Syrians aid Ukrainians in ties forged by war

Members of the Syrian White Helmets use a dummy to demonstrate rescue skills in an instructive film intended for Ukrainians 


Syrians are mobilising to share with Ukrainians bitter knowledge gleaned from years of war involving Russian forces 

The White Helmets have worked as first responders, rescuing thousands from under the rubble of homes shelled by Russian and regime forces in rebel-held areas of Syria 

A unique bond has grown between Ukrainians and Syrians, as both seek accountability for the ravages inflicted by Russian forces in their countries

PHOTOS  (AFP/OMAR HAJ KADOUR)

Lynne Al-Nahhas
Mon, April 11, 2022

Syrians are mobilising to support Ukrainians, sharing hard-earned knowledge gleaned from years of war involving Russian forces, such as surviving shelling, helping refugees and responding to chemical attacks.

With both Ukrainians and Syrians seeking accountability for the ravages inflicted by Russian forces in their countries, they feel a unique bond is growing between them.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's grip on power had appeared to be hanging by a thread after the civil war erupted in 2011, until Russian forces stepped in four years later turning the conflict in the regime's favour.

"From our experiences in Syria, we might be among those most able of understanding the pain of the people of Ukraine," said Raed al-Saleh, head of the Syria Civil Defence force, known as the White Helmets.

"Syrians have lived the shelling, killing, and displacement brought on them by Russian forces.

"The time and place have changed, but the victim is the same -- civilians -- and the killer is the same -- the Russian regime," he told AFP.

During the fighting in Syria, which has claimed over 500,000 lives, the White Helmets have worked as first responders, rescuing thousands from under the rubble of homes shelled by Russian and regime forces in rebel-held areas of Syria.

The fate of Ukraine's besieged southeastern port of Mariupol, the scene of some of Moscow's fiercest assaults, has drawn comparisons with the eastern districts of Syria's northwestern city of Aleppo.

The former rebel stronghold was levelled by air strikes in 2016, during a months-long siege.

"Look at the city of Mariupol. This is exactly what we've seen in the city of Aleppo in Syria," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told an international forum last month.

He wanted to convey a message that "'Russia was always a bad actor, Aleppo is proof of that and now it is our turn to suffer'," Emile Hokayem, analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP.

- 'We warned you' -

This shared suffering has prompted a series of initiatives.

A coalition of groups has launched the Syria Ukraine Network (SUN) that has helped Syrian doctors travel to Ukraine, said coordinator Olga Lautman, a Ukrainian living in Washington.

"We will be coordinating (with) Syrian experts on war crimes documentation and chemical attacks," Lautman told AFP.

It came from "the desire of Syrians to use their expertise to help", she said, describing the "bond" forming between the two peoples.

In northwestern Idlib, one of the last remaining rebel areas in Syria, doctors at the Academy of Health Sciences are training Ukrainian doctors and nurses online, its president Abdullah Abdulaziz Alhaji said.

Ukrainians are mainly asking to learn about chemical attacks, he said. "They want to benefit from our experience."

Although no chemical weapons use has been confirmed in Ukraine, chlorine or sulphur gas attacks were recorded during the Syrian conflict, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

White Helmets rescuers are also filming tutorial videos for Ukrainians on treating casualties.

On the Ukrainian-Romanian border, Syrian Omar Alshakal, founder of Refugee4Refugees association, has been assisting Ukrainians fleeing war.

And Ukrainian and Syrian activists will Wednesday launch a "Freedom and Justice Convoy" from Paris to the Ukrainian-Polish border to show the "Syrian people's solidarity".

"Syrians are keen to embrace the cause of Ukraine because it helps revive fading international attention to their own tragedy and to tell Westerners: 'We warned you but you preferred to look away'," said Hokayem.

- 'Accountability' -

Charles Lister, from the Middle East Institute, noted Syrian activists have "sought to ride this wave of anti-Russian sentiment, to bolster the Syrian cause, but also to foster new, meaningful geopolitical relationships in Ukraine."

Syrian opposition leaders had met Ukrainian leaders on the sidelines of international gatherings, and "their shared experiences have been clear cause for unity," he told AFP.

The most important question for both is whether Moscow -- and in Syria the Kremlin-backed President Assad -- will ever be held accountable.

"If Putin was held accountable for his crimes in Ukraine, this means that he will be held accountable for his crimes in Syria as well. But if Putin gets away with it, then the next crime will only be a matter of time," said the White Helmets' Saleh.

Last month, Amnesty International's Agnes Callamard noted the situation in Ukraine "is a repetition of what we have seen in Syria".

Many have pointed to similarities in Russian tactics in Syria and Ukraine -- from targeting infrastructure to establishing so-called safe corridors and truces aiming to empty cities.

Moscow had shown a "lack of moral principles ... whether in its actions in Syria or Ukraine," said Ivan Cherevychny, 71, a resident of the Ukrainian town of Zaporizhzhia.

He also slammed "the irresponsible attitude of the United Nations and world leaders" faced with the two crises.

Others alleged that several commanders now playing leading roles in the Russian invasion had been involved in the Syrian war, naming among others Alexander Lapin and Alexander Dvornikov, commander of Russia's forces in Syria in 2016.

"Russia used Syria as a training ground for testing the effectiveness of strikes against the residential, social, and economic infrastructure," said a prominent Ukrainian lawyer-turned-fighter from Kyiv, who only wanted to be identified as Oleg.

Destroying the infrastructure makes the country "unsuitable for life," he added.

DECENDENTS OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

'Silent pain' of Algerians banished by France to the Pacific

Thomas Bernardi with Amal Belalloufi in Tunis
Mon, 11 April 2022,



Algerians walk near the Porte d'Alger on July 2, 1958 at Fort National in Kabylia, the ancestral home region of Christophe Sand who is descended from Algerian convicts deported to New Caledonia (AFP/-)

On the 60th anniversary of Algeria's independence from France, descendants of the North Africans deported to the Pacific territory of New Caledonia remember the "silent pain" of their ancestors.

Between 1864 and 1897, as French colonial troops advanced through Algeria, 2,100 people were tried by special or military courts and deported.

They were sent in chains around 18,500 kilometres (11,500 miles) to the other side of the world, to a penal colony on the Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia.

The palm-fringed islands east of Australia are one of France's biggest overseas territories.

"The number of dead, whose bodies were thrown overboard, during the crossing, remains unknown," said Taieb Aifa, whose father was on the last convoy of convicts bought to the colony in 1898.

Those who survived the tough journey became known as the "straw hats" -- a nod to the convicts' headgear as they worked in the blazing sun.

Today, their descendants say that so great is the pain, the story has to be "almost prized from them," Aifa told AFP.

Aifa described a five-month journey to the islands, during which convicts were "chained in the holds" of ships.

For many years, even speaking about his ancestors' tale was taboo.

"A code of silence reigned in the families of deportees," said 89-year-old Aifa, now regarded as a pillar of New Caledonia's "Arab community" after serving as mayor of the small town of Bourail for 30 years.

- Colonised 'became coloniser' -

Aifa's father was sentenced to 25 years for fighting against the French army in Setif, in eastern Algeria.

"From the colonised in Algeria, they became colonisers... On land confiscated from the Kanaks", he said, referring to New Caledonia's indigenous inhabitants.

"In New Caledonia, the French state aimed, as in Algeria, to create a settlement," Aifa said.

Christophe Sand, an archaeologist at the IRD Research Centre in Noumea, who is also the descendant of convicts, said that "the deportees were transformed into colonists".

While some French convicts were later able to bring their wives, it was forbidden for the Algerians.

Those sentenced to more than eight years in prison -- the majority -- were not allowed to return to Algeria after their sentence, said Sand.

"This process must have abandoned 3,000 to 5,000 orphans in Algeria", he said.

Maurice Sotirio, the grandson of a convict from Constantine in northeast Algeria, described the heartbreaking trauma of his family's past.

"My grandfather left two children in Algeria whom he never saw again", Sotirio said.

The suffering continued even in freedom.

In New Caledonia, the Algerians were second-class citizens since they often did not speak French, but Arabic or Berber, said Sand.

Their children suffered from the stigma, and only a few families kept hold of their origins.

At the end of the 1960s, the descendants came together to form an association, the "Arabs and friends of the Arabs of New Caledonia".

The islands -- so-called because a British sailor thought they looked like Scotland -- have been French territory since 1853.

Today, they have about 270,000 inhabitants, with the economy's mainstays the production of metals, especially nickel, of which New Caledonia is a major global producer.

Algeria, which Paris regarded as an integral part of France, is this year marking six decades since its 1962 independence following a devastating eight-year war.

- 'Healing process' -

In 2006, Aifa took his first trip to Algeria.

He said the visit was like "bringing back his father who, like other Arabs, had suffered from not being able to return and die in his native country".

Aifa, while proud of his Caledonian heritage, also celebrates his roots in Algeria.

"I am also Algerian, I have a link with Algeria, family, land... I managed to obtain my Algerian papers 20 years ago", he said.

Sand, who also travelled to Algeria with two other descendants, said he felt he was "carrying his ancestor on his shoulders" on the flight.

"When I saw, through the porthole, the port of Algiers, where my great-grandfather and his companions had been thrown into the hold, I felt the urge to scream," he said.

Arriving at his ancestral home in the village of Agraradj in the northern Kabylia region, he bent down to touch the earth.

"I felt that the symbolic weight that I had on my shoulders since the beginning of the journey had disappeared," he said. "I brought his exiled spirit back to the place where he was born".

For Sand, you have to go through "this process of healing, of closing the door" to "build a future" in New Caledonia.

"Healing from the trauma of exile allows the Caledonians that we are today to project ourselves into the future, without remaining prisoners of the past," Sand said.

In new shake-up, French politics fragments into three blocs

Power alternated for decades between the two main parties -- the Socialists and Republicans -- before Emmanuel Macron grabbed power in 2017 

(AFP/Nicolas TUCAT)


Fabien ZAMORA
Mon, April 11, 2022

France's political landscape is now fragmented into three blocs -- the centre, far-right and radical left -- after the abysmal performance of traditional parties in the presidential election.

Power alternated for decades until the 2010s between the two main parties -- the Socialists and Republicans -- before Emmanuel Macron took power in 2017 with a centrist platform.

His meteoric emergence -- and pillaging of key traditional right and left figures for his own centrist movement -- pushed the political centre of gravity on the left and right to the extremes.

Now, the traditional parties struggle to get even five percent of the vote, a situation that creates not just political but also financial problems for them under the French system.

"The first round of this presidential election confirms the three-way split of the electorate and the creation of three blocs with pretty much equal weight," said political scientist Gael Brustier.

It's the "cornerstone of the new world of French politics", he wrote in a Slate column.

Marine Le Pen, who will go head-to-head with Macron on April 24 in the second round of the election, and her National Rally (RN) party embody the far-right bloc.

Macron represents the centre while Jean-Luc Melenchon and his France Unbowed (LFI) party are the focus of the far left, taking a strong third place in Sunday's polls.

"The French political landscape has redefined itself around three political forces: a bloc which unites the centre-left and centre-right, embodied by Macron, the radical left, and far-right," Bernard Poignant, a former Socialist mayor who now supports Macron, told the Ouest France newspaper

- 'Season 2' -

Socialist Party candidate Anne Hidalgo and the Republicans hopeful Valerie Pecresse were crushed on Sunday, winning only 1.75 percent and 4.78 percent of the vote respectively.

They now find themselves in dire financial straits since they finished below the five percent threshold for having campaign spending largely reimbursed by the state.

Financial woes are familiar to the Socialists. The party was forced to sell its historical headquarters in late 2017 to try to salvage its finances.

And Pecresse has launched a humiliating appeal for donations to try to save the party as it faces a 7.0-million-euro ($7.6 million) hole in its finances.

"The breakdown and reshaping of French political life began in 2017 with the advent of Macronism and the collapse of the Socialist Party," political scientist Jerome Fourquet told France Inter radio.

"And we watched season two yesterday (Sunday)..., the confirmation of the obliteration of the Socialists, the second historical pillar in the French political landscape, and the Republicans have been devastated as well," Fourquet said.

The last Socialist president was Francois Hollande, a deeply unpopular leader who never ran for a second term.

"What is the Socialists' reason for existing? What is the Republicans' reason for existing in a political system where you have a radical left, a central bloc that goes from the centre left to the right, and a far-right bloc?" asked Brice Teinturier, head of Ipsos polling company, told AFP.

"It's extremely difficult to find," he said.

- 'Elitist bloc?' -

However, unity within the extreme blocs is more fragile because of their diverse social make-up, rendering them more difficult to structure.

"I reject the idea of three blocs, left, centre and right," said pollster and political scientist Jerome Sainte-Marie at PollingVox. He sees a clash between an "elitist bloc" including the wealthy behind Macron, and a double "popular bloc".

Sainte-Marie pointed to "an alignment of managers and the retired" supporting Macron in the elitist bloc that unites individuals from a higher social class.

The popular bloc is "more mixed", with private-sector workers supporting Le Pen, while public sector workers and immigrant populations usually opt for Melenchon.

Melenchon benefitted from the support of other leftist formations, like the ecologists.

In addition to his base, he has "new reinforcements" with quite significant increases in... voters of immigrant origin", political scientist Fourquet said, adding that Melenchon had captured "even more of the culturally left-wing, teachers, students".

French Greens face crisis after failed presidential bid

 France's Greens party were facing a crisis on Monday after a deeply disappointing presidential election saw their candidate finish sixth and struggle to put climate change on the national agenda. The Covid-19 pandemic overshadowed the start of campaigning before Russia's invasion of Ukraine changed the dynamic completely, making foreign policy and the rocketing cost of living key issues for voters, as FRANCE 24's Environment Editor Valérie Dekimpe explains.

Albania's former 'Stalin City' looks West with NATO airbase


The renovation project was agreed in 2018 by the Balkan state and NATO, which has already committed $55 million (50.4 million euros) to the project 

Officials are also hoping the base, which once employed 700 people, will create new jobs in the poor region, 85 kilometres south of the capital Tirana

The aircraft now languishing on the airbase mainly consist of Chinese and Soviet MiGs, Soviet-made Antonovs and Yak-18s

The authorities have to yet to decide whether they will be auctioned, put in a museum or turned into scrap metal 

PHOTOS (AFP/Gent SHKULLAKU)

Briseida MEMA
Mon, April 11, 2022

In an Albanian city once named for Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, dozens of Soviet- and Chinese-made planes rust in the open air on a former communist airbase, some with flat tyres, others covered with dust.

The site in the central city now called Kucova is being transformed into a modern NATO airbase, a symbol of Albania's westward shift -- and a key military buffer in Europe as Russia wages war in Ukraine.

The renovation project was agreed in 2018 by the Balkan state and NATO, which has already committed $55 million (50.4 million euros) to the project, according to Albanian sources.

Construction began at the beginning of the year, ahead of Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine that has sparked fears of a spillover into NATO and EU member states.


Though the timing of the Kucova base redevelopment was a coincidence, for some it is a welcome one.

"The changed global security environment has now created considerable impetus for the completion of the (base) renovation plan," a NATO official in Brussels told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The base, due to be completed in 2023, will give the "alliance an important strategic facility in the Western Balkans, within short reach of the Mediterranean, Middle East and the Black Sea region", the NATO official said.

- 'Clear message' -

After decades of global isolation, Albania became a NATO member in 2009.

It was shunned by much of the world under paranoid Communist dictator Enver Hoxha, who forged close ties with the Soviet Union and China before falling out with them over their apparent deviation from true Marxism.

The country embraced the West after the fall of the communist regime in 1990, and today is eager to become an EU member.

The defunct aircraft at the Kucova base are reminders of a chapter of Albania's history many are happy to leave behind -- and a signal to Russia which has sought to extend its influence in the region.

"The construction of this base is a clear message to other players with bad intentions in the Western Balkans region," Albania's Defence Minister Niko Peleshi told AFP.

The construction is certain to irk Moscow, which strongly opposes any NATO expansion into eastern and central Europe -- especially in the Balkans which has traditionally been torn between East and West.

Today, Albania's neighbours Croatia, Montenegro and Northern Macedonia are all part of NATO too.

For Seit Putro, who has worked in the finance department at the base for more than 30 years, it's a welcome confirmation of Albania's political allegiances.

"Once in the East, we are now in our place, next to the West, which is a good step forward for all," he told AFP.

