Troop of monkeys escape German wildlife park

Twenty-five barbary macaques have broken out of their enclosure in southwestern Germany. Police suspect that their escape was enabled by construction work

Macaques are considered timid; though this one looks aggressive, he's just yawning

Twenty-five Barbary macaques escaped from a zoo in the German town of Löffingen on Thursday for several hours.

The troop of monkeys were first spotted roaming around a local neighborhood. Zoo employees then tried to capture the macaques, but according to police they initially escaped and their handlers then lost sight of the group.

By early evening on Thursday, the runaway primates were located and secured.

Police searched for the escaped monkeys, who were rounded up by Thursday evening

"The animals apparently took advantage of the nice weather and spent the afternoon on the edge of a forest near the zoo," police said.

Construction work near the zoo might have enabled the apes to find an escape route out of the enclosed compound, police said in a statement.

City in Thailand to sterilize hundreds of wild macaques

Native to North Africa, the ginger-furred toddler-size macaques are typically harmless, timid and fearful of humans, according to the Barbary Macaque Awareness & Conservation NGO.

Police in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg had warned passersby not to try to feed or catch the macaques, as that could intimidate them or prompt them to lash out.

CULTURE

Weird tales and hobbits: How fantasy art became popular

Sexy women, winged demons, buff fighters — such characters are widespread in fantasy books, films or comics. A new book explores the genre's history.



Fantasy books and movies such as Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia have been successful for generations already. But why do so many people enjoy being engrossed in fantastical worlds?

This question is addressed in the book Masterpieces of Fantasy Art, recently published by Taschen. The XXL-sized book introduces the history of the genre and includes pictures of the original works.

Fantastical creatures have been featured on canvas for centuries. The Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch, for example, is incorrectly considered an early of fantasy art, according to the book's author Dian Hanson. In fact, the reason why the Dutch master painted these particularly creepy religious allegories and biblical themes more than 500 years ago was rather to keep the faithful in check. By depicting devilish monsters or dark forest creatures, he reminded them that it was better to choose God than surrender to sin. Yet, even if it was meant to merely scare one into piety, his fantastic worlds were a source of inspiration.

The same can be said of Renaissance artist Michelangelo or the French Symbolist Gustave Moreau who at times also featured ghoulish figures in their art.

In these artists' lifetimes, fantasy art as we know it today couldn't exist; such imagery rather depicted things that people saw as real threats. "Fantasy art could only exist after we abandoned our belief in dragons, witches, gorgons, griffins and nymphs," writes the book's editor.


A new book published by Taschen explores the history of fantasy art
A genre begins with Lewis Carroll

The origins of fantasy art can be found in England in the middle of the 19th century.

Lewis Carroll's children's book from 1865, Alice in Wonderland, was the first book to have illustrated pages. For the first time, readers could visually experience sophisticated visual worlds filled with talking ducks, grinning cats, smoking caterpillars and lizards working as chimney sweeps.

The illustrations for children's book classics such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit or Pinocchio are also at the heart of the fantasy art genre. Their goal was to create dream worlds to "satisfy childish longings," writes Hanson.

In 1889, H.J. Ford invented dragons, griffins and superheroes that still have a significant influence on the films, games and novels of the fantasy genre today. He also created illustrations around the year 1900 for Peter Pan and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

The race to see who could create the most fantastic creatures attracted artists from all corners.

Among them was Art Nouveau glass painter Harry Clark who did illustrations based on Jacques Offenbach's dreamlike opera, The Tales of Hoffmann.

British artist Rodney Matthews is known for his exaggerated and often threatening depictions of flora, fauna and animals


A fantasy revival

In 1912, the cartoon book Tarzan of the Apes was a great success. The demand was enormous and its success ensured that more and more artists specialized in this new subject. After all, fantasy art is a commercial product for the masses that had to fight for the favor of as many buyers as possible.

In the early 20th century, even serious authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury or Philip K. Dick were involved in the fantasy new genre, as can be seen by the topics in magazines and stories of various literary genres that were popular in the USA from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Another pioneer in the fantasy genre is the US magazine Weird Tales which began to publish fantasy, science fiction and horror stories in the comic style in 1923. Among them were works by horror specialist H.P. Lovecraft who is still praised for his goose bump-inducing reads.

The preference for the macabre in Weird Tales can already be seen on the covers, on which goggle-eyed ghosts, slippery monsters and intrepid fighters of all kinds cavort. New superheroes were introduced; some primitive like Conan the Barbarian, one of the greatest and most important figures of the fantasy genre.

Other characters were more nuanced and took inspiration from Greek mythology, such as H.P. Lovecraft's monster Cthulhu.

Whoever the protagonist was, Weird Tales sold well to the masses.

Muscular, barbaric heroes are a common theme in the fantasy art genre


Fantasy literature leads the way

Readers should not confuse fantasy with science fiction — the genres are worlds apart, points out Hanson. Even the motifs found in both genres prove it.

Spaceships, for example, are unthinkable in the fantasy world. Instead, fantasy worlds should be as unscientific as possible, complete with dragons and monsters and sexy heroes.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression put pressure on the magazine market. As printing costs rose, the need to sell increased. And so, onto the covers went scantily dressed women in wild poses — as the cliché goes, sex sells.

But at the end of the 1930s, another innovation came to the genre: Fantasy authors like J.R.R. Tolkien began to publish longer stories and novels. The Hobbit was published in 1937 and the Lord of the Rings series followed in 1954. Books like The Chronicles of Narnia, published in 1953, underpinned the importance of the fantasy genre in literature, placing emphasis on longer series.

Greg and Tim Hildebrandt created popular illustrations from the books 'Lord of the Rings'

Fantasy in Europe

Fantasy material also became popular in Europe.

In 1974, the comic anthology Métal Hurlant, which translates to "howling metal," was published in Paris, bringing France to the forefront of the fantasy genre. With its science fiction and horror comics, it developed into a fantasy publication popular with adults. In a way, it was the precursor to the graphic novel and was enjoyed by readers of all ages, not just kids. Gustave Flaubert's novel Salammbô was published in comic format by Métal Hurlant.

Philippe Druillet created this mural in France. He is one of the founders of the French publication "Métal Hurlant" HEAVY METAL

But not all readers enjoyed the increasingly sexualized content. For such individuals, there was the fantasy illustration genre that developed along with the Lord of the Rings culture, introduced by the brothers Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. The illustrator brothers from Michigan brought Middle-earth and all its beings to life in the 1970s.

1974 also saw the release of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, in which players with elf, dragon or dwarf characters embark on new adventures that spring purely from their imaginations.

In Hollywood, Star Wars and the film series Alien were created and enormously successful. The international popularity of the fantasy culture continued to grow — and it continued with digital game and trade fairs.

Meanwhile, fantasy art has made it to the big leagues: Some originals of fantasy books, magazines and paintings are now generating auction proceeds just as high as works by a sought-after painter or sculptor.

TASCHEN Masterpieces of Fantasy Art. Dian Hanson. Hardcover, 532 pages, taschen.com

This article was translated from German by Sarah Hucal.

Soviet-era 'Lord of the Rings' film a YouTube hit

"Khraniteli" was probably broadcast only once on Russian television. Now the 30-year-old film version of "The Lord of the Rings" is a clicks hit on YouTube.


"Khraniteli" is making waves on YouTube


In 1991, Khraniteli (Russian for "guardians"), a television adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings fantasy stories, was broadcast shortly before the USSR collapsed.

It is a low-budget production that aired 10 years before the release of the first part of director Peter Jackson's blockbuster film trilogy, LOTR for short, which starred Elijah Wood as the young hobbit Frodo Baggins. Interestingly, Wood himself tweeted about the Russian film on YouTube.

The Soviet film features simple special effects that make many scenes feel like theater productions rather than a Hollywood-style motion picture. The soundtrack for the film was composed by Andrei Romanov of the Akvarium rock band and seems to be typical of the time.

More than a million clicks

After the film was broadcast on Leningrad Television in 1991, it seems to have disappeared without a trace, according to The Guardian. Leningrad Television's successor, 5TV, posted the film on YouTube last week, where it has garnered more than 1.5 million views in just a few days.

Viewers have been divided in their opinion of the story. Film critic Michael Phillips wrote in The Chicago Tribune that the film was "disorienting" and "should be enough to get your week off to a start from which you may never recover."

Sirisaac Newton wrote on YouTube that "Gandalf's smug entrance into the birthday party is a scene that I will never forget. I never realized that he was almost the size of the hobbits though. A mini-wizard."

One called Fotis D wrote: "I really feel sorry for those who dislike this masterpiece."

Reinis Rudzitis, who clearly spent a lot of time going through the 2,600-odd remarks from other viewers, wrote: "Ok, I don't know what I love more — the movie itself or the comment section."

Fans looking for a fresh approach to the Tolkien classic may be happy to know that a new, multiseason TV adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is filming in New Zealand in cooperation with the Amazon Prime streaming service

THE 1% IN CONTROL

Authoritarian slide taints West Africa’s ‘model democracy’ as Benin heads to polls

Issued on: 09/04/2021 -


A supporter waves a campaign flag for President Patrice Talon and running mate Mariam Talata in the market in Cotonou, Benin's economic hub, on April 8, 2021.
© Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP


Text by: Grégoire SAUVAGE

The small West African nation of Benin has for the past three decades stood out as a model democracy in a region beset by coups and insurgencies. As he seeks a second term in a presidential election on Sunday, its tycoon leader Patrice Talon faces accusations he has tarnished the country’s reputation as a vibrant multiparty democracy.

Talon, a multi-millionaire known as the “King of Cotton”, looks all but certain to win re-election in a contest critics say is heavily tilted in his favour. He faces two little-known rivals, Alassane Soumanou and Corentin Kohoue, with most opposition leaders either living in exile or disqualified from running.

The lack of a contest signals a stark reversal after three decades of competitive elections in the coastal nation of 11.5 million, a former French colony hemmed in between tiny Togo and Africa’s powerhouse, Nigeria. It follows the introduction of controversial reforms that analysts have described as “a master class in entrenching autocracy”.

The result has been an unusually tense run-up to the vote, with troops deployed in several opposition strongholds this week to disperse violent protests. On Friday, officials said two people were killed in the central city of Save as troops fired tear gas and live rounds in the air to disperse protesters.

“Patrice Talon was meant to finish his term on April 5. But he failed to organise elections in time, as required by the constitution,” said Kamar Ouassagari, a senior member of the opposition party Les Démocrates, in an interview with FRANCE 24.

“So the people of Benin have risen up to tell him his time is up,” Ouassagari added.

Opponents kept off the ballot

A poor country that is heavily reliant on cotton exports and informal trade with neighbouring Nigeria, Benin has a proud record as a beacon of democracy. Following the introduction of a multi-party system in 1991, its longtime leader Mathieu Kérékou became the first West African president to accept defeat at the polls.

Talon’s predecessor, two-term president Thomas Boni Yayi, agreed to step down in 2016 even as neighbouring rulers changed their constitutions to extend their rule. Talon himself appeared willing to go a step further, pledging as a candidate that year to forgo a second term in order to avoid "complacency".

But critics say his deeds once in office have largely undermined the country’s democratic progress.

Opponents are especially critical of a reform of the country’s electoral laws requiring presidential candidates to secure the signatures of at least 16 elected officials in order to run. The rule was ostensibly designed to prevent the proliferation of mini-parties and fanciful candidacies. But in a country where all 83 members of parliament and 71 out of 77 mayors belong to Talon’s camp, securing those precious endorsements has proved largely impossible.

The incumbent’s stranglehold on power results from disputed parliamentary elections held in 2019, in which the principal opposition parties were barred from running. Those polls led to a dismal 27 percent turnout – an unprecedented low in a country that had seen turnout near 75 percent in the 1990s.

The disputed parliamentary elections triggered angry protests and several people were killed when the army opened fire on demonstrators. Many fear a similar outbreak of violence following Sunday’s presidential vote.

“Benin will be at high risk in the coming days,” warns Francis Kpatindé, a French-Beninese journalist and researcher at Sciences-Po Paris, stressing that “such political violence is a novelty” in a once stable country that had grown accustomed to peaceful transfers of power.

“Benin used to score well in global rankings published by the likes of Amnesty International and Reporters Without Border,” he says. “But over the past five years we’ve seen it slide down the tables when it comes to human rights and respecting democratic institutions.”

‘Politicised’ court

Amnesty International has registered at least 12 cases of political opponents being either arrested, sentenced or summoned by the authorities since the start of the year.

“Most of these arrests are based on laws that appear designed to curtail freedom of expression and the ability to voice criticism [of the authorities],” says regional expert Fabien Offner, who works for Amnesty’s Dakar bureau, in Senegal. He points to a digital law, passed in 2019, “which has been used to detain people based on messages posted on WhatsApp”.

Offner adds: “The result is that Benin is heading into an election with most opposition leaders either in exile or in detention based on legal cases that are often very vague.”

Posters supporting Patrice Tallon and his running mate in the streets of Cotonou. 

© Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP

In recent years, the president’s main opponents have been sidelined one by one.

Sébastien Ajavon, a business leader who backed Talon in the 2016 run-off after coming third in the election, has fled to France before his sentencing on drug-trafficking charges, which he denies. Ganiou Soglo, another prominent opponent, survived an attempted assassination earlier this year, shortly after declaring his candidacy. As for Lionel Zinsou, the runner-up five years ago, he is serving a five-year ban from elected office for exceeding spending limits in the 2016 campaign.

Last month, the authorities jailed another would-be candidate, former justice minister Reckya Madougou, this time on charges of supporting terrorism. According to a judge who fled Benin earlier this month, the charges against Madougou were politically motivated.

“There was nothing in the case that would have justified her arrest,” judge Essowé told FRANCE 24’s sister radio RFI on Monday, speaking from an undisclosed location. “It’s not the first time,” he added. “There have been several such cases where we received instructions from above.”

The government has dismissed the accusations as “political manipulation”, accusing exiled opponents of trying to have the election annulled.

Benin is fast resembling “the prototype of an authoritarian regime that tolerates no contradiction,” says Kpatindé. “Talon wants to develop the country’s economy and overhaul its infrastructure. He believes he’s invested with an almost Messianic mission at the country’s helm – and he accepts no checks on his power.”

Jihadist threat

Five years ago, Benin’s “King of Cotton” banked on his business credentials and his image as a moderniser to secure a convincing win at the polls. He has played up his economic successes during this campaign, with improved road, water and energy supplies.

Economic growth notched up one point to a solid 5.5 percent in the first years of his term. According to the African Development Bank, Benin’s economy continued to grow last year despite the global recession, making it one of the few countries in the world not to post negative figures amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, analysts say the resilient growth has done little to improve the lot of a population still largely reliant on the informal economy.

Some observers have drawn parallels between Talon’s Benin and Rwanda under President Paul Kagame, who has been credited with implementing sweeping structural reforms while also stifling dissent.

Talon’s critics also denounce his grip on the nation’s economy. The 62-year-old magnate is the richest man in a country where cotton accounts for a staggering 80 percent of exports.

The concentration of power in the hands of Benin’s incumbent president is cause for alarm, says Kpatindé, warning that Talon’s clean sweep of parliament could allow him to “prolong his rule indefinitely, without needing a referendum” to bypass constitutional term limits.

The health of Beninese democracy is of particular concern at a time when jihadist insurgencies threaten to spill over into coastal countries south of the restive Sahel region, Kpatindé warns.

“If you don’t have national unity, and a stable and peaceful democratic framework, then the door is open to all sorts of enterprises,” he says.

In May 2019, gunmen kidnapped two French tourists and killed their guide in the Pendjari national park, near the country’s northwestern border with Burkina Faso. Though rare, the incident served as an ominous reminder that Benin is not immune from the jihadist menace wreaking havoc across large swathes of West Africa.

This article was adapted from the original, in French.

GERMANY
Auschwitz survivor Zilli Schmidt: Fearing new Nazis today

The 96-year-old Zilli Schmidt has made it her mission to tell the world what was done to the Romani people by the Nazi regime. She warns of contemporary parallels — and strikes a chord with many of her listeners.


Zilli Schmidt was awarded the Order of Merit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier this year.

In September, Schmidt walked into the Kulturhaus RomnoKher in the western German city of Mannheim to attend a reading of her book about her memories as a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. "Your visit is a gift," said many of the people who had turned out to greet her.

The book is titled God Had Plans for Me: To Keep Alive the Memory of the German Sinti. It recounts her happy childhood days — as well as her incarceration and hunger, the guards shooting at small children and mass murder.

Schmidt told DW that it is her mission to tell what the Nazis did to Sinti, a Roma population in Europe. "They were all gassed, my entire family, all my people," she said. She added that the murder of Roma is often left out of stories of the Holocaust: "The Jews were all sent to the gas chambers. And all the Sinti are still alive?" She pauses. "Nobody was still alive," she said.

The first time she spoke in public about her life was August 2, 2018, at a service for murdered Roma at the memorial in Berlin: "I spoke only for my own people." She was pleased to see so many young people there. "Young people were never told," she said. "It wasn't taught at school."

Watch video02:11 Berlin: Anxiety over memorial to murdered Sinti and Roma

'I dream that I am back in Auschwitz'

Remembering is not easy, Schmidt said: "I often have the urge to cry but I don't show it. I swallow my feelings." But the memories torment her. "When I dream," she said, "I dream that I am back in Auschwitz."

Schmidt's daughter, Gretel, would be 80 years old if she were alive today. She could have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But Gretel, her little girl, "did not grow up." In the camp, the girl saw the chimneys of the crematorium: "Mama, they are burning people over there." Zilli told her daughter that this was not true: "No, they are just baking bread."

Zilli has only one foto of her daughter, Gretel, who was murdered at age 4

Gretel's life ended when she was four years and three months old. Murdered on August 2, 1944, in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, just like Zilli's parents, her sister Guki and her six children, when the Nazi SS paramilitaries decided to liquidate so-called gypsy families. On this night alone, the SS murdered about 4,300 screaming and crying people. It was one of the darkest episodes in the Romani genocide, known as the Porajmos.

Like other young concentration camp inmates deemed "fit to work," the 20-year-old was moved to a different camp before that night of murder. Her father wanted to protect Gretel and kept the girl close. When her young mother tried to run toward her family, SS doctor Josef Mengele slapped her and forced her back into the wagon. "He saved my life but did me no favor in the process." In the concentration camp at Ravensbrück, she was told what had been done to her family. She collapsed, sreaming.

 

'A happy family'

Schmidt was born Cäcilie Reichmann in 1924 in Thuringia, to a family of traveling performers who entertained people with their mobile cinema and music. "We were a happy family," she says in her book. The caravan that housed the Reichmanns on their summer tours was built by her father: "A real treasure," with the stove decorated with different images of birds and Meissen porcelain in the cupboard. Her brother bought and sold violins, while she and her mother went from door to door selling the finest lace.

She and her little brother Hesso went to school wherever they stopped along the way. In the winter, they went to the same school for months on end, in Thuringia or Bavaria. The teachers would send them to the back of the class. Sometimes fellow pupils would chase and taunt them. "Gypsies, gypsies," chants Schmidt 90 years later, as she recalls the jibes. As a child, she would defend herself with her fists.

Zilli (left) shared a happy childhood with with her cousins Willi and Bluma

When the National Socialists seized power in 1933, her father still felt safe: "They're only arresting criminals." He had done nothing wrong and believed he had nothing to fear. World War II began in 1939. Schmidt's big brother, Stifto, served in the Wehrmacht, in Russia and France. But the Nazi regime had no interest in just rewards. It was focused on its murderous and racist ideology.

With some relatives already deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp, the Reichmann family went on the road, traveling across Germany to France to stay one step ahead of the authorities. But they caught up with them: Zilli and her cousins were arrested in Strasbourg. "Crime: gypsy" read the police file.
'God helped me'

Schmidt was sent from jail to jail but managed to escape from the camp at Lety in the then German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. But she was rearrested shortly afterward.

Schmidt (right) and her cousin Tilla were in Prague together in 1940

In March 1943, she was deported to Auschwitz, where an inmate tattooed the number Z1959 on her forearm. She was the first of the Reichmann family to end up in Auschwitz-Birkenau, in the "Gypsy family camp." Hunger, thirst, disease, violence and death were part of everyday life there. Schmidt said she stole to help keep the children and others alive — potatoes from the kitchen, boots from the clothing stores. Each time, she knew she was risking her life.

Twice, her name was on the list for the gas chamber. Yet twice, she escaped, she said. She survived three days of captivity in a cell with room only to stand. Three days with neither food nor water, nor a toilet. "While I was inside, I thought 'Screw you. When I get out, I'm going to keep stealing.'"

One time, she said, a sentry shot at her and only narrowly missed. Later, she and her cousin Tilla were able to escape again, from a satellite camp. She survived the war against all odds. "God helped me, I would never have managed alone," Schmidt said. "I'm still here for a reason." She is one of the last eyewitnesses.

REMEMBERING NAZI GENOCIDE OF SINTI AND ROMA

Serving the fatherland

Many German Sinti fought for Germany not only in the First World War but also in the Wehrmacht from 1939 on. In 1941 the German high command ordered all "Gypsies and Gypsy half-breeds" to be dismissed from active military service for "racial-political reasons." Alfons Lampert and his wife Elsa were then deported to Auschwitz, where they were killed.  PHOTOS 1234567891011

After the war, she suffered from depression. At first, her medication worked and she built a new life. Then came a sense of guilt for having survived when her loved ones were murdered. She and her husband Toni Schmidt, also a concentration camp survivor, applied in Munich for compensation for the time they were incarcerated in concentration camps.

After years fighting red tape and bureaucratic dead ends, Schmidt received a small amount of money: "But I was glad to get it. We were totally impoverished after the camps." It took until 1982 for the German government to acknowledge the racial persecution of Romani people.

Threat of Neo-Nazism

The Mannheim reading was attended by many young Romani women, who were visibly moved by Schmidt's story.

Lehmann, Gross and Schumacher, Romani women, were moved by Schmidt's story

Christina Schumacher was born in Siberia, Russia. She came to Germany with her parents. Verena Lehmann's grandmother was in Auschwitz. Verena herself spoke at the memorial in Berlin on August 2, 2020: "We children learned at an early age what a concentration camp is and what a Nazi is. I was especially terrified of Hitler." This was years after the war and the death of the dictator — the trauma of persecution will go from generation to generation, she says.

Many members of Romani communities hide their identity for fear of discrimination. Victoria Gross is a nursery school teacher. When an acquaintance took part in protests against the accommodation of a Sinti family in their building, she told her that she, too, belonged to the minority group. "That information is doing the rounds now," she said. Her daughter was no longer invited to birthday parties. "She was in tears." Her 10-year-old daughter asks: "Why did you tell them?"

Gross said hiding was not a solution. Her recipe is to promote networking in the minority community, encouraging mutual support and educating people. That, she said, is the reason why she does youth work.

Schmidt has lived through nearly a century of discrimination and alienation because she belongs to the ethnic minority of the German Sinti. "Dear children, you must stay strong," she urges. "The Hitlers are still agitating; they cannot be silenced."

The 96-year continued: "I want to be informed about what is going on in the world. I see it all on TV — that even the police have been infiltrated by Nazis." Schmidt still experiences fear. She fears the new breed of Nazi. "If they found out where I live," she said, "they would kill me."

This article was translated from German.

It was updated and republished.

Auschwitz survivor Zilli Schmidt: Fearing new Nazis today | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 08.04.2021

Opinion: 

No place for anti-Roma discrimination

Equality for Sinti and Roma and an end to anti-Roma discrimination are called for this International Romani Day, writes guest author Bernd Fabritius, Germany's commissioner for national minorities.


Roma and Sinti have a vibrant culture but have endured centuries of discrimination and prejudice across Europe

Europe has observed International Romani Day — intended to raise awareness for the situation of the Roma people — every April 8 since 1990, when it was first commemorated. The date was chosen in remembrance of the first World Romani Conference held on April 8, 1971, in London, England.

Fifty years have passed since then, but Sinti and Roma still face prejudice, intolerance and discrimination in many European countries. A society that respects diversity and is concerned with equal opportunity cannot tolerate discrimination and marginalization. It must fight these ills. A joint effort to intensify the fight against anti-Roma discrimination is important within this context, for inclusion and active participation in society are only possible when unprejudiced treatment is guaranteed — and discrimination on the basis of ethnicity is afforded no place.

Mutual respect for Roma

As Germany's Commissioner for National Minorities, it is of particular concern to me that minorities receive recognition for their cultures and histories and have a place in the heart of our society. Social cohesion and solidarity demand openness and mutual respect — they are the bedrock of peaceful coexistence.

Bernd Fabritius is Germany's Commissioner 
for Matters Relating to Ethnic German Resettlers and National Minorities.

The protection of minorities contributes to social diversity. However, this should not be confused with assimilation, for anyone who sets out to protect minorities must also create parameters that respect their identity. This ideal is a guiding principle of Germany's policies regarding minorities and it should be throughout the European Union as well.

I would like to take this opportunity to once more draw attention to the new EU Roma Strategic Framework for the equality, inclusion and participation of Sinti and Roma in Germany and in the EU. Last year, the European Commission responded to a call from the European Parliament to adopt a reinforced and reformed EU framework to replace the previous strategy, which ended in 2020. It is now our responsibility as member states to implement this EU framework at the national level.

Social inclusion of Sinti and Roma

I regard the EU's new Roma strategy as validation of the broader, more socially inclusive approach currently being pursued at the national level. It is an approach in which civil society plays a particularly important role — especially with respect to younger representatives of the minority groups whose interests I champion.

We all bear responsibility for ensuring a European future that is safe and peaceful — a Europe in which all forms of racism, including anti-Roma discrimination, are rejected and in which social equality is possible for everyone.

To that end, national implementation of the new EU Roma Strategic Framework over the next decade will be key, as it will pave the way for equal social participation for Sinti and Roma and fight anti-Roma discrimination. Now, we must move forward together and boldly implement its goals.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ROMA 

AFRICA

Caring for schoolgirls with reusable sanitary pads

Hyasintha Ntuyeko's company provides sanitary pads for underresourced school children in Tanzania. But beyond that, she also fights taboos and stigmas around menstruation.

Pakistan's Hazara women strike back with martial arts

Issued on: 10/04/2021 -

Hazara students at the Kazmi International Wushu Academy in Quetta Banaras

 KHAN AFP

Quetta (Pakistan) (AFP)

Hundreds of Pakistani Hazara women are learning how to deliver side kicks and elbow blows as martial arts booms within the marginalised community.

Hazaras, who are mainly Shia Muslims, have faced decades of sectarian violence in the southwestern city of Quetta, living in two separate enclaves cordoned off by checkpoints and armed guards to protect them.

Women must also contend with routine harassment from men, with groping commonplace in crowded markets or public transport.

"We can't stop bomb blasts with karate, but with self-defence, I have learnt to feel confident," 20-year-old Nargis Batool told AFP.

"Everyone here knows that I am going to the club. Nobody dares say anything to me while I am out."

Up to 4,000 people are attending regular classes in more than 25 clubs in Balochistan province, of which Quetta is the capital, according to Ishaq Ali, head of the Balochistan Wushu Kung Fu Association, which oversees the sport.

The city's two largest academies, which train around 250 people each, told AFP the majority of their students were young Hazara women.

Many of them go on to earn money from the sport, taking part in frequent competitions.

It is still unusual for women to play sport in deeply conservative Pakistan where families often forbid it, but martial arts teacher Fida Hussain Kazmi says exceptions are being made.

"In general, women cannot exercise in our society... but for the sake of self-defence and her family, they are being allowed."

The uptake is also credited to national champions Nargis Hazara and Kulsoom Hazara, who have won medals in international competitions.

Kazmi says he has trained hundreds of women over the years, after learning the sport from a Chinese master in the eastern city of Lahore.

The 41-year-old offers two hours of training six days a week for 500 rupees ($3) but gives free classes to women who have lost a relative to militant violence.

"The Hazara community is facing many problems... but with karate we can begin to feel safe," said 18-year-old student Syeda Qubra, whose brother was killed in a bomb blast in 2013.

© 2021 AFP

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Balochistan 

DIRTY WAR ON DRUGS

Black, indigenous Colombians suffer malnutrition due to conflict: NGO

The ongoing conflict that has lasted almost six decades now has left nine million victims either dead, missing or displaced.

Issued on: 09/04/2021 - 

Despite a landmark peace deal, dissident FARC guerrillas and another leftist rebel group called the National Liberation Army (ELN) have continued to fight with Colombian troops in a multi-faceted conflict that also involves drug-traffickers and right-wing militias Daniel Fernándo MARTINEZ CERVERA AFP

Bogota (AFP)

Colombia's ongoing conflict with left-wing rebels has caused serious malnutrition problems amongst indigenous and black communities, according to a study led by Doctors of the World and published on Friday.

The NGO and a group of universities delivered the report to the truth commission set up to investigate atrocities related to the conflict as part of the historic 2016 peace accord that brought to an end more than a half century of conflict between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government.

Since then, though, dissident FARC guerrillas and another leftist rebel group called the National Liberation Army (ELN) have continued to fight with government troops in a multi-faceted conflict that also involves drug-traffickers and right-wing militias.

"The dynamics imposed by the armed actors in these territories, like confinement or the laying of antipersonnel mines and explosive devices, or simply fear, make people lose the ability to procure food," Nicolas Dotta, the coordinator of Colombian Doctors of the World, told AFP.

The study looked at various black and indigenous communities in Choco, on the border with Panama, and the Awa tribe in Narino on the frontier with Ecuador, amongst others.

- 'Humanitarian crisis' -

These people are at "greater risk of contracting diseases" as well as mental health problems, physical and psychosocial incapacity, and death.

Clashes in Choco between the various belligerents have affected access to health services and forced people to shelter at home.

As well as chronic malnutrition, there have been outbreaks of malaria and tuberculosis in this jungle region that is rich in gold and where 89 percent of the population is either black or indigenous.

The ongoing conflict is "violating the right of these communities to health and basic conditions such as food and clean water," said the report.

On the other side of the country, the Awa are suffering from dispossession of their lands in areas rife with drug plantations and cocaine processing laboratories.

Government use of the controversial herbicide glyphosate to destroy illegal coca plantations, as well as pressure from criminal gangs to replace food crops with coca, have badly affected the local population's access to food, the study says.

And despite a ban on the use of glyphosate, massacres and mass displacements due to land invasions by armed gangs have left the Awa "at risk of physical and cultural extermination."

"Right now there's a humanitarian crisis," said Awa representative Robinson Pai in an interview for the report.

The ongoing conflict that has lasted almost six decades now has left nine million victims either dead, missing or displaced.

© 2021 AFP

ARYAN CASTISM & RACISM

India: Nepali man freed from jail after 41 years without trial

A Nepali man was arrested on murder charges in India in 1980 and sat in jail for decades without a trial. Rights activists say Durg Prasad Timsina's ordeal highlights the grim reality of pretrial detainees in India.


Durga Prasad Timsina with a member of the West Bengal Radio Club

Durga Prasad Timsina had lost all hope of ever seeing his mother or going back to his village in Nepal after awaiting trial on a murder charge for 41 years.

He was moved from one jail to another across West Bengal, and finally ended up at a correctional center near Kolkata, where no one could understand his native language, Nepali.

Timsina could not speak Bengali at all, and barely knew Hindi: the two languages essential to get by in that part of the eastern Indian state.

But, against all odds, the day finally came last month when Timsina walked out of the Dum Dum Central Correctional Home.

Timsina was accompanied by officials from the Nepali consulate in Kolkata and members of the West Bengal Radio Club — a collective of amateur radio operators — who had been instrumental in securing his freedom.

The case has shed light on the plight of people awaiting trial in Indian jails, many of whom are imprisoned for longer than their sentences would have been if they were convicted.

Watch video 02:57 COVID-19: India's packed prisons may be courting disaster

'Celebrations for days' after release

"We are all overjoyed to have him back home. There were celebrations for days after he came back to the village," Timsina's cousin Prakash Chandra told DW.

"Sadly, the time in jail has left him traumatized. His hands and legs are shaky; he can hardly eat and is also suffering from a number of physical ailments," he said.

Timsina is being treated at a local hospital, and the provincial government will take care of the medical expenses, Chandra said, adding that he was not in a condition to talk to people.
Why was he arrested?

Timsina left his village in a remote region of eastern Nepal in search of a job at 20 years old. In 1980, he went to the scenic Indian town of Darjeeling, wedged between Nepal and Bhutan.

There Timsina met a man who promised him a job with the Indian army. However, according to Chandra, the man ended up framing Timsina for committing a murder.

Timsina says he was falsely identified as a man named Dipak Jaishi and arrested by police.

He told a crowd of reporters soon after his release that he was innocent, which his family has maintained since he was arrested.

"No one ever came forward with any evidence. They just took Durga Prasad and put him in jail," Chandra said.

The name change, he said, was because of a filing error by police.

"The people who knew him in Darjeeling knew only of his nickname, Dupat, which somehow became Dipak on the police charge sheet," Chandra said. "His surname was registered as Jaishi, which is actually the name of our community."

Durga Prasad Timsina sits with his mother after his release

Falsely reported as dead

The change in Timsina's name in the records meant that no one who knew his real identity could find him. He spent several years in a Darjeeling jail while his family back home received news that he had died.

"It was a dangerous time in Darjeeling back then," Chandra said, referring to the armed struggle for Gorkhaland in the early 1980s, when the Gorkha community in the region sought a separate state for Nepali-speaking people. The ensuing violence left more than 1,200 people dead.

"They were killing people from Nepal, and we thought that he was among those killed," his cousin said. It was also why the family didn't search for him when he initially went missing, he said.

"We did receive a letter in 2013 from West Bengal that had the name Dipak Jaishi on it, and it included the name of Durga Prasad's mother," Chandra recalled. "But we thought it was someone playing a cruel joke on us and did not give it much thought."
How was he freed from jail?

Timsina was transferred from the Darjeeling jail to another in Kolkata before being sent to the Dum Dum Correctional Center near the state capital in 2005.

It was there that he met a man named Radhyashyam Das, who was arrested in 2011 as a political prisoner. He was lodged in the adjoining cell and soon tried to talk to Timsina.

"He was always silent and wouldn't talk to anyone," Das told DW. "Everyone believed he was mentally disturbed. I tried to speak to him, but he didn't understand anything I said."

He also noticed during his time at the correctional center, that, though the other inmates were receiving letters and had visitors, no one ever came for Timsina.

Watch video 07:25 New life of Dalit women in Nepal

When Das, who had been on trial for nine years, received bail in October 2020, he vowed to find the family of the man he believed to be Dipak Jaishi.

He reached out to the West Bengal Radio Club, which has reunited many missing people with their families.

Ambarish Nag Biswas, the founder of the amateur radio club, verified Das' claim and used his police contacts to arrange a meeting with Timsina in November last year.

"After much prodding, Timsina finally spoke in Nepali," Biswas told DW. In one of the subsequent meetings with Timsina, he grabbed the lawyer's pen and wrote down his name, his mother's name and the name of a school in Nepal's Illam district, he said.
Finding Timsina's family

With these clues, Biswas reached out to the Nepali consulate in Kolkata and asked officials to find and contact Timsina's family. He also contacted other radio operators in Nepal with whom he had worked during the 2011 earthquake.

They also filed for his bail at the Calcutta High Court. "After weeks, Nepali ham [amateur radio] operators found Prakash Chandra and convinced him and his family that Durga Prasad, was, in fact, alive," Biswas said.

By then, local media had covered Timsina's case extensively and the Calcutta High Court judge took up the matter on priority.

After multiple hearings, the court ruled that Timsina was not medically fit to stand trial and on March 17 ordered his release.

According to the latest data released by India's National Crime Records Bureau last August, about 70% percent of the 478,600 inmates in Indian jails are awaiting trial. A significant majority of those people are underprivileged or uneducated or belong to the so-called lower castes.

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