Mystery of UN chief's death still murky after 60 years

Issued on: 16/09/2021 - 

Hammarskjold (L) meets with the head of the State of Katanga Moise Tshombe in August 1961 AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

The mystery how the hugely courageous UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjold died 60 years ago has only thickened since his plane crashed in the African bush, killing all on board.

Was the Swede, who was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, murdered by rebels and mercenaries working in cahoots with Western intelligence agencies and mining companies, or was pilot error to blame?

A long-running investigation by the British newspaper The Observer found that London and Washington had much to answer for.

And an award-winning 2019 documentary "Cold Case Hammarskjold" pointed the finger at a Belgian mercenary pilot with links to British intelligence.

- Tensions in Congo -

The tragedy happened on the night of September 17-18, 1961 as the UN's DC-6 Albertina aircraft took Hammarskjold and his team to Ndola in what was then the British colony of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).

He was headed there to negotiate a ceasefire with Moise Tshombe, leader of the secessionist Katanga state that was seeking to break from the former Belgian Congo after independence that June.

Dag Hammarskjöld arrives in Leopoldville (today's Kinshasa) on September 13, 1961 AFP/File

The Cold War was at its height and the dashing and dynamic Hammarskjold, the youngest person ever to lead the UN, was determined to defend the international body's independence from Washington and Moscow as well as the old colonial powers.

The trip was being closely monitored by the big powers all of whom had an eye on Katanga's vast mineral riches of copper, cobalt and uranium.

Mining consortiums fearing Congo's independence were bankrolling Tshombe's government which was also backed by Belgian colonists and European mercenaries.

- Human error? -

Hammarskjold's aircraft never arrived at its destination. At dawn calls to neighbouring airports all came back with the same answer: no radio contact had been made with the missing plane.

After several hours searching, the debris of the Albertina along with 16 bodies, including Hammarskjold and one sole survivor, were found in a forest about 12 km (7.5 miles) from Ndola airport.

Debris of the plane crash on September 18, 1961 in which Dag Hammarskjöld died near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia (today's Zambia) - AFP/File

Sergeant Harold Julian, an American serving as a UN security officer, was in a critical condition and he died days later, but he said there had been a strong explosion on board, followed by smaller blasts.

Rumours of sabotage were quickly denied and the initial investigations pointed to a pilot error as the cause.

- Plot to kill? -

The case was revived in the 1990s.

Two former UN representatives in Katanga said in 1992 they were "convinced" the crash had been caused by shots fired by two planes chartered by "European industrialists" who "controlled Katanga".

A fresh development came in 1998 when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up in South Africa to try the abuses committed under the apartheid regime.

It found documents implicating Pretoria, London and Washington in a plot to kill Hammarskjold code-named "How's Celeste?".

But the original documents unearthed by the commission have since disappeared and Britain's Foreign Office has denied the accusations.

- What's in the files? -

In 2015 after a report carried out by independent experts, the UN accepted the theory that the plane was shot down and said the investigation should continue.

Then-UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged member states to disclose any information they may have had.

This was an allusion to cockpit recordings and radio messages the US intelligence agency NSA is said to have had in 1961.

But in 2019 Moon said no further information had been received.

Heel-dragging by the US and UK has also been at the heart of the investigation carried out over several years by The Observer.

In 2019 the paper cited a report from Mohamed Chande Othman, a former chief justice of Tanzania appointed by the UN to review the case.

Britain and the US, Othman suggested, were dragging their heels despite likely holding "important undisclosed information".

The paper said the Belgian pilot suspected of shooting the plane down was not aware Hammarskjold was on board. He later confessed his part to a friend, who recorded the conservation.

French journalist Maurin Picard meanwhile concluded in his 2019 book that pro-Katangese foreign mercenaries were responsible.

The UN has extended its investigation and hopes for new leads are now pinned on the declassification of archives related to the case.

With Hammarskjold's family holding a ceremony in Sweden to mark the anniversary, his son Peder called on governments to finally come clean.

"Some countries in the UN investigation have not been forthcoming, such as Belgium and the US.

"We would welcome more openness, it has been a long time since his death."

Woodward revelations expose Democrats’ calls for “unity” with Republican coup plotters

Patrick Martin

WSWS.ORG

The revelations from Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa that General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took action to stop what US officials called “a right-wing coup” by former president Donald Trump has demonstrated how close the United States came to dictatorship and a potential war with China during Trump’s final days in office.

Milley told US military officials not to follow orders from Trump without Milley’s approval after Trump’s attempt to foment an insurrection, and he promised to warn Chinese military officials if Trump attempted to start a war. This reality has exposed the criminality of the Democrats’ constant calls for “unity” and “bipartisanship” with Trump’s co-conspirators in the Republican Party.

In this Jan. 6, 2021 photo, insurrections loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Milley confirmed one of the main revelations in Woodward and Costa’s new book, Peril, namely that Milley telephoned his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, commander of the People’s Liberation Army, on October 30, 2020, four days before the US presidential election, and then again on January 8, 2021, two days after the attack by a pro-Trump mob on the US Capitol.

CIA Director Gina Haspel warned Milley, according to the new book, “We are on our way to a right-wing coup.”

In keeping with the Democrats’ efforts to cover up the events of January 6, the Post and New York Times have buried their articles on the revelations on their front pages, and neither newspaper has published an editorial on the subject.

For his part, Biden said on Wednesday that he had “great confidence” in Milley, while avoiding any comment on the content of the revelations in Peril.

By contrast, the Republicans have launched a furious campaign against Milley. Republican Senator Ted Cruz, one of Trump’s co-conspirators, accused Milley of “undermining the commander in chief and pledging to our enemies to defy his own commander.” Senator Rand Paul demanded that Milley be court marshalled, while Trump himself accused Milley of treason.

According to dialogue published verbatim in the new book—obviously based on interviews with Milley or Pelosi, or both—Pelosi told Milley that “the Republicans have blood on their hands” for encouraging Trump to believe he could retain the presidency despite his loss in the election.

