Ukraine’s wartime economy: Wounded but functional
April 1, 2022
Dmytro Boyarchuk


Ukraine’s immediate economic goals are to save businesses which are still able to operate, while keeping finance from IFIs flowing.

On February 24, 2022, the Ukrainian economy received a dramatic punch. In the international media we see a lot of attention given to sanctions against the Russian Federation, but the damage that the Ukrainian economy is experiencing amid widespread military action is more serious than the impact of all the heavy sanctions imposed on Russia so far.

In Ukraine, the process of digitalisation continues, even under cruise missile attack

A month on from Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s remarkable IT sector thrives

There’s cash in our ATMs: The remarkable resilience of Ukraine’s banking sector

We do not have hard numbers on economic performance so far, but our estimates and observations suggest that the damage might range from 30 per cent to 60 per cent of GDP depending on how long the war lasts.

What we do know is that the current active military operations are taking place on territories which used to produce up to 50-60 per cent of GDP before the war started.

While Russian forces are moving primarily across main roads and in many cases cannot reach firms located away from areas of active military operations, there is nevertheless little chance of these firms operating as normal when the frontline is so close to their assets.

Employees tend to move to safer places and only a few entrepreneurs can keep running “business as usual” under huge uncertainty, even if they do not experience direct shelling.

Shifting production

On the upside, we have production capacities in the Western part of the country which will meet the extra demand for consumer goods from internally displaced people. That will take some time, but production of goods and services – as well as retail turnover – will grow. This will compensate the abrupt halt in economic activity in the regions beset with military actions. What’s more, the authorities have created a programme for evacuating the production capacities of Ukrainian enterprises to the Western part of the country.

On the downside, we have millions of refugees crossing the border of the country, hundreds of thousands enrolling to the army, thousands involved in humanitarian supplies and volunteering with supplies for the army. All of them have left the labour force and will have very limited participation in the economic life of the country.

An important point for our survival is the record-high grain harvest of 2021, of which the lion’s share remains in warehouses inside Ukraine. While we are not in a position to export these crops – our seaports are blocked by Russia – the substantial stocks means that there is no risk of hunger inside Ukraine, at least not this year.

Banking sector resilience

The banking sector has proven resilient to the shock of the war. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) promptly imposed restrictive measures, fixed the hryvnia exchange rate and provided sufficient liquidity to the system. In the first days of the war we observed multiple businesses trying to switch to “cash-only” operations but in less than a week, after the shock had eased, retail returned to normal and cashless operations again became dominant.

Ukraine is receiving substantial financial support from IFIs and Western counties. On March 9, the IMF approved 1.4 billion US dollars in emergency financing support under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) arrangement.

Other IFIs have committed support in loans and grants. The finance minister has reported that six billion US dollars has already been pledged, and more support is coming. The NBU says that the gross international reserves of Ukraine now exceed the level before Russia’s invasion started (27.6 billion US dollars as of the end of February).

The finance minister has nevertheless reported a plunge in budget proceeds since the start of the war. In the first days of the war the minister said that customs collections were only 15 per cent of pre-war levels. Later he said that budget collections have plunged by nearly 30 per cent. To a large extent, tax payments in March will not show us the real state of affairs since on the one hand many payments would have been set up in advance from pre-war earnings, while on the other the authorities have effectively approved tax holidays for businesses.

Ultimately, the main target for now is to save businesses which are still able to operate, while keeping the finance from the IFIs flowing.

A nuclear agency is investigating reports of radiation poisoning among Russian troops at Chernobyl.


April 1, 2022
Victoria Kim

The structure over the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine

Credit...Gleb Garanich/Reuters

As Russian troops pulled out of Ukraine’s shuttered Chernobyl nuclear plant five weeks after seizing it, an international nuclear watchdog agency is looking into reports that some of the soldiers are experiencing radiation poisoning.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general, was scheduled to speak at a news conference on Friday afternoon at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna after meeting with senior government officials from Ukraine and Russia.

Russian troops left the plant and the nearby city of Slavutych on Thursday, according to Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-run energy company. Three convoys of soldiers who left the site were headed north toward Belarus, the I.A.E.A. said in a statement.

The agency said it was working to confirm local news media reports that Russian soldiers were leaving the site because some had been exposed to high levels of radiation there.

The agency also said it would send experts and safety and security supplies to Ukraine to ensure safety at Chernobyl, where the worst nuclear disaster in history occurred in 1986.

A Pentagon spokesman, John F. Kirby, cast doubt on the reports that Russian soliders had suffered radiation sickness, saying in a news conference on Thursday that “at this early stage” the troop movement appeared to be “a piece of this larger effort to refit and resupply and not necessarily done because of health hazards or some sort of emergency or a crisis at Chernobyl.”

Russia seized the decommissioned plant early in its invasion of Ukraine, raising concerns about radiation levels and safeguarding at the site, where spent fuel still requires round-the-clock maintenance.

Victoria Kim is a correspondent based in Seoul, focused on live news coverage. She joined The Times in 2022. @vicjkim

Russians ‘leaving Chernobyl after radiation exposure’

1 April 2022, 10:34

Russia Ukraine War. Picture: PA

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.

Russian troops began leaving the Chernobyl nuclear plant after soldiers got “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches at the highly contaminated site, Ukraine’s state power company said.

Energoatom, the company, gave no immediate details on the condition of the troops or how many were affected.

But it said the Russians had dug in in the forest inside the exclusion zone around the now-closed plant, the site in 1986 of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

(PA Graphics)

The troops “panicked at the first sign of illness”, which “showed up very quickly,” and began to prepare to leave, Energoatom said.

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.

Its forces seized the Chernobyl site in the opening stages of the February 24 invasion, raising fears that they would cause damage or disruption that could spread radiation.

The workforce at the site oversees the safe storage of spent fuel rods and the concrete-entombed ruins of the exploded reactor.

The pullout came amid continued fighting and indications that the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation as cover while regrouping and resupplying its forces and redeploying them for a stepped-up offensive in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is seeing “a build-up of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas, and we are preparing for that”.

Meanwhile, a convoy of buses headed to Mariupol in another bid to evacuate people from the besieged port city after the Russian military agreed to a limited ceasefire in the area.

And a new round of talks aimed at stopping the fighting was scheduled for Friday.

The Red Cross said its teams were headed for Mariupol with medical supplies and other relief and hoped to take civilians out of the beleaguered city.

Destroyed Russian armour vehicles are seen in the outskirts of Kyiv (Rodrigo Abd/AP)

Tens of thousands have managed to get out of Mariupol in the past few weeks by way of humanitarian corridors, reducing the city’s population from a pre-war 430,000 to an estimated 100,000 as of last week, but other efforts have been thwarted by continued Russian attacks.

