Monday, August 07, 2023

Reconciliation but No Resolution to Poland’s and Ukraine’s Memory War

By Alex Perez-Reyes on August 7, 2023

KENNAN INSTITUTE
CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND PEACEBUILDING HISTORICAL

Lviv, Ukraine—January 11, 2023: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and Polish President Andrzej Duda visit Lychakiv Cemetery during their visit to Lviv.

On the eve of last month’s NATO summit in Vilnius, the presidents of Poland and Ukraine came together to try to resolve a long-simmering dispute: how to countenance and characterize the Volhynia massacres of 1943 to 1945, which Poland regards as genocide and Ukraine regards as the unfortunate actions of partisan groups against the Poles, with subsequent retaliatory killings of Ukrainian citizens. When Presidents Andrzej Duda and Volodymyr Zelensky placed commemorative candles in a Catholic cathedral during an ecumenical service in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, they continued a pattern of presidential interventions that, while highly symbolic, has failed to bring resolution to this memory war.

A Brief History of the Volhynia Massacres and Their Commemoration

While the present-day meaning of the Volhynia massacres remains hotly contested, historians generally concur on the details of the events themselves. Between 1943 and 1945, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Bandera faction (OUN-B) and the Ukrainian Partisan Army (UPA) organized the massacre of approximately 50,000–60,000 Poles in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions, parts of the interwar Polish territories seized by the Soviet Union according to the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The OUN and UPA aimed to make these ethnically heterogenous regions definitively Ukrainian and to “cleanse the entire revolutionary territory of the Polish population.” In response to this ethnic cleansing campaign, Poles retaliated against Ukrainian civilians, killing approximately 2,000 people.

SEE

UKRAINIAN NATIONALIST ARMY OUN–UPA AND THE NAZI GENOCIDE

Historical representation of the wartime accounts of the activities of the OUN–UPA (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Ukrainian Insurgent Army)

Presidents Duda and Zelensky are not the first leaders of their countries to try to reconcile strongly different national views over the violent incidents of this period. Twenty years ago, Presidents Kwaśniewski and Kuchma attended the unveiling of a commemorative monument in the Volhynia region and called for remembrance and reconciliation. In 2016, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko laid flowers and lit a candle at Warsaw’s monument to the victims of the Volhynia massacre[MP1], becoming the first Ukrainian official to visit the site. Unfortunately, this latest presidential attempt at reconciliation seems destined to meet the same fate as its predecessors owing to several crucial gaps in its proposed memory narrative.

Honor Victims Generally, Name No Perpetrators

The seeds for the downfall of this latest attempt at reconciliation lie in the very language the presidents used to describe the event. In parallel Twitter statements, they proclaimed: “Together we pay tribute to all the innocent victims of Volhynia! Memory unites us! Together we are stronger.” While the statement seems to project unity and agreement on this tragic past, it obscures the past more than resolves it. Similarly to how Soviet war memorials decentered the Jewishness of Holocaust victims through subsuming phrases such as “peaceful Soviet citizens,” the statement aims to strip the dead of their nationality and commemorate them as nationless victims. This is particularly problematic because Poles died in greater numbers than Ukrainians during the massacres and were killed as part of a deliberately organized ethnic cleansing campaign. Such attempts to achieve reconciliation by commemorating victims in a denationalized way cannot do justice to their memory.

It is worth noting the absent third party to this historical conflict: the Jewish victims of the OUN and UPA. Volhynia, for instance, had a Jewish minority amounting to 10 percent of the population prior to the war. Many of the UPA recruits in 1943 came from the ranks of the auxiliary policeman who just the year before had collaborated in the execution of over 150,000 Volhynian Jews. The exclusion of these victims from the narrative of the Volhynia massacres is a grave injustice to their memory.

