Marchers gather for annual B.C. event to honour missing, murdered women

VANCOUVER — Despite the hurt and emotional trauma of reliving her sister and niece's death, Pauline Johnson said she has yet to miss a year of the Women's Memorial March in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, now in its 30th year.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Johnson was one of the hundreds of people who gathered in the snow for the annual march, which is held to honour and remember women lost to violence, abuse, poverty and systemic racism.

Johnson's sister Rose Marie Johnson died in 1980, and her death has been linked to a man who was convicted of another death in a separate incident.

Charlene Kerr, Johnson's niece, was stabbed to death in the Lamplighter Hotel in the 1980s.

"There should be some change. It's disheartening that there isn't," she said, adding that there needs to be more awareness of the violence Indigenous women and men face.

Johnson said little has been done to properly investigate the disproportionate amount of Indigenous women that go missing or are killed in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.

"Because we're First Nation, we're meaningless to society. That gets to be tiresome," she said.

Serial killer Robert Pickton was convicted in 2007 on six counts of second-degree murder but is suspected of killing dozens of women who went missing from the Downtown Eastside.

Vancouver police were criticized for not taking the cases seriously because many of the missing were sex workers or drug users.

Myrna Cranmer, one of the event's co-organizers, said both violence and COVID-19 have had a profound affect on the health of women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood this past year.

She estimates 50 women from the neighbourhood have died under violent circumstances or from COVID-19 since last March.

"Some of the names that come up every year, it just really hurts my heart," Cranmer said. "I've known these women, I've worked with them and it's just very sad."

Vancouver police couldn't confirm the number, saying it would not be possible to accurately search for cases by gender or trace where someone from the neighbourhood may have died, such as a hospital or a different part of the city.

The case of Tonya Hyer, who was found beaten to death in a hotel operated by non-profit dedicated to ending violence against women on Jan. 19, 2020, has stuck with Cranmer.

"They still don't know who killed Tonya," Cranmer said. "We need to remember their names, even if it's only for that one day. The women in the Downtown Eastside are ignored to death. No one remembers them."

Vancouver police spokesman Sgt. Steve Addison said Hyer's death is still an active investigation and no arrests have been made.

Due to COVID-19, Sunday's march was livestreamed to allow people to stay home if they were sick or did not feel comfortable attending a large event.

Provincial government officials issued a joint statement Sunday recognizing the 30th anniversary of the march and highlighting the challenges faced by Indigenous women, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The officials, including Premier John Horgan and Indigenous Relations Minister Murray Rankin, noted that one in five Indigenous women had reported being a victim of physical or psychological violence across Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They promised to continue working with Indigenous communities to end gender-based violence in B.C.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2021.

Nick Wells, The Canadian Press

NOT NANCY PELOSI

All the right-wing paranoia that led to Trump and Jan. 6 is visible in the exaggerated hatred for one woman

Chauncey Devega, Salon
February 11, 2021

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Last week, on the verge of Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, Republicans and their hate media launched a coordinated attack on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York progressive Democrat. Why? Because she publicly shared the emotional trauma that she and many others suffered during and after the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol — and because she compared that to her personal history as a survivor of sexual assault.
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As Salon's Amanda Marcotte observed, the "targets of right-wing mockery aren't usually people traumatized by car accidents or combat experiences, but people whose trauma is politically uncomfortable for conservatives." Such mockery is often "leveraged against victims of sexual violence, as happened when Donald Trump made fun of Christine Blasey Ford for her story of being sexually assaulted by now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh." Marcotte continued:

Mostly, conservatives who engage in victim-mockery tend to keep it in their own spaces (Trump attacked Ford at a rally, not a press conference) where they can high-five each other for their abusive behavior without drawing the attention of others who rightfully will be grossed out by it. But after the Capitol insurrection of January 6, this habit of reflexively mocking and denying the pain of trauma victims is being rolled out for a more national audience, as Republicans frantically try to minimize the violence of that day, looking to deflect from their own complicity in both causing and excusing it.
After Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took to Instagram to detail her horrific experiences during the insurrection, the right-wing noise machine moved into action, deploying the usual sexist stereotypes about hysterical, manipulative, deceitful women typically employed to discredit victims of rape or sexual harassment.

These most recent attacks on Ocasio-Cortez — a favorite punching-bag of the right ever since she came to national prominence — are more than an example of bullying, crude and antisocial behavior. They are an illustration of how today's Republican Party has already embraced the worst kind of political deviance, and a warning of the even more extreme fascist and authoritarian dangers to come.

In total, the ugliness directed at one congresswoman offers insight into how Trumpist Republicans and their neofascist followers and believers see the world, as well as the type of world they want to force into existence in the near future.