“But it is a sad state of affairs for our country that we’ve been taken over by a dictator who used force against another branch of government,” she continued. “And he’s still sitting there. He should have been arrested. He should have been arrested on the spot … He had a coup d’état against us so he can stay in office. There should be some way to remove him.”

In other words, the January 6 attack on Congress was not viewed by those in a position to know—the head of the US military and the leader of congressional Democrats—merely as a riotous excess by a pro-Trump crowd. They understood it and openly discussed it as a serious bid for power, an effort by Trump and his inner circle to block the certification of the election’s outcome and hijack the presidency: a political coup based on fascist violence.

The quotes from Pelosi are particularly revealing. She was speaking then, on January 8, only two days after her own life had been threatened and her staff had been compelled to barricade themselves into a conference room, whispering pleas for help on cellphones while the mob howled in the hallways outside. She therefore spoke bluntly and plainly of a “coup d’état” and a would-be “dictator” who posed an imminent threat.

Only a few days later, Pelosi would revert to the boilerplate and blather of capitalist politics, engaging in a series of parliamentary maneuvers—impeachment, which failed, followed by a resolution to establish an “independent commission” into January 6, which failed, followed by the appointment of a “select committee” to investigate the events, which has met exactly once.

The driving force of this cover-up has not been Pelosi, however prominent a role she has been given. The orders come from the White House, where President Biden has decreed a policy of bipartisan “unity” in Washington, seeking, as he said openly, to strengthen the Republican Party: in other words, to legitimize the party of coup-plotters.

In his inauguration speech, Biden did not even mention the events of January 6, much less the fact that the president had fomented an “insurrection.”

Biden’s policy is not just a matter of seeking Republican support for various pieces of legislation. That is only the pretext. His real concern is the stability of American capitalism, and the political system through which it has ruled for more than a century. Biden seeks to preserve the two-party system, even under conditions where the Republican Party has broken with democracy and is openly embracing the authoritarianism and fascistic politics of Trump.

Since the events of January 6, the Democrats have spent far more time and energy over the alleged transgressions of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo than responding to an unprecedented effort to overthrow the government and establish a right-wing dictatorship.

The new revelations in the Woodward book confirm everything the World Socialist Web Site has said about the January 6 coup attempt, and they shatter the efforts of various pseudo-left groups, ranging from the Democratic Socialists of America to the former opponent of the American surveillance state, Glenn Greenwald, to dismiss the events of that day as insignificant or mere political horseplay.

This was a serious attempt to overturn the election, and it failed only because the decisive centers of power in the military-intelligence apparatus judged the attempt to be poorly organized and unlikely to succeed. A democracy which depends on the sufferance of generals and CIA directors, however, is not a democracy at all, but a dictatorship in waiting.

The events of January 6, and the subsequent cover-up, demonstrate that the defense of democratic rights cannot be entrusted to any section of the American ruling elite. This task must be taken up by the working class, through the building of a mass socialist movement.

An end to neo-Islamism in the Middle East?

Political changes in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey mean Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated parties are facing a crisis. A decade after the Arab Spring, insiders say it's time to reboot political Islam.

Tunisians demonstrate against local Islamist party, Ennahda

Last week, the party that previously held a majority in the Moroccan parliament suffered a crushing setback. In the country's federal elections last Wednesday, the Justice and Development Party lost 113 of the 125 seats it had won in the last election.

In previous ballots of 2016 and 2011, the party, commonly known as the PJD, ended up with a majority in the 395-seat assembly. But now the party, which is closely connected to the Muslim Brotherhood — a movement that centers Islam in its political and social work — retains just 13 seats.

"The party's drop reflects a popular public perception that Morocco's central bureaucracy aligned with the palace is better able to manage the economy, navigate crisis, and create job growth," said Michael Tanchum, of the Austrian Institute for Security Policy and a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

The PJD's defeat comes at the same time as other Muslim Brotherhood-connected political parties, most of which also came to power in the region after the so-called Arab Spring in 2011, are facing setbacks — albeit in varying circumstances.

Powerless and doomed?

In Tunisia, the mainstream Islamist party, Ennahda, was pushed out of power after President Kais Saied suspended the country's parliament in July.

In Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi won that country's first post-Arab Spring elections in 2012. But a coup by the Egyptian military in 2013 overthrew Morsi's government, and the incoming authoritarian leadership arrested and killed many members of the movement.

Thousands of exiled members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood took shelter in Turkey, Until relatively recently, they had been supported by the Turkish government, which significantly cooled diplomatic relations between Egypt and Turkey.

But early last year, that began to change, with Turkish authorities taking actions such as preventing Egyptian opposition satellite stations in the country from broadcasting criticism of the Egyptian regime.

This change of Turkish attitude stemmed from several factors, including a new United States government less engaged in the region, deterioration of Turkey's relationships with other Gulf Arab nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and economic woes at home, analysts at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote in March this year.

A pro-Muslim Brotherhood protest in Istanbul with protestors holding pictures of ousted Egyptian leader Morsi

"It appears his [Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's] first choice was to sacrifice the Muslim Brotherhood to pursue appeasement with Cairo and Riyadh […] in the hopes of securing new friends in the region," they concluded.
Long-term survival

These changes of fortune for Muslim Brotherhood-inspired groups has led to suggestions that the era of what has been described as neo-Islamism is now over.

However, many in the field dismiss this. After all, this isn't the first time the demise of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates has been mooted, they told DW.

Their demise "was predicted in the '50s, the '60s and the '70s," said Mohamed Daadaoui, a political science professor who specializes in North African politics at Oklahoma City University in the US.

"But they keep coming back. Islamists have a tremendous ability to reinvent and reenergize themselves. They may be in a moment of weakness right now — especially in Morocco, vis-a-vis the state — but they are not gone. And they are tremendously resilient."

At first, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Bana was largely apolitical

The Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni Muslim group first founded in 1928 by Egyptian teacher Hassan al-Banna. He believed Islam should underpin culture, social customs and also eventually, politics.

