Day: July 23, 2022

International human rights groups Saturday urged Sri Lanka’s new president to immediately order security forces to cease use of force against protesters after troops and police cleared their main camp following months of demonstrations over the country’s economic meltdown.

A day after President Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in, hundreds of armed troops raided a protest camp outside the president’s office in the early hours of Friday, attacking demonstrators with batons. Human Rights Watch said the action “sends a dangerous message to the Sri Lankan people that the new government intends to act through brute force rather than the rule of law.”

Two journalists and two lawyers were also attacked by soldiers in the crackdown. Security forces arrested 11 people, including protesters and lawyers.

“Urgently needed measures to address the economic needs of Sri Lankans demand a government that respects fundamental rights,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Sri Lanka’s international partners should send the message loud and clear that they can’t support an administration that tramples on the rights of its people.”

Also condemning the attack, Amnesty International said “it is shameful that the new government resorted to such violent tactics within hours of coming to power.”

“The protesters have a right to demonstrate peacefully. Excessive use of force, intimidation and unlawful arrests seem to be an endlessly repetitive pattern in which the Sri Lankan authorities respond to dissent and peaceful assembly,” said Kyle Ward, the group’s deputy secretary general.

Wickremesinghe, who previously served as prime minister six times, was sworn in as president a week after his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled the country. Rajapaksa later resigned while exiled in Singapore.

Sri Lankans have taken to the streets for months to demand their top leaders step down to take responsibility for the economic chaos that has left the nation’s 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. While the protesters have focused on the Rajapaksa’s family, Wickremesinghe also has drawn their ire as a perceived Rajapaksa surrogate.

Armed troops and police arrived in trucks and buses on Friday to clear the main protest camp the capital, Colombo, even though protesters had announced they would vacate the site voluntarily.

Sri Lanka’s opposition, the United Nations, and the U.S. have denounced the government’s heavy-handed tactics.

Despite heightened security outside the president’s office, protesters have vowed to continue until Wickremesinghe resigns.

On Friday, he appointed as prime minister a Rajapaksa ally, Dinesh Gunawardena.

Wickremesinghe on Monday declared a state of emergency as acting president in a bid to quell the protests. Just hours after he was sworn in, he issued a notice calling on the armed forces to maintain law and order — clearing the way for the move against the protest camp.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the country’s collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but the former president acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lanka’s crisis.

The political turmoil has threatened efforts to seek rescue from the International Monetary Fund. Still, earlier this week, Wickremesinghe said bailout talks were nearing a conclusion.

The head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, told the Japanese financial magazine Nikkei Asia this week that the IMF hopes for a deal “as quickly as possible.”

Source: Voice of America

NAIROBI, Over 50 million people are in danger of experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity this year across seven Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) countries in the Horn of Africa.

The affected states include Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

According to the 2022 edition of the IGAD Regional Focus on Food Crises under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan are facing the largest food crises (IPC 3) in the region and about 300,000 people are projected to face catastrophe (IPC 5) in Somalia and South Sudan in 2022.

There is a risk of famine occurring in eight areas of Somalia through September in the event of widespread crop and livestock production failures, spiraling food costs, and in the absence of scaled-up humanitarian assistance.

In a virtual meeting by IGAD, it emerged the situation in 2022, with 50 – 51 million people expected to face crises or worse marks a dramatic increase from 2021 when 42 million people suffered from high levels of acute food insecurity.

Workneh Gebeyehu, Executive Secretary of the IGAD said the combination of climate extremes, conflict, and macroeconomic challenges make it almost impossible for the otherwise very resilient communities to sustain multiple shocks.

“Our region has been hit like never before and the figures we are releasing today are heartbreaking, and I’m very worried they could increase even more as the outlook for the October to December rain season is bleak,” he said.

Last year, the IGAD region accounted for nearly 22 percent of the global number of people in crisis or worse with an estimated 10 million children under the age of 5 suffering from acute malnutrition.

In addition, 24 per cent of the world’s 51 million internally displaced people were also in IGAD countries, mainly Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.

Dr Chimimba David Phiri, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Eastern Africa and FAO Representative to the African Union and UNECA said that the current food security situation across the Horn of Africa is dire after four consecutive rain seasons failed, a climatic event not seen in at least 40 years, or since the beginning of the satellite era.

“Now more than ever, we must implement short-term livelihood-saving responses with long-term resilience building aimed at addressing the root causes of food crises in our region,”Phiri noted.

The latest forecast by IGAD’s Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) is for a fifth consecutive failed rain season across the region, with the latest long-term forecasts for the 2022 October–December rainfall season indicating an increased chance of below-average rains.

Michael Dunford, the World Food Programme’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa said that the conflict, climate extremes, economic shocks, rising costs of commodities and now the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on food and energy prices are pushing millions towards starvation in Eastern Africa.

“Sadly, there is a very real risk of famine in the region, and we must do everything possible to prevent this from happening. At the same time, together we must start building the capacity to prepare and respond to future shocks which are increasingly inevitable because of a changing climate,” he added

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is a set of standardised tools used to classify the severity of food insecurity using a widely accepted five-phase scale namely Minimal (IPC Phase 1), Stressed (IPC Phase 2), Crisis (IPC Phase 3), Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and Catastrophe/Famine (IPC Phase 5).

ICPAC provides climate services to IGAD member states (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda), plus Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

Source: Nam News Network

The words painted on the staircase at the Silingan coffee shop make it clear that this place is about much more than just serving lattes and fruit smoothies.

“It’s not a war on illegal drugs. It’s an illegal war on drugs,” the message says.

Silingan means neighbor. Most of the workers at this cafe near the capital, Manila, are mothers, daughters, sisters or wives of people killed during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s grisly war on drugs.

“They didn’t have to be killed like animals,” head barista Sharon Angeles said through tears while recounting how her 20-year-old brother Christian was killed in 2016 during Duterte’s first year as president. “They killed him like he was an evil person. It’s so difficult.”

Government data says about 6,200 people were killed in police operations tied to the drug war during Duterte’s six-year term, which ended last month. Human rights groups, however, say the real death toll could be as high as 30,000, including executions by vigilantes who, according to activists, often work closely with police.

Duterte repeatedly defended his campaign as a necessary part of combating the national onslaught of drugs, especially in poor communities where police officers were killing in self-defense.

But human rights groups denounce Duterte for inciting vigilante violence against drug users and accuse police of murdering unarmed suspects, as well as falsifying evidence. The high death toll, plus graphic images in the media of corpses on the streets, have led to heavy criticism overseas and accusations of potential crimes against humanity.

While there were also protests in the Philippines against the drug war, Duterte retained popularity at home, leaving office with a 75% approval rating, according to a survey by Publicus Asia.

Silingan customer Patricia Tierra, 21, a local university student, said there’s a typical perception in the Philippines about people killed in the drug war.

“It’s common to hear them say that they deserve to die because they’re doing negative effects to society,” she said, adding that the personal stories of the baristas at Silingan put a human face to consequences of the drug war. “Their stories are real, and the effects of the drug war [are] real, and they’re not just numbers. They’re people.”

By sharing personal experiences, head barista Angeles hopes customers gain a sense of the impact the drug war is having on families of the deceased.

“We hope we can change the negative connotations that are out there of people killed in the drug war,” she said. “Some people sympathize with us, but some judge us.”

Ryan Martinez, 25, who visits Silingan every other week, sipped a dulce latte on a recent night.

“The story they’re trying to tell is personal. It tells a different side of the drug war than what many people in this country hear and read about,” Martinez said. “At this coffee shop you’re hearing it from people who have been directly impacted by it. So, it makes a difference.”

In addition to earning income, the baristas bond over their shared grief and provide a support network for one another.

“We’re all family and friends of [extra-judicial killings] victims,” said Joy Solayao, whose partner, Albert Cubeta, was killed in 2017. “When I tell them my story, they can relate to me because they’ve had the same experience.”

Both Solayao and Angeles say their loved ones were not involved with drugs and were killed because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. But both of them also defend the right of drug users and low-level dealers to live.

“People should know that not everyone who’s connected to drugs deserves to be killed,” said Angeles.

Both women want Rodrigo Duterte held accountable for the violence but acknowledged that seems unlikely. His daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, is now vice president to recently elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the namesake of the late dictator.

Solayao and Angeles expect the new administration to try to block any genuine efforts to investigate and hold Duterte accountable, including plans by International Criminal Court prosecutors to reopen an investigation into killings and other suspected human rights abuses during the war on drugs.

“I want Duterte to go to jail and regret what he has done to so many families,” Solayao said. “But his daughter and Marcos will protect him.”

Either way, baristas at Silingan will keep sharing their stories in the hopes that they can at least gain ground in the court of public opinion.

Source: Voice of America

THE HAGUE, The UN’s highest court ruled that a landmark case filed by Gambia, accusing Myanmar of genocide of minority Rohingya Muslims, can proceed.

International Court of Justice president Joan Donoghue said the tribunal “finds that it has jurisdiction… to entertain the application filed by the Republic of the Gambia.”

The decision paves the way for full hearings at the court on allegations over majority-Buddhist Myanmar’s bloody 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya.

ICJ president Joan Donoghue said the tribunal “finds that it has jurisdiction … to entertain the application filed by the republic of the Gambia, and that the said application is admissible”.

Hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya fled the southeast Asian country during the operation five years ago, bringing with them harrowing reports of murder, rape and arson.

Around 850,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps in neighbouring Bangladesh while another 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar’s southwestern Rakhine state.

Myanmar was originally represented at the ICJ by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but she was ousted as civilian leader in a coup last year and is now in detention.

Mainly-Muslim Gambia filed the case in November 2019 alleging that Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

Myanmar had argued on several grounds that the court had no jurisdiction in the matter, and should dismiss the case while it is still in its preliminary stages.

But judges unanimously rejected Myanmar’s argument that Gambia was acting as a “proxy” of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in the case.

Only states, and not organisations, are allowed to file cases at the ICJ, which has ruled on disputes between countries since just after World War II.

They also unanimously dismissed Myanmar’s assertions that Gambia could not file the case because it was not a direct party to the alleged genocide, and that Myanmar had opted out of a relevant part of the genocide convention.

Finally they threw out by 15-1 Myanmar’s claim that there was no formal dispute at the time Gambia filed the case, and that the court therefore had no jurisdiction.

It could however take years for full hearings and a final judgment in the case.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared in March that the Myanmar military’s violence against the Rohingya amounted to genocide.

The International Criminal Court, a war-crimes tribunal based in The Hague, has also launched an investigation into the violence against the Rohingya.

Source: Nam News Network