At the same time, Russian forces shelled Kyiv suburbs, two days after the Kremlin announced it would significantly scale back operations near both the capital and the northern city of Chernihiv to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations”.

Britain’s Defence Ministry also reported “significant Russian shelling and missile strikes” around Chernihiv. The area’s governor, Viacheslav Chaus, said Russian troops were on the move but may not be withdrawing.

Russia’s military also reported new strikes on Ukrainian fuel stores late on Wednesday, and Ukrainian officials said there were artillery barrages in and around the north-eastern city of Kharkiv over the past day.

Despite the fighting raging in those areas, the Russian military said it committed to a ceasefire along the route from Mariupol to the Ukraine-held city of Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 45 buses would be sent to collect civilians who have suffered some of the worst privations of the war.

(PA Graphics)

Food, water and medical supplies have all run low during a weekslong blockade and bombardment of the city. Civilians who have managed to leave have typically done so using private cars, but the number of drivable vehicles left in the city has dwindled and fuel is low.

“It’s desperately important that this operation takes place,” the Red Cross said in a statement. “The lives of tens of thousands of people in Mariupol depend on it.”

Talks between Ukraine and Russia were set to resume on Friday by video, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia, six weeks into a war that has seen thousands die and a staggering four million Ukrainians flee the country.

But there seemed little faith that the two sides would resolve the conflict any time soon, particularly after the Russian military’s attacks in zones where it had offered to dial back.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that conditions were not yet “ripe” for a cease-fire in Ukraine and that he was not ready for a meeting with Mr Zelensky until negotiators do more work, Italian Premier Mario Draghi said in recounting a telephone conversation he had with the Russian leader on Wednesday.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said alliance intelligence indicates that Russia is not scaling back its military operations in Ukraine but is instead trying to regroup, resupply its forces and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas.

“Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions,” Mr Stoltenberg said. At the same time, he said, pressure is being kept up on Kyiv and other cities, and “we can expect additional offensive actions bringing even more suffering”.

The Donbas is the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014.

In the past few days, the Kremlin, in a seeming shift in its war aims, said that its “main goal” now is gaining control of the Donbas, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including Mariupol.

By Press Association

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CHERNOBYL 

South Africa: One Second-Trimester Public Abortion Facility in the Entire Eastern Cape Is Not Good Enough

1 APRIL 2022
spotlight (Cape Town)By Sibusisiwe Ndlela, Khanyisa Mapipa and Thokozile Mtsolongo

Second-trimester abortions, which occur between the beginning of the 13th and the end of the 20th week of pregnancy, are difficult to access in the public sector. This is mainly due to the lack of designated abortion facilities and the unavailability of abortion providers to provide the service.

Based on our work in the Eastern Cape, we found that these issues prevent women from accessing a second-trimester abortion in the public health system. Out of sheer desperation, some vulnerable women carrying unwanted pregnancies may resort to unsafe and illegal abortion providers.

Designated abortion facilities

A major issue in accessing second-trimester abortion in the Eastern Cape is the low number of designated facilities. In terms of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, an abortion can only be performed at a facility that meets certain requirements concerning staffing, equipment, resources, and infrastructure. These qualifying facilities are then designated by the MEC for Health in that province.

Of the 54 designated facilities (44 of which are recorded as active by the Eastern Cape Department of Health), only two provide second-trimester abortions. One is Mthatha General Hospital in Mthatha (in the OR Tambo District), and the other is the Frere Hospital in East London (in the Buffalo City Metro).

Given the sheer expanse of the province and the size of its population, two public facilities are wholly inadequate to meet the demand for second-trimester abortions. This is particularly so when you consider that there is no designated public second-trimester abortion facility in Gqeberha (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality), which is the largest metropolitan municipality in the province. To address the demand for second-trimester abortions, the Eastern Cape Department of Health needs to designate more public facilities (or expand services offered at existing designated facilities) and ensure that they are accessible across the province.

As mentioned in the first article of this series, we visited Mthatha Gateway Clinic in November 2021. The clinic is a stone's throw from the Mthatha General Hospital, a designated public second-trimester abortion facility. During our visit, we learnt that the hospital was not providing any abortion services. Instead, its abortion services were performed at the clinic.

When we visited the clinic, we learnt that it was providing only first-trimester abortions. In fact, women who were more than 12 weeks pregnant were told that they should get an abortion from a private facility or start attending antenatal care. The lack of second-trimester abortion services at the hospital, therefore, means that there is only one operational second-trimester public abortion facility in the whole province.

Women who try to access abortions in the public sector are among the most vulnerable. They often lack the financial means to bear the cost of travel to abortion facilities, much less to access services in the private sector.

The public healthcare system is designed to ensure that these women are afforded the ability to access reproductive healthcare services such as abortion services to which they are entitled under the Constitution. In fact, even the National Health Act specifically provides that government must provide women with free termination of pregnancy services. These are some of the provisions from which women's right to access free abortion (and the corresponding state obligation to provide it) are sourced. These rights cannot be undermined by a province's continued failure to designate abortion facilities and monitor the provision of abortion services at those designated facilities. This would simply be unlawful and unconstitutional.

During our visit to the clinic, we were approached by three women who had been denied second-trimester abortions at the clinic. We met with the Acting CEO of the hospital, Dr Puts Nxiweni to request that the women be provided with an abortion. When SECTION 27 threatened with litigation, a special arrangement was made for the three women. As a result of constraints that prevented our clients from attending the clinic on the scheduled days, only one of the women managed to get an abortion. What is clear is that in the absence of our intervention, it is likely that women in their second trimester of pregnancy who go to this clinic will continue to be denied access to second-trimester abortions.

This situation cannot be allowed to continue.

Recognising the need for a proper system to provide women with a second-trimester abortion, we tried continuously to engage the provincial health department. With the imminent threat of litigation having been averted, our requests to discuss these issues have fallen on deaf ears.

The problem with this silence is that nothing is being done about the continued denial of second-trimester abortion services to women. In fact, except for women who are in or around Frere Hospital and those who can afford to travel there, a pregnant woman in the Eastern Cape who has an unwanted second-trimester pregnancy, is effectively denied an abortion in the public sector.

In the absence of services in the public sector, some women risk their lives and resort to alternative and often unsafe means to terminate their pregnancies. This includes using services provided by unsafe and/or illegal abortion vendors. We wrote an open letter to the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo who recently led a march in the North West against unsafe and illegal abortions to call out his department and government for failing to make a meaningful attempt at eliminating some of the most pronounced barriers that prevent women from accessing abortions.

Availability of abortion providers

About 25% of abortions performed in this country are second-trimester abortions, yet there are not enough abortion providers rendering this service. Although some healthcare workers are reluctant to provide abortions, research shows that they are even more reluctant to perform the second-trimester (dilation and evacuation) procedure because it requires more active involvement by the provider.

During our visit to Mthatha Gateway Clinic, we learnt that some abortion providers are unwilling to avail themselves to provide abortion services for the following reasons: lack of a financial incentive as having undergone abortion training is not considered a specialisation that warrants additional pay; the lack of debriefing and Values Clarification and Attitude Transformation sessions; and healthcare workers simply failing to understand the scope of their professional duties.

Conscientious objection, which is a healthcare worker's refusal to provide care on the basis that it offends their conscience, is a threat to women's access to abortion. The National Clinical Guidelines on the implementation of the Choice on the Termination of Pregnancy Act (2019) recognises that section 15(1) of the Constitution, which entrenches the freedom of conscience, religion, or belief, implicitly accommodates a healthcare worker's right to refuse care. The guidelines do, however, recognise the fiduciary duties owed by healthcare workers to their patients, and they accordingly state that refusal to care should not be to the detriment of a person seeking an abortion.

Knowledge of the scope and parameters of professional duties is critical to limiting any adverse effect on women. From our visit to Mthatha Gateway Clinic, it was clear that the failure of healthcare workers to understand their fiduciary duties was undermining the provision and the quality of abortion services at the facility. One of the healthcare workers at the facility, in the absence of any assertion of religion or conscience, advised us that on any given day she could request a transfer so that she wouldn't have to perform abortions. This is something that she had also communicated to women at the clinic who were seeking an abortion. This statement is based on the erroneous belief that providing an abortion is optional for healthcare workers. In fact, it is compulsory, subject to conscientious objection-a very limited exception.

The provincial health department and professional bodies for healthcare workers must continue to reinforce the fiduciary duties of healthcare workers whilst providing them with the necessary support. A failure to do so will not only undermine the integrity of their professions but will also affect the availability and quality of abortion services provided to women.

In the Eastern Cape public health system, it is the responsibility of the provincial department to appoint enough skilled healthcare workers to provide abortion services to realise women's reproductive health rights. Given that this is a constitutional right, government is bound to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil it. In terms of the National Health Act, it is the responsibility of the MEC for Health in Eastern Cape, Ms Nomakhosazana Meth, to ensure that national health policy and norms and standards on access to abortion are implemented (section 25(1)); and it is the responsibility of the Superintendent-General for Health, Dr Rolene Wagner, to plan, coordinate, and monitor the rendering of services and the development of human resources in the province (section 25(2)(f) and (i)).

With two of the biggest systemic issues in access to abortion having been described above, it is clear that the responsibility to reform the system is on the provincial health department. Its continued failure to ensure that there is a system and plan to provide second-trimester abortions in the public health sector not only infringes women's reproductive rights, but also constitutes a breach of the duties imposed on government, the MEC for Health, and the Superintendent-General for Health. We, therefore, call on the department to engage us and the public on the continued state of abortion services in the province.

*Ndlela, Mapipa, and Mtsolongo are all from SECTION27.

**This article is the second of a three-part series in which we examine issues underlying abortion services in the public health sector in the Eastern Cape.

NOTE: This is an article written by employees of SECTION27. Spotlight is published by SECTION27 and the Treatment Action Campaign but is editorially independent, an independence that the editors guard jealously. The views expressed in this open letter are not necessarily those of Spotlight.

Read the original article on spotlight.

83% of Africans yet to receive COVID-19 vaccine – WHO

By NAN
01 April 2022 | 

The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 

(Photo by LAURENT GILLIERON / POOL / AFP)

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says a third of the world’s population has yet to receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including a shocking 83 per cent of all Africans.

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said in a statement:“This is not acceptable to me, and it should not be acceptable to anyone.

“ Are some lives worth more than others?”

He said WHO was launching a new strategy to scale up genomic surveillance, for deadly pathogens that had “epidemic and pandemic potential” to tackle future threat of the virus.

According to him, COVID-19 has now taken well over six million lives and infected no fewer than 483 million people.

He also said the UN health agency had unveiled the updated Strategic Preparedness, Readiness and Response Plan for COVID-19.

“This is our third strategic plan for COVID-19, and it could and should be our last”, he said, laying out three possible scenarios for how the pandemic could evolve this year.

“The most likely scenario is that the virus continues to evolve, but the severity of disease it causes reduces over time as immunity increases due to vaccination and infection.

“Periodic spikes in cases and deaths may occur as immunity wanes, which may require periodic boosting for vulnerable populations.

“In the best-case scenario, we may see less severe variants emerge, and boosters or new formulations of vaccines won’t be necessary.”

But, in the worst-case scenario, a more virulent and highly transmissible variant could emerge, sooner or later, and against this new threat, people’s protection against severe disease and death, from prior vaccination or infection, “will wane rapidly”, he warned.

According to him, addressing this situation will require significantly altering the current vaccines and making sure they get to the people who are most vulnerable to severe disease.

In addition, he said equitable vaccination remained the single most powerful tool at the world’s disposal, to save lives.

“Striving to vaccinate 70 per cent of the population of every country remains essential for bringing the pandemic under control, with priority given to health workers, older people and other at-risk groups.’’

Over 24 million people will need humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan this year, he said, and they face displacement, drought, food insecurity and malnutrition, COVID-19, and many other health challenges.

Women and girls are especially at risk, he added, from lack of access to health services, and lack of access to education, describing last week’s failure to backtrack on opening middle and high schools for girls as “very troubling”.

For the millions whose lives and basic healthcare is at risk due to the raging conflict in northern Ethiopia, Ghebreyesus welcomed last week’s declaration of a humanitarian truce in the region – between Tigrayan leaders and Government forces in order to allow in vital aid.

He hoped it would lead to the rapid restoration of public services, including electricity, telecommunications, banking and healthcare.

“However, a week has passed since the truce was announced, but no food has been allowed into Tigray yet,’’ he said.

“Every hour makes a difference when people are starving to death. No food has reached Tigray since mid-December, and almost no fuel has been delivered since August of last year.

“The siege of six million people in Tigray by Eritrean and Ethiopian forces for more than 500 days, is one of the longest in modern history.

“Sustaining WHO’s response to all of these emergencies, from the COVID-19 pandemic, to Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and more, requires the generosity of donors,” he added.

Under WHO’s Global Health Emergency Appeal for 2022, he noted that 2.7 billion dollars was needed “to save lives and alleviate suffering around the world”.

Turkish transfer of Khashoggi case to Saudi will end hopes of justice – RSF


http://ahval.co/en-139021

Apr 01 2022 12:52 Gmt+3
Last Updated On: Apr 01 2022 

A Turkish prosecutor’s request to transfer legal proceedings for the murder of Saudi dissident columnist and political activist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia would dash any remaining hopes of criminal justice, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said.

The Turkish courts should do their part to fight impunity by seeing through the case for the 2018 murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, RSF said in a statement on Thursday, responding to the prosecutor’s statement at a hearing earlier in the day.

Istanbul’s Çağlayan court said at the hearing that it would ask the Justice Ministry for its opinion regarding the request. It set the next hearing for April 7.

“The prosecutor’s request to close the court process in Turkey after 21 months of proceedings is extremely disappointing,” said RSF Turkey representative Erol Önderoğlu, who monitored the hearing. “Handing the case over to Saudi Arabia would be a serious blow to any remaining chance of criminal justice for Jamal Khashoggi’s killers. We urge the Turkish courts to do their part to fight impunity for this horrific crime by seeing this case through.”

The request to transfer the case comes as Turkey seeks to improve relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, fractured by Ankara’s support for political Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, and differences over Libya and other regional conflicts. Khashoggi was a staunch supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.

RSF said it has been the only NGO to monitor the full court proceedings in Istanbul, which began in July 2020. Turkey is trying 26 Saudi nationals in absentia, who have been appointed Turkish lawyers. In March 2021, the court rejected a request by Khashoggi’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz to accept as evidence a declassified U.S. intelligence report linking Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is seeking to repair ties with Gulf countries to help end its regional political isolation and raise capital for the country’s fragile economy, which suffered its second currency crisis in three years in 2021. Erdoğan faces re-election next year with inflation in the country at 54.4 percent, the highest level in two decades, and the lira posting losses against the dollar. The lira is down 10 percent this year after falling 44 percent in 2021.

Saudi Arabia held its own secretive trial for the crime in 2020. It failed to meet fair trial standards and made a mockery of justice, RSF said. Eight unidentified defendants were reportedly given sentences ranging from seven to 20 years in prison. A further three people were acquitted, including senior Saudi officials, it said.

RSF ranks Turkey 153rd and Saudi Arabia 170th out of 180 countries in its 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

US repatriates smuggled ancient artifacts to Libya, including 4th century BC Hellenic bust

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
01 April, 2022

The returned artifacts to Libya include two Hellenic busts from the 4th century BC, from the ancient city of Cyrene.

Libya is home to numerous artefacts, dating back from the Roman period [Getty]

The United States on Thursday returned a cache of smuggled ancient artifacts to Libya as the oil-rich Mediterranean country struggles to protect its heritage against the backdrop of years of war, turmoil and unrest.

The repatriated items include two sculptures dating to the 4th century BC from the ancient city of Cyrene.

One, named the "Veiled Head of a Female," was previously in the hands of a private collector of other illegal artifacts, according to a statement from the US Embassy in Libya. The other, also a Hellenic bust, had been at the Metropolitan Museum of New York since 1998, the statement said.

Both were displayed by Libyan antiquities officials at a reception ceremony in the country's capital, Tripoli.

Libyan antiquities authorities thanked American officials and law enforcement for the returned items and said that they looked forward to future cooperation. The embassy credited the work of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and Homeland Security Investigations officials for the recovery of the artifacts.

"Although these antiquities were brought illegally to the United States by traffickers, legal efforts have succeeded in returning them to their country of origin," the embassy statement read.

Libya boasts many ancient Greek and Roman structures, along with a wealth of ancient artifacts in its major museum in the capital of Tripoli and in other museums countrywide, though its archeological sites have been plundered for decades.

RELATED

Libya is jailing progressive youths on charges of 'atheism'

In-depth

Paul McLoughlin

Libya has been wrecked by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country was after that split for years between rival administrations in the east and the west, each supported by an array of militias and foreign governments.

Large-scale fighting has only stopped in the past year, but Libyans have yet to unite under a single political leadership, despite strenuous UN-led efforts.

The Greeks founded the settlement of Cyrene, close to the modern town of Shahat, in the 4th century B.C. It was later incorporated into the Roman empire.

The United Nations added Cyrene to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1982 and it has been classified as a location that is particularly endangered due to neglect and looting since 2016.

Russian Opera Singer's Concert In Siberia Canceled After She Condemns War In Ukraine

Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko (file photo)

Russian soprano Anna Netrebko's concert in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk has been canceled after she condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The Opera and Ballet Theater in Novosibirsk said in a statement on March 31 that Netrebko's concert scheduled for June 2 had been canceled due to a Facebook statement she made a day earlier where she wrote "I expressly condemn the war against Ukraine and my thoughts are with the victims of this war and their families."

Netrebko added that she is "not a member of any political party, nor am I allied with any leader of Russia.”

In announcing the cancelation of the concert, the theater accused Netrebko of choosing European stages over her "Motherland's fate" by making the statement.

Netrebko had announced last month that she was retiring from concert life after her performances with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany, and Metropolitan Opera in New York were canceled because she refused to publicly distance herself from President Vladimir Putin in the wake of Russia's unprovoked full-scale attack against Ukraine that started on February 24.

She said in her Facebook statement that she has met Putin “only a handful of times” and these meetings were “most notably on the occasion of receiving awards” and at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi.

“I have otherwise never received any financial support from the Russian government, and live and am a tax resident in Austria," Netrebko wrote, adding that she had decided to resume performing in late May.

The 50-year-old singer is no stranger to controversy.

In December 2014, Netrebko was in the center of a scandal over her decision to donate a significant amount of money to Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

Netrebko's announcement comes amid sanctions imposed by the West on organizations and individuals supporting Putin and his associates over the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Many high profile Russian artists have lost their positions or had shows canceled for failing to distance themselves from Russia's leadership and the war.

Conductor and Kremlin loyalist Valery Gergiyev -- the man who discovered Netrebko -- was fired on March 1 from his position as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. The 68-year-old's dismissal came after he did not respond to demands by the orchestra that he distance himself from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Some Russian stars have been vocal in their opposition to the war and have chosen to leave the country.

Olga Smirnova, the principal dancer for the famed Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, left Russia for the Netherlands in protest at the war against Ukraine.

Chulpan Khamatova, a prominent Russian actress known for roles in international films, has said she is now in exile in Latvia.

Kashmir Files: Flawed Narratives Of The Fault Lines

Once again, Kashmir is the altar on which India is trying to refashion its national identity, this time with a distinctive majoritarian flavour

Veer Munshi’s Terrorist on floating land envisages the water of Dal Lake turning red with blood of innocent people.


Ashutosh Bhardwaj

UPDATED: 01 APR 2022 

Hardly anyone in Kashmir has seen the movie that is being vigorously debated in op-eds, social media and drawing rooms. They couldn’t have. Cinema halls, like several other manifestations of life, were closed down during the height of militancy and remain so. “You’ve come from India. You must have seen it. How’s it?” people ask.

Not many in Kashmir know that the Indian Army screened The Kashmir Files at its Chinar Aud­i­torium in Srinagar’s cantonment for a week, three shows a day, to spread the “nationalistic message”. Overlooking the snow-clad Himalayas, the auditorium had glistening army shops by its side, one of which was selling qua­lity liquor. Present during a matinee show among army men and their families, I, perhaps the only civilian in the hall, found people che­cking on their phones which JNU professor the character of Pallavi Joshi was based on. Two men, in the dark of the auditorium, googled Arundhati Roy and separatist leader Yasin Malik, seen together in a photograph in a scene of the movie.

ALSO READ: Kashmir: This Isn’t A Postcard Series

In the resident Kashmiri’s eclipse—both Muslims and Pandits—from the most intense debate on the Valley in recent years, one can read the last thirty-two years of the Jhelum. The waters of conflicting sorrows, cruelly entangled, tied in an umbilical cord. One wave can’t be narrated without the other. The night of January 19, 1990, when the calls to eliminate Kashmiri Pandits were given from mosques, may remain incomplete without the Gaw Kadal killings a day later when some 50 Muslims were killed in firing by security forces. If it’s a story of those who were forced to leave their ancestral homeland, it’s also about those who were left behind. A lake where you can’t take fifty steps without coming across a heavily-armed gunman, a café that watches people speak in hus­hed tones before suddenly losing track of their own words, young men who are harassed in India’s major cities, a woman who repeatedly makes you aware of your “privileged Indian citizenship”, an old Pandit facing threats by milit­ants, a girl who recently discovered that she shared her tale with the Pandits.

And an ageing poet who is haunted by an unf­i­l­led dream. A dream his close friend, Bisham­b­har Nath Mattoo—the husband of his munhboli sister Rajdulari Handoo—often shared with him. “I want to see at least once in my dream that I am in Delhi, but I always find myself in the Devibal temple of Anantnag.” Forced to lea­ve the Valley in January 1990, Mattoo died a few years ago in Delhi but Bashir Ahmad Dada, who­se angulated face and piercing eyes reminds one of Clint East­wood, still carries the burden. “Not all were militants, many were our men too.”

ALSO READ: Routes Of Grief: Two Translations

Life was not kind for the poet Bashir eit­her. Soon he saw his community members bei­ng killed in mindless violence. He faced serious death threats by the government-supported militia Ikhwan, and a few years ago, his son Visa­lat, born years after that winter, couldn’t easily find a rented room in India’s most welcoming metropolis Mumbai because he was a Kashmiri Muslim.
No Story Can Speak For All. But Any Authentic Narrative Is Expected To Be Sensitive To The Claims Of The Other. This Is Where The Kashmir Files Fails As A Movie.

No story can speak for all. But any authentic narrative is expected to be sensitive to the claims of the other. This is precisely where The Kashmir Files fails, both as a movie as well as a political statement. And this is also where the other commentary on Kashmir fails when it refuses to identify Islamic militancy for the fear of upsetting communal harmony. But if there’s to be reconciliation, truth must be embraced. In an impossibly militarised zone that sees a large number of Muslims with genuine grievances against the Indian State, people like Bashir are too few and far between. Eight of the 10 Musl­ims I met in Kashmir last week tried to rationalise, even justify the exodus of the Pandits. One can argue that their own sorrow has made them oblivious, if not always resentful, to the grief of the Pandits who once shared the valley with them. Or, since a section of Pandits came to be associated with the “Hindu” India, it was inevitable for the “Muslim Kashmir” to turn against them. But, then, that grand construct of kashmiriyat gets contested. It perhaps stood contested the day a large number of Kashmiri Muslims celebrated the then Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s famous “azadi” spe­ech: “The brave people of Kashmir do not fear death because they are Muslims. The Kashmiris have the blood of Mujhaid and Ghazis.”

Present, continuous TV debate at Lal Chowk, Srinagar

Many Kashmiris still share the sentiment—the first azadi came when land was given to the tiller in the early 1950s, the second was the Pan­dit exodus, the third still awaited. Like elsewh­ere in India, despite the camaraderie and photo­-­ops, a religious divide existed in the Valley that made the minority community its victim—Muslims in Gujarat, Pandits in Kash­mir. Sitting in his opulent home in Srinagar, Bashir vividly recalls Mattoo’s words: “Bashir dada, why didn’t you take me into confidence before beginning your insurgency? Why did you let me leave Anantnag?”

ALSO READ: Kashmir: Of ‘Stories’ And Friends

No one stands unquestioned in the Valley, with the first question reserved for the narrator. “You must make your position clear that you are writing as a citizen of the Indian State,” a Kas­hmiri Muslim scholar in her early ’30s tells me in a Srinagar café on Monday. She speaks hurriedly, citing Edward Said and Gayatri Cha­k­ravorti Spivak. Jeans, t-shirt, cropped hair loo­sely flowing over her face. “I don’t look like a Kashmiri. Bad genes,” she laughs. She is pursuing a doctorate on Kashmir from a foreign university. “It is rude to ask someone born after the exodus about the Pandits’ tragedy,” she is clear.
The Abrogation Of Article 370 Is Essentially An Attempt To Refashion Collective Memories. A State Was Downgraded To A UT, Without Any Recommendation Or Consultation.

Most young Kashmiri Muslims carry an acute political consciousness and are well-versed with the region’s history. They recount fine det­a­ils about “India’s colonial occupation” of Kas­h­mir, vividly describe fake encounters of Mus­l­ims by security forces, and yet they have little memory of the exodus of the community that had been living amid the chinars for centuries. Is it because they don’t want to face a past that questions their own understanding of the militancy, that challenges their self-identity of being a tolerant, secular Kashmiri?

ALSO READ: The ‘Homeland’ Dream Of Kashmiri Pandits

Construction of memories is perhaps inevitable in a conflict zone, a necessary human condition to cope with sorrow. Even the deceased gets a new identity. For several decades, a graveyard inside Naqshband Sahib Shrine in Khawaja Bazaar was known as Shaheed Marguzar (martyr’s graveyard) where 22 people killed by the Dogra king’s forces during a protest in 1931 were buried. A new graveyard, which came up after the death of people in firing by security forces in 1990, now stands as Shaheed Marguzar in public memory.

***

The abrogation of Article 370 is essentially an attempt to refashion collective memories. A sta­te was downgraded to a Union Territory, wit­hout any recommendation by its legislature or consultation with residents, to launch a political project of “nationalism”. The Tricolour and the national anthem are now compulsory in educational institutions. “Mosques are asked to do only religious preaching, and not deliver any incendiary message,” says a senior army officer. “Kashmir hardly had any imagery of India. Sch­ools barely taught about Indian icons. It was not Bharatiya Rail, but Rail. A child grew up without any memory of India. We have to change it,” says the officer, sharing details about how the establishment is “building a national identity in Kashmir”.

Residents at Pandit colony, Anantnag

Photographs: Ashutosh Bhardwaj

The last 30 months have seen a surge of seve­ral “pro-India” voices—individuals, journalists, act­i­vists and NGOs—in Kashmir. The establishment gives these young Kashmiri men and wom­en fun­ds, security cover, residential and office property. Behind the recent closing down of the Sri­nagar Press Club is a campaign by “pro-­India” journalists who believe that the institution had become the hub of “pro-Pakistan” jou­rnalists. The newspapers, Rising Kashmir and Greater Kashmir, once a symbol of resista­nce, are now rep­lete with photographs and news of the prime minister or the lieutenant governor.

ALSO READ: Kashmir Files: Memories Of Another Day

“You wake up to witness the propaganda. It’s an everyday humiliation,” says a bulky Kash­m­iri man, his wife, wearing salwar kameez and gold jewellery, next to him. She is a teacher at a government college. “When they forced me to sing the national anthem, I felt I was being raped.” The husband emphasises that “she is not at all political and yet she couldn’t bear the state’s brutal force”. The sentiment of humiliation was more visible during my last visit in Nov­ember-December 2019. It then seemed that the valley might erupt anytime soon. The sentiment seems to have invisibilised now. Army off­i­cers note that violence has come down, infilt­ration drastically declined and tourists are back, with over 72 lakh footfalls since last September. The number of militants is below 200 for the first time. Of the 128 youth who joined militancy last year, 73 were killed and 16 arrested. There are multiple reasons for the reduction in violence—greater coordination among security forces, the transformation of the J&K police into a first-rate anti-militancy unit, crackdown on separatists and dissenters, enhanced military capacity and an intense sec­urity grid. “Above all,” many people add, “Pakis­tan is silent these days.”

ALSO READ: Kashmir Needs Healing, Not Politicisation Of Pain

Pakistan has not been able to deliver arms to Kashmiri militants after India managed to place it on the FATF list of countries accused of terror financing. But Kashmiris reject it. “You don’t see the eruption, because we are erupting inside. I am sitting with you by the lake, smiling, but I am angry within,” a Kashmiri man said one dark evening, Srinagar’s Zero Bridge gleaming in the distance. Faraway shone the lights of the army cantonment on the mountain. “Where is peace? It’s the most militarised zone on the planet. The presence of these soldiers is itself an act of violence,” the woman scholar is restless. An “outsider Indian” can’t easily detect the trauma and anger their soul is carrying. One morning, a “pro-India” youth shares a fascinating insight. “We have changed our way of resistance. We can’t afford to lose any more lives in asymmetric conditions that are brazenly in favour of security agencies.”

Shakur Ahmad and Abdul Rashid

There’s a pattern to the protests in the valley. It was mostly in the form of rallies and sloganeering in 2008. The next year saw stone-pelting with slogans, and it was predominantly stone-pelting in 2010. Burhan Wani was a by-product of the 2010 protests. The 2016 killing of Burhan gave birth to hundreds of Burhans, but without proper training and weapons these young boys couldn’t face the might of Indian forces. “The model that can work now is what Adil Ahmad Dar did in Pulwama,” says the young man, referring to the suicide bomber who caused the death of 40 CRPF personnel in February 2019. “We need to use our lives strategically,” he says, and quickly adds: “But it will destroy Kashmir completely.”

ALSO READ: Loss And Longing In Kashmir

All secrets stand unveiled in the Valley. One can hear conversations about the fine operati­o­nal strategies of the militants. One evening in December 2019, already dark, I took a bus from Khanabal, just across the DIG office. A charming Class VIII boy on the next seat knew the int­ricacies of Article 370 and 371, the finer dis­t­inctions between the LeT, JeM and Hizbul Mujahideen, and could name the militants ope­rating in his area. The military crackdown has hushed these conversations and intensified public expressions of “nationalism”.

On March 23, Pakistan Day, a TV debate was being held at Lal Chowk, with the Tricolour dotting the street and the stage. Kashmiri speakers boasted their love for India and condemned the pro-Pakistan lobby in Kashmir. Lal Chowk, once the headqu­a­rters of the insurgency, had taken a turn. The show was org­a­nised by ANN News, the only channel operational in the valley as all others were banned by the government a few years ago. Among the people present at Lal Chowk was a retired Guj­jar colonel Dev Anand. A native of Raj­a­s­than, he has been touring the valley to strengthen the nationalist sentiment among the Gujjars in the Valley. The ruling establishment has a special focus on Gujjars as part of nation-building.

Sanjay Tickoo at his home

Little do they know that the calendar in the Valley is marked with red dots. The month when the mass Pandit exodus began, March 1990, saw a sequence of the most treacherous killings a decade later—Chitti­sin­g­h­pora, Path­ribal, and Barakpora—in 2000. Exa­ctly 22 yea­rs before the Lal Chowk evening this March, some army officers allegedly pic­ked up Gujjar Muslims from Brari Aangan village in Anant­nag, and killed them in Pathribal claiming they were “foreign militants”. Their relatives commemorate the anniversary of the killings every year. On March 26, two men, Abdul Rashid and Shakur Ahmad of Anantnag, shared their sorrows. Their voices were dripping with anger as they narrated how the forces had killed their fathers.

ALSO READ: Kashmir: The Political Capital Of Pain

But if the crackdown after August 2019 has left many humiliated, it has also given them the space to express those sentime­nts that were not possible earlier. Not long ago, massive funerals were mostly reserved for militants as people could barely mourn the dea­ths of those who fell to milita­nts’ bul­lets. Since the abrogation of Art­i­cle 370, Kashmiris can be seen mourning all Kashmiri lives lost to bul­lets. A new solidarity has eme­rged based on the desire for collective survival, irrespective of the identity of the deceased Kash­miri. A realisation that eventually they have merely one identity—Kas­­hmiri. Last week, several thousand people gathered at the funeral of a special police officer and his bro­t­her who were killed by militants in Budgam.

***

Away from these convoluted neg­otiations, the Pandits in the valley have been yearning for dignity. In December 2019, Sanjay Tickoo, pre­sident of the Kashmiri Pandit San­­g­harsh Samiti, said that “he felt more threate­ned after the abrogation of Article 370 than he did during the 1990s”. He lives in an old home in the Barbar­shah area of Srinagar. The ageing man is losing hope amid the rene­w­ed threat calls. “The esta­b­lishment is worried about me. If something happens to me, the last Pandit voice in the Val­ley will vanish.” His bedroom has a thick layer of colourful carpets, com­mon in traditional Kashmiri homes. A sli­ght wrinkle in the fabric leaves him annoyed.

Dal Lake

“Everyone uses Kashmiris as a bearer cheque. You can use us in whichever way you want—in the name of Muslims, Pandits, Dogras,” his voi­ce drops at the last sentence. Besides, several Pan­d­its who work with government departments live in migrant colonies set up in the valley after the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ann­ounced a relief package for the community. The­se ghetto-like habitats suffer from water sho­rtages, poor drainage and cramped homes. The Kashmiri Pandit colony in Vessu, Anantnag, has 177 quarters shared by 695 families, who once had big homes and sprawling orchards in Kashmir. A resident, Bharat Bhus­han Bhat saw The Kashmir Files in Jammu. “The movie depicts real incidents. But it won’t help us. We want dignity,” he says.

ALSO READ: Kashmir: Requiem For A Dream

Back in Srinagar, “pro-India” law­yer Jah­e­n­geer Dar found Ind­ia more suitable than Pakistan, pur­ely on rational grounds. Like many Kas­hmiris, he was fanatic about cricket and skipped a meeting in Srinagar because he had a match planned in Anantnag. “You should have joined us,” he smiled, and added with a tinge of sadness: “I couldn’t do well with the new ball.” When it came to the Pandits, he empathised with their tragedy but added: “If their moon has blood clots, our moon is drenched in blood.”

These were his last words that mo­r­ning, an affirmation of his liv­ed reality. But Anika Nazir, a medical student in Srinagar, had a dif­­­ferent memory. Last November, she went to Himachal Pradesh for a workshop on peace building with Kashmiri youth—Mus­lim, Pandit and Ladakhi. “There was a session when we had to wear our traditional dresses and perf­orm. We Kashmiris wore the pheran and sang our song. Ladakhis wore their dres­ses. Kash­miri Pandit students managed to wear the phe­r­an but they couldn’t sing Kash­miri songs,” she said. “They didn’t even know their songs.”

ALSO READ: In Search Of Home In Pandit Houses

The ice cubes in her mango shake were turning liquid. The girl who looked much younger than her 22 years, picked up a tissue paper and wiped her eyes. “Finally, we were asked to sha­re our life stories. We were second-generation kids. But it was surprising to find that we, Kashmiri Pandit kids and I, still shared our stories, that our stories were remarkably similar.”

And then she turned silent. There was nothing more to add. It was still possible to share your moon.

***

Using a ruthless marketing strategy and partisan visions of persecution, 'The Kashmir Files' seeks to rewrite history and distort reality.

70,000 Pandit families fled Kashmir between Dec 31, 1989-May, 1990

800 Pandit families in Kashmir now

693 Pandits killed in Kashmir till March 30, 2022

7,000 Number of Pandit families living in different migrant colonies in Jammu.

Source: Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti

(This appeared in the print edition as "Triptych of Narratives")

Biden plan to shelve Trump-era sea nuke comes under fire
By Joe Gould
Apr 1, 04:00 AM

An unarmed Trident II D5 missile launches from the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Nebraska (SSBN 739) off the coast of California on March 26, 2008. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ronald Gutridge/Navy)

WASHINGTON ― U.S. President Joe Biden’s plans to cancel the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear development program have emerged as an early dispute in a brewing fight over next year’s defense budget.

The administration’s proposed fiscal 2023 defense budget, unveiled this week, would zero out the program, in coordination with a forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review. That’s a win for progressive Democrats and non-proliferation advocates who have decried the nascent submarine-launched missile, among other nuclear weapons initiated by the Trump administration, as wasteful and escalatory.

But Republicans last year warned the Navy not to kill the SLCM-N. At a hearing Wednesday, the top Republican on the House Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Rep. Doug Lamborn, revived the pushback when he elicited support for developing the SLCM-N (and retaining the B83 gravity bomb) from the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, Gen. Tod Wolters.

When Lamborn, of Colorado, asked if Wolters agreed with Strategic Command chief Adm. Chas Richard, who supports the SLCM-N, Wolters said: “I do, congressman, and I know his words were attempting to drive home the fact that having multiple options exacerbates the challenge for the potential enemies against us.”

Lamborn argues cutting the weapon would set back the country’s nuclear deterrence efforts.

“Attempting to cut any nuclear capabilities demonstrates that this administration is either unwilling or unable to confront the reality of the threats we face. The United States needs a strong nuclear deterrence posture, underpinned by safe, secure, and effective nuclear capabilities, in order to keep our country, allies, and partners safe,” he said in a statement to Defense News.

The annual defense budget cycle is usually marked by partisan fighting over the cost and composition of the nuclear arsenal. Still, progressive Democrats may be dissatisfied this year that Biden’s $813.4 billion national defense budget includes $50.9 billon in nuclear weapons spending, up $7.7 billion from the 2022 request.

While complete budget numbers and the Nuclear Posture Review haven’t yet been released, Geoff Wilson, the political director for the Council for a Livable World, a non-proliferation group, forecasted major increases in nuclear weapons development programs. He cited the Long Range Stand Off Weapon, a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile under development by Raytheon; the new B-21 bomber, under development by Northrop Grumman; and the Columbia-class submarine.

“This is likely part of the ‘modernization bow wave’ that analysts have been warning about as these systems get further along in their development cycle all at the same time,” Wilson said. “But a programmatic greenlight from the White House on many of these systems, in both this first ‘real’ Biden defense budget as well as the new NPR, could give progressives in Congress little room to maneuver in combating these costs this year.”

The Biden budget’s defunding of the B83, 1.2 megaton gravity bomb ― which the Trump administration revived after it was slated for retirement ― is likely to renew another fight that roiled the armed services committees last year. Politico chronicled how the Senate approved Biden’s request for $52 million in life-extension funding for the weapon, and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., excised it from his chamber’s annual defense policy bill, all before hawkish Republicans mounted a failed, party-line vote to add it back.

A different fight played out last year over the SLCM-N. After Biden included $15.2 million in his 2022 budget to begin research and development on the SLCM-N, Democrats pushed back, arguing the Obama administration found a similar weapon, the nuclear armed Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, redundant and retired it.

A year ago, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a lead appropriator, and House Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Joe Courtney, of Connecticut, launched a bill to bar funding for the SLCM-N.

Courtney said then that installing nuclear warheads on Virginia-class attack submarines would sap resources from growing the Navy’s fleet and distract from the core mission of attack submarines in the Pacific and European theaters, where they are typically laden with ship-killing, conventional Tomahawk missiles.

Months later, after then-Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker issued a memo calling for the service to halt funding for the SLCM-N, Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner argued that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin should rescind the memo, citing the growing nuclear arsenals of Russia and China.

Likeminded Republicans this year are planning to seek ammunition from two provisions included in last year’s defense policy bill. One requires the Pentagon share its internal correspondence with Congress regarding the proposed budget for the SLCM-N, while the other requires the Pentagon to submit its analysis of alternatives for the missile and provide Congress with a briefing on the analysis.

“The analysis of alternatives has been done for a year; they just haven’t given it to us,” said a senior congressional official not authorized to speak on the record. “We haven’t pressed them too hard because we’ve been waiting until the NPR. Now is when the pressing is going to really start.”

About Joe Gould
Joe Gould is senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry.

Journalists who fled Belarus feel safer in Ukraine than at home


ORGANISATION
RSF_en

 April 1, 2022

“Stay or flee?” Forced to flee Belarus by the Lukashenko regime’s crackdown on independent media, Belarusian journalists who sought refuge in Ukraine are again asking this question. After interviewing four of them, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on European countries to grant asylum to those seeking it, and calls on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure those who stay are protected.

What with bureaucratic traps and blocked bank accounts, in addition to the threats and bombardments, Belarusian journalists who fled to Ukraine to escape persecution in their own country are now facing new problems linked to the sanctions that Ukraine has imposed on Belarus as a Russian ally.

 

“Between staying in Ukraine, where they are exposed to the full impact of the war and the economic sanctions imposed on their country of origin, and starting over again by seeking refuge in another country with no certainty of obtaining a residence permit, the situation of Belarusian journalists is extremely precarious,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. “We call on European leaders to adopt measures so that these journalists can find a refuge in their countries without risk of being sent back to Belarus. In addition, the Ukrainian authorities must put exceptional mechanisms in place to exclude these journalists from the economic sanctions imposed on Belarusian citizens in Ukraine.”

 

“I have no choice but to seek asylum”

 

As well as the difficult working conditions inherent to the war that all journalists in Ukraine must endure, their Belarusian colleagues face obstacles linked to their status as foreign citizens from a country allied with Russia.

 

“The problem for people like me who come from Ukraine but do not have its nationality is that we find ourselves in a legal vacuum,” RSF was told by Khleb Liapeika, a journalist with the Mediazona news site. He arrived in Lviv at the beginning of February after six months in Lithuania, and had planned to settle in the Ukrainian capital until the war upset all of his plans. He is currently based in the Polish city of Krakow.

 

“On the day of the Russian invasion, 24 February, I didn't want to leave because the city of Lviv is far from the Russian border and I didn't have a visa to be able to leave Ukraine,” he told RSF. “But the next day, I changed my mind on the recommendation of colleagues. As the Polish border guards gave me a permit to enter Poland without asking me about my Belarusian nationality, I now have no choice but to apply for asylum.”

 

However, the procedures for applying for asylum or obtaining a long-term visa for a European Union country often prove to be long and the outcome is uncertain. This is why many Belarusian journalists choose to remain in Ukraine, where Belarusian citizens do not need a visa. As a result of the war, and the suspension of air traffic between the two countries, a specific reason must be given in order to be allowed to travel. Only Georgia and Armenia are also accessible without a visa for Belarusian journalists fleeing their country.

 

“All the money I had left to live on is blocked”

 

Belarusian journalists who have fled to Ukraine are also the collateral victims of the sanctions that the Ukrainian authorities have imposed on Belarus, a Moscow ally. All four journalists contacted by RSF confirmed that the Ukrainian central bank has blocked all bank accounts and bank cards held by Belarusian citizens, as it has with those held by Russian citizens.

 

“For my move to Ukraine, I transferred all the money I had left to live on into Ukrainian accounts,” said Ales Piletski, a photo-journalist who worked for Tut.by, the leading independent Belarusian media outlet. “Now everything is blocked. When I connect to my bank's app, my account no longer even appears.”

 

“Cash is the only possible form of payment, even for those who have a residence permit,” said Aliaksandr Mikruku, a photo-journalist still based in Kyiv as a correspondent for Belsat TV, a Belarusian TV news channel run by Belarusian exile journalists from a base in Poland. “Fortunately, colleagues and friends can help me.”

 

The journalist and blogger Sergei Prokhorov has also chosen to stay and keep working in Ukraine in order to cover the situation there, despite financial difficulties and complicated working conditions.

 

“The danger doesn’t come from the Ukrainians, even if there’s sometimes some mistrust towards Russian or Belarusian refugees like me, but from the bombardments and threats from the Russian occupation forces,” Prokhorov told RSF. “Although work opportunities are limited, I plan to stay in Ukraine and help as a journalist and as a civilian, maybe even participate in defence activity. I hope to be able to obtain Ukrainian citizenship after the war.”

 

“Despite the war, I feel safer here than in my native country”

 

None of the four journalists plans to return to Belarus. “Despite the war, I feel safer in Ukraine than in my native country,” Mikruku said. “Here, we can report what is happening without any problem, we can tell the truth. Our TV channel has an official local branch in Ukraine [unlike in Belarus, where it is banned]. If something similar to the Russian invasion had happened in Belarus, we would have had to hide from both the occupiers and our government. Here the Russians are waging a war against Ukraine. In my country, it is the authorities who are waging a ‘war’ against us, the journalists.”

 

Piletski was one of the victims of that violent and systematic crackdown. “In Belarus, I was constantly prevented from working by the authorities, who arrested me without reason, threatened me with imprisonment, or tried to confiscate my equipment. On 24 June 2020, masked people abducted me from the street, throttled me, put me in a van and beat me up before handing me over to the police, who asked me to surrender the photos I had taken during a demonstration.”

 

The situation of journalists in Belarus has worsened steadily ever since President Lukashenko’s disputed reelection in August 2020, and independent media are persecuted relentlessly by the authorities, as RSF documented in a report published jointly with the World Organisation Against Torture last year. A total of 34 media workers are currently detained arbitrarily in Belarus, almost all independent media outlets are banned, and circulating their “extremist” content is punishable by imprisonment.

 

Ukraine is ranked 97th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index, while Belarus is ranked 158th.