in the crosshairs, these latest protests have mostly picked up where last summers campaign left off. Its another page in the same, very long book about colonialism, corruption and the systemic oppression of a people that has been accumulating chapters of resistance that dates back to the revolts of Indigenous Tanos against Spain in the early 1500s.

Still, something has shifted. Many Puerto Ricans seem angrier than they did last summer. The dissolution of the U.S. Federal Oversight Board, locally called La Junta, was demanded then and is being called for now as well. The removal of the governor, along with other corrupt politicians, is accompanied by calls for their imprisonment.

Residents are protesting after a warehouse full of relief supplies, reportedly dating back to Hurricane Maria in 2017, were found having been left undistributed to those in need. The sign reads murderous government. Photo by Jose Jimenez/Getty Images

Schatz, who is the president of the Senate, is one official specifically targeted. Last week, referring to the thousands of Puerto Ricans caravaning regularly to the south to help those affected by the earthquakes, he publicly called Puerto Ricans stupid for mistrusting the government with relief efforts. There are Puerto Ricans who believe the conservative politician is behind much of Vazquezs moves, too.

We have so much evidence [about] the hate this government has for the people.

Two signs held by protesters on Monday portrayed Schatz and Vazquez painted with Hitler mustaches on Nazi swastikas. More than a few activists expressed preferring to see these politicians heads on sticks rather than sitting behind bars.

Natalie Droz, a resident of Bayamn, leaned against the police-guarded barricades situated to block passage to La Fortaleza, the governors mansion, on Monday night. Shed been protesting for more than 10 hours at this point.

We have so much evidence [about] the hate this government has for the people, Droz tells Remezcla. This is our pueblo. We are the people who get up every day and fight for this country.

For Droz, thats only the tip of a massive, long-existing iceberg: We dont even know the quantity of lies weve been told these past few years and throughout our history, she adds.

That Monday night, the acrid stench of spray paint was thick. Stealthily moving among the mass of chanting protesters, all but their eyes covered for anonymity, a group of activists had covered nearly all reachable wall space in the area with anti-government messages: Government of lies, steals from us, kills us, read one. Above it was scrawled, the government doesnt exist. Many of these walls had only recently been repainted after having been graffitied during the #RickyRenuncia protests. A U.S. flag was also burned, lain flat on the cobblestones of Calle Fortaleza, that night.

The sign reads the government wants us dead, while the hide what is ours. Photo by Jose Jimenez/Getty Images

Vzquez initially affirmed she did not know about the warehouse in Ponce or others like it, as reports of which are continually surfacing. But various political figures, including Puerto Ricos Housing Secretary Fernando Gil Enseat who was fired by Vazquez after the scandal along with Emergency Management Director Carlos Acevedo, say she knew about the unused aid. Her signature also appears on documents acknowledging the existence of several warehouses, including the one in Ponce. On Thursday, she admitted in a press conference that everyone knew about the warehouses.

Its really important that they hear us again.

There is a steadfast faction of Puerto Ricans that does not support the protests. That group includes Rey Charlie, a social media personality and leader in last summers protests, who recently posted a video saying he wouldnt join these actions and that everyone should wait until November to vote in local elections.

Activists protesting now, though, say they cant wait. Burn your electoral card, reads another spray-painted message on walls of Old San Juan.

They need this [protest] for a wake-up call, William, a 24-year-old who works in Arecibo and asked that his last name be withheld, tells Remezcla about the government. [They have] to get the f**k out of here.

Like last summers weeks-long movement at La Fortaleza, the call to show up in Old San Juan is ongoing. Protests will likely continue through the weekend.

Additionally, on Wednesday, activists expulsed two political figures Ricardo Llerandi, former director of the Puerto Rico Trade and Export Company and once chief of staff under the Rossell administration (he resigned in the wake of Telegramgate), and Sen. Miguel Romero from a San Juan coffee shop. The protesters condemned the pair for corruption and their roles in loss of life post-Mara, calling them assassins.

A protester holds a sign that reads let the corrupts fall as demonstrators demand the resignation of Governor Wanda Vzquez Garced during new protests in front of Puerto Rico Capitol building on January 20, 2020 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Photo by Jose Jimenez/Getty Images

Protests have also been organized around the archipelago, including on Monday in the outlying island of Vieques, where a 13-year-old girl recently died, allegedly due to a lack of medical care since the local hospital hasnt been rebuilt since it was destroyed by the 2017 hurricanes. Funds were approved by FEMA on Tuesday to build one.

Yamille Rodriguez, who on Monday had traveled to Old San Juan from the western municipality of Arecibo where he studies at the University of Puerto Rico, wore a rainbow flag like a cape as he stood near a wall that read Gobierno Asesino. His main impetus for making the drive: Were still dealing with the same lies, he tells Remezcla. The 23-year-old expressed complete distrust in the Puerto Rican government, saying he wasnt surprised by the discovery of the secret warehouses but was astonished by the governments continued mistreatment of the people.

The system collapsed a while ago.

They saw that we were able to take out Ricky, Rodriguez says. They saw that were engaged, and they still lie to us. Its really important that they hear us again.

On Google Maps, Old San Juans Calle Fortaleza is doubly labeled. During the summer protests that resulted in the August 2 resignation of former Gov. Rossell, activists renamed it Calle de la Resistencia. Earlier this week, the actual tile bearing the street name was altered again to bear its protest assignation.

Wearing a Calle Resistencia T-shirt on Monday night, Nitzayra Leonor stood outside the Capitol, along with hundreds of others who would soon march back to La Fortaleza, where the first demonstration began.

I feel like the system collapsed a while ago, the 22-year-old says. And we keep acting like the system hasnt collapsed.

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Puerto Ricans Take Over Old San Juan to Oust Another Corrupt Governor - Remezcla

Lucknow: Undeterred by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanaths loud threats to file cases against them and undaunted by the biting cold, thousands of women are braving it out here to make their voices heard against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register for Citizens (NRC) .

Far from losing steam, as the dharna entered its ninth day under the open skies at Lucknows historical Hussainabad Clock Tower, the number of the demonstrators appears to be increasing. Fridays gathering looked not less than a 8,000-10,000 strong. Significantly, they are neither under a political banner nor guided by any recognised social activist group.

Similar protests by ordinary women have been on in Varanasi, Allahabad, Aligarh, Sambhal and some other UP towns. And despite being charged with the violation of Section 144 or for instigation, the protesters have not given up.

Sprawled over a roughly four-acre stone-paved platform in front of the 19th-century clock tower, these first-time demonstrators in Lucknow refused to get cowed down by Adityanaths threat to charge them with sedition and imprison them.

We are just staging a peaceful dharna in this corner of the city; what is most shocking is that simply because we raised this slogan of azadi, we are being accused of indulging in anti-national activity. How can someone equate our quest for azadi with that of separatists in Kashmir? asked Sabiha Rizvi, a BCom final year student at a local elite college who defied her family to participate in the anti-CAA dharna. She was referring to the chief ministers remark that if the demonstrators continued with their azadi slogan, they would be dealt with most severely.

Rizvi goes on to point out, What we are seeking is freedom from CAA and NRC , besides azadi from unemployment and illiteracy as well as azadi from heinous crimes like rape and dowry deaths.

Watch: During Anti-CAA Protests, UP Police Fired Shots at Most People Above the Waist

Well-known former BBC journalist Ramdutt Tripathi feels, This intimidation by the BJP government is a reflection of their aversion to the word azadi, because these right-wingers had nothing to do with Indias freedom movement; rather, some of them even joined hands with the British to oppose the freedom movement. Tripathi compares this protest to what Mahatma Gandhi did way back in 1906 in South Africa, against a new law that prescribed compulsory registration of all Indians, Chinese, Arabs and other Asians.

Meanwhile, emboldened by the chief ministers offensive attitude against the demonstrators, policemen went to the extent of snatching away blankets brought by volunteers to save the demonstrators from the extreme cold at night. The temperature usually drops very low because of the close proximity of the area to the Gomati river. Blanket snatching was stopped after stories of the kambal chors went viral on social media, leading Lucknows new police commissioner Sujit Pande to castigate his men in khakhi. But then, civic officials got down to switching off all the street lights in and around the area, thereby plunging it into darkness. They also locked public toilets in and around the area, but were compelled to open them after loud public outcry.

The Yogi Adityanath government thinks they can scare us through their petty acts of switching off lights at night or by taking away our blankets or locking up the public toilets, but such acts of intimidation are only giving us more strength to fight, asserts Naish Hasan, a middle-aged social activist.

Women with their children at the sit-in protest at Lucknows Clock Tower. Photo: PTI

The governments oppressive actions have failed to deter these protesting women, observed former Lucknow University vice-chancellor Roop Rekha Verma, who is a regular at the dharna site.

Seventy-six-year-old Verma, who is widely known for her activism, spends some time every day encouraging the younger lot, whose passion to fight for their rights is incredible. All India Democratic Womens Association leader Madhu Garg too extends all support to the protest with her team of activists, who make it a point to join the sit-in demonstration every day.

What came as another shot in the arm was the surprise visit by internationally acclaimed Shia scholar and cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, who is also senior vice president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). The octogenarian, who has been battling cancer for three years now, stepped out of his hospital room for the first time to address the demonstrators. Sitting on a wheelchair, he expressed his admiration for the protestors .

These women have created history by doing what men have not done anywhere. This is the first time that I am witnessing ordinary housewives, young students and grandmothers all joining hands to stage a protest in this Gandhian way. And the manner in which Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian women and young girls have joined hands to stage a round-the-clock demonstration braving the cold weather under the open skies is unparalleled, he said.

He went on to tell the protestors, My advise to you all is to not get cowed down by any kind of oppression or threats; maintain peace and calm and do not give up. I can assure you that victory will be yours once day.

Reacting to Union home minister Amit Shahs declaration at a public rally in Lucknow that he would not withdraw CAA or NRC under any circumstances, Sadiq hit back, If you dont take back this law, then these demonstrating women, these children will unseat you once day.

In his feeble but firm voice, he went on to add, Dont get disheartened by adversities and intimidation; remember every night is followed by a morning. He also flayed a UP minister for his saying if these anti-CAA protestors do not listen, we will teach them a lesson that their future generations will remember.

Less than 24 hours after his visit to the dharna site, Sadiq received the governments retort. His son, Kalbe Sibtain, has been booked for unlawful assembly and instigation. He had visited the dharna a day earlier.

Also read: A New Politics and Aesthetics of Protest Is Coming to Life in Kolkata

The UP government had been extremely harsh on anti-CAA protestors when they undertook their first demonstrations last month. Not only were thousands of protestors arrested and put in jails in different parts of the state, but about 17 protestors were killed in police firing. Yet, many of those who suffered were seen joining the dharna at the Clock Tower. These include activists like Deepak Kabir and Sadaf Jafar, who faced police violence and brutality, besides spending weeks in jail. Jafars crime was that she had dared to ask the cops why they were not arresting stone-pelting mobs, while Kabir was put in prison because he went looking for Jafar at a local police station.

That some policemen were trying to be more loyal than the king became glaringly obvious when they hauled up boys flying black kites and beat up others playing with black balloons. There was utter disregard for the fact that displaying black flags or sporting black bands is the most passive form of protest in a democracy.

While everyone wonders whether we are heading towards a police state, popular public support to the peaceful demonstration is becoming increasingly visible. Citizens are busy offering food, water, blankets and other essentials for the protestors. Some battery-operated lights have also been donated for the safety of demonstrators at night.

It would not be unfair to assume that the dharna has turned into a mass peoples movement in Lucknow something that must be making Adityanath and his government very uncomfortable.

Sharat Pradhanis a senior journalist in Lucknow.

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In Lucknow, Women's Unprecedented Anti-CAA Protest Gives the Adityanath Govt Jitters - The Wire

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The Syrian Refugee crisis has become a devasting disaster in the recent memory resulting in the death of Innocent Civilians, including Women, children, elderly and other vulnerable people. The available data suggest that the Syrian crisis has taken the lives of around 200,000 people and out of which an approximate 8000 documented killings of Children who have not attained the age of 18. The Population of Syria is approximately 22 million, of which the crisis has resulted in 7.6 million Internally Displaced Person, and additionally 3.2 million refugees. Moreover, the crisis has put a population of around 12.2 million in the immediate need for humanitarian assistance.[1]

Most of the Refugees from the Syrian flee to their neighbouring countries like Jordan, Lebanon, and turkey, and the number of Refugees reaching these countries are 600,000,1.14 million, and 1.6 million, respectively. Besides this, Syrians are also seeking shelter in Egypt, Iraq and some of the EU union nations like Greece, Italy and Germany. The Influx of refugees in these countries has propped up new challenges like physical protection, shelter, health, education, employment of these incoming people.[2]

The plight of these people has become increasingly dangerous as countries like Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon has no obligation to treat Syrians as refugees because they are not Signatories to the refugee convention of 1951 and its associated optional protocol. Hence the international responsibility of these countries to protect these people are legally absent. Another country that hosts most of these Syrians is turkey, and it is a signatory to the refugee convention 1951. But turkey has a geographical limitation on the Refugee convention of 1951 by making its obligation only applicable to the refugees from European Union Area who were affected by the events before January 1951. Hence the responsibility of Turkey concerning Syrian Refugees have been Negated by this Limitation.

However, Turkeys Obligation is different from other countries by being a member of the European Union. Besides Turkey, other European Union nations have also taken some of the burdens of the Syrian Population like Greece, Italy and Germany. Hence it becomes the Response of the EU to Syrian crisis becomes paramount in reducing the pain and degradation suffered by the Syrian Population. Besides Refugee Convention some of the Instruments that apply to Refugees in the area of European Union Includes association agreement in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership more famously known as Beijing declaration, European Neighbourhood policy instrument, Global Approach to Migration

and Mobility. In the backdrop of these legal instruments, it is vital to analyse the Response of the European Union to the Syrian crisis. This paper will trace the Syrian crisis from its origin and the Response of the European Union Nations to this conflict from the refugee law perspective.

The Syrian crisis started with the peaceful uprising against the president as a pro-democratic movement during the Arab spring in 2011. Even before the crisis began, there has been massive disenchantment with Syrian people against its president due to massive unemployment, corruption, and oppression. The Arab spring in the neighbouring countries gave a considerable impetus to the social, economic and political injustice felt by the Syrian People. Soon the peaceful uprising turned violent, and a large-scale civil war broke between the government and opposition supporters whose aim was to overthrow Dictatorship of the President.

Syria is a vast plural country comprising of the various ethnic groups like Sunnis, Shias, Alawis and Kurds. This plurality and diversity of opinion have given catalyst to the uprising and has been a source of exploitation for the international players to take sides based on their self-interest. Moreover, The Syrian Crisis has slowly transformed into a sectarian religious war between the majority Sunni Muslim community against the Shias Alawite sect of the president. The Religious Sectarianism has led to the further mushrooming of the fundamentalist jihadist groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaida to flourish. Another key player in this struggle is the Syrian Kurds who demand the right of self-government.[3]

Kurds are the ethnic minority people living in countries like Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Alongside Arabs, they form a critical ethnic group in the Syrian Region. The Kurds live mostly in the northern part of Syria bordering turkey. The Kurds got involved in the Syrian crisis to protect their territory from the chaos of the Syrian civil war. The warring factions in Syria to the following groups

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Countries like Russian and Iran support the pro-government militias. On the other hand, Countries like Turkey, USA, and several other gulf states who subscribe to the Sunni ideology of Islam have supported the forces fighting the ruling party. Additionally, the government had the backing of Lebanons Hezbollah and other militias from Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. Each International power has different interests and motivations to be involved in the conflict. For, Example, one of the motivating factors for the turkey to support the rebel is to contain the spread of Kurdish forces in the north, whom the turkey believes may affect their internal security.[4]

The international Legal Refugee Protection has two Fundamental Principles namely the Principle of Burden Sharing and The Principle of Non-Refoulment

The modern Refugee law has origins from the mid of the twentieth century after the second world war. The International Legal Refugee Protection has a crucial concept called the Burden Sharing. According to this concept, it is the responsibility of the international community to offer protection and shelter to the refugees. According to this Principle, the refugee problem is the concern of the entire humanity. From the perspective of the Syrian crisis, the International Community is bound by a higher moral norm because most of the Developed Nations are involved in the Syrian crisis in some form or other.

Another Fundamental Principle of Refugee law is the Principle of Non-Refoulment. According to this Principle, the states cannot return foreign nationals to their home territory where they are subjected to torture, inhuman treatment or where their lives and freedom might be at risk. Also, The Principle is reflected in the following international instruments Geneva convention relating to the status of refugees, United Nations Convention on

Torture and other cruel, Inhuman or degrading treatment or Punishment which possess the prohibition of refoulment.

The principles of Refugee protection and the Right to Asylum have in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to Article 14(1) of the universal declaration of Human Rights, it has been stated that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. In terms of the International Institutions, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the main body responsible for providing international protection to the refugees. The Key Function of the UNHCR in the Syrian Crisis is to assist the refugees of Syria in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey. According to its mandate, its primary function is to promote the conclusion and ratification of international conventions for the protection of refugees, supervising their application and proposing amendments thereto[5]

Some of the key provisions of the International Law about Refugees Include the following:

The International refugee law is derived from two main sources

The 1951 refugee convention and its 1967 optional protocol has the following obligations to the state parties under the convention like Recognising those fleeing from war zones as refugees,

The major European countries where the Syrians have applied for asylums include Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, France, Belgium etc. As of 2011, nearly 112,000 Syrians are living in the regions of the EU. It is believed that these Syrians are helping the refugees from Syria to reside in Eu without applying for asylum status. The Refugees from Syria reach the Eu through the land, sea and air routes. There has been a wide discrepancy between the

number of people fleeing and crossing Syria to the number of people being registered as asylum seekers or migrants in Europe. Hence it brings to the notice that many Syrians reach Europe unnoticed, which can be a huge challenge for the International Organizations like UNHCR to target and provide help to the Refugees who flee the conflict zone.

The approach of the European Union to the Syrian crisis can be grouped under the following actions, namely external and internal. The External responses include assisting the Syrian people by humanitarian assistance and, implementing a Regional protection programme in which a resettlement programme for the refugees within the EU region is envisaged. At the same time, the internal response mechanism includes increasing border security, granting asylum to several Syrians and, refraining from forcibly returning the Syrians to their homeland by rejecting asylum status.

The European Union countries also provide monetary support to the Refugees fleeing for their lives from Syria. According to European commission justice and home affairs council, the member states of the European Union has approximately provided 230 million in humanitarian assistance to the Syrian crisis. The European Commission claims that this comes around 53% of the international response making it the leading international donor in the Syrian crisis. Moreover, because the fundamental problem in the Syrian crisis is a political issue the EU has tried to bring about political change in the situation Syrian Region by bringing about the political change reflecting the pluralistic character the Syrian community.

Providing food, water, shelter and medicine to the displaced persons forms the core of the humanitarian assistance to the Syrian refugees. Through the channels of the Red Cross and other Ngo, the EU makes sure that Humanitarian Assistance reaches the Syrian refugees. However, some of the other actions by the European Union to the Syrian crisis has not conformed with the object and purpose of the International Refugee law and other Human Rights Convention.

The EU is taking external actions about the Syrian crisis by trying to bring political change in the Syrian Region and providing humanitarian assistance to the Victims. The ways

of political measures include imposing economic sanctions on the ruling Syrian government and by also terminating EU-Syrian bilateral cooperation.

Furthermore, the EU is taking several measures like condemning the Ruling regimes action through UN resolutions and calling for investigations about the rights abuses perpetrated by the regime.[6]

As the means of Internal action, the Eu states are taking strong measures by increasing security along their Border to prevent the Influx of refugees from these areas. For Example, Greece, which is an Eu nation that has been receiving Syrian refugees, has deployed additional forces in its Border, and this has significantly reduced the inflow of the refugees. This response mechanism is in complete violation of the Principle of Non-Refoulment Discussed. According to this Principle, the states which are party to the Refugee convention of 1951 and its optional protocol cannot return persons seeking asylum to their state of origin or prevent them from fleeing the war zone.

Thus, the Internal response mechanism adopted by the EU Countries is in Completely violation of its obligation under the International refugee law and its Core principles.

In conclusion, the action taken by the European Union nations has not in spirit satisfied the objective and purpose of the International Refugee Law. Some of the action taken by the European Union in form internal actions may jeopardise the wellbeing of the refugees and violate the Principle of the Non-Refoulment. Also, the European Union in addition to the Principle of the Burden sharing has special responsibilities towards Syrian refugees because it has actively engaged in armed combat operations in the Syrian Region by offering indirect help to armed militias which wage war against the authoritarian government. The European Union should be more welcoming of the Refugees from the Syrian Region and offer them full Refugee status under the Principles of the Refugee convention 1951. Granting Refugee status and providing them with asylum status is Vital to preserve the peace and stability of the Middle East and the Eastern European Regions like Greece, Turkey, Italy.

In order to fulfil the obligations under the Principle of Burden sharing, the European Union nations could initiate measures like providing proper educational opportunities in schools colleges and further following it with the adequate employment opportunities for the Syrians. Additionally, the European Union countries need to diffuse any misconceptions about these refugees as an internal security threat. The research has time and again proved

that refugees do not constitute a threat to inner peace and in most cases, they lead a peaceful life helping the host countries economically.

Also, refugees must be allowed to practise their religion peacefully in asylum countries without any discrimination and fear. In this regard, the government may facilitate access to religious sites and provide adequate security to the refugees when practising their religion. The most important step the European Union countries could take is to refrain from taking harsh measures in their border region against the incoming refugees because this endangers the lives of the refugees. The European Union is obligated both by international law and through high moral norm to respond to this crisis in a humane manner. The Positive Response by the European Union to the Refugee Crisis will contribute immensely to the Global and Regional Stability of the Middle East Region.

References:

[1] The Syrian Refugee Crisis: Refugees, Conflict, and International Law. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.democraticprogress.orginfo@democraticprogress.org+44

[3]Why is there a war in Syria? BBC News. (n.d.). Retrieved December 30, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35806229

[4] Who Are the Kurds, and Why Is Turkey Attacking Them in Syria? The New York Times. (n.d.). Retrieved December 30, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/world/middleeast/the-kurds-facts-history.html

[5] The Syrian Refugee Crisis: Refugees, Conflict, and International Law. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.democraticprogress.orginfo@democraticprogress.org+44

[6] Fargues, P., & Fandrich, C. (2012). MPC-Migration Policy Centre The European Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis What Next?

By, MrBlessan M, LLB In IP Law, IIT KharagpurPresently pursuing LLM in Human Rights Law from National Law School India, Bangalore

Summary

Article Name

Syrian Refugee Crisis and The Response of the European Union

Description

The Syrian crisis started with the peaceful uprising against the president as a pro-democratic movement during the Arab spring in 2011. Even before the crisis began, there has been massive disenchantment with Syrian people against its president due to massive unemployment, corruption, and oppression.

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Syrian Refugee Crisis and The Response of the European Union - thepolicytimes.com

As Sudan marks the first anniversary of the December revolution, the Sovereign Council and interim government a tenuous exercise in military-civilian cooperation is being put to the test by situations within the country, which can often be traced to the legacy of the deposed Al Bashir regime.

On the positive side, the Sudanese public are getting used to being able to stage peaceful protests in relative freedom.

Announcements that the entire education system in Sudan is to be overhauled and restructured to reflect the new reality in the country, have been welcomed almost universally.

There is less fear for security in many parts of the country, however clashes between civilians displaced by many years of civil war and marauding militiamen still plague Darfur especially. Most recently, attacks on camps for the displaced and villages near El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, have left more than 70 dead and wounded.

The peace talks in the South Sudanese capital of Juba are ongoing, and progress is evident in several of the negotiation tracks.

The Juba dialogue has also eased tensions between the government and the rebels who hold much of the Two Areas (South Kordofan and Blue Nile state). This has enabled international organisations such as the World Food Programme to bring-in vital humanitarian aid for the first time in many years.

The eyes of Sudan are on Khartoum to ensure that the interim government of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok remains true to the ideals of the revolution. Government efforts to dismantle the deep state by replacing affiliates of the former regime in positions of power are under scrutiny at home and abroad.

Naysayers, especially Islamic fundamentalists hankering back to the former regime, are being called to account, and their media channels gagged.

An increasing number of voices within Sudan are joining calls by the international community to transfer deposed dictator Omar Al Bashir and his co-accused cronies to The Hague to face charges of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

Al Bashir has already been convicted of currency offences, and given a custodial sentence by a Khartoum court, but as he still faces charges in Sudan, he remains incarcerated in the notorious Kober prison in Khartoum North, where so many of his opponents were detained and tortured during the 30 years of his repressive regime.

As the revolution enters its second year, the Sudanese economy still shows little sign of recovery. Challenges on that front for the next year will be for the government to regain full control of the countrys gold mines, retrieve the ill-gotten gains of Al Bashir and his cadres, and to convince the international community and the USA in particular to remove Sudan from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

October: Affiliates of Al Bashir replaced, peace talks resume

October 1: Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok meets with the French President in Paris. Hamdok also meets Abdelwahid El Nur, the chairman of the mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement. Radio Dabanga interviews Hamdok, who expresses strong support for the Sudanese media outlet abroad: Its place is now inside Sudan.

October 2: France will support debt relief for Sudan. Two generals arrested for planning a coup dtat in July are released.

October 3: The new head of the European Union Delegation to Sudan arrives in Khartoum. The Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance organises a conference in Cairo in cooperation with Sudanese opposition parties and civil society organisations, in order to unify their stances concerning the peace process.

October 4: US Assistant Secretary of State Tibor Nagy says that removing Sudan from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism will take time. A professor of International Law at the University of Khartoum urges legal and institutional reform before starting with transitional justice procedures.

October 6: The Prime Minister dismisses 28 heads of state university boards and 35 university rectors and four deputies. South Kordofan anti-mining protesters clash with militiamen of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who are guarding gold mines in the state.

October 7: Demonstrators in Talodi in South Kordofan continue their vigil against the use of cyanide in gold mining. Calls on Sudans government to extradite Omar Al Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

October 8: RSF militiamen attacked people living near gold mines in Talodi.

October 9: The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) announce that the government is working silently to remove all figures of the former regime in ministries and the states. The FFC says it will name civilian replacements for the military state governors this month. Sudans Council of Ministers outlaws the use of toxics in mining.

October 10: Woman judge Nemat Abdallah gazetted as new Chief Justice. Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, who recently visited Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, arrives in Addis Ababa to hold talks with Ethiopian officials and representatives of the International Authority on Development (IGAD) trade block. Staff of the Sudan News Agency demand restructuring to reflect Sudans new reality. Security forces continue to abuse emergency measures in South Kordofan.

October 11: Demonstrations calling for peace and justice all over Sudan. The Minister of Youth and Sports files a lawsuit against an Imam in Khartoum who denounced women football in a number of fatwas.

October 13: El Sadig El Mahdi, head of the National Umma Party (NUP) warns that the current transitional regime is deadlocked because of conspiracies by former regime members, opportunistic foreign interventions, and the economic crisis.

October 14: Start of the second round of the peace talks between the Sudanese government and armed movements. Five rebel factions merge into the Sudanese Alliance for Change. The Sudanese governments decision to forbid the use of toxics in gold mining is met with mixed reactions. The Darfur Women Action Group presents a Strategic Framework for Sustainable Change in Sudan.

October 15: South Sudanese President Salva Kiir brokering the Sudanese peace talks calls on the African Union to support the transition in Sudan. Sudanese journalists, lawyers demand removal of corrupt trade union leaders. University of Khartoum to resume studies this month.

October 16: Sudans newly appointed Attorney General Tajelsir El Hibir takes the Oath of Office, pledges that Rule of Law will prevail in the country. The Minister of Culture and Information announces there will be no censorship at the 15th Khartoum International Book Fair.

October 17: The Sudanese Congress Party criticises Khartoum, Juba, and Sudans armed movements for not inviting the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) to join the ongoing peace talks. A military court bans media coverage of the trials of those accused of involvement in the foiled coup attempt in July.

October 18: Severe bread crisis in Atbara in Rive Nile state. An activist in eastern Sudans El Gedaref files a complaint against the former state security director for murder and torture. SPLM-N El Hilu and Khartoum agree on a roadmap for the peace process in South Kordofan.