- Job creation -

The 350-hectare (865-acre) site in the former 'Stalin City' was built in the 1950s under Hoxha with help from the Soviets, and completed later with a network of the same kind of underground tunnels that were dug across the country in case of nuclear attack.

Once the NATO renovation is finished, it will function as a tactical operational base, kitted out with a refurbished runway more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) long, an updated control tower and new storage units.

It will have the capacity to host state-of-the-art military aircraft and can also be used for refuelling and ammunition storage.

Officials are also hoping the base, which once employed 700 people, will create new jobs in the poor region, 85 kilometres south of the capital Tirana.

It will have a "very positive economic and social impact", said deputy commander of the base, Major Leandro Syka.

- 'Natural alliance' -

The aircraft now languishing on the airbase mainly consist of Chinese and Soviet MiGs, Soviet-made Antonovs and Yak-18s.

At the end of the Cold War, the base had about 200 planes and 40 helicopters, which were put out of commission as they were obsolete.

About 75 remain today, and their fate remains uncertain.

The authorities have to yet to decide whether they will be auctioned, put in a museum or turned into scrap metal.

For some, they hold painful memories from past conflicts.

Former pilot Niazi Nelaj remembers clearly his first flight aboard a Mig-15, which bore bullet marks from combat in distant Asian countries.

But the 85-year-old is happy to see the airbase aligned with NATO, and he believes Albania's previous pivot toward the East was only an "accident of history".

"Albania's natural alliance has always been and will be with the West," he said.

bme-ev/ljv/gw

Syria's Ramadan drummers defiant as tradition wanes

Traditional dawn awakeners known as 'Musaharati' beat drums and chant religious songs to wake up Muslims before sunrise for the 'suhur' meal before the day's fast during the holy month of Ramadan - LOUAI BESHARA

by Maher AL MOUNES
April 11, 2022 — Damascus (AFP)

Ramadan drummers who awaken the faithful for their pre-dawn meal are dying out across the Muslim world but the tradition lives on in Syria's capital despite growing reliance on smart phones.

Around one hour before the call to prayer rings out at dawn, Ramadan drummers, known as Musaharati, walk through narrow streets to wake the faithful.

They include Hasan al-Rashi, 60, one of the 30 Musaharati left in Damascus.

His voice breaks the nightime silence in the capital's Old City, as he sings and pounds his drum.

"Despite the advent of smart phones and other technologies, people still like to wake up to the voice of the Musaharati," Rashi told AFP.

"The Musaharati is a part of the customs and traditions of the people of Damascus during the month of Ramadan," he added.

"It is a heritage that we will not leave behind."

While performing his Musaharati task, Rashi carries a bamboo cane in one hand and a drum made of goatskin in the other.

He walks quickly from home to home, using his stick to tap on doors of families who have asked for his services.

"Wake up for Suhur (pre-dawn meal), Ramadan has come to visit you," Rashi sings.

- 'Duty' -


Although they do receive gifts, the Musaharati don't usually expect financial rewards.

They sometimes carry bags or straw baskets to store food and other gifts that are given to them.

For Rashi, it's not about the freebies.

"We feel joy when we go out every day," he said.

"Some children follow us sometimes and ask to beat the drum," Rashi added.

Ahead of the call to prayer, Sharif Resho asks one of his neighbours for a glass of water before the start of his fast.

The 51-year-old Musaharati usually accompanies Rashi every night, also beating his drum and singing.

"My equipment is simple, it is my voice, my drum and my stick," he said.

Resho, whose father was also a Ramadan drummer, has carried out Musaharati duties for nearly a quarter of a century.

Syria's more than decade-long war and the coronavirus pandemic did not stop him from carrying on, he said.

"I will keep waking people up for Suhur as long as I have a voice in my throat," Resho told AFP.

"It is a duty I inherited from my father, that I will pass on to my son."

US monitoring rise in rights abuses in India, Blinken says

REUTERS
April 12, 2022

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was monitoring what he described as a rise in human rights abuses in India by some officials, in a rare direct rebuke by Washington of the Asian nation’s rights record.

“We regularly engage with our Indian partners on these shared values (of human rights) and to that end, we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials,” Blinken said on Monday in a joint press briefing with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.

Blinken did not elaborate. Singh and Jaishankar, who spoke after Blinken at the briefing, did not comment on the human rights issue.

Blinken’s remarks came days after US Representative Ilhan Omar questioned the alleged reluctance of the US government to criticize Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on human rights.

“What does Modi need to do to India’s Muslim population before we will stop considering them a partner in peace?” Omar, who belongs to President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, said last week.

Modi’s critics say his Hindu nationalist ruling party has fostered religious polarization since coming to power in 2014.

Since Modi came to power, right-wing Hindu groups have launched attacks on minorities claiming they are trying to prevent religious conversions. Several Indian states have passed or are considering anti-conversion laws that challenge the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief.

In 2019, the government passed a citizenship law that critics said undermined India’s secular constitution by excluding Muslim migrants from neighboring countries. The law was meant to grant Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 2015.

In the same year, soon after his 2019 re-election win, Modi’s government revoked the special status of Kashmir in a bid to fully integrate the Muslim-majority region with the rest of the country. To keep a lid on protests, the administration detained many Kashmir political leaders and sent many more paramilitary police and soldiers to the Himalayan region also claimed by Pakistan.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently banned wearing the hijab in classrooms in Karnataka state. Hard-line Hindu groups later demanded such restrictions in more Indian states.

Embattled Sri Lanka PM appeals for 'patience' from protesters


Protesters have rallied daily since Saturday against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Colombo and across the island nation, calling for his government's removal

 (AFP/Ishara S. KODIKARA) (Ishara S. KODIKARA)

Mon, April 11, 2022

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa pleaded for "patience" Monday as thousands continued to take to the streets to protest his family's rule, with public anger at a fever pitch over the country's crippling economic crisis.

Sri Lanka's 22 million residents have seen weeks of power blackouts and severe shortages of food, fuel and even life-saving medicine in the country's worst downturn since independence in 1948.

Protesters have rallied daily since Saturday against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa -- Mahinda's younger brother -- in Colombo and across the island nation, chanting "Gota go home" and calling for his government's removal.

In his first address since the crisis, Mahinda -- the patriarch of the powerful Rajapaksa family omnipresent in Sri Lanka's politics for two decades -- said he needed more time to pull the nation out of the deep end.

"Even if we can’t stop this crisis in two or three days, we will solve it as soon as possible," Rajapaksa said in his televised address.

"Every minute you protest on the streets, we lose an opportunity to earn dollars for the country," he said.

"Please remember that the country needs your patience at this critical moment."

Pressure on the powerful Rajapaksa family has intensified in recent days, with the country's vital business community also withdrawing support for them over the weekend.

Mahinda did not directly address the growing calls for him and Gotabaya to step down, but he defended his administration by saying that opposition parties had rejected their offer to form a unity government.

"We invited all other parties to come forward and take up the challenge, but they did not, so we will do it on our own," he said, also blaming Sri Lanka's ballooning foreign debt on the pandemic.

While the coronavirus-spurred restrictions and stoppages have torpedoed Sri Lanka's vital tourism-driven economy, experts say the crisis was exacerbated by government mismanagement, years of accumulated borrowing and ill-advised tax cuts.

The government is preparing for bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund this week, with finance ministry officials saying that sovereign bond-holders and other creditors may have to take a haircut.

Sri Lanka expects $3 billion from the IMF to support the island's balance of payments in the next three years.

aj/dhc

Afghans protest Iranian mistreatment of refugees

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
11 April, 2022

Dozens of Afghans chanting "Death to Iran" protested Monday outside Tehran's consulate in the western city of Herat after videos allegedly showing Afghan refugees being beaten by Iranians went viral over the weekend.

The authenticity of the videos could not be independently verified (Getty)


Dozens of Afghans chanting "Death to Iran" protested Monday outside Tehran's consulate in the western city of Herat after videos allegedly showing Afghan refugees being beaten by Iranians went viral over the weekend.

Iran, which hosts more than five million Afghan refugees, has seen a fresh influx of Afghans entering the country since the Taliban stormed back to power last August.

But on Monday, angry Afghans staged protests in Herat and some other cities against Tehran after videos showing alleged Iranian border guards and Iranian mobs beating Afghan refugees in Iran circulated on social media networks over the weekend, though it was unclear when the images were filmed.

One video seemed to show Iranian border guards beating Afghan refugees in a room, while other footage appeared to show a group of Iranians dragging and beating refugees in a compound in Iran.

The authenticity of these videos could not be independently verified.

"Death to Iran! Iran is a killer state!" chanted protesters as they gathered outside the Iranian consulate in Herat, an AFP correspondent reported.

Protesters burnt the Iranian flag and broke CCTV cameras installed at the consulate before dispersing.

"Where are the human rights organisations? They are beating our people... but nobody is raising a voice," said Shakib, a protester in Herat.

Hours after Monday's protest in Herat, Iran's foreign ministry in a statement on its website called on the Taliban authorities to provide "the necessary guarantees for the safe operation of these missions" in Afghanistan.

The Iranian embassy in Kabul on Sunday had dismissed the beating videos, saying they were "baseless and invalid" and aimed at harming the historical relations between the two countries.

It further said that Iran's border forces had the authority to prevent any foreigner from illegally entering the country.

On Monday, a similar anti-Iran protest was held in the southeastern city of Khost, and a demonstration was staged outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul.

Since the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan has plunged further into economic crisis, pushing even those without links to the former Western-backed government to scramble for an exit.

Thousands of people daily try to cross into neighbouring Iran in search of work, or in a bid to reach Europe in the hope of asylum.

Iran, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Afghanistan, has so far not recognised the Taliban government.

Illegal mining, abuses surge on Indigenous land in Brazil: Report

Report accuses illegal miners of committing rape, other acts of violence in Indigenous communities in Brazilian Amazon.

Munduruku Indigenous people carry a banner with text written in Portuguese that reads 'Mining Kills', during a march for the demarcation of Indigenous lands on April 6 in Brasilia

 [Eraldo Peres/AP Photo]

Published On 11 Apr 202211 Apr 2022

Illegal gold mining surged by a record amount last year on Brazil’s biggest Indigenous reservation, according to a new report that carried chilling accounts of abuses by miners, including extorting sex from women and girls.

The area scarred by “garimpo”, or wildcat gold mining, on the Yanomami reservation in the Amazon rainforest increased by 46 percent in 2021, to 3,272 hectares (8,085 acres), said a report by the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY) on Monday.

That is the biggest annual increase since monitoring began in 2018.

“This is the worst moment of invasion since the reservation was established 30 years ago,” said the Indigenous rights group in the report, which was based on satellite images and interviews with inhabitants.

“In addition to deforesting our lands and destroying our waters, illegal mining for gold and cassiterite [a key tin ingredient] on Yanomami territory has brought an explosion of malaria and other infectious diseases … and a frightening surge of violence against Indigenous people.”

Men search for gold at an illegal mine in the Amazon in the Itaituba area of Para state, Brazil 

[File: Lucas Dumphreys/AP Photo]

Illegal mining has soared in the Amazon as gold prices have surged in recent years.

Mining destroyed a record 125sq km (48sq miles) of the Brazilian Amazon last year, according to official figures.

Illegal miners with links to organised crime are accused of numerous abuses in Indigenous communities, including poisoning rivers with the mercury used to separate gold from sediment and sometimes deadly attacks on residents.

The report comes as far-right President Jair Bolsonaro pushes legislation to legalise mining on Indigenous lands, drawing protests from Indigenous groups and environmentalists.

The Yanomami, one of the Amazon’s most iconic Indigenous groups, related a harrowing series of abuses.

They included miners giving Yanomami alcohol and drugs, then sexually abusing and raping women and girls.

ANYONE WHO HAS TAKEN FIRST YEAR ANTHROPOLOGY KNOWS OF THE YANOMAMI

The Yanomami said miners often demanded sex in exchange for food. One miner reportedly demanded an arranged “marriage” with an adolescent girl in exchange for “merchandise” he never delivered.

“Indigenous women see the miners as a terrible threat,” said HAY, condemning “a climate of terror and permanent fear”.

The Yanomami reservation spans 9.7 million hectares (24 million acres) in northern Brazil, with approximately 29,000 inhabitants, including the Yanomami, the Ye’kwana and six isolated groups who have almost no contact with the outside world.

Brazilian environmental and Indigenous authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the AFP news agency on the report.

SOURCE: AFP

Starbucks CEO to unionizing baristas: 

‘Why don’t you go somewhere else?’

By Ariel Zilber
April 11, 2022 1

Starbucks interim CEO Howard Schultz reportedly lashed out at a barista involved in unionization efforts in Southern California on Friday.

WireImage

Interim Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz reportedly lashed out at a coffee chain barista who was leading a unionization drive at one of the company’s California locations, telling the worker: “If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?”

The alleged encounter between Schultz and the 25-year-old barista, Madison Hall, took place at Long Beach Airport on Friday, Hall has claimed.

Schultz, 68, has embarked on a tour of Starbucks locations nationwide in an apparent bid to dissuade his employees from voting to join unions, according to the pro-union news site More Perfect Union.

Schultz released a statement to The Post saying: “With significant pressures leading to the fracturing of our partner and customer experiences, I’ve been transparent about our missteps and the reason for my return – to reimagine Starbucks – built on our core values and guiding principles.”

“I have complete confidence that together we will restore the trust and belief of our partners and deliver an elevated Starbucks Experience to our partners and customers,” the interim CEO said.

Schultz added that the “collaboration sessions” with employees “have not been without efforts at disruption by union organizers”– though he did not allude specifically to Hall’s accusations.

The reported incident took place during a meeting between Schultz and company employees at Long Beach Airport.AP

Hall, who is leading an organizing drive of workers at a Starbucks restaurant in Long Beach, was invited to a meeting with Schultz and some two dozen other employees from other stores in the region, the site said.

The meeting, which was held at a building on the grounds of Long Beach Airport, began with a videotaped speech by Schultz from a week ago in which the interim CEO blasted Starbucks Workers United, the group behind the organizing drive.

Schultz, who recently re-assumed the helm of the company after former CEO Kevin Johnson left the firm, called the group “outsiders trying to take our people” while waging an “assault” on the coffee chain.

He then appeared in person to take part in a question-and-answer session with workers. Earlier last week, Schultz held similar give-and-takes with employees in Seattle and Chicago.

A Starbucks spokesperson told More Perfect Union that the “focus of the meeting was about ways we can improve the partner experience and the various ways we can co-create the future of Starbucks together.”

Schultz has tried to dissuade employees at the coffee chain’s 9,000 US restaurants from joining unions.

SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett

Hall told More Perfect Union that when Hall confronted Schultz over reports that Starbucks was firing employees who were active in organizing, the interim CEO cut Hall off.

“Then he went into a long rant about the history of Starbucks and how he used to be poor,” Hall said. “I said, ‘You say you’re not anti-union, but on July 1, 2021, [Starbucks was] found guilty of retaliation in Philadelphia,'” Hall said, referring to a National Labor Relations Board ruling that found the company acted against two baristas who were trying to unionize.

“That was when he got super-defensive and cut me off, saying, ‘We’re not talking about this,'” Hall claimed. “It was very, very bad. He was getting very aggressive with me.”

“And then he went on another rant, and he told everyone else that he’s sorry that this was brought up, that this isn’t what [the event] was about, and he had his hand pointed towards me like I was a problem,” Hall claimed.

So far, workers at 16 Starbucks locations in the US have voted to form unions.AFP via Getty Images

A spokesperson for Starbucks told the pro-union news site: “Howard and others in the room requested to get back on track and shift the focus back on the whiteboarding sessions and what they were working on together.”

Starbucks management suffered a weekend of more setbacks as six more shops — all of them in upstate New York — voted to unionize.

Employees at another Starbucks location in Boston also voted to join a union on Monday, according to More Perfect Union.

Two stores in Rochester and another in Buffalo — the city where the unionization campaign first started — voted to form a union on Thursday afternoon. The next day, three more shops in Ithaca also approved unionization efforts. That brings the total number of Starbucks stores that have voted to form unions to 16.

Nationwide, there are more than 9,000 restaurants owned by the coffee chain.

The labor movement has been chalking up several significant victories of late. Last week, workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island voted to unionize — a first for the mega-retailer that has worked to snuff out similar efforts by organized labor.