Also unnamed in this statement are the perpetrators of the crimes themselves. Nowhere in the statement are the OUN or UPA named and directly condemned for their violent actions. Like the joint statements that came before it, which refer only to “those who were tragically killed” by unspecified perpetrators, the Duda-Zelensky statement eschews the question of culpability and thereby allows Ukraine to continue to cultivate the memory of the OUN and UPA as national heroes. Unnamed and unblamed for the Volhynia massacres, the OUN and UPA remain key parts of Ukraine’s nationalist pantheon for their armed resistance to the Soviets.

The Russian Dimension

The battle to define the meaning of the Volhynia massacres has gained a new sense of urgency with the outbreak of Russia’s war against Ukraine. As Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak implied, Russia is the “common enemy who dreamed of dividing us (Ukraine and Poland)” by escalating tensions over the past. This argument, however, is fundamentally untenable. While deferring conflict in the name of projecting unity in the face of Russian aggression might work to preserve the status quo in Polish-Ukrainian relations, it fails to create a real consensus on the past. For evidence of this divide, one needs merely to consider how this past is being interpreted in each country’s capital. In Warsaw on July 11, Polish prime minister Morawiecki marked the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Citizens of the Polish Republic Committed by Ukrainian Nationalists. Meanwhile in Kyiv, the reputation of OUN leader Stepan Bandera as a national hero and symbol of resistance to Russia is inscribed in the very streets of the city. As part of the country’s decommunization process, Kyiv’s Moscow Avenue became Stepan Bandera Avenue.

Presidents Duda and Zelensky can try to project unity and assert that their countries have reconciled with this difficult history, but until both Poland and Ukraine stop using Russia’s aggression to avoid an honest reckoning with these events, the past will continue to haunt Polish-Ukrainian relations.

The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute.

Turkey: At least 12 injured after explosion hits grain silos at port

GRAIN DUST IS HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE

Monday 7 August 2023

The Turkish Grain Board depot where the explosion took place.

Credit: Twitter / @aygunzeki

At least 12 people have been injured after an explosion hit grain silos at a port in north west Turkey on Monday.

The blast reportedly happened at a grain depot the port of Derince in the Kocaeli province, about 60 miles from Istanbul.

The explosion reportedly occurred near Turkish Grain Board silos at approximately 2:40pm local time (12:40pm BST).

Three of the 12 people injured are thought to be in serious condition in hospital, according to reports.

Kocaeli Governor Seddar Yavuz said the explosion may have been caused by "wheat dust compression during the transfer of wheat from a ship to the silo", according to reports.

He also confirmed he visited those who were injured in hospital.

In a post on Twitter, Derince Mayor Zeki Akgun said there was no loss of life due to the blast, adding: "I convey my best wishes to our citizens who were affected by the explosion, and wish a speedy recovery to the injured, who were quickly transferred to the hospital."

An investigation into the blast is ongoing.

THIS IS WHY THE 2020 BEIRUT EXPLOSION WAS NOT GRAIN DUST

China says Jeddah talks on Ukraine helped to 'consolidate international consensus'

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the US, and European countries, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Aug 6.

PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING - China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that international talks in Saudi Arabia at the weekend on finding a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis had helped “to consolidate international consensus”.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

China sent its Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs and former ambassador to Russia, Mr Li Hui, who in May toured six European capitals to find common ground for an eventual political settlement of the conflict, now in its 18th month.

Mr Li “had extensive contact and communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis... listened to all sides’ opinions and proposals, and further consolidated international consensus”, the foreign ministry said in a written statement to Reuters.

“All parties positively commented on Li Hui’s attendance, and fully backed China’s positive role in facilitating peace talks,” the statement said.

China will continue to strengthen dialogue based on its 12-point peace proposal, and “accumulate mutual trust”, it said, without going into specific details.

China’s attendance signals possible shifts in Beijing’s approach but not a U-turn in its support for Moscow, analysts said.

Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow for the invasion it launched in February 2022. But it has offered its own peace plan, which received a lukewarm response in both Russia and Ukraine while the United States and Nato were sceptical.

Eighteen months after Russia invaded Ukraine, any prospect of direct peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow appears remote as fighting rages along the front line.

The two-day meeting in Jeddah was part of a diplomatic push by Ukraine to build support beyond its core Western backers by reaching out to Global South countries that have been reluctant to take sides in a conflict that has hit the global economy.

A senior Ukrainian official said on Sunday that talks in Saudi Arabia had been productive, but Moscow called the meeting a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s head of staff Andriy Yermak said in a statement: “We had very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state media on Sunday as saying the meeting was “a reflection of the West’s attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts” to mobilise the Global South behind Mr Zelensky’s position.

Saudi Arabia’s Media Ministry said participants had agreed on the importance of continuing consultations to pave the way for peace.

European officials have said participants planned to establish working groups to address specific problems raised by the war.

REUTERS

Jeddah Meeting: Advancing the Consolidation of All Peace Initiatives for the Ukrainian Crisis

Saudi Crown Prince receiving the Ukrainian President on the sidelines of the Arab Summit in Jeddah last May (SPA)

Jeddah : Abdulhadi Habtor
6 August 2023

AD ـ 20 Muharram 1445 AH

Today marks the commencement of a significant gathering in the city of Jeddah, situated in the western region of Saudi Arabia. National security advisors and representatives from approximately 40 nations convene to address the enduring Ukrainian crisis, which unfolded nearly 18 months ago.

The objective of this assembly is to foster a breakthrough and cultivate a cohesive vision towards the attainment of lasting peace.

Analysts who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat anticipated that participants will arrive at a crucial roadmap that crystallizes all the initiatives put forth to resolve the far-reaching Ukrainian crisis, whose repercussions have reverberated across the entire globe.

Characterizing the meeting as akin to “casting a stone into still waters,” analysts said the gathering signifies potential to disrupt the stagnant status quo.

The convening of this meeting and the broad international participation in it, held in the city of Jeddah, are believed by analysts to underscore Saudi Arabia’s influential and active role on the global stage.

The Kingdom is regarded as a “balance beam” between the East and West, owing to its balanced relationships and distinctiveness with all parties.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Asaf, a media professor at King Saud University, affirmed that the participation of national security advisors from around 40 countries in the Jeddah meeting signifies that “global security is unsettled, and the participants are striving for world stability, the restoration of security to its markets and sustenance, and security in a general sense.”

“We mustn't overly indulge in optimism, but this meeting is akin to casting a stone into stagnant waters,” Al-Asaf told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“It is an extension of the efforts of the Saudi Crown Prince, who presented his initiative at the onset of the crisis in February 2022 and offered his mediation to both sides, garnering acceptance from all parties,” he explained.

“Saudi Arabia today is a strong and active player on the international stage in diplomatic affairs, drawing upon extensive expertise,” he added.

The media professor also believes that “Saudi Arabia now stands at a neutral starting point with everyone, and it is the optimal mediator at this stage.”

Al-Asaf anticipates that “the meeting will yield a highly significant roadmap for peace, which will later be conveyed to Russia.”

Seasoned US statesman Henry Kissinger remarked in May of the previous year that peace negotiations in Ukraine could potentially materialize later in 2023, indicating that China's involvement in the process could bolster peace talks.

China imposes curbs on drone exports, citing Ukraine and concern about military use

Beijing: China imposed restrictions on exports of long-range civilian drones, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine and concern that drones might be converted to military use.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government is friendly with Moscow but says it is neutral in the 17-month-old war. It has been stung by reports that both sides might be using Chinese-made drones for reconnaissance and possibly attacks.

Export controls will take effect Tuesday to prevent use of drones for "non-peaceful purposes,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

It said some drone exports still will be allowed.