At its inception, the movement was one of opposition, both to the Egyptian administration of the time and the influence of British colonialism.
Different hierarchies

Although it began as more of an apolitical movement mostly concerned with charity and religious reform, the Muslim Brotherhood — often referred in Arabic as "Ikhwan," or simply "the Brothers" — has grown to be one of the world's most influential Islamist political movements.

It has inspired groups and political parties throughout the Middle East, including in Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Palestine and Algeria, among others. Some of these still link themselves explicitly to the original group; others do not.

Because these groups can mobilize such strong opposition, leaders of countries with autocratic governments fear the challenge they could present. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia all classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Yet, despite the Muslim Brotherhood's many ups and downs, it has never completely disappeared.

In previous elections, the PJD had dominated the Moroccan vote

This is at least in part due to the movement's "horizontal" rather than hierarchical structure, said Gillian Kennedy, a lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. She has studied the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and its exiles in depth.
Administrative incompetence

She describes thousands of "small study groups" all around the world. "Each will have something like five to 15 members, almost always male," Kennedy explained to DW. "And these will have a special focus, like teaching or providing social care."

Some Brotherhood groups have come into financial trouble, even having to close down some media outlets, she continued. "But it would be almost impossible to destroy those networks," Kennedy said. "It's a strong ideology with deep cultural roots across the region."

Kennedy noted that most Muslim Brotherhood exiles now live in either Turkey, Qatar or the UK. Even though the Turkish government is no longer as overtly supportive of their communities there, the county's government still tolerates them, she added.

Kennedy believes the main problem neo-Islamist political parties are facing is that they haven't proven themselves particularly adept at running a country.

"They played the oppositional role for so long" and are "dependent on ideology," she explained. "Older Muslim Brothers would often just say, 'Islam is the solution.' But they didn't know how to govern," Kennedy said.

Supporters concede that even though these parties have been in power for eight or nine years, the same problems still exist, Kennedy noted.

Many Morrocans opposed their government's decision to normalize relations with Israel

Next generation

Being in the opposition, with neighborhood networks, Muslim Brotherhood-style organizations "were previously the parties of the people," Kennedy said. "But now they've become parties of the state."

"There's a disconnect," she points out.

Among the reasons the PJD performed so badly in elections last week is because it has, knowingly and under pressure from the Moroccan monarchy, gone along with unpopular state policies such as the normalization of ties with Israel.

The Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates may be in the "political wilderness" for now, Kennedy said. But she describes this is a perhaps transitory moment, a time for self-reflection.

"There is a younger generation in those parties having quite different conversations, trying to come up with pragmatic policies on things like youth unemployment,  corruption, taxation and even climate change. 

And they're asking questions like: What is political Islam 2.0?"

Romania: The new mayor looking to clean up local politics

In the central Romanian city of Targu Mures, a former archaeologist and political newcomer is seeking to heal ethnic divisions and clean up corruption and mismanagement.


The mayor takes a look around a leisure park in Targu Mures

It's a sunny Monday morning and the mayor, Zoltan Soos, is in a good mood as he walks into the conference room. A few members of the planning team are already there and the rest arrive in dribs and drabs until all 15 are present. The key officials from the municipal administration greet each other warmly. No one is subservient, or kowtows to the city leader. And that's a big thing in Romania, where hierarchies and institutions are closely observed, especially when it comes to gestures and language.

The mayor talks in a collegial tone and comes across as consensual and team-oriented. And he has some good news. After weeks of acrimony, the municipal authorities have managed to pull out of a contract with a refuse disposal firm. The company had been overcharging and claiming that they had disposed of more garbage than was actually the case. Now, the city has a new refuse service provider and will save some €250,000 ($295,000) a year — the amount that its forerunner had falsely submitted in claims. "It is the end of the trash mafia," says the mayor resolutely.

Nationalism and Corruption

Targu Mures in the Transylvanian region of central Romania has 130,000 residents. To its Hungarian minority it is known as Marosvasarhely. Despite its modest size and lack of economic importance, Targu Mures is one of the country's most symbolically charged cities. In March 1990, just a few months after the fall of the Ceausescu dictatorship, it was the scene of clashes between ethnic Romanians and ethnic Hungarians. The conflict, which was provoked by Romanian nationalists and apparatchiks from the former communist regime, came close to descending into civil war. Over many years controversy continued to dog the city in the form of disputes centered around Romania's politices towards its ethnic minorities. For two decades, Targu Mures was run by a dyed-in-the-wool Romanian nationalist and one of the country's most corrupt mayors. The city was riven with division.

A year ago, this all changed. On September 27, 2020, voters elected Zoltan Soos as mayor. The 47-year-old does not belong to any party. He is an archeologist by profession and used to run the local museum. Soos would never have gone into politics, if it had not been for the problems besetting his home town for decades — from ethnic division to corruption and mismanagement.

The mayor inspects a new swimming pool that is under construction

A rejection of the political establishment

Soos is an ethnic Hungarian and his win was a sensation in Romania. If the vote had run along strictly ethnic lines, he would have never been elected In Targu Mures, only 42 percent of residents are ethnic Hungarians. But he stood on a platform that was anti-nationalist, non-ethnic, anti-corruption and pro-environmentalist, and he was the first mayoral candidate in the city's history to explicitly run a bilingual, bi-ethnic campaign. This convinced many ethnic Romanians to vote for him. That is all the more remarkable as many of the country's politicians still continue to stir up prejudice against the ethnic Hungarian minority.

Zoltan Soos represents a trend in urban Romania. More and more city dwellers are electing independent mayors standing on platforms of transparency and good government, who pledge to fight against corruption and for sustainable solutions for infrastructure and environmental problems. In this part of the world, it's a trend seen not only in Romania: In many cities in central and southeastern Europe, including Prague, Budapest, Zagreb and Sarajevo, people have had enough of ethnicism, the lack of political accountability, corruption, environmental pollution and the dearth of prospects. As a result, more and more mayors are being elected who are not part of the political establishment and who the voters hope will actually provide solutions to their problems.

"People want to see results"

Zoltan Soos is, admittedly, not completely new to local politics in Targu Mures. He was a councillor there for a while and he only narrowly lost the mayoral election in 2016. But, nonetheless, why is a man who completed a doctorate about medieval mendicants and is a specialist on 13th-century Transylvanian castles prepared to enter the cut-throat world of modern Romanian politics? Soos laughs at the question. "Maybe I got it from my grandfather," he says. "He was deputy mayor here in the 1950s and taught me local patriotism." Then he continues in a more serious tone: "I am not drawn to politics per se. I was spurred on by my sense of injustice. In the last 20 years, the city authorities performed very poorly and were extremely corrupt. I didn't just want to criticize that, but also to change it."

A huge task. The former mayor, Dorin Florea, changed party four times in the course of his career and established a very extensive network of cronies that was used to plunder the local authority's finances. The head of the social services department in the city hall tells us, for example, how a private company linked to those at the top organized a food bank for needy pensioners and used it as an front to pocket money from the authority's social funds. However, Soos also stresses that the past cannot always be used as an excuse. "After a year, we can't keep saying how corrupt everything was in the past," he says. "People want to see results."

Mayor Zoltan Soos aims to overhaul the local authorities in Targu Mures

Bloated administrative apparatus

The mayor and his team already have something to show for their work. As well as switching the refuse disposal service company, they have embarked on the digitalization of the city authorities and a redesign of the dilapidated public transport system. There are plans to renew the bus fleet step by step with environmentally friendly natural gas-powered vehicles. The environment plays a big role in Zoltan Soos's program in general. He wants to create more green spaces and parks in Targu Mures. And he wants to set up a solar farm on the city limits.

Nevertheless, one of the mayor's most important aims is reforming the structure of the city administration. Local authorities in Romania are notorious for their armies of staff compared to other European Union states. But Targu Mures is extreme even for Romania. Until recently, the authority was the city's biggest employer — another result of two decades of corruption. Approximately 1,300 staff were on its books, roughly 2% of the city's working-age population — a record in Romania. "We had more than 100 departmental heads and directors alone," said Zoltan Soos. "Many of them were, themselves, unable to explain themselves exactly what they did. We have now started sacking people and, in the long run, we aim to at least halve the number of staff."
"Black March"

Yet the mayor's most important project is tearing down — what has seemed up to now — the almost insurmountable wall between ethnic Romanians and ethnic Hungarians in Targu Mures. As a 16-year-old, Soos himself lived through the events known as "Black March." He recalls how the bloody ethnic clashes in the city in 1990 disturbed him, and adds that he was convinced then, as he is now, that the two ethnic groups did not really hate one another, but had been instrumentalized.

Im March 1990, Romanian nationalists and members of Ceausescu's Securitate, secret service agents still active at the time, had stirred up unrest against Hungary and its ostensibly separatist plans among ethnic Romanians living in and around Targu Mures. Apparatchiks from the toppled regime were seeking legitimation. Five people died and hundreds were wounded, some severely, during the violent clashes, during which police and army, in part, just sat back and did nothing. For a short time, Romania came close to descending into civil war, a fate that was to become reality in neighboring Yugoslavia.
A thousand years of shared history

Nowadays, Soos can talk about "Black March" with a certain degree of composure. He says that people still fail to sufficiently stress that it was not, at heart, an ethnic conflict, but was stage-managed by the former Securitate. "In general, it is important that we are not just familiar with the conflicts of the past, but also the good times, the times that we lived side by side," says the mayor. "Our shared history in Transylvania is a thousand years old and it consists almost entirely of community and coexistence."

Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship was characterized by nationalist megalomania

It's a rather rose-tinted image, which is probably intended as a political message more than anything else. Ethnic Romanians were long marginalized in the Transylvanian region. However, the tables were turned after the region became part of a new Greater Romania in 1920 under the Treaty of Trianon. Ethnic minorities, in particular ethnic Hungarians, became very much second-class citizens under Ceausescu's dictatorship with its nationalist megalomania. The toppling of the regime has not led to a fundamental overhaul. Nationalism remains deeply rooted in Romania's political culture. That is one reason why many ethnic Hungarians from the Transylvanian region still feel alienated from the Romanian state and have come, in the meantime, to identify more closely with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He, in turn, uses ethnocentric rhetoric and supports ethnic Hungarian minorities with billions of euros.

Multicultural example

Zoltan Soos is only prepared to make a tongue-in-cheek comment about Orban: "His viewpoints are very distinctive," he says laughing. The mayor prefers to speak about how he feels. "I feel very at ease in Romania and in Targu Mures and, as an ethnic Hungarian, I have never experienced any discrimination personally. This is also my home."

Then he asks if he can add one more thing: "My team and I would like Targu Mures to become an example of successful coexistence and multiculturalism."

 

Rwanda: The mysterious deaths of political opponents

DW has put together a list of mysterious deaths and disappearances of people critical of Rwanda's government. Monday's killing of businessman Revocant Karemangingo in Mozambique is the latest.

    

Critics accuse President Paul Kagame of targetting his opponents at home and abroad, 

a charge he denies

The death of former Rwandan lieutenant Revocant Karemangingo, a critic of President Paul Kagame, is the latest addition to a list DW has compiled of Rwandan opposition voices that have died under suspicious circumstances.

The regime of President Kagame, who has ruled Rwanda since 1994 in effect, is accused of suppressing dissenting views.

International rights groups claim that opposition politicians, journalists, and activists both in Rwanda and abroad have also been killed or made to disappear after criticizing Kagame or his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party.

Mysterious deaths

Revocant Karemangingo, 2021
Millionaire businessman Revocant Karemangingo was sprayed with bullets by gunmen near his home in Maputo. The outspoken Kagame critic had settled in Mozambique after being ousted from his home country in 1994. The Rwandan government has denied any involvement in the killing. However, Cleophas Habiyaremye, president of the association of Rwandan refugees in Mozambique, rejects the denial. "If there is any real independent inquiry, Kagame and his government should be held responsible," Cleophas Habiyaremye told DW.

Ntamuhanga Cassien, 2021
Rwandan journalist Ntamuhanga Cassien disappeared in Maputo in May after being taken into custody by Mozambican police, and has not been heard from since. There are rumors he was handed over to Rwanda.

Abdallah Seif Bamporiki, 2021
The leading Rwandan opposition politician and member of the Rwanda National Congress was shot dead in South Africa, where he was living in exile. South African police initially said they were treating the killing as a robbery. A week before his murder, Bamporiki had led a memorial service for Rwandan opposition activists killed worldwide.

Gospel singer Kizito Mihigo, seen here in 2018, was arrested in 2020 after attempting to 

cross into Burundi

Kizito Mihigo, 2020
The singer and government critic died under suspicious circumstances in police custody. Police claim Mihigo strangled himself — but days before his arrest, hereported to Human Rights Watch that he was being threatened.

Anselme Mutuyimana, 2019
The assistant to Victoire Ingabire, president of the opposition United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi) party, was found dead in the woods in 2019. The year before, Mutuyimana had been freed from a six-year prison sentence for "political activism."

Jean Damascene Habarugira, 2017
The opposition politician disappeared after being called to a meeting with an officer responsible for local security. A few days later, authorities called Habarugira's family to collect his body from a local hospital.

Illuminee Iragena, 2016
The opposition activist went missing in 2016, and has not been seen since. There are fears she was forcibly disappeared. 

Patrick Karegeya, 2014
The former Rwandan intelligence chief was found dead in a hotel room in South Africa. He had fled to South Africa in 2007 after allegedly plotting a coup against President Kagame. According to a 2019 article in The Guardian, before his death, several Rwandans in South Africa had warned Karegeya that Rwanda's military intelligence was looking to hire contract killers. 

Theogene Turatsinze, 2012
The former head of the Rwanda Development Bank was found dead in 2012 in a river near Maputo, days after he went missing. Before he was fired from his position, Turatsinze was believed to have taken with him to Mozambique a list of clandestine payments made by top Rwandan government officials.  

Charles Ingabire, 2011
The Rwandan reporter founded Inyenyeri Newssite, which was highly critical of Rwanda's government. Ingabire was shot and killed in Uganda, where he lived as a political refugee.

Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, 2010
The deputy chairman of Rwanda's Democratic Green Party was found murdered and partially beheaded in Rwanda in 2010. An inquiry into his murder by Rwanda's Bureau of Investigation never saw the light of day. 

Jean-Leonard Rugambage, 2010 
The journalist was shot dead in 2010 after he published an online article about the attempted murder of a former army chief, Lieutenant-General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa. Rugambage was viewed as highly critical of  Kagame's government.  

Seth Sendashonga, 1998  
A moderate ethnic Hutu involved in the post-genocide unity government with Kagame's RPF party, Sendashonga served as interior minister until he fell out with the RPF before Kagame became president in 2000. Sendashonga survived an attempt on his life while in exile in Kenya, but was subsequently killed by unknown gunmen in 1998.  

Theoneste Lizinde, 1996
The former intelligence official was found dead in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1996. 

Suppressing the opposition 

Opposition politician Victoire Ingabire, who served eight years in prison, told DW in 2020 that the "political space in Rwanda is closed."

Opposition politician Victoire Ingabire once told DW Rwanda's political space is closed

At the time of the interview, Ingabire was the leader of the FDU-Inkingi opposition party. 

"I was in prison and spent eight years [there], and when I was released, I thought the government of Rwanda was ready to open up the political space. But one month later, our vice president disappeared. Four months later, my assistant was killed. In July, our representative in [an] eastern province disappeared; yesterday, our national coordinator was murdered," Ingabira said in a 2020 interview with DW.  

Although Ingabire did not blame President Kagame for the murder of her party members, she said the killings were politically motivated, and warned that many more would die under the regime she described as a dictatorship. 

"Of course, I fear for my life. I know they can kill me any moment; but I will stay in my struggle because I know we need democracy in Rwanda," the politician said.  

Sarah Jackson, deputy director of Amnesty International for East Africa, agreed that "being in the political opposition in Rwanda is quite dangerous."  

Amnesty International had urged the Rwandan government to make its investigations into the killings public and credible. 

"It is incredibly worrying to see these rising cases of disappearances and the impact that this has on the broader political context in Rwanda," said Jackson. 

Afghan journalists 'have to get out of the country'

A vibrant media landscape had developed in Afghanistan over the past 20 years. Since the Taliban takeover, media professionals face immediate danger and even death. Activists are urgently calling for help.

In Afghanistan, journalism can be a deadly occupation

It was an almost clandestine press conference that the organization Reporters Without Borders (Reporter ohne Grenzen in German, or ROG) held this Wednesday at its headquarters in Berlin. Only 20 journalists were allowed in, and unlike the normal routine since the coronavirus pandemic began, there was no live video transmission on the internet. The reason: In the room were journalists from Afghanistan who fear for their lives or for the lives of friends and relatives back home.

That isn't true of Ahmad Wahid Payman, who gives his name and allows himself to be photographed. The journalist, who worked for a major newspaper in Kabul and in the second-largest Afghan city of Herat, has been in Germany for 10 days. He tells of several colleagues who have been threatened and prevented from working since the radical Islamist Taliban came to power.

Payman says many of his colleagues are now hiding at home or have fled to one of Afghanistan's neighboring countries. "The Taliban are pretending to be tolerant in order to be recognized internationally, but there are countless examples of massive attacks," he tells DW.

Afghan journalist Ahmad Wahid Payman (l.), along with Lisa Kretschmer (c.) and Christian Mihr of Reporters Without Borders, say the situation for Afghan human rights defenders, activists and journalists remains dire

Afghanistan's media landscape decimated

Payman describes how, of the 55 newspapers, radio stations, online services and other media outlets that were active in Herat alone just a few weeks ago, only six are still operating. Women are no longer allowed to work in them, and music and entertainment programs have been canceled.

He also points out something that has gone underreported so far: The Taliban have released about a thousand serious criminals from Afghanistan's prisons. Now, he says, the reporters who had written about their crimes are being threatened by the former prisoners.

ROG managing director Christian Mihr is deeply shocked by all this, but there is at least some positive news this morning: The German Interior Ministry has given a residence permit to 2,600 people from Afghanistan who are potentially in danger, which means they do not have to go through the asylum procedure once they arrive in Germany. According to Mihr, these people include human rights activists as well as journalists.

Bureaucratic hurdles, confusion

Mihr welcomes the promises of residence, but in an interview with DW and fellow German public broadcaster NDR, he criticizes German authorities for a lack of transparency.

In recent weeks, ROG repeatedly submitted a list of names to the German Foreign Ministry, which was updated several times and most recently included more than 152 media professionals considered at high risk.

ROG does not know who among that list was transferred to the German Interior Ministry's list. "The people that Reporters Without Borders supports, these are people who are getting death threats, who have gotten death threats. They have to get out of the country," Mihr stresses. The list also included dozens of female reporters, who are at especially grave risk.




Mihr says due to the urgency of the situation, it is vital that any normal security clearance procedure take place after the people on the list have left the country.

Despite relief about the promise of residence, Mihr has few good things to say about his organization's cooperation with the two ministries: "The past weeks have been extremely uncoordinated and untransparent," he says, "I have rarely experienced anything like this in my dealings with German authorities."

A German Foreign Office spokeswoman said on Tuesday that the government's Crisis Response Center is working to help Germans, former local staff who helped the German military, and others leave Afghanistan and make their way to Germany.
Afghanistan may not be forgotten

Mihr also said it was important that the many journalists who wanted to stay in the country and report from Afghanistan not be forgotten either, though he added that it was important to recognize the threats journalists in Afghanistan still face.

"In recent weeks, I have held talks with German ministries in which they have already started to discuss the situation again," he said. "The time for sugarcoating should now be over."

The Taliban initially sent out conciliatory messages after taking power. In their first press conference in mid-August, the Islamists declared that journalists would be able to continue working in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have spoken in reassuring tones, but their acts expose a different reality

That statement has since been contradicted by numerous reports of arrests and violence against journalists.

In mid-August, a relative of a DW journalist was killed and another seriously injured in western Afghanistan after the Taliban systematically searched for the journalist, who was already in Germany. Because of the massive danger to its staff, DW has been campaigning for the evacuation of its workers and their families from Afghanistan. Last week, a group of 72 such persons managed to make it into Pakistan.

Mihr has no illusions about the militant Islamists: "We have called the Taliban enemies of press freedom for many years, and they continue to be enemies of press freedom."

Even before the Islamists took power, Afghanistan was already 122nd out of 180 on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking, largely because both the Taliban and the "Islamic State" have repeatedly murdered members of the media.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told DW that 55 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan since 1992, two of them this year. According to the CPJ, it is not only female journalists who are in particular danger — but also those of ethnic minorities such as the Hazara, Tajiks and Uzbeks.
UN speaks out

The United Nations spoke out last week after journalists were arrested while covering women's protests in Kabul and were then severely maltreated for hours. Last Friday, the spokesperson for the UN Commissioner for Human Rights demanded: "Journalists covering gatherings must not face reprisals or other harassment, even if a gathering is declared unlawful or dispersed."

For ROG, one thing is certain: Media workers should be able to leave Afghanistan or unsafe third countries to which they have fled as quickly and unbureaucratically as possible. For Christian Mihr, Germany's promise of residency is no more than "a first step in the right direction."

 Afghan musicians mourn abandoned instruments after Taliban takeover

TALIBAN PRESBYTERIANS

NO MUSIC, NO DANCING,

NO PLAYING CARDS ON SUNDAY

Issued on: 16/09/2021 -

The Taliban have occupied the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, turning its classrooms into dormitories 

WAKIL KOHSAR AFP

Kabul (AFP)

Viola player Bahar was practising at her music college in the Afghan capital, when news broke that the Taliban had reached the city.

Terrified of a return to the days when music was forbidden and women were banned from education, she and her classmates rushed home, abandoning their beloved instruments.

"We all ran away. We saved ourselves, leaving the instruments at the institute," Bahar tells AFP, using a false name to protect her identity for fear of reprisal.

"I felt like I had lost a family member."

The Taliban, who banned music outright during their brutal and oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001, swept back into power on August 15.

They have promised a more moderate brand of rule this time -- though they have made clear that they will run Afghanistan within the restrictive limits of their interpretation of sharia law.

After racing home from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), Bahar was devastated to learn that Taliban militants had occupied the campus, turning its classrooms into dormitories.

"I feel like I am no longer living. Physically, I am alive, but the Taliban have taken away my soul," she says, breaking down in tears.

The Taliban have vowed a more moderate brand of rule than their last stint in power -- but still within the limits of sharia law 

WAKIL KOHSAR AFP

- Abandoned instruments -

Bahar was introduced to the college when she was 12 years old, and she says the viola quickly became her "best friend".

"Music is food for the soul," she says, adding that she has performed in India, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Azerbaijan.

"I feel extremely peaceful when I play the viola, especially when we play together in the girls' orchestra," she adds.

During a visit by AFP to the college, no music can be heard in its corridors -- all that can be heard is the chatter and squabbling of Taliban soldiers.

Armed guards cradle Kalashnikovs in the courtyard, shaded by trees with swirling treble clefs spray-painted on to their trunks.

A mural depicting a burst of multi-coloured musical symbols stand out against the giant armoured door and a nearby guard post.

A Taliban guard shows AFP a storeroom full of intact musical instruments that were left behind, after reports that everything had been trashed.

Taliban militants at the music college say they have orders to protect the instruments WAKIL KOHSAR AFP

The caretaker says the group's leaders had ordered him to protect the instruments.

Trumpets, saxophones and flutes are stacked on shelves, opposite violins and violas in cases, while dozens of Afghan tabla drums occupy another storage unit.

Propped up on a bespoke rack in the centre of the storeroom are about a dozen traditional instruments: lute-like tamboors and single-stringed rubabs.