October 20: The Ministry of Labour and Social Development to carry out economic and social surveys to determine the extent of poverty in the country.

October 21: The SRF and Khartoum sign an agreement paving the way for peace talks on Darfur and Blue Nile state. Thousands of Sudanese take to the streets to mark the 55th anniversary of the 1964 October Revolution. Armed robbers pillage five villages in South Darfur. Military Intelligence agents in South Kordofan detain people suspected of supporting the rebel movement in the state. Islamist students attack pro-democracy students in Khartoum North. Teachers in Northern State accuse the Department of Education of intimidation. South Kordofan protests against toxins, militia presence continue.

October 22: Sudans peace negotiations are adjourned for one month to give the parties time for consultations. The Sudanese Pound hits a new low against hard currencies. Aid by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) revives Sudan-South Sudan river shipping. Five Sudanese policemen are officially accused of torturing a man to death in Omdurman. The international Friends of Sudan has expressed strong support for Sudans governments plan to reform the countrys economy.

October 23: Khartoum grants permission to the WFP to access rebel-held areas in South Kordofan. An independent Committee of Inquiry headed by lawyer Nabil Adib will investigate the violent used against protestors during the uprising. Activists lament the absence of women in the committee. Civil servants in Darfur officially accuse the Darfur Peace Office of corruption. A Muslim extremist vandalised the Khartoum Book Fair stand devoted to books from and about the late Islamic reformer Mahmoud Mohamed Taha.

October 24: The immunity of members of Sudans now defunct National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) will be lifted. Doctors in Nyala, South Darfur strike in protest against an attack, allegedly by RSF militiamen. The Sudanese-South Sudanese Joint Boundary Demarcation Commission agreed on the full delimitation of the boundaries between the two countries. Darfur genocide specialist Prof Eric Reeves announces he will stop publishing articles on Sudans war-torn western region.

October 25: Leaders of the Sudan Liberation Movement faction led by Minni Minawi travel to Khartoum to intensify their contact with political forces in the country. The chairman of the Sovereign Council says Sudan will continue its economic and military cooperation with Russia.

October 26: The Sudanese Professionals Association criticises the participation of Sovereign Council members in an RSF militia campaign against cholera in the country.

October 27: Abdelaziz El Hilu, head of the SPLM-N faction in South Kordofan welcomes the Sovereign Councils authorisation of a World Food Programme visit to the rebel stronghold in Kauda. Organisations and activists working in the field of childcare demanded that the government establish a Commission for the Rights of the Child as a matter of priority.

October 28: The US Dollar rate rose to SDG 76 on the parallel market. The Sudanese government and the Forces for Freedom and Change welcome the arrival of the SLM-MM to the country. Followers of former janjaweed leader Musa Hilal hold a vigil in Khartoum demanding his release. The Sovereign Council agreed to review the cases of members of the armed movements detained across the country.

October 29: The El Gezira and El Managil Farmers Alliance reports that 80 percent of this years cotton production has failed due to pests. The University of El Fasher opens a Human Rights Knowledge Centre in cooperation with the UNDP. Sudanese police assert that former janjaweed leader Musa Hilal has been arrested for criminal charges. RSF militiamen reportedly contaminated water in Talodi, South Kordofan. Doctors in Sudans River Nile state strike over lack of medical basics.

October 30: The Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance has requested the Prime Minister to postpone the selection process of state governors and the Parliament until a comprehensive peace has been reached. Protestors in Port Sudan demand the dismissal of Haya locality officials, accusing them of negligence. Water and oil are leaking from a West Kordofan oil well.

October 31: A high-level EU delegation visits Sudan to discuss cooperation, and pledges 466 million in support grants to assist the transition in the country. Sudans Attorney General says he will prosecute perpetrators of major human rights violations committed since 1989, when Al Bashir took power in a military coup.

November: Sudanese continue exercising their right to protest

November 1: The UN Security Council agreed to extend the mandate of the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (Unamid) until 31 October 2020. Friends of Sudan agree on financing the countrys 2020 budget and debt relief. Sudanese lawyers and civil society activists call on the AU to provide technical assistance to Sudans Transitional Government and establish an office in Khartoum. The Ministry of Information and Culture began listing media institutions owned by former state officials. Angry protesters torch the offices of the West Darfur General Intelligence Service (GIS), after a young man was allegedly tortured by RSF militiamen.

November 3: The EU delegation that visited Khartoum last week quizzed Sudans Attorney General about the extradition of ousted President Al Bashir to the ICC. Three suspects are held after two farmers were gunned down on their farm in North Darfur. According to political analyst El Haj Warrag, racism forms the root of human rights violations in Sudan.

November 4: The Sudan Armed Forces denied claims by the El Houthi group that more than 4,000 Sudanese troops have been killed since Sudans involvement in the Yemen war. The Prime Minister is visiting North Darfur today his first visit to a Sudanese state since he assumed office on August 21. The value of the Sudanese Pound continues to drop against major international currencies, despite economic revival plans. A delegation of the South Sudanese mediation team visits Khartoum for consultations about the Sudanese peace talks. Sudans Minister of Culture guarantees press freedom in the country.

November 5: PM Abdallah Hamdok vows to achieve transitional justice in Darfur. People in El Abbasiya in South Kordofan protest against police violence. Residents of West Kordofans Babanusa call for improved basic services in the state. Sudans media laws are to be amended within six months. The FFC say that Omar Al Bashir should be transferred to the ICC after he has been tried in Khartoum for corruption. Herders attack farmers in North and Central Darfur.

November 6: More than seven million people in Sudan suffer from hunger, 85 percent of them are pastoralists. The South Darfur Land Conference requests the registration of land be stopped until the peace process has been completed. North Darfur school students demonstrate to support the teachers strike in El Fasher.

November 7: Sudans Foreign Minister meets US President Donald Trump in Washington. Sweden commits support to economic regeneration in Sudan. The downward slide of the Sudanese Pound against hard currencies is showing no signs of recovery. The Ministry of Culture pledged that crimes committed against journalists under the former regime will not pass without accountability. The FFC in El Obeid in North Kordofan protest the deteriorating health care in the state.

November 8: Sudans Minister of Finance says the dire situation in the country requires the lifting of US sanctions on Khartoum. The Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance says Khartoum may appoint temporary state governors until a peace accord is reached. The North Darfur Land Conference recommends the review of all laws concerning land use and ownership.

November 10: The Central Bank of Sudan freezes bank accounts of 40 prominent officials of the former regime. New evidence may further condemn former revenue head of Sudans Presidential Palace. The Sudan Workers Union demands an increase in the minimum monthly salary to SDG 8,778 ($195). At the Sudan Partners Forum in Khartoum, Finance Minister Ibrahim El Badawi requests support for his plans to address the economic problems in the country. Herders shoot at farmers in North Darfurs Tawila.

November 11: PM Abdallah Hamdok meets with EU Commissioners in Brussels. The UN accuses a number of member states, including Sudan, of violating the Libya arms embargo. Sudans educational budget will be substantially increased. A number of Darfur and South Kordofan former rebel factions join forces to complete the peace process in the country. Herders again attack farmers in North Darfurs Tawila.

November 12: The Swiss government contributes $2 million to support livelihoods in Darfur. The Secretary General of the Arab League discusses the Sudanese peace talks with rebel leader. The Islamist Popular Congress Party urges the government to ratify the Rome Statute and hand over Omar Al Bashir to the ICC. Seasonal labourers in El Gezira demand better housing and services, attribute neglect by former state governments to racism.

November 13: Women activists meet with Sovereign Council member Mohamed El Taayshi, demanding the participation of women in the peace negotiations. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will re-register all displaced people in the North Darfur camps. The Communist Part of Sudan demands the government take control of the Jebel Amer gold mines in North Darfur. Students in South Darfur protest the continuing lack of transportation.

November 14: The Sudanese army wishes to end the appointment of generals as acting state governors, contrary to what has been agreed with rebel leaders during the peace talks. Sudans new Chief Justice says she does not have the competence to refer Al Bashir to the ICC. A high-level UN delegation visits El Fasher, capital of North Darfur. Groups of herders assault farmers in various places in North Darfur.

November 15: Washington will cooperate with Khartoum to successfully complete the three-year transitional period. The conference on Legal Reform of Land Use in Darfur recommends the amendment of all land laws. Hundreds of demonstrators in Khartoum demand a speedy solution to the transportation crisis in the city.

November 17: Sudans Attorney General calls for the investigation of the extrajudicial killing of army officers in 1990. Displaced leaders in Central Darfur tell the UN delegation visiting Zalingei that Al Bashir and other former leaders must be handed to the ICC in The Hague. According to Malik Agar, head of the SPLM-N faction in Blue Nile state, Darfur should be granted autonomy.

November 18: According to Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, head of Sudans Sovereign Council, women should lead the peace process in the country. Fatal attacks on protestors in June could amount to crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. Several protestors are injured when the police break up a rally calling for the removal of El Geziras acting governor. In Zalingei, capital of Central Darfur, activists protest the seizure of a piece of land by the acting governor.

November 19: Tribal clashes erupt in Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state between supporters and opponents of the head of the United Popular Front who returned to the city after a long exile.

November 20: Unamid officially hands over its Nyala Camp, one of the largest bases of the UN-AU Mission in Darfur, to the Sudanese government. Rival tribes in Port Sudan sign a peaceful coexistence accord. Activists in Khartoum protest recent violence used by the authorities against peaceful demonstrators in El Gezira and Khartoum.

November 21: Prime Minister Hamdok visits Port Sudan. Popular Congress Party leader Ali El Haj is arrested for his role in the 1989 military coup that brought Al Bashir to power. The Unamid Head of Mission calls on hold-out rebels to join Sudan peace talks. On the occasion of World Childrens Day, dozens of children demonstrate in Khartoum, demanding a childrens commission that will guarantee their rights. Army soldiers and RSF militiamen clash in Central Darfur market.

November 22: Prices of locally grown staple foods in Sudan begin to decline with the start of the harvest. More than 200 students of the University of Dongola resign in protest against racist conduct of the university administration. The Ministry of Interior Affairs investigates the practice of illegally granting the Sudanese nationality to foreigners. Hundreds of supporters of Al Bashir call for the release of detained former government officials.

November 23: A Darfur activist network urges Gen Mohamed Hamdan Hemeti, Deputy Head of the Sovereign Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Rapid Support Forces to stop the ongoing violence against farmers and villagers in the region.

November 24: Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan says that the government will not transfer ousted President Al Bashir to The Hague. The Sudanese army denounces a report by Human Rights Watch that asserts that fatal attacks on protestors in June were planned. The Humanitarian Aid Commission has revoked the registration of 28 institutions affiliated with the defunct Al Bashir regime and the Muslim Brotherhood. The people of Sudan must learn to appreciate their diversity, the Minister of Religious Affairs says.

November 25: The UN humanitarian chief calls on the international community to act faster to scale up humanitarian support to Sudan, as the situation is deteriorating for millions of people. Demonstrators in various places in Sudan call for the removal of affiliates of Al Bashirs National Congress Party from state institutions, improvements at the university, or protest high tuition fees charged by schools.

November 26: The Ministry of Education decides to overhaul the educational ladder and curriculum. The government will give top priority to the investigation of arbitrarily dismissals from Sudans civil service during the Al Bashir regime. Members of the Popular Defence Forces militia attack people in Habila in South Kordofan while police and the army remain silent. The Khartoum Culture Festival in the name of the victims of the June 3 massacre, is marred by protests because of the participation of a representative of the RSF militia.

November 27: Members of the Revolutionary Awakening Council (RAC), founded by former janjaweed leader Musa Hilal demonstrate in Khartoum and several towns in Darfur, calling for his release. School students in Nyala continue their protest against the transport crisis. University students in El Gezira demand the dissolution of the Student Welfare Fund. Two North Darfur farmers are wounded in a herder attack.

November 28: Political parties and armed movements demand restructuring of the FFC. The Minister of Religious Affairs says that the new civil Sudan aims to take care of the interests of citizens, Muslims and Christians alike.

November 29: The Sudanese government decides to disband the National Congress Party (NCP) established by ousted President Al Bashir and cancel the Public Order laws. Social media activists in Khartoum say they have repeatedly been harassed by the authorities while covering events in the city. NCP supporters clash with members of the Forces of Freedom and Change in West Kordofan. Herders raid Kendebe village in West Darfur.

December: Herders attacks on farmers continue in Darfur, more deep state elements removed

December 1: The assets of the dissolved NCP in Sudanese banks are estimated at trillions of Pounds. The University of Khartoum accuses Islamic fundamentalist Mohamed El Jazouli of insulting the Universitys administration and inciting violence. Gunmen attack a village near Sirba in West Darfur.

December 2: Sudans Prime Minister travels to the USA with a high-level Sudanese delegation to discuss the lifting of the US and UN sanctions against Sudan. Chief Justice Nemat Abdallah announces the release of 1,012 prisoners in Khartoum state. Unamid discusses peace projects and its scheduled withdrawal from Darfur next year with federal and Darfur institutions. A poll conducted by Al Jazeera live on Facebook shows that 84 percent of the respondents support the dismantling of the former regime. In Khartoum, hundreds of Sudanese celebrate the dissolution of the NCP. Militant herders kill two farmers in North Darfur.

December 3: Delegations from the SPLM-N Agar and the Kush Alliance arrive in Khartoum to push forward the spirit of partnership with the transitional government. Journalists call for the removal of affiliates of the former regime in the Ministry of Culture and Information. Doctors at the Bashayer Hospital in Khartoum strike after two doctors were assaulted by policemen. Gunmen shoot four people in separate incidents in Darfur.

December 4: The UN and Sudan will exchange ambassadors after a 23-year gap. PM Hamdok states in an US interview that anybody responsible for atrocities in Sudan must be held accountable, including Hemeti. Relatives of protestors killed demonstrate in Khartoum demanding that a committee of international standards investigates the murders. Carrying edged weapons is banned in Red Sea state. A Dutch delegation visiting Darfur says the attacks on farmers in the region illustrate the lack of enforcement of the Rule of Law. An RSF militia captain has been sentenced to death for murdering a man in West Darfur.

December 5: UNs counterterrorism chief commends Sudan for initiative in detection, interdiction of terrorists. Four people are killed when gunmen clash at a South Darfur market. According to a member of the FFC Peace Committee, the current peace talks are hampered by unclarity about the negotiation platform.

December 6: Chadian President Idris Deby receives a delegation from Sudans Sovereign Council, and meets with members of the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance. Sudanese lawyers file a complaint against Al Bashir and other leaders of the former regime for ordering the killing of demonstrators. A Khartoum medical convoy travels to the Nuba Mountains to offer free treatment to war victims in the region.

December 8: The South Sudanese mediation team reports that the preparations for the third round of Sudanese peace negotiations have been finalised. SPLM-N El Hilu says its negotiation team is ready to engage in direct peace talks with the Sudanese government. Prime Minister Hamdok is optimistic about overcoming Sudans crises after successful meetings in the USA. The Minister of Finance establishes a national committee to assess the salaries of state employees for 2020. People in Central Darfur demonstrate against the increasing violence in the region.

December 9: Residents of North Darfurs Kabkabiya protest the ongoing violence against farmers by herders and members of the RSF militia.

December 10: The third round of the Sudanese peace negotiations kicks off in Juba. Police in White Nile state detain activists protesting against the administration of the Kenana Sugar Company. Five people who went missing during the violent dismantling of the Khartoum sit-in on June 3 are still unaccounted for. Unidentified gunmen attack farmers, rape girl in Central Darfur. Sudanese army soldiers injure 15 people in Kassala. According to Global Witness, the RSF militia has huge interests in many sectors of the Sudanese economy, including gold mining and trade.

December 11: The chairman of the Sovereign Council instructs the formation of a committee to remove remnants of the former regime and recover embezzled money. The public prosecutor in Khartoum questions deposed President Al Bashir about the 1989 military coup that brought him into power.

December 12: Rebel leader Abdelaziz El Hilu reports an optimistic mood at the Sudanese peace talks in Juba. The Prime Minister calls on the Friends of Sudan for support to overcome challenges facing the transition process. Another prominent Popular Congress Party leader is detained for his role in the 1989 military coup. People in Tawila, North Darfur, demonstrate against the recurrent herder attacks in the area. In South Kordofan, a farmer is killed by militiamen of the Popular Defence Forces. UNDP and the University of Khartoum launch the 2019 global Human Development Report.

December 13: The first session of direct peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebel movements starts in Juba. SPLM-N El Hilu demands secularism and self-determination. Renewed tribal clashes break out in Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state. Darfur women demand gender balance in Sudans government. The second wife of Al Bashir is arrested for illegal ownership of wealth. Students of the University of El Fasher in North Darfur protest the lack of bread and transportation. The Sentry urges Washington to accelerate lifting Sudan from its terrorism list.

December 14: Al Bashir is sentenced for corruption to two years imprisonment.

December 15: The Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance and the forces for Freedom and Change discuss the possibility of the FFC participating in the Juba talks. Mass rallies are held in Khartoum and several other states in the country to mark the anniversary of the December revolution. In West Darfur, people demonstrate against the growing violence in the region. Angry protesters in El Gedaref block the Sudan-Ethiopia border, demanding protection from attacks by Ethiopian gunmen.

December 16: The negotiating parties extend the Juba Declaration of Principles, which includes a cease fire, for two months. Charges are being prepared leaders of the former regime for crimes against humanity committed between 1989 to 2019. Hemeti, Deputy chairman of the Sovereign Council and Commander of the RSF government militia will reportedly hand over the gold mines in North Darfurs Jebel Amer to the Sudanese government. El Sadig El Mahdi,, calls for an end to hostilities against Hemeti. The Ministry of Industry will list all factories in Sudan, as part of the governments plans to stimulate the economy.

December 17: Peace negotiations in Juba focus on the main issues schedule in order to reach an agreement before February 15, 2020. Central Bank of Sudan freezes assets of trade unions and the Employers Union because of their affiliation with the former regime. A government delegation headed by Hamdok arrives in NDjamena, capital of Chad, for a two-day visit. The National Committee for Environment Protection says the government of Al Bashir never reacted to its petitions against toxic substances used by mining companies in the country. The No Oppression Against Women Initiative organises a rally in Omdurman. Sudanese refugees in Niger stage a protest against long neglect.

December 18: Khartoum and the SPLM-N Agar faction sign a humanitarian protocol in Juba. The US software company Oracle will introduce a mobile banking system to Sudan. The governor of South Darfur discusses Dutch projects with a delegation from the Netherlands. University students in East Darfur protest against badly maintained dormitories after a student drowned in a ground water tank. Farmers protest in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, against repeated attacks on their farms.

December 19: The Executive Director of the WFP visits Blue Nile state as humanitarian aid arrives from South Sudan. The ICC Prosecutor urges the ending of impunity for atrocities in Darfur. The main stakeholders of the peace talks in Juba, the marginalised people themselves, will be involved in the negotiations. The No Oppression Against Women Initiative again calls for the inclusion of women in the peace process. According to the RSF, an invisible group disguising itself as RSF militiamen are responsible for attacks on protestors during the uprising. The capital of North Darfur witnesses a demonstration against herders attacks on farmers. The chairman of the Sovereign Council receives Darfur displaced in Khartoum.

December 20: Thousands of Sudanese commemorate the first anniversary of the December revolution. The rebel groups in Juba submit framework papers for talks on Darfur and the Two Areas (South Kordofan and Blue Nile state). The Public Prosecution will investigate all complaints concerning political crimes since 1989. Eastern Sudanese community leaders attending the peace talks in Juba propose a separate peace conference for the east, to be held inside Sudan.

December 21: Khartoum and rebel groups negotiating peace in Juba reach an understanding on the central Sudan track. Thousands of displaced people who fled armed conflict in Sudans peripheries, are surviving in the open in Khartoum.

December 22: The Sudanese government signs a $20 million programme with the UN Secretary-Generals Peacebuilding Fund. Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups agree on the participation of war victims in the Sudanese peace talks. The South Kordofan government and the SPLM-N El Hilu agree to open a number of roads for traffic and humanitarian aid in the Nuba Mountains.

December 23: Sudans Attorney General charges Al Bashir and 54 other prominent members of his regime with crimes committed in Darfur since 2003. The independent committee tasked with investigating the violent break-up of the Khartoum sit-in on June 3, kicks off. The 2020 draft budget will cut fuel subsidies and raise salaries. The poorest Sudanese will receive direct subsidies. The South Sudanese mediation team in Juba reports progress in all five Sudanese negotiation tracks. El Burhan, Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces and chairman of the Sovereign Council, confirms that the RSF militia forms an integral part of the countrys army.

December 24: The Sudan Revolutionary Front agrees with Khartoum to include 200 displaced people from Darfur in the Juba talks. Darfuri farmers report that at least 50 farmers were killed and injured in attacks in South and North Darfur in November and December. Sudan and South Sudan sign an extension of the joint oil agreement.

December 25: The Sudanese government and rebels in Juba sign a final accord on the central Sudan track. The security situation in Abyei is deteriorating rapidly. Peace talks on the eastern Sudan track have been suspended to allow for a stakeholders conference to resolve their differences. The Minister of Religious Affairs says he will root out corruption in his ministry. The International Monetary Fund urges Khartoum to take bold decisions to stabilise the economy in the country.

December 26: Thousands of people in Khartoum commemorate the first anniversary of the massive anti-Al Bashir march organised by the Sudanese Professionals Association. The peace negotiations in Juba are close to agreements on all tracks. NUP chairman El Sadig El Mahdi, warns that the Juba negotiations will not achieve peace. Prosecutors again question the second wife of Al Bashir about her assets. In his Christmas speech, the Minister of Religious Affairs apologises to Christians for the unjust policies they were subjected to during the deposed Al Bashir regime.

Link:

Sudan: Interim government put to the test - Radio Dabanga

Kashmiris observe Indias Republic Day as black day

ISLAMABAD/LONDON: Rallies and demonstrations were held onSunday in Pakistan and across the world as Kashmiris observed India's Republic Day as black day to draw the international community's attention towards New Delhi's human rights violation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

The Modi government in India last year scrapped the special status of IOK and imposed a curfew and communication blackout to suppress the dissent against the controversial move. The Republic Day brought more miseries to the already besieged people, as Indian troops intensified checking and frisking in various cities of the region.

In the occupied territory, a complete strike was observed and the Valley was turned into a military cantonment, while protests, anti-India demonstrations and rallies were carried out in major capitals of the world.

Call for the observance ofthe black day was given by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Gilani and other Hurriyat leaders and organisations including Muhammad Ashraf and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat forum. This year, the observance of the black day was also aimed at registering a protest against the continued lockdown of the IOK imposed by India for the past almost six months.

The Hurriyat leaders in their statements and messages said that India is not a real democratic country as it has been suppressing the Kashmiris voice through military might for over seven decades. They said India has no right to celebrate its Republic Day in Kashmir as it occupied the territory against the will of the Kashmiri people.

Several hundred Sikhs and Kashmiris gathered outside the Indian High Commission in central London for a protest to observe Indias Republic Day as black day. The Rise for Kashmir protest call was given by Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK, World Sikh Parliament. Members of various Kashmiri and Sikh organisations including Sikh Federation UK also attended the protest to condemn Indian constitution as a racist and discriminatory piece of work which disfranchises Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and others.

The protest was held to coincide with Republic Day -- an Indian public holiday which honours the date on which the constitution of India came into effect on January 26, 1950.

The protestors were carrying banners which read: State terrorism must be stopped in Kashmir; Modi is a killer and murderer; Kashmir is UNs unfinished agenda; Modi is a terrorist; We want Khalistan; Stop killing in Kashmir; India butcher army leave Kashmir; Restore communication in Kashmir; India stop genocide in Kashmir; We will establish Khalistan; Voting for Punjab independence is our legal right; End Indian occupation; We say no to Indian brutality in Kashmir; Kashmiris are humans without human rights.

Some participants were wearing t-shirts reading: I am Kashmir, I want freedom; Khalistan; Khalistan Referendum 2020; Justice for Sikhs. The protestors had come from various cities of the UK on coaches and cars to show support for the besieged people of Kashmir on a cold and rainy day. The turnout at the protest was quite impressive in comparison to usual such protests.

The participants said they had come to protest outside Indian High Commission against Indian oppression in Kashmir. They said that for over 150 days the Indian government has locked more than eight million people in prison like conditions, denying basic human rights to Kashmiris, after revoking Article 275 and denying every kind of freedom to them. They said that Narendra Modi government is working on a Hindutva agenda to militarise the whole society against Muslims and other minorities in the name of Hindu religion.

They said the Modi government has violated international laws in Kashmir without any care in the world. Faheem Kayani, one of the protest organisers, said India has been turned into a fascist state by Modi and his extremist RSS supporters. He said the people of Kashmir were paying heavy price for what Modi was doing in Kashmir. He said Indian government tried its best to get the protest banned in London but failed.

Kayani said: We have gathered here to draw the international community's attention towards New Delhi's human rights violation in the occupied valley.

Amjad Abbasi said it was shameful that the Indian government tried to link peaceful protest with extremism. The people of Kashmir are fighting a government thats involved in genocide. This government doesnt want the world to know how intolerant and biased it is. The people of Kashmir are under a siege for over five months. They have been cut off from the world.

The Indian government had sought to ban the protest by informing the British government that the protestors will attack Indian High Commission and will burn Indian constitution copies but the protest passed off peacefully and there was no incident of violence. The Scotland Yard reviewed requests from the Indian government and representations from the protest organisers and decided to let the protest go ahead and provided security to the protestors.

Original post:

Kashmiris observe Indias Republic Day as black day - The News International

By Melanie Phillips, JNS

A profound and bitter battle between Israel and Poland has been brought to crisis point by the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which is being commemorated by world leaders this week at Jerusalems Yad Vashem and next week at Auschwitz itself.

The roots of the row lay in remarks made last December by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He claimed that Poland helped start World War II, and accused it of being an anti-Semitic country that had welcomed Hitlers plan to liquidate Europes Jews.

A few days later, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki hit back. Without Stalins complicity in the partition of Poland, and without the natural resources that Stalin supplied to Hitler, the Nazi German crime machine would not have taken control of Europe, he said.

This dispute escalated when the Polish President, Andrzej Duda, wasnt invited to speak at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem on Jan. 23. It had previously been decided that, in addition to Germany, the only speakers would be from the United Kingdom, United States, Russia and France as the four nations that defeated Hitler.

Despite this explanation, Duda decided to boycott the Yad Vashem ceremony on the grounds that he wouldnt be able to respond should Putin use the event to repeat his accusations against Poland of anti-Semitism.

The row then escalated still further in salvos of mutual accusations between Russia and Poland, each accusing the other of facilitating or standing idly by Hitlers assault on Europe and the slaughter of the Jews.

The truth is that both sides are trying to sanitize their highly complex pasts. Both are using their undeniable suffering at the hands of the Nazi regime to absolve themselves of complicity in either Nazi aggression or the onslaught upon the Jews.

The Soviet Union may have made its infamous pact with Germany in 1939 merely as a defensive measure, as Putin has implied. And the Soviet Union was critical to the eventual defeat of Hitler. Nevertheless, that pact gave Hitler the confidence to provoke world war by invading Poland.

The Polish government believes that Putins main motive in provoking this row is to weaken Polish influence in the European Union. Warsaw strongly supports maintaining sanctions on Moscow for its annexation of Crimea and has also been fighting a planned Russian gas pipeline.

If Putin, however, was being cynical, Polands revisionism has been egregious. Both the Polish prime minister and the head of the Auschwitz museum have declared that the Yad Vashem ceremony shouldnt have been held at all, with the sole commemoration being the one held every year at Auschwitz.

It is extraordinarily offensive to claim that the State of Israel, which arose from the ashes of the Holocaust, should have no role in commemorating the liberation of the most infamous of the Nazi extermination camps.

The main reason behind this claim appears to be that one of the events organizers was the World Holocaust Forum Foundation. This was founded by Moscow-born philanthropist and Jewish activist Moshe Kantor, who is said to be close to Putin. So the Poles viewed the Jerusalem ceremony as a Russian provocation.

But it was also organized by Yad Vashem and the office of Israels President. So the Polish boycott was an insult to Yad Vashem and the State of Israel. Yet on BBC radio this week, the Polish prime minister doubled down and insisted that the Yad Vashem ceremony was disrespectful to Poland.

Such arrogance is of a piece with Polands appalling historical revisionism. True, its history is complex. The Poles were indeed badly victimized by the Nazis, forming the second-largest group murdered in the extermination camps.They also suffered greatly from Soviet oppression, both during Soviet occupation under the pact, as well as under Stalinist rule after the war.

Its also the case that more Christian Poles have been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for risking their lives to aid Jews during the Nazi period than citizens of any other country in Europe.

But these heroic Poles were themselves targeted and killed by other Poles for trying to save the Jews. There were also Poles who helped the Germans hunt down Jews and kill them.

For what Poland goes to such lengths to deny is that the culture of the country has always been riddled with anti-Semitism, due in large measure to the primitive prejudices promulgated by the Catholic Church.

Before World War II, anti-Semitism became increasingly open in Poland with government authorities taking formal measures to exclude Jews from key sectors of public life.

Both during and after the war, there were Polish pogroms against Jews. In 1941, several hundred Jews in Jedwabne were burned alive by their Polish neighbors.

In Kielce in 1946,42 Jews were killed and more than 40 were wounded in a pogrom conducted by Polish soldiers, police officers and civilians.

Yet Poland furiously denies its historic culture of anti-Semitism. Last year, its governments attempt to prohibit rhetoric accusing Poland of complicity in Nazi crimes created a furious row with Israel.

An uneasy peace was brokered when the two countries agreed on a joint declaration stressing the involvement of the Polish resistance in helping Jews. This was condemned by Yad Vashem and other Jewish historians who claimed that this overstated the Poles rescue efforts and understated their anti-Jewish atrocities.

The current Auschwitz row has provoked claims that this Polish revisionism is being promulgated by populist nationalist politicians. In fact, it has a deeper cultural lineage.

For more than two decades, Poland has denied the centrality to the Holocaust of the Jewish genocide by claiming that the Nazis murdered the Jews in Poland because they were Poles. Denying the victimization of the Jews as Jews enables Poland to deny its own anti-Jewish past.

Ever since the country was liberated from Communist oppression, it has tried to construct a national identity around its status as a victim of both Nazism and the Soviet Union. But in trying to deny their countrys anti-Jewish past, Poles repeatedly indulge in anti-Semitism.

Both before and during World War II, attacks on Jews were fueled by the belief that the Jews were behind Soviet communism. This has developed into the now widespread accusation of Jewish-Bolshevism that makes use of Jewish texts to support obscene claims of Jewish responsibility for the Holocaust.

In an interview in Tablet, Elbieta Janicka, a Polish historian who focuses on Polish anti-Semitism, has spoken of how a conference on Polish Holocaust studies held in Paris last year was disrupted by a group of Poles who distributed anti-Jewish propaganda, harassed participants and subjected to them to crude anti-Semitic remarks, all under the noses of Polish state representatives.

The French minister of science sent an official protest note to the Polish minister of science. In return, she was advised to deal with French anti-Semitism. Now the conference organizers have prepared a lawsuit.

Last year, the Polish prime minister himself made a notorious comment that Jews were among the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Challenged about this on the BBC, he refused to retract his words and merely implied that he was referring to Jewish collaborators in what he agreed were terrible times.

This Auschwitz row is effectively holding the memory of the Jewish dead hostage to international politics. It tells us yet again that, despite such commemorations, too many still regardthe Jews as little more than a troublesome and even despised impediment to their own agendas.

Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, broadcaster and author, writes a weekly column for JNS. Currently a columnist for The Times of London, her personal and political memoir, Guardian Angel, has been published by Bombardier, which also published her first novel, The Legacy, in 2018. Her work can be found at:www.melaniephillips.com.

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A Polish-Russian row over commemoration of the Holocaust - EJP - European Jewish Press

There is a struggle that stretches from Afghanistans capital Kabul to the southern Pakistani city of Quetta.It is thestruggleof the Pashtuns, the largest tribe of Afghanistan and Pakistans borderlands.

The area they live in is known as one of the worlds most unstable places, strategically important for the U.S.-ledWar on Terror. Since 2001, drones, military operations from Pakistani and Afghan government forces, CIA-led night raids, and forced disappearances have been part of Pashtuns daily life.

But in contrast to the perception ofPashtun elitism, especially in Afghanistan, the rural tribes of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region have been marginalized by their states, left to their destiny as collateral damage of the international War on Terror.

In 2018,Manzoor Pashteen, a 25-year-old Pakistani activist and founder of thePashtun Tahafuz Movement(PTM), succeeded for the first time ingetting global attentionto this condition.

While Pashteen advocates for the protection of Pashtuns human rights on the Pakistani side of theDurand Line the disputed 1640-mile border between Afghanistan and Pakistan his revolutionary words echo across the border, inspiring Pashtuns in both countries to speak out.

The red and black Pashteen hat, originally from Northern Afghanistan and worn by Pashteenatpublic rallies and protests, now covers the heads of youthacross Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, and many other Afghan cities. Videos of his speeches are saved in cell phones across the country.

The PTM leader moves elegantly, with gestures from the Islamic social etiquette. He dresses with the simplicity of a Pashtun man but speaks with the verve of a national hero. Pashteens public image has become powerful because he provides an alternative image of traditional Pashtun men and society; a representation Pashtuns believe finally does justice to the truth.

For long, Pashtun culture has been misrepresented by the media as radical, violent, and dominated by obtuse and ferocious men. The stories of the regions women are rarely told, if not for tales of extreme deprivation. Pashtun women are usually portraited as unidentified walkingburqas, also partially due to their refusal to be pictured.

But this doesnt mean that what cannot be seen does not exist. Beyond the PTMs outspoken Pashtun women, such asWranga LunriandSanna Ejaz, there is a court offemales struggling for their rights. Rather than being passive victims, these Pashtun women are an integral part of the ongoing waves of actions,the life and the soul of the Pashtun society.

Women participating in large crowds and at times even leading protests is indeed unusual for traditional Pashtuns. It breaks the social taboos of females appearing in public. The bravery of those who decide to come out has been received with both fascination and criticism.

This is, however, also a sign of the diversity of the PTM. Islamists and secular nationalists have put differences aside and stand together against the injustice and pain they share. This newly awakening recalls the ancient unity ofPashtunwali, the Pashtun peoples traditional set of values and behavioral guidance.

The Pashtun way of life, as the code is also known, is shaped throughout the history of an extreme egalitarian society, and melted easily with the form of Islam that characterized the region.

Indeed, theIslamization policythat Pakistans military dictatorMuhammad Zia-ul-Haqenforced in the late 1970s significantly changed the social structure of the Pashtun lands. Zia-ul-Haq tried to implement an Islamic unity against the ethnic bond that unites Pashtuns. While he succeeded in transforming the local approach toward religion, the ties of the Pashtun tribes across the Durand Line remained strong.

Rather than a divide, the porous Afghan-Pakistani border is a space of interactions and exchanges. These territories are characterized by extreme mobility, with ties of love, economic support, and indeed a shared struggle against oppression. However, the motive driving Pashtuns social resistance on the two sides of the border is different.

InAfghanistan, the struggle against injustice mainly comes from operations conducted by the U.S.-led coalition. Communities bound by centuries of tribal code lost trust among each other, and villages became coves of spies. People sold neighbors for revenge, and thousands of Pashtun men disappeared, were murdered, tortured, or send to secret prisons without trials.

The situation is different in Pakistan. The history of anti-colonialism enforced a strong and structured political consciousness that guided a struggle against both insurgency radicalism and state-imposed violence.

Pakistani material and financial support to Afghanistans Soviet resistance, and later thesheltering of the Taliban, forced the perception of local insurgencies as the right hand of the Pakistan establishment. Pakistans double agenda of both harboring terrorists and being an ally to Americans in the War on Terror exhausted particularly the Pashtuns of the tribal belt, the main social and economic victims of this unsuccessful strategy.

Now Pakistans government fears the current PMT-induced wave of protestsamong Pashtuns and sees it as a movement of independence that could trigger other minorities to speak out and threaten the nation-state.

Theliberal and social circles of Kabul, on the other hand, support the movement in Pakistanwith the hopeto tacticallyrevive the idea of Pashtunistan, the unification of the Pashtun homelandunjustlydivided between Afghanistan and Pakistan by the British Indian government in 1893. Their feelings, however, are far from what has since 2011 moved gatherings within Pashtuns directed affected by the war.

While Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan are driven by different forces, they are united in their struggle.

In Pakistan, thePTM refuses to react violently despite their leaders being arrested, brutally oppressed, and their demands publicly manipulated. The movement is aware of the power of Pakistans military state, and they boldly avoid entering their own martial realm bystressing their struggle is non-violent.

In contrast, the lack of a political structure in Afghanistan keeps the movement there on the edge of spontaneous violence guided byexhaustionrather than tactical aims.

In both cases, it seems that the ultimate aim is not to gain power within the state but to revitalize an idea of a geographical and political space that goes beyond the Westphalian concept of nation-states, and instead recalls the ancient nomadic tradition of the Pashtun lands.

It is inthisthatPashtuns find their revolutionary poweron both sides of the Durand Line. This social revolution is unique because it is fluid,crossing national borders, and moving a relentless flow of awakened consciences. Itaimsfor the long haul, nothing else.

This story is based on interviews in Kabul, Kandahar, and Peshawar.

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United in Struggle: Social Revolution of the Pashtun Borderlands - The Globe Post

Chennai: Twenty-six-year-old Arivus small room on the fourth floor terrace of an apartment in suburban Chennai is as lively as his music. It is in this room that Arivu shot his now iconic rap song Sanda seivom, which effortlessly ripped the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens apart.

Ambedkar and Buddha are looking over him and an ektara (the instrument) standing tall. It was a gift from the Tata Institute for Social Sciences when I recently visited them, Arivu says. I intend to learn and even use it in my rap. A single stringed instrument, the ektara might not sit well with his fast-paced rap, but Arivu is used to challenges right from his childhood in Arakkonam.

I lived in an urban cheri, so to say. It was also a Muslim neighbourhood, and there was a beef slaughterhouse around. In todays India, perhaps a hugely controversial place. But life was a celebration there, he beams. His parents Kalainesan and Thenmozhi provided Arivu and his younger sister, now a qualified doctor, an intellectual atmosphere.

Appa was a professor in government college (he became one only when he was 45) and amma a government school teacher. Both of them were also working with Arivoli Iyakkam (knowledge of light movement a Left literacy movement). Theirs was an Arivoli marriage. We had no television at home, and we never got to hear the songs from movies. But there were Arivoli movement songs that shaped Arivus imagination and politics. Even as lullaby, appa or amma would sing only Arivoli songs, Arivu says, breaking into one.

Maadu meikka kannu unna naan anuppa maatenda,Paadupattu naan uzhaichhu pallikoodam serpen da.

(My dear, I would never send you to rear cattle,I would work hard and put you in a school.)

Conversations at home were generally about meetings that would happen near the Ambedkar statue, barely half a kilometre away. We had all sorts of meetings there Dalit cultural nights, leaders anniversaries and protests. I used to go with appa for everything, basically because there was no other form of entertainment.

Arivu performing. Photo: Special arrangement

And then there were books Arivoli Iyakkams monthly publications and Dalit Murasu, Kodangi etc. apart from his fathers research papers on Dalit leaders like M.C. Rajah and B. Parameswaran. Back then, I never realised how important they were but I read them anyway. To me, an incident [of some atrocity] in Dalit Murasu read like a short story. Today I realise its immense value and its huge influence on me.

Arivus parents always stressed on education but he thinks it was a mistake to have put him an expensive private school. I learnt nothing there, he rues. My parents had this peer pressure, but today I feel if they had saved all the money that they spent on educating us in a private school, we could have got a house of our own. I faced huge discrimination there, but until recently I never realised it was discrimination. There were teachers who abused me by my caste name, students who taunted me for being dark. I remember fighting with my mother for giving birth to me as dark person, and once since I cried so much, she took me to a hospital. The doctors laughed when they were told I am there because I am dark. Everything was painful but normal as a child.

Arivu learnt more from the music and books at home than at school. Soon enough, he wrote poems. I wouldnt call them poems, but my attempts, he smiles.

When he entered college Arivu studied engineering at a college in Coimbatore and later did an MBA he was ready with his first poetry collection. It was released by IAS officer Sivakami (a writer and vocal Dalit rights activist) and I managed to sell all 1,000 copies to my friends in college. The publication earned him a reputation in college he was seen as a writer and soon he was in the college band as a lyricist. But he was stopped from performing his own songs, because he had no formal training.

Also read: New Hindi Play Kusur Is a Provocative Duet Between Guilt and the Guilty

Since I entered college, I would practice singing at home in front of the mirror. When I was denied the opportunity, the pain was more acute. Because of my age, I was more aware. The song was given to someone much junior and I was told I could do a minute or two long performance in between. I decided I will use it, and put all my thoughts into it and sang in a thick voice. My friends said it sounded like rap that was the first time I was hearing of it.

After college, Arivu tried his hands at various things including the civil services, and he spent most of his time studying. But occasionally, when he got some money, he would go to Coimbatore to record a song that he had written. He had no idea, though, how to get them across on a public platform.

One day in 2017, he decided to take off from his studies in Chennai to go to Vellore, where director Pa Ranjith was coming for a meeting. He is a huge inspiration; I would listen to his interviews where he stressed on education for the oppressed. When I was tired of studying, I would listen to him and feel rejuvenated. I did not mind taking a day off to meet him.

In the train, he came across a person reading the familiar Iyothee Thass Pandithar. It turned out to be Udaya Ranjiths associate. Twenty days later, Udaya called Arivu to attend an audition for an independent music group put together by Ranjith, that would later be called Casteless Collective. Most of them were Gaana singers. I did a rap, a song on Ambedkar and read out a poem titled The grandsons of Ambedkar from Android age. I told them I want to use my art to pursue equality. Ranjith anna was impressed, and asked me to write lyrics for Casteless Collective.

Over the next ten days, Arivu was obsessed with the Casteless Collective writing song after song on reservations, Ambedkar and so on. The performance was a huge hit and people told him he would soon be offered a chance to write lyrics for Ranjiths movies.

That was never my idea, though. Ranjith anna always said we should use any form to speak about peoples issues. I believed it. One day when I was in his office, anna played Bob Marleys One Love to me and pointed out how his music was a relief to his people. That is when I realised art should also be celebratory. It was a defining moment in my life.

Arivu. Photo: Special arrangement

A day after Arivu performed a song on womens choices at documentary filmmaker Malini Jeevaratnams movie on LGBT+ issues, Arivu got a call from Ranjith to do some small work in Kaala, starring Rajinikanth. The song Nilam Engal Urimai (Land, our right) turned out, arguably, to be the most important protest song in a mainstream movie. The song, six minutes long, also features Jai Bhim slogans.

Uzhaikkum kaikalukke naadu naaduAdakkum kalam illaNamakkum veli illaVediththu poraadalamBayame illaNilame engal urimai.

(The country belongs to the hands that workThis is not the time for oppressionThere are no fences for usLet us break into protestThere is no fearLand, our right.)

AfterKaala, Arivu has been getting offers to write in movies, but he has been careful with his choices in mainstream cinema. Also, I would never quit independent music. That platform with all its limitations is dearer. Arivus Anti-Indian independent rap was a sensation, but such songs, surprisingly, never came in the way of his chances in mainstream cinema. In fact, directors have asked me to write similar songs, but tone it down a bit. Arivu has lost count but says he has written for some 20 films, including Suryas upcoming Soorarai Potru.

Of course, I write love songs too, but I maintain my ethics. I insist on gender equality in such songs, will never do body shaming or have phrases in praise of a skin colour. I celebrate love, but will never allow it to become an excuse for sexism.

Arivu has no great plans for his future, but there is one thing he knows he should do, either as research project or as music document work drawing parallels between oppari (the folk genre sung at funerals) and hip-hop. People say I write well, but I know I cannot hold a candle to the grandmothers singing oppari in my village. See this:

Naan anju maram valarthenAzhakaana thottam vachenEn thottam sezhichaalumEn thondai nanaiyalaiye.

(I planted five trees,And nurtured a beautiful gardenMy garden flourished,Yet my throat is parched.)

In these four lines, they talk about life. That is our folk art for you.

Arivu performing. Photo: Special arrangement

The cultural appropriation of hip-hop in Indian society is something that deeply bothers Arivu. In Africa, hip-hop was a form of protest. People used it communicate their pain and oppression. When you import it to the Indian context, it should have naturally spoken in an anti-caste voice, because caste is the most important issue in our country today. But instead, hip-hop is used for teasing women, to glorify men. You copy their caps, hoodies and jeans, but leave the politics behind. How can that be right?

His attempt to draw parallels between oppari and hip-hop is perhaps also a move to restore the art form to its originality. I firmly believe oppari is our form of hip-hop, he declares.

His association with Ranjith and Casteless Collective has helped him see his own family in a different light. I was that chill guy who had no respect for his grandfather. But now I realise his importance. My grandfather accepted oppression as a way of life. Even today, he wouldnt walk straight into a home of a dominant caste person. He would say he doesnt want to offend them. For my parents, love was the tool not anger. I realise the generational shift when I go in a car to a street where my grandfather couldnt have walked in slippers. And that makes me acutely aware of my own responsibility.

Also read: Does Increased Visibility of Trans People in Performing Arts Translate into Progress?

That, perhaps, explains why Arivu is not willing to let go of his independent platform, despite getting a good number of chances in mainstream cinema. He has his own channel now, Therukural (Street Voice), through which he intends to take art to the streets. There are people who say I should appear comfortable for those in cinema, so I can survive. But that is not my job. I want to be a tough artist speaking some tough truths, but please know this: I can still entertain.

Heres Arivu singing his anti-CAA song,

The full translation of the rap is produced below:

They call me Arivu,Im one of you,Equality is my dream,Ambedkar and Periyar lives forever,And my rap is the product of their rationality!

Democracy is the face of a free nation,Giving respect, should be the duty of the religion,Conferring equality, that should be the role of law,And foundations of our constitution too,Killing secularism is a foolish act,So, Its important to tell the truth.

Its the birth place of Thirukkural and the land of peace,We lived here as so many tribes,Then, some people came here on their horses,They subjugated us from then till now.They grabbed our lands, exploited our resources,Generation after generation, they refused to touch us

They segregated us into separate religion and castes,They getting rich by exploiting our work is whats history.We cannot forget that.

Who is minority here?Working class is the majority all around the world,But, the reality is that we stay divided!!

Those who came after is after our lives,While, those who are struggling for us are getting shot.Who should live here?Who should rule here?Who is the citizen?Who is Indian?Who is Tamizhan?Who are you to tell me what I am?Ones motherland is not in their birth.

Let us fight,Come forward Tamizha, let us fight,In the streets, let us fight,United as one, let us fight.If our rights are taken away, let us fight.

Kavitha Muralidharanis an independent journalist.

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Meet Arivu, Who Wants to Take Rap in India Back to Its Political Roots - The Wire