China is a leading developer and exporter of drones. DJI Technology Co., one of the global industry's top competitors, announced in April 2022 it was pulling out of Russia and Ukraine to prevent its drones from being used in combat.

"The risk of some high specification and high-performance civilian unmanned aerial vehicles being converted to military use is constantly increasing,” the Ministry of Commerce said.

Restrictions will apply to drones that can fly beyond the natural sight distance of operators or stay aloft more than 30 minutes, have attachments that can throw objects and weigh more than 7 kilograms (15½ pounds), according to the ministry.

"Since the crisis in Ukraine, some Chinese civilian drone companies have voluntarily suspended their operations in conflict areas,” the Ministry of Commerce said. It accused the United States and Western media of spreading "false information” about Chinese drone exports.

The government on Friday defended its dealings with Russia as "normal economic and trade cooperation” after a U.S. intelligence report said Beijing possibly provided equipment used in Ukraine that might have military applications.

The report cited Russian customs data that showed Chinese state-owned military contractors supplied drones, navigation equipment, fighter jet parts and other goods.

The Biden administration has warned Beijing of unspecified consequences if it supports the Kremlin’s war effort. Last week's report didn't say whether any of the trade cited might trigger U.S. retaliation.

Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin declared before the February 2022 invasion that their governments had a "no-limits” friendship. Beijing has blocked efforts to censure Moscow in the United Nations and has repeated Russian justifications for the attack.

China has "always opposed the use of civilian drones for military purposes,” the Ministry of Commerce said. "The moderate expansion of drone control by China this time is an important measure to demonstrate the responsibility of a responsible major country.”

The Ukrainian government appealed to DJI in March 2022 to stop selling drones it said the Russian ministry was using to target missile attacks. DJI rejected claims it leaked data on Ukraine’s military positions to Russia.

Published: 31 Jul 2023

North Korean hackers breached top Russian weapons firm behind hypersonic missiles

Experts found North Korean hackers digging into a Russian manufacturers' database for at least five months.

LONDON – An elite group of North Korean hackers secretly breached computer networks at a major Russian missile developer for at least five months in 2022, according to technical evidence reviewed by Reuters and analysis by security researchers.

Reuters found cyber-espionage teams linked to the North Korean government, which security researchers call ScarCruft and Lazarus, secretly installed stealthy digital backdoors into systems at NPO Mashinostroyeniya, a rocket design bureau based in Reutov, a small town on the outskirts of Moscow.

Reuters could not determine whether any data was taken during the intrusion or what information may have been viewed.

In the months following the digital break-in, Pyongyang announced several developments in its banned ballistic missile programme, but it is not clear if this was related to the breach.

Experts say the incident shows how the isolated country will even target its allies, such as Russia, in a bid to acquire critical technologies.

News of the hack comes shortly after a trip to Pyongyang in July by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu for the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, the first visit by a Russian defence minister to North Korea since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

The targeted company, commonly known as NPO Mash, has acted as a pioneer developer of hypersonic missiles, satellite technologies and newer generation ballistic armaments, according to missile experts – three areas of keen interest to North Korea since it embarked on its mission to create an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking the mainland United States.

According to technical data, the intrusion roughly began in late 2021 and continued until May 2022, when IT engineers detected the hackers’ activity.

NPO Mash grew to prominence during the Cold War as a premier satellite maker for Russia’s space programme and as a provider of cruise missiles.

E-mail hack

The hackers dug into the company’s IT environment, giving them the ability to read e-mail traffic, jump between networks, and extract data, according to Mr Tom Hegel, a security researcher with US cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, who initially discovered the compromise.

“These findings provide rare insight into the clandestine cyber operations that traditionally remain concealed from public scrutiny or are simply never caught by such victims,” Mr Hegel said.

Mr Hegel’s team of security analysts at SentinelOne learned of the hack after discovering that an NPO Mash IT staffer accidentally leaked his company’s internal communications while attempting to investigate the North Korean attack by uploading evidence to a private portal used by cybersecurity researchers worldwide.