Abandoned practice rooms are each furnished with a keyboard or piano.

A workshop remains in the same state as when it was hurriedly vacated in mid-August -- violins are lined up waiting for new strings, a cello lays mid-repair and tools are scattered around an electric keyboard.

- A secret guitar -

Speaking to AFP in Kabul, 28-year-old guitarist Awa says his room used to be stacked with musical instruments.

But fearing the Taliban, he has now destroyed almost all traces of his musical career -- except for one favourite guitar that he has hidden away.

The Kabul University graduate and tutor at the ANIM has stopped posting to his YouTube channel where he used to upload lessons, and no longer replies to comments on his social media accounts.

He has performed with some of Afghanistan's top music stars, but he now worries for his family's safety.

"It's natural that if you were involved in music in Afghanistan you would be afraid. Sooner or later the Taliban will come after musicians," says Awa, also using a pseudonym to protect his identity.

"Since they arrived, life has been hell. We had big dreams, but now our ambitions don't exist anymore."

ANIM's founder Ahmad Sarmast, who now lives in Australia, says he fears for the future of Afghan music.

Since the takeover, he has written to the Taliban's leaders to plead for access to music -- especially for children.

Music students have, with heavy heart, abandoned their instruments at their college WAKIL KOHSAR AFP

"I hope they will allow us to continue to do our work for the best interests of the Afghan people," he says.

© 2021 AFP

'I'm alive but the Taliban took my soul': Afghan musicians mourn abandoned instruments

Issued on: 17/09/2021 - 11:38


Viola player Bahar was practising at her music college in the Afghan capital, when news broke that the Taliban had reached the city. Terrified of a return to the days when music was forbidden and women were banned from education, she and her classmates rushed home, abandoning their beloved instruments. The Taliban, who banned music outright during their brutal and oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001, swept back into power on August 15.

Annalena Baerbock: The Green Party's candidate for chancellor represents a new generation

Annalena Baerbock is said to be tough, talented, and very ambitious. But since she was named as Germany's Green Party's candidate for chancellor, she has been struggling to fend off a barrage of attacks.


Annalena Baerbock has been sharpening her political profile

When Annalena Baerbock was named the Green Party's first-ever chancellor candidate in April she was credited for her party's remarkable rise in opinion polls in late April 2021.

But then she suffered a barrage of personal attacks, putting her on the defensive, as criticism targeted her personal credibility: Baerbock, who has never held a government office, was accused of minor inaccuracies in her official resume, of a delay in paying taxes on a sizable Christmas bonus, on plagiarizing parts of her new book, and then she used a racial slur in a quote in an interview. Each time Baerbock was quick to apologize. But her approval rates have declined.

By late August the Green Party had fallen in the polls to under 20% — which is still a remarkable increase on the 8.9% of support they won in the previous general election in 2017.

But the party's campaign has not managed to regain the positive momentum of earlier in the year and has been the prime target of targeted disinformation during election campaigning ahead of the September 26 vote.

Climate change as the core issue

Annalena Baerbock stepped into the limelight when she was elected party co-chair in 2018. The still little-known regional politician — a resident of the eastern state of Brandenburg — has since projected herself as an expert on how to tackle climate change.

In live TV debates with her two competitors for the chancellorship — Armin Laschet of the center-right Christian Democratic Union CDU/CSU and Olaf Scholz of the center-left Social Democrat SPD — Baerbock scored point with younger voters.

She attacked the current CDU-SPD coalition government over its dismal record on climate protection. "We are missing our climate targets, with dramatic consequences, and you have both made clear that you didn't orientate yourselves around the solutions, but just pushed the blame on each other about who was hindering what," she said.

Baerbock has been arguing in favor of phasing out coal-powered energy far earlier than the current target date of 2038. She also backs a speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour) on the "autobahn," as German highways are known, and limiting short-haul flights. She also supports a raise in the minimum wage to 12 euros ($14) per hour, and she opposes a hike in German defense spending.

Baerbock has also spoken out on thorny foreign policy issues, advocating a tough stance on Russia and China over human rights issues. She has also spoken on the threats posed by far-right populism and xenophobia.

The Greens are traditionally struggling to gain ground in eastern Germany. Baerbock and her family of four have long been based in the eastern city of Potsdam, where she is running against her Social Democrat competitor for the chancellory, Olaf Scholz.

Early on, Baerbock was driven by ambition. Born in 1980 in the small town of Pattensen in Lower Saxony, she was a natural athlete, placing third at Germany's national trampolining championship. She was only 16 when she went to spend a year in the United States. Later, she studied law in Hannover before going on to the London School of Economics, where she studied international law. As a result, Baerbock gives interviews in fluent English — something that even in this day and age still can't be taken for granted among German politicians.

In an interview with DW in early 2021, Annalena Baerbock welcomed President Joe Biden's decision to bring the US back into the Paris Climate Agreement.

"We Europeans, including the German government, need to take advantage of the current situation to realize the proposals that the US administration has put forward concerning climate-neutral cooperation. We need to get moving and point the way towards a European and transatlantic Green Deal."

GERMAN ELECTION 2021: GOVERNING COALITION OPTIONS
Deciphering the color code
The center-right Christian Democrat CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU are symbolized by the color black. The center-left Social Democrat SPD is red, as is the communist Left Party. The pro-free market Free Democrats' (FDP) color is yellow. And the Greens are self-explanatory. German media refer to the color combinations and national flags using them as shorthand for political combinations. 123456

Possible coalitions

Both Baerbock and her co-party chair Robert Habeck have few inhibitions about talking to members of other parties, to seek possible common ground.

Initially, there was speculation about a possible conservative-Green coalition in Berlin after the 2021 election, but with the SPD rising in the polls, Baerbock has stressed that a center-left coalition would be her preference.

Any alliance would most likely require the participation of a third party to reach a majority, with the libertarian pro-free market Free Democrats (FDP) the most likely candidate.

But with the conservatives experiencing a fall in the polls, they have taken to conjuring the specter of a far-left coalition with the communist Left Party that would upend German politics.

Germany needs a new beginning, 40-year-old Baerbock stressed in the debate with her two competitors, who are both in their early sixties. "That can only happen with Greens in a leading role," she said, stressing that all democratic parties would have to talk to each other. In doing so, she included the Left Party. She warned strongly against equating the Left with the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD).

'We only have each other': Bangladesh's trans entrepreneurs create safe work spaces

Issued on: 16/09/2021

Munir Uz zaman AFP

Dhaka (AFP)

Simran Snigdha was begging when a chance encounter helped get her off Bangladesh's streets and realise her artistic dreams -- one of a growing number of trans people securing formal employment as the government boosts support for the marginalised community.

The conservative Muslim-majority country's roughly 1.5 million transgender people have long faced discrimination and violence.

Kicked out from homes and communities, cut off from education, and shunned by many employers, they often turn to begging, the sex trade, or crime.

"I didn't get the opportunity -- I had to extort people... and did prostitution," Snigdha told AFP at a garment factory in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka.

But in recent years the government has implemented new laws, such as tax breaks for firms hiring transgender people, helping pave the way for their integration into society.

There are roughly 1.5 million transgender people in Bangladesh - and many have long faced discrimination and violence in the conservative Muslim-majority country 

Munir Uz zaman AFP

Snigdha now works for a firm owned and run by another transgender woman, while pursuing her dreams of being a painter.

"I can now pursue my favourite work," the 32-year-old said as she painted.

While she has found safety, Snigdha said there were scores more transgender artists in need of help.

"I pray they don't go back to begging even for another day."

- Working on the streets -

Like many of her peers, Snigdha fled her rural home in central Bangladesh for a transgender commune in Dhaka at 15 after facing abuse and rejection.

She lived under the protection of a "guruma" -- a politically and socially connected transgender person who grants some economic security, but who can force residents into the sex trade, extortion, or prevent them from getting an education.

Snigdha's life changed in 2019 when she peered into a car window at a road crossing.

The government in Bangladesh has implemented new laws, such as tax breaks for firms hiring transgender people, helping pave the way for their integration into society 

Munir Uz zaman AFP

Staring back was transgender factory owner Siddik Bhuyan Synthia -- who asked her to join the business.

"In the past... bullying (of transgender people) was the order," Synthia told AFP.

"But [the] majority of the society are now our well-wishers."

"The trans workers in my factory are very ordinary people. They don't want to go to the dark businesses," the 38-year-old said.

"They prefer to have a social life just like any of us."

And under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a growing tolerance for the rights of sexual minorities has seen a raft of new laws.

In 2013, transgender people were officially identified as a separate gender, and in 2018 they were allowed to register to vote as a third gender.

The government has also unveiled affirmative action schemes and a series of benefits.

As a result, several transgender-owned and run businesses -- mostly beauty salons, but also small factories -- have started popping up across Dhaka in the last few years.

- Prove them wrong -

Such firms were "unthinkable even a few years back," Shale Ahmed, executive director of sexual minorities charity Bondhu, told AFP.

Apon Akhter is one of those changing that expectation.

At her garment factory in Dhaka, she employs only transgender people.

"When I started... people mocked me saying transgender people won't be able to do productive work," the 32-year-old guruma said.

"They said we belong to the streets. I promised myself I'd prove them wrong."

In Bangladesh, transgender people were officially identified as a separate gender in 2013 Munir Uz zaman AFP

While Akhter acknowledges that her 25 employees' salaries are not high, they are still studying -- knocking down another barrier that the trans community faces.

"Once you are out of homes, you end up without education. And lack of education means there is no way a company can employ you in a high-paying job," explained Rafid Saumik from charity TransEnd.

Akhter said many of her employees came to her after suffering and barely surviving for years, and her factory gives them a chance to pursue their educations.

"I strongly want them to see the light they've been looking for in life," she said. "Because we only have each other."

© 2021 AFP

Cuba seeks WHO approval of its Covid-19 vaccines

Issued on: 15/09/2021

Cuba is seeking World Health Organization approval for two home-grown coronavirus vaccines, Abdala and Soberana 2, which the country is using domestically but aims to distribute to other nations too

 YAMIL LAGE AFP/File

Havana (AFP)

Cuba said Wednesday it would seek World Health Organization approval for two home-grown coronavirus vaccines it hopes to commercialize widely.

A vetting process will start Thursday with WHO experts examining the nation's Abdala and Soberana 02 jabs, said Rolando Perez of state pharma group BioCubaFarma.

Perez said the experts would examine the vaccines' "safety, immunogenicity (the ability of a vaccine to provoke an immune response) and efficacy."

The WHO's representative in Cuba, Jose Moya, told AFP there would be "a first virtual meeting" Thursday between experts in Havana, Geneva and Washington.

Cuba has been using domestically-produced vaccines in its Covid-19 inoculation campaign, including for children.

The vaccines, the first developed in Latin America, have yet to undergo international, scientific peer review.

They are based on recombinant protein technology -- the same used by the United States' Novavax and France's Sanofi jabs.

Unlike many other shots in use, recombinant vaccines do not require extreme refrigeration.

Perez said Cuba's ability to sell its vaccines to other countries does not depend on WHO approval, as this is a decision for national health authorities.

But it would "facilitate (the vaccines') entry into the market in other nations, once the island's needs are covered."

Several countries including Argentina and Mexico have shown interest in acquiring the Cuban jabs, Venezuela has already signed a purchase contract, and Iran is producing Soberana 02 on home soil.

Under American sanctions since 1962, communist Cuba has a long tradition of making its own vaccines, dating back to the 1980s.

Nearly 80 percent of its inoculations are produced locally.

Cuban scientists say the Abdala and Soberana 02 jabs have been shown to be more than 90 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 cases.

The island of 11.2 million people has fully vaccinated about 38.5 percent of its population, also using China's Sinopharm inoculation.

The country has registered 768,497 Covid cases and 6,523 deaths.

© 2021 AFP