Here are some of their values and beliefs.


Malignant reality. The Republican Party and the right wing more generally live in an alternative conspiracy-theory universe of their own creation. Facts do not matter. The "big lie" (and the many small lies that sustain it) are all that matter.

Support for the violent coup and its underlying ideology. The threats and violent speech by the white right are not "hyperbole." Republicans and other members of the right really do wish harm on Democrats, liberals, progressives, nonwhite people, Muslims and others who they have identified as an enemy Other in American society.

Victimology. Despite all available evidence to the contrary, Republicans and other members of the right wing actually believe that they are the "real" victims in America. They imagine themselves to be persecuted and oppressed by "political correctness." They believe Democrats and liberals are destroying their "traditional" America. They believe that "minorities" and immigrants are "taking their jobs."

Republican leaders have played a key role in the victimology fantasy by telling their followers lies about "cancel culture" and spreading paranoid fictions about "the left," antifa and Black Lives Matter.

Moreover, public opinion and other research has repeatedly shown that even though white people retain control of the country's political, social and economic institutions, a significant percentage of white Americans (including most Trump voters) believe that they, rather than nonwhite people, are the true victims of racism in America.

The eroticization of women's pain and fear. Fascism is a masculine political imaginary that emphasizes violence, "virility" and dominance. This is true of authoritarianism more generally as well. While many men (and women) on the right find Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's intelligence, personal strength, skin color and cultural background threatening (if not repulsive), they are also titillated and excited by her fear because in their minds it reaffirms (white) male dominance and power. This is almost the dynamic of the slasher film as applied to politics.

Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies vol 1: Men and Women

all-to-human.blogspot.com › 2018 › 07 › klaus-theweleits-male.html

2021-02-10 · The first chapter of Klaus Theweleit’s book Male Fantasies, Vol. 1: Women, Floods, Bodies, History, is an examination of origins and manifestations of fascism.

This study of fascist men shows their terrifying ...

timeline.com › male-fantasies-fascism-study-efe0a2773d1f

2017-09-11 · Though afterward the Holocaust was declared “unthinkable,” that label was widely seen as an urgent call to untangle its root causes. Who did this and what were their motives? More than three decades after World War II ended, Klaus Theweleit’s 1977 book Male Fantasies, sought an unusual path to understanding. Theweleit, a German doctoral

Victims are responsible for their own suffering. Conservative authoritarians are more likely to believe that people who are victims of assault, abuse or violence somehow deserve their own suffering. If Ocasio-Cortez or other Democrats (or disloyal Republicans) had been injured or killed in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, far too many Republicans would have convinced themselves, consciously or otherwise, that somehow "they had it coming."

Hostile sexism and racism. Social scientists have shown that "hostile sexism" helps to explain Donald Trump's appeal for his voters and followers. White supremacy, racism and racial authoritarianism also strongly predict support for Trump and his movement (as well as for Republicans more generally). By speaking out forcefully about her experiences during the Jan. 6 attack, Ocasio-Cortez violated the norm that women, especially nonwhite women, must be silent in the face of white male authority.

The annihilation of emotion. Fascism in its various forms involves destroying the capacity for targeted groups (the enemy Other) to experience any emotions other than fear. Chronic fear in turn creates a state of learned helplessness and lack of resistance.
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By comparison, except for fear and "weakness," the fascists (in this case, "conservatives" and Trumpist Republicans) are allowed a full range of emotions. This explains why Republicans and other members of the right can cry or become angry or even hysterical without negative professional or personal consequences.

For example, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh cried during his confirmation hearing — and was praised for showing such "passion." Members of the right-wing propaganda media cry and rage all the time and it is taken as evidence of their "authenticity." Trump's movement is rooted in white rage and white irrationality. Those emotions won Trump the White House once — and almost did so a second time.

Democrats, liberals and progressives — especially women and nonwhite people — are generally not allowed such behavior within the boundaries of America's approved public discourse.

White women — or at least subservient conservative white women — are to be protected, admired, adored, and honored. A thought experiment: if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were a white Republican, and the Capitol had been overrun by "Democrats" or "liberals" in a lethal mob assault, the response from the same voices who are mocking and condemning her now would be entirely different. This alternate-reality version of Ocasio-Cortez would be a right-wing heroine.

Donald Trump is now being tried in the U.S. Senate for the crime of encouraging an insurrection and a lethal coup attack on the Capitol. In all likelihood, Republicans will not convict Trump despite the abundant evidence of his guilt. In fairness, why should they? Whatever their personal or aesthetic objections to Trump may be, they agree with Trump's policies, including the use of political terrorism and other forms of violence to win and keep power. In that context, the Age of Trump is best understood not as an aberration or derailment in the right wing's embrace of anti-democratic extremism but as part of a long campaign to radically remake American society.

As seen with the attacks on the humanity of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the world the white right is trying to fully create is even more racist, white supremacist, woman-hating, pathological, anti-human and anti-democratic than this one.

In the America that exists today such values are increasingly rejected. Much of the white right wants to elevate those noxious values, because it sees them as virtues.

Ultimately, Donald Trump's second impeachment trial is much bigger than a decision about the crimes of one man — who happened to be the worst president in American history. It is a referendum on the future of American democracy.

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WAR IS RAPE
Women fleeing Burkina Faso violence face sexual assault

By SAM MEDNICK

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Displaced women prepare food Monday Feb. 8, 2021 in the Kaya camp, 100 kms North of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. A report by humanitarian groups says sexual assault cases in one region increased five-fold during a three-month period in 2020. Aid groups say jihadists are not the only perpetrators and that there has been a sharp increase in domestic violence and exploitation of displaced women by host communities. (AP Photo/Sophie Garcia)KAYA, Burkina Faso 

(AP) — A 20-year-old woman could no longer live in her village amid the rising violence caused by Islamic extremists. But she needed to return and retrieve the family’s cows in hopes of selling them.

If her husband went, jihadists would almost certainly kill him. She went instead, and was dragged into the bush, beaten and raped at knifepoint.

“I screamed, but I couldn’t overtake him, so I cried,” she recalled in a phone interview from Barsalogho town in the Center North region where she now lives. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual violence.

The extremist violence in Burkina Faso linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group is fueling an increase in sexual assaults against women, especially those displaced by attacks. Many are preyed upon as they attempt to collect belongings they left behind.

The violence killed more than 2,000 people last year, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. It also displaced more than 1 million people.

In Burkina Faso’s Center North region, sexual assault cases increased from two to 10 during a three-month period last year, according to a report by humanitarian groups including the United Nations. Some 85% of survivors were internally displaced people mainly living in makeshift camps in Barsalogho and Kaya towns, it said.

Women in Kaya told AP they feared being attacked while going to fetch firewood for cooking.

“I won’t go more than 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) outside of Kaya to farm because I’m afraid for my safety,” said Kotim Sawadogo. The 37-year-old fled Dablo in August and struggles to afford food for her four children. In September 2019, her niece was raped by jihadists while farming outside the village, she said.

“They won’t be killed but they’ll be raped, which is like being killed inside anyway,” said Fatimata Sawadogo, who was displaced last year from Dablo to Kaya and knows women who have been raped by jihadists while farming. Women often assume the rapists are jihadists because they carry guns and wear masks.

Sometimes after assaulting the women, the jihadists burn their food, and yet some women are so desperate that they return the next day to salvage it, she said.

Aid groups say jihadists are not the only perpetrators and that there has been an increase in domestic violence and exploitation of displaced women by host communities.

“This reality is made worse by the lack of economic opportunities for women, the shortage of food and shelter for women and the lack of access to quality health care,” said Jennifer Overton, West Africa regional director for Catholic Relief Services.

Earlier this month, a woman in Kaya said she had sex with a community leader twice, in June and November, because he promised he could add her name to a list to receive food. “I regret it, but I thought I’d get food and I never did,” she said, who spoke on condition of anonymity for her safety.

Before the violence, Burkina Faso didn’t have specialized services focused on sexual assault. Now humanitarians are struggling to cope, said Awa Nebie, a gender-based violence specialist with the United Nations Population Fund.

This year the humanitarian response plan for Burkina Faso estimates that more than 660,000 people will need protection against gender-based violence, Nebie said.

Since August, the organization has created six safe spaces in the Center North to help women and girls speak freely about their experiences, but it’s inadequate, she said. And some areas of the country like the Sahel and East regions are hard to access due to insecurity.

Local government officials say the daily influx of displaced people is straining resources and putting women at risk by forcing them to venture farther into the bush to collect wood for cooking.

“In the past, women could find resources two or three kilometers (one to two miles) away, but with the increasing number, they go farther and farther and it is very worrying,” said Saidou Wily, head of social welfare services in Barsalogho.

The government increased security around the town and is advising women not to go into the bush alone.

Yet mothers trying to feed their children say they have little choice.

Last year, a 40-year-old mother of seven was gang-raped at gunpoint by two masked men who dragged her into an abandoned farmhouse while she was trying to return to her town in the Sahel region to get food, she said.

Now living in Kaya, she’s too afraid to leave again, but she has no money to support her family.

“I think about it a lot and I don’t even know what I’m thinking about, I just cry,” she said. “It’s misery.”

Pro-Navalny ‘flashlight’ protests light up Russian cities
By DARIA LITVINOVA

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People draw hearts with their cellphones flashlights in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. When the team of jailed Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny announced a protest in a new format, urging people to come out to their residential courtyards on Sunday and shine their cellphone flashlights, many responded with jokes and skepticism. After two weekends of nationwide demonstrations, the new protest format looked to some like a retreat. But not to Russian authorities, who moved vigorously to extinguish the illuminated protests planned for Sunday. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

MOSCOW (AP) — Supporters of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny came out to residential courtyards and shined their cellphone flashlights Sunday in a display of unity, despite efforts by Russian authorities to extinguish the illuminated protests.

Navalny’s team sent photos of small groups with lit-up cellphones in cities from Siberia to the Moscow region. It was unclear how many people participated overall.

No arrests were immediately reported. However, police detained nine people at a daytime demonstration in the city of Kazan calling for the release of political prisoners, according to OVD-Info, a human rights group that monitors political arrests.

The group said security guards at Moscow State University recorded the names of people leaving a dormitory to take part in a flashlight rally there.

When Navalny’s first team urged people to come out to the cellphone protests, many responded with jokes and skepticism. After two weekends of nationwide demonstrations, the new protest format looked to some like a retreat.

Yet Russian officials spent days trying to blacken the protests. Officials accused Navalny’s allies of acting on NATO’s instructions. Kremlin-backed TV channels warned that flashlight rallies were part of major uprisings around the world. State news agencies cited unnamed sources as saying a terrorist group was plotting attacks during unapproved mass protests.

The suppression attempts represent a change of tactics for Russian authorities, who used ignore Navalny.

Kremlin-controlled TV channels used to not report about protests called by Navalny. Russian President Vladimir Putin has never mentioned his most prominent critic by name. State news agencies referred to the anti-corruption investigator as “a blogger” in the rare stories when they did mentioning him.

“Navalny went from a person whose name is not allowed to be mentioned to the main subject of discussion” on state TV, said Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations at Navalny’s Foundations for Fighting Corruption.

Pevchikh credited Navalny’s latest expose for the sudden surge in attention. His foundation’s two-hour video alleging that a lavish palace on Black Sea was built for Putin through corruption has been watched over 111 million times on YouTube since Jan. 19.

The video went up two days after Navalny was arrested upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. The Russian government denies involvement and claims it has no evidence that Navalny was poisoned.

While the high-profile arrest and the subsequent expose were a double blow to authorities, political analyst and former Kremlin speech writer Abbas Gallyamov says that keeping Navalny and his protests off the airwaves to deprive him of additional publicity no longer makes sense.

“The fact that this strategy has changed suggests that the pro-government television audience is somehow receiving information about Navalny’s activities through other channels, recognizes him, is interested in his work, and in this sense, keeping the silence doesn’t make any sense,” Gallyamov said.

The weekend protests in scores of Russian cities last month over Navalny’s detention represented the largest outpouring of popular discontent in years and appeared to have rattled the Kremlin. Police reportedly arrested about 10,000 people, and many demonstrators were beaten, while state media sought to downplay the scale of the protests.

TV channels aired footage of empty squares in cities where protests were announced and claimed that few people showed up. Some reports portrayed police as polite and restrained, claiming officers had helped people with disabilities cross busy streets, handed out face masks and offered demonstrators hot tea.

Once the protests died down and Navalny ally Leonid Volkov announced a pause until the spring, Kremlin-backed media reported that grassroots flash mobs titled “Putin is our president” started sweeping the country. State news channel Rossiya 24 broadcast videos from different cities of people dancing to patriotic songs and waving Russian flags, describing them as a genuine expression of support for Putin.

Women, some of them wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus, attend a rally in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. Participants formed a human chain in a show of solidarity with those who were detained during protests calling for the release of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the Kremlin has accused the West of meddling in Russia's affairs by denouncing the crackdown on protests. (AP Photo/Ivan Petrov)

Several independent online outlets reported that instructions to record videos in support of Putin came from the Kremlin and the governing United Russia party and that people in some of the recordings were invited under false pretenses.

The Russian president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin had nothing to do with the pro-Putin videos.

After Navalny’s team posted its video involving the palace allegedly built for Putin, state channel Rossiya aired its own expose of Navalny. Anchor Dmitry Kiselev claimed in Germany, Navalny lived “in the luxury he so much despises.”

The reporter filmed inside a house Navalny rented but failed to capture any high-end items in the two-story building, which featured several bedrooms and a small swimming pool.

She pointed to “two sofas, a TV, fresh fruit on the table” in the living room and “a kitchen with a coffee machine,” and described a bedroom as “luxurious” even though it looked a a business hotel room.

In recent days, official media coverage focused on the flashlights-in-courtyards protest, accusing Navalny ally Volkov of acting on instructions from his Western handlers.

The political talk show “60 Minutes” devoted nearly a half-hour to the topic, calling the flashlight rally an idea from a handbook on revolutions. It aired footage of protesters shining flashlights during the 2014 Maidan protests in Ukraine, mass rallies in Belarus last summer and other uprisings.

On Thursday, state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti, citing anonymous sources, claimed that a terrorist group from Syria was training insurgents for possible terrorist attacks in Russian cities at “mass rallies.”

“The Kremlin is awfully scared of the flashlight action,” because such a peaceful, light-hearted event would allow the opposition to build a rapport with new supporters who are not ready to be more visible, Volkov said in a YouTube video.

He suggested the heavy-handed response to the announcement actually helped dispel skepticism about the courtyard demonstrations.

“I saw many posts on social media (saying) ‘When Navalny’s headquarters announced the flashlight rally, I thought what nonsense… But when I saw the Kremlin’s reaction, I realized they were right to come up with it.’”

___

Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this story.

Suu Kyi detention extended as protests continue in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar’s military leaders have extended their detention of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose remand was set to expire Monday and whose freedom is a key demand of the crowds of people continuing to protest this month’s military coup.

Suu Kyi will now be remanded until Feb. 17, according to Khin Maung Zaw, a lawyer asked by Suu Kyi’s party to represent her. He told reporters of the extension outside a court in the capital, Naypyitaw.

Suu Kyi’s extended detention is likely to further inflame tensions between the military, which seized power in a Feb. 1 coup, and the protesters who have taken to the streets of cities across the Southeast Asian nation seeking the return of the government they elected.

Protesters continued to gather across Myanmar on Monday following a night in which authorities cut the country’s internet access and increased the security presence in major cities seeking to curtail demonstrations.

Thousands of engineers marched on the streets of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, chanting and holding signs that read: “Free our leader,” “Who stands with justice?” and “Stop arresting people illegally at midnight.”

In Yangon, the country’s most populous city, fewer protesters gathered on Monday due to the loss of the internet and reports of military vehicles on the streets. Nevertheless, several hundred anti-coup demonstrators were outside the Central Bank of Myanmar building, where there were also military trucks full of soldiers, riot police, water-cannon trucks and armored personnel carriers.

Demonstrators carried placards that read “#SupportCDM #SaveMyanmar.” CDM refers to the civil disobedience movement that has seen doctors, engineers and others in Myanmar refuse to work until the military releases elected political leaders and returns the country to civilian rule.

When the military seized power, it detained Suu Kyi and members of her government and prevented recently elected lawmakers from opening a new session of Parliament. The junta, led by Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said it stepped in because the government failed to properly investigate allegations of fraud in last year’s election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide. The state election commission refuted that contention, saying there is no evidence to support it.

An order on Sunday that appeared to be from the Ministry of Transport and Communications told mobile phone service providers to shut down internet connections from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday. It circulated widely on social media, as did a notice said to be from service provider Oredoo Myanmar containing the same details.

On Sunday, ambassadors from the United States and Canada and 12 European nations called on Myanmar’s security forces to refrain from violence against those “protesting the overthrow of their legitimate government.”

They condemned the arrests of political leaders and activists as well as the military’s interference with communications.

“We support the people of Myanmar in their quest for democracy, freedom, peace, and prosperity,” they said in a joint statement issued late Sunday night. “The world is watching.”

UN rights body adopts watered-down text on Myanmar coup

By JAMEY KEATEN

February 12, 2021

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Myint Thu, ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Myanmar to Geneva, addresses his statement during the Human Rights Council special session on "the human rights implications of the crisis in Myanmar" at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021. The special session of the Human Rights Council on the situation in Myanmar is take in person and in virtualle due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s top human rights body passed a consensus resolution Friday urging military leaders in Myanmar to immediately release Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian government leaders detained after a military coup, while watering down an initial draft text amid pressure led by China and Russia.

In a special session at the Human Rights Council, the original resolution presented by Britain and the European Union was revised to remove calls to bolster the ability of a U.N. rights expert to scrutinize Myanmar and for restraint from the country’s military.

After the updated resolution passed with no opposition, Chinese Ambassador Chen Xu thanked the sponsors for “adopting our recommendations” but said China still was distancing itself from the measure.

The sponsors of council resolutions often agree to soften the language of their texts in order to win consensus and to show that the 47-member body is united on thorny human rights issues.

The council has no power to impose sanctions but can train a political spotlight on rights abuses and violations. The session came shortly after the Biden administration, which has already imposed sanctions on top leaders of the Myanmar coup, revived U.S. participation in the Human Rights Council, which the Trump administration pulled the country out of in 2018.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric called the resolution’s adoption “a very important step” that shows “the international community will speak strongly ... in calling for a reversal of the events we’ve seen in Myanmar, and for the full respect of the democratic will of the people of Myanmar as well as full respect of their human rights.”

“The disproportionate use of force, the use of live ammunition -- those are all unacceptable,” Dujarric stressed.

China and Russia faulted attempts to politicize the situation in Myanmar and called it a domestic matter. Many Western countries, the U.N. rights office and others decried the coup and state of emergency.

“The seizure of power by the Myanmar military earlier this month constitutes a profound setback for the country after a decade of hard-won gains in its democratic transition,” Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada al-Nashif said. “The world is watching.”

The resolution called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other top government officials, for the lifting of internet restrictions, and for the military to respect peaceful assembly and refrain from “excessive force against the public.”

But the revised text excised a call on U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, to give the independent U.N. special rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, “increased assistance, resources and expertise” to carry out his job.

“We need real action from the United Nations,” said Andrews, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, citing information that the junta had detained 220 government officials and civil society members.

“The message from the people of Myanmar to all of you and to the people of the world is clear: This cannot stand,” he said. Andrews has been seeking the right to visit Myanmar, which its government has denied.

Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said in a video message his country would suspend “all direct development cooperation with the now illegitimate government” but “continue to support the civil society of Myanmar.”

The U.S. charge d’affaires in Geneva, Mark Cassayre, urged Myanmar’s military to return power to the democratically elected government, and invited other countries to “join us in promoting accountability for those responsible for the coup, including through targeted sanctions.”

John Fisher, Geneva director for advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said: “Myanmar’s military should heed the clear warning messages, immediately release those they have wrongfully detained and end their abusive power grab, or face tougher consequences from the international community.”

The Feb. 1 coup led by Min Aung Hlaing ousted Nobel laureate Suu Kyi from power and prevented recently elected lawmakers from opening a new session of Parliament. It reversed nearly a decade of progress toward democracy following 50 years of military rule and has led to widespread protests.

The military says it was forced to step in because Suu Kyi’s government failed to properly investigate allegations of fraud in November elections. The election commission has said there is no evidence to support those claims.

Wearing a mask in a nearly empty hall at the U.N. Geneva amid the coronavirus pandemic, Myanmar’s ambassador, Myint Thu, largely gave general commitments from his country, such as helping internally displaced people or fighting COVID-19. He took office in October under Suu Kyi’s government, but justified the military’s actions.

“In light of the post-election irregularities and following complex situation, Tatmadaw was compelled to take the state responsibility in accordance with the state constitution,” the ambassador said, using the term for Myanmar’s military.

“Myanmar is undergoing the complex — extremely complex — challenges and delicate transition,” he said. “We do not want to stall our nascent democratic transition in the country.”

Russia and China, among a few others including Belarus, said they opposed attempts to make a human rights case of the situation in Myanmar, calling it a domestic matter.

“Attempts to whip hype around the situation in Myanmar need to cease,” said Gennadiy Gatilov, the Russian ambassador in Geneva.

Sudan’s ambassador, Ali Ibn Abi Talib Abdelrahman Mahmoud, reminded the council of other concerns about rights in Myanmar — namely abuses against Rohingya Muslims, who fled a violent military crackdown by the hundreds of thousands into neighboring Bangladesh.

Myanmar rattled by army movements, apparent internet cutoff
AP NEWS


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In this image made from video by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), two armored personnel carriers were seen traversing on a road in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. Sightings of armored personnel carriers in Myanmar’s biggest city and an internet shutdown raised political tensions late Sunday, after vast numbers of people around the country flouted orders against demonstrations to protest the military’s seizure of power. (DVB via AP)

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Sightings of armored personnel carriers in Myanmar’s biggest city and an internet shutdown raised political tensions late Sunday, after vast numbers of people around the country flouted orders against demonstrations to protest the military’s seizure of power.

Public concern has already been heightened for the past few nights by what many charge is the military’s manipulation of criminals released from prison to carry out nighttime violence and stir up panic.

Ambassadors from the United States and Canada and 12 European nations called on Myanmar’s security forces to refrain from violence against those “protesting the overthrow of their legitimate government.” They condemned the arrests of political leaders and activists as well as the military’s interference with communications.

“We support the people of Myanmar in their quest for democracy, freedom, peace, and prosperity,” they said in a joint statement issued late Sunday night. “The world is watching.”

The military seized power on Feb. 1, detaining the country’s elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and members of her government and preventing recently elected lawmakers from opening a new session of Parliament.

The junta, led by Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said it was forced to step in because the government failed to properly investigate allegations of fraud in last year’s election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide. The state election commission found no evidence to support the allegations.

There was no official word about why armored personnel carriers traversed the streets of Yangon in broad daylight Sunday, making their way through busy traffic. As night fell, there were videos and other reports on social media of the movement of trucks packed with soldiers, and in the central city of Mandalay as well.

An order that appears to be from the Ministry of Transport and Communications told mobile phone service providers to shut down internet connections from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday. It circulated widely on social media, as did a notice said to be from service provider Oredoo Myanmar containing the same details. Several users contacted through other means confirmed that access though Myanmar’s broadband and mobile services were cut as scheduled.

MARTYR KILLED BY POLICE

Monday holds the prospect of two flashpoints for the political standoff.

Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, but a remand order holding her on a minor charge of possessing unregistered imported walkie-talkies expires Monday and a court in the capital, Naypyitaw, is supposed to take action on her case. Her freedom is a major demand of the protest movement.

Khin Maung Zaw, a lawyer asked by Suu Kyi’s party to represent her, said he was uncertain if she would have a court appearance Monday, and it could be delayed by a day. He has not been able to make contact with Suu Kyi.

There is also the possibility that a young woman who was shot during a demonstration last week, also in Naypyitaw, will be declared legally dead. She has been on life support in a hospital in the capital, and unofficial memorial services were held for her Sunday at protests in Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s two biggest cities.

Large demonstrations were also held in Naypyitaw and far-flung corners of the country dominated by ethnic minorities.

Resistance also took place in cyberspace, as a group calling itself BrotherHood of Myanmar Hackers defaced the government’s Myanmar Digital News website, replacing content on its home page with words and pictures against the military takeover.

Protesters in Yangon again rallied outside the Chinese and U.S. embassies. They accuse Beijing of propping up the military regime and applaud Washington’s actions sanctioning the military. There were scattered appeals on Twitter for armed intervention by the United States.

Other protesters carried signs urging people to boycott businesses linked to the military.

Eight days of street demonstrations are estimated to have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to the streets despite the threat of six months’ imprisonment for violating an order banning gatherings of five or more people. The same order imposes an 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew.

Sunday’s activism took place after the ruling junta issued a new order suspending several basic civil liberties.

The order, issued late Saturday and published Sunday in state newspapers, suspends provisions in an existing law on security and privacy protection, allowing the authorities to carry out searches and make arrests without court warrants.

It also allows the interception of electronic and other communications without a warrant and permits the detention of detainees for more than 24 hours without court permission.

Civil servants have been very active in the protests, and social media postings on Sunday indicated that state railway workers have joined them, with some unconfirmed claims that they have gone on strike.

The public at large has been alarmed since the government last week declared an amnesty that led to the release of more than 23,000 convicts. There are many claims on social media that some have been recruited by the authorities to carry out violent activities at night in residential areas to spread panic, especially by setting fires. Some areas have responded by setting up their own neighborhood watch groups.

The truth of the allegations about government-directed thugs is difficult to verify, even with videos claiming to show their activities. There is historical precedent, as the military released convicts to carry out violence and cause chaos in 1988 during a failed popular uprising against a military dictatorship.

People have also been rattled by police raids carried out during curfew hours to seize individuals seen as opposed to the coup. In several cases, nearby residents rushed to the scene in such numbers that security forces abandoned their attempts to haul in their targets.

The independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says 400 people have been detained since the coup, with 375 still being held.

Detainees have included political leaders, government officials, civil servants, activists and student leaders. Medical personnel have been singled out because their community initiated the civil disobedience campaign against the military takeover and remains in its vanguard.

Social justice at NASCAR’s forefront as new season begins

BUBBA TO BE JOINED BY NASCAR'S FIRST LATINO DRIVER
By JENNA FRYER

February 13, 2021

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FILE - In this June 10, 2020, file photo, driver Bubba Wallace, wearing an "I Can't Breathe" T-shirt waits for the start of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in Martinsville, Va. A predominantly white sport with deep Southern roots and a longtime embrace of Confederate symbols, NASCAR was forced last summer to face its own checkered racial history during the country’s social unrest. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — NASCAR received warnings — “Go Woke, Go Broke” — from every corner of the internet last summer. Fans said they didn’t want to hear about social justice, and banning the Confederate flag at racetracks would drive them from the sport forever.

If there has been an exodus, NASCAR has not noticed.

A predominately white sport with deep Southern roots and a longtime embrace of Confederate symbols, NASCAR was forced last summer to face its own checkered racial history during the country’s social unrest: Bubba Wallace wore an “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirt on pit road and raced a car with “Black Lives Matter” painted on the hood; his peers promised to listen and learn; a NASCAR official knelt during the national anthem; and the governing body vowed to to do a better job of addressing racial injustice.

As a new season begins Sunday with the Daytona 500, a new era of social consciousness has enveloped the sport and NASCAR is committed for the long haul. There’s not a Confederate flag to be found at the speedway. A large sign before an infield tunnel warns that the Stars and Bars are barred from the property, and compliance has not been a problem at Daytona.

In fact, NASCAR President Steve Phelps cited a brand tracking study by Directions Research that found that 1,750 self-identified “avid NASCAR fans” overwhelmingly supported the sanctioning body’s stance on social justice in 2020.

“It was a moment in time back in June that seemed, for us, it was the right time to act. I think it was the right time for our country. I think it was the right time for our sport. The response to that was fantastic,” Phelps said. “What we do in the areas of social justice and diversity equity inclusion is going to be authentic to who we are. May not be the right thing for the NBA, but it’s going to be the right thing for us.”

Wallace, the only full-time Black racer at the national level, has been the face of NASCAR’s movement. Born in Alabama but raised in North Carolina, Wallace no longer wanted to see the Confederate flag at his workplace.

Wallace found his voice on racial injustice after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the backlash was immediate. Less than two weeks after Wallace’s successful push to ban the Confederate flag, fans paraded past the entrance at Talladega Superspeedway with the flag flying from their vehicles.

He received death threats, has been booed during driver introductions and the crowd at Bristol Motor Speedway cheered when he wrecked. A garage pull in his NASCAR stall had been fashioned into a noose — an FBI investigation found it had been hanging for months — and people falsely accused Wallace of faking a hate crime.

Even President Donald Trump blasted NASCAR on Twitter for banning the flag and wrongly accusing Wallace of perpetrating “a hoax.”

Wallace has since signed multiple companies to a sponsorship portfolio so deep that Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin were able to build a race team around Wallace that debuts in the Daytona 500.

DoorDash is Wallace’s sponsor for the opener and, a week after its first Super Bowl commercial, will air a spot during the Daytona 500. The Super Bowl ad featured entertainer Daveed Diggs and the Sesame Workshop as DoorDash reinforced its mission to grow and empower local economies.

The Daytona ad, a 30-second spot titled “Race Car Driver,” has an entirely different feel yet still promotes DoorDash’s social agendas. Created to celebrate Black History Month and the Black drivers who raced before Wallace, the spot is black and white and lists the first names of Elias Bowie, Charlie Scott, Wendell Scott, George Wiltshire, Willy T. Ribbs and Bill Lester.

If not for the brief fadeout that flashes Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing and DoorDash, the commercial has no brand marketing or overt NASCAR symbolism.

“Our goal was to create work that would celebrate Bubba’s voice, his journey and his mission, and stand apart in its stark evocative simplicity from every other ad that runs during the Daytona 500,” said Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, DoorDash’s vice president of marketing.

“We share Bubba’s drive for change — a desire for a more inclusive sport, and a more inclusive world. This is a long journey, one that began before Bubba and will continue with him and future drivers, so we also wanted to recognize the lineage of Black drivers who have moved the sport forward.”

It’s a dramatically forward-thinking approach for a sponsor catering to car enthusiasts, but Wallace’s brand encompasses much more than racing. Wallace has found that the new companies he’s brought into NASCAR — DoorDash, Columbia Sportswear and Root Insurance — chose to partner with him because of his activism first, racing second. Along with McDonald’s and Dr Pepper, Wallace has a fully funded car for the first time in his career.

“The conversations we’ve had (with sponsors), they’ve all wanted to know, ‘What are we going to do off the track to keep pushing for change?’” Wallace said. “They’ve all said: ’Oh, we’ll be on the car, that’s obvious, that’s a no-brainer. But what are we going to do? They are more focused on the messaging and how we can ignite others to do better and be better.”

Phelps believes taking a position was “a seminal moment” for NASCAR that showed that the sport is welcoming to new fans and new companies.

“It opened up an aperture to a brand-new fan base,” Phelps said. “There was a question at the time: Social justice, is that something a sport should do, NASCAR should do? Do we have permission to do it? The answer is yes.

“You’re going to have critics no matter what you do. You’re not going to please all the people for sure. We’re going to do what we believe is right for the sport, right for the growth of this sport.”

Daniel Alejandro Suárez Garza

Daniel Alejandro Suárez Garza (born January 7, 1992) is a Mexican professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 99 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Trackhouse Racing Team.