When contacted by Reuters, that IT staffer declined to comment.

Facial recognition technology should be regulated, but not banned

By Tony Porter, Chief Privacy Officer, Corsight AI, and Dr Nicole Benjamin Fink, Founder, Conservation Beyond Borders

Published on 07/08/2023 - 12:37

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.

The European Commission has proven itself to be an effective regulator in the past. A blanket ban on FRT in law enforcement will only benefit the criminals, Tony Porter and Dr Nicole Benjamin Fink write.

The EU’s AI Act passed a major hurdle in mid-June when the bloc’s lawmakers greenlit what will be the world’s first rules on artificial intelligence.

But one proposal stands apart: a total ban on facial recognition technology, or FRT.

If left to stand, this rule will blindfold the law enforcers who do vital work to protect the most vulnerable in society. It will embolden criminal groups such as those who traffic wildlife and human victims, thereby putting lives at risk.

All surveillance capabilities intrude on human rights to some extent. The question is whether we can regulate the use of FRT effectively to mitigate any impact on these rights.

Protecting privacy versus protecting people is a balance EU lawmakers can and must strike. A blanket ban is the easy, but not the responsible option.

Privacy concerns should face a reality check

MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of a ban on the use of live FRT in publicly accessible spaces, and a similar ban on the use of “after the event” FRT unless a judicial order is obtained.

Now attention has shifted to no doubt heated trilogue negotiations between the European Parliament, European Council and member states.

FRT in essence uses cameras powered by AI algorithms to analyse a person’s facial features, potentially enabling authorities to match individuals against a database of pre-existing images, in order to identify them.

Privacy campaigners have long argued that the potential benefits of using such tech are not worth the negative impact on human rights. But many of those arguments don’t stand up to scrutiny. in fact, they’re based on conclusively debunked myths.

The first is that the tech is inaccurate and that it disproportionately disadvantages people of colour.

That may have been true of very early iterations of the technology, but it certainly isn’t today. Corsight has been benchmarked by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to an accuracy rate of 99.8%, for example.

Separately, a 2020 NIST report claimed that FRT performs far more effectively across racial and other demographic groups than widely reported, with the most accurate technologies displaying “undetectable” differences between groups.

It's also falsely claimed that FRT is ineffective. In fact, Interpol said in 2021 that it had been able to identify almost 1,500 terrorists, criminals, fugitives, persons of interest and missing persons since 2016 using FRT. That figure is expected to have risen exponentially since.

A final myth, that FRT intrudes on human rights as enshrined by the European Convention of the same name, was effectively shot down by the Court of Appeal in London. In that 2020 case, judges ruled that scanning faces and instantly deleting the data if a match can’t be found has a negligible impact on human rights.

It's about stopping the traffickers

On the other hand, if used in compliance with strict regulations, high-quality FRT has the capacity to save countless lives and protect people and communities from harm.

Human trafficking is a trade in misery which enables sexual exploitation, forced labour and other heinous crimes. It’s estimated to affect tens of millions around the world, including children.

But if facial images of known victims or traffickers are caught on camera, police could be alerted in real-time to step in.

Given that traffickers usually go to great lengths to hide their identity, and that victims — especially children — rarely possess official IDs, FRT offers a rare opportunity to make a difference.

Wildlife trafficking is similarly clandestine. It’s a global trade estimated many years ago at €20.9 billion — the world’s fourth biggest illegal activity behind arms, drugs and human trafficking.

With much of the trade carried out by criminal syndicates online, there’s a potential evidence trail if investigators can match facial images of trafficked animals to images posted later to social media.

Buyers can then be questioned as to whom they procured a particular animal from. Apps are already springing up to help track wildlife traffickers in this way.

There is a better way forward

Given what’s at stake here, European lawmakers should be thinking about ways to leverage a technology proven to help reduce societal harm — but in a way that mitigates risks to human rights.

The good news is that it can be done with the right regulatory guardrails. In fact, the EU’s AI Act already provides a great foundation for this, by proposing a standard of excellence for AI technologies which FRT could be held to.

Building on this, FRT should be retained as an operation tool wherever there’s a “substantial” risk to the public and a legitimate basis for protecting citizens from harm.

Its use should always be necessary and proportionate to that pressing need, and subject to a rigorous human rights assessment.

Independent ethical and regulatory oversight must of course be applied, with a centralized supervisory authority put in place. And clear policies should be published setting out details of the proposed use.

Impacted communities should be consulted and data published detailing the success or failure of deployments and human rights assessments.

The European Commission has proven itself to be an effective regulator in the past. So, let’s regulate FRT. A blanket ban will only benefit the criminals.

Tony Porter is the Chief Privacy Officer at Corsight AI and the former UK Surveillance Camera Commissioner, and Dr Nicole Benjamin Fink is the Founder of Conservation Beyond Borders.

Fitch downgrade highlights risks of U.S. debt, governance, economy

CGTN

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, May 24, 2023. /CFP

Fitch Ratings, one of the world's top credit rating agencies, downgraded the U.S. government's credit rating from the top AAA to AA+ last week. Fitch said the rating cut as a result of the expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years, a high and growing general government debt burden, and the erosion of governance relative to peers over the last two decades.

Reactions are mixed. Stocks slipped after the downgrade, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq falling for four days in a row after the announcement. U.S. political and economic leadership are in denial with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calling Fitch's move "arbitrary."

"Fitch's decision is puzzling in light of the economic strength we see in the United States. I strongly disagree with Fitch's decision, and I believe it is entirely unwarranted," Yellen said, citing it was based on outdated data. But it is the same data that the Federal Reserve uses.

Three former Treasury secretaries, including Timothy Geithner, Henry Paulson and Robert Rubin, told CNN recently that the U.S.' economy is resilient, but policymakers need to take the long view on the country's fiscal challenges.

Slowing down the economy

Economic experts said the credit downgrade indicates that the U.S. is less likely to pay off its growing debt. Size of the U.S. debt has risen sharply in the past decades, surpassing $32 trillion for the first time in June. After a rating cut, investors are expected to demand a higher interest rate for loans and U.S. debt would become more costly.

The federal government could lose some of its ability to spend on social welfare programs and projects that help stimulate the economy, which in the long term could slow economic growth and leave the nation vulnerable to financial setbacks, Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told U.S. media ABC News.

John Gong, vice president of Research and Strategy at the University of International Business and Economics, said the downgrade doesn't spell well for investors, either.

"For investors in the United States, things are more than safety and returns of their projects. They also look at the macro environment. The prospect of U.S. government defaulting its debt is hanging out there. That's a serious risk. I think that represents a huge blow to investor's confidence," said Gong.

The political drama

Fitch's downgrade came as the first by a major rating agency in more than a decade. In 2011, another member of the big three American rating agencies, S&P, downgraded the U.S. debt and has maintained its AA+ rating since then. Currently, Moody's has kept its AAA rating on U.S.

"If the negative political actions take place again more frequently, I think certainly it will have an impact on a bond rating agency, and it's expected to be going down," said Gong.

The negative political actions Gong refers to, include the recent round of political brinkmanship over government borrowing in June. A last-minute bipartisan deal was reached after months of a deadlock between the Democrats and Republicans, to avoid a fast-approaching default.

The two major U.S. political parties view the national debt differently. While Democratic leaders call for the limit to be raised, Republicans want to limit federal spending.

Wang Jinbin, deputy dean with school of economics at Renmin University of China, said the downgrade is an objective assessment of the risk of U.S. debt, and greater risks are in the making as the ratio of its fiscal deficit to GDP may soon surpass 120 percent.

"The lack of a fundamental mechanism for fiscal balance to address the U.S. debt problem is a major systemic risk to the world economy," said Wang, adding that the rating cut could also reduce the attractiveness of the U.S. dollar and relevant assets as international investors rethink asset allocation on a global scale.

HINDUTVA IS FASCISM

‘Vengeance’: Muslim homes, shops bulldozed; 150 arrested in India’s Haryana

Residents in the state’s only Muslim-majority Nuh district say more than 300 properties were demolished in four days.

A bulldozer demolishes the property of a Muslim in Haryana's Nuh district

[Md Meharban/Al Jazeera]

By Alishan Jafri
Published On 7 Aug 2023

Nuh, India – Abdul Rasheed says police locked him in a bus as a bulldozer demolished his shops in India’s northern Haryana state where a Muslim-majority district saw communal clashes last week.

“I was heartbroken. My family and children depended on the rent we received from the shops. We had rented shops to both Hindus and Muslims,” he told Al Jazeera on Sunday, adding that the authorities “gave no notice or showed any order, and bulldozed everything”.

“This is vengeance. They are destroying hotels, shops and homes. There is no appeal and hearing,” the 51-year-old said. “We have been handed a begging bowl.”

Rasheed’s is among more than 300 Muslim homes and businesses bulldozed by Haryana’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government since Thursday in yet another instance of collective – and selective – punishment of a community over religious violence.

A woman walks amid the debris of her son’s demolished shop in Nallhar, Nuh [Md Meharban/Al Jazeera]

The clashes began after a procession organised by a far-right Hindu group, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) and its youth wing, the Bajrang Dal, reached Haryana’s Nuh district, about 85km (52 miles) from New Delhi.

The two organisations, affiliated with the ruling BJP, often make headlines for their violent rallies targeting India’s religious minorities, mainly Muslims and Christians.

The Hindu groups blamed Muslims – who form nearly 77 percent of Nuh’s 280,000 residents, according to the last census conducted in 2011 – for starting the violence. They said their procession was pelted with stones and their vehicles torched, leading to clashes between the two communities.

Muslims say the trigger for the violence was a Facebook video released by Monu Manesar, a notorious Hindu vigilante accused of killing two Muslim men earlier this year for allegedly transporting cow meat.

Many Hindus belonging to the privileged castes consider cows holy. Sale and consumption of beef is banned in many Indian states, while dozens of lynchings of Muslim butchers and transporters have happened since India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.

In the video, Manesar, who according to the Haryana police is absconding, purportedly urged Hindus to join him in Nuh for the VHP-Bajrang Dal procession – a call that angered the district’s Muslims

Police officers in front of the demolished house of a Muslim in Nallhar, Nuh

[Md Meharban/Al Jazeera]

‘Tyranny of the government’

As the news of clashes in Nuh spread, anti-Muslim violence erupted in different parts of Haryana.

In Gurugram, a bustling city on New Delhi’s outskirts whose glitzy highrises host several Fortune 500 companies, a young imam was beaten and stabbed to death by a mob and the mosque set ablaze.

Another mosque was attacked in Sohna, about 25km (15 miles) from Gurugram. Six people were killed in the violence last week – three of them Muslims, including a police guard, and two suspected Bajrang Dal members. A Sikh guard was the sixth to be killed in the riots.

Video Duration02:10 Brother of young imam killed in India speaks to Al Jazeera

However, all the homes, shops – both concrete and moveable – and shanties bulldozed in the aftermath of the violence belong to Muslims.

“They are torturing Mewat. This is being done to make the Bajrang Dal happy,” Rasheed told Al Jazeera, using the historical name of Nuh.

In recent years, several states governed by the BJP have seen bulldozers being deployed to destroy the properties of Muslims accused of participating in religious clashes, or other such charges

Video Duration 01:38 Hindu mob kills Imam and sets mosque on fire in India’s Gurugram

BJP spokesperson Raman Malik told Al Jazeera the demolitions were being carried out to stop “illegal encroachments” on public lands and had no connection with the riots.

When asked about the timing of the demolitions coinciding with the aftermath of the violence, he said, “Do you want this illegal work to be supported? Look at these two things separately.”

Several rights groups have condemned the Indian authorities for carrying out the demolitions, some of which were carried out miles away from the site of last week’s violence.

A high court on Monday stayed the demolition drive in Nuh and sought an explanation from the BJP government in Haryana.

“Those who had nothing to do with the violence are bearing its brunt,” said Rafiq Ahmed, who ran a medical store in Nuh. “I had a licence for this shop. This is tyranny of the government.”

Beside Rafiq stood two Muslim women who were collecting remains from their demolished shops. They told Al Jazeera the men from their families had fled the town over fears of being arrested.

‘Almost all those arrested are Muslims’

The arbitrary arrest of more than 150 Muslims for the violence, as confirmed by the police to Al Jazeera on Monday, is another aspect of the BJP government’s crackdown in Nuh, resulting in hundreds of men fleeing their homes in fear.

Tahir Husain, a lawyer defending most of the arrested, alleged the police are indiscriminately arresting people without any rigorous investigation.

“There may be one or two people from the ‘other side’ but almost all of those arrested from Nuh are Muslim,” he said, calling the arrests “unlawful and reckless”.

“It’s a scary spectacle. Following the violence, even advocates were not ready to come forward. In fact, an advocate was picked up by the police. Later, he was released but what about the common man? The poor and vulnerable with no support are at the receiving end,” he said.

“The streets have been abandoned and the atmosphere is worse than the COVID-19 lockdown. At least there was no terror in the hearts of people at that time.”

On the streets of Nuh’s Mewli village, there was an eerie silence on Sunday.

Village head Choudhary Safahat told Al Jazeera nine members of his family were picked up last week, including his grandson and nephews, after nearly 150 police officers stormed the village at about 5am.

Safahat, right, with his uncle sit at their house in Meoli Village, Nuh

[Md Meharban/Al Jazeera]

Safahat’s 21-year-old grandson Aahir Khan is a student of law at a private university in Alwar in neighbouring Rajasthan state, about 100km (62 miles) away. The village head said Khan was appearing for his semester examinations at the time of the violence, showing his grandson’s admit card and travel tickets.

“Aahir returned in the evening and the next morning he was arrested,” said Safahat, 51.

Many others had similar stories, mainly in the worst-hit Mewli and Moradbas villages where Muslims said they were forced to flee their homes, fearing vindictive action by the police.

Shahrukh Khan, a security guard at a government medical college in Nalhar, was also picked up by the police in connection with the riots. His family claims he returned from work at about 12pm on July 30 and left for duty the next day when the clashes broke out.

“They nabbed him while he was sleeping. They did not even let him wear his clothes. All of this is so unjust,” his wife told Al Jazeera.

Safahat said one of the arrested men from his village was physically disabled. He was released the next day, he added

Photos of the nine members of Safahat’s family arrested from Mewli village, Nuh

[Md Meharban/Al Jazeera]

Some people took refuge in nearby hills, a group of villagers from Mewli told Al Jazeera. “When the police come, men in the villages go into hiding leaving behind only women and children,” said one.

“Nobody is going to the police to get our boys out. There’s fear among the villagers that they will get arrested too if they approach the police,” another local added.

When asked why men from only one community were being arrested, Krishan Kumar, spokesperson for Nuh police, told Al Jazeera: “We can only arrest those who are accused. Whoever, be it a Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Sikh, will come to us, we will treat them equally.”

Prominent Muslim parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi said the BJP government in Haryana is protecting Manesar, the person accused of killing two Muslim men in February, and “all Hindutva [Hindu supremacist] organisations”.

“The BJP is indulging in illegal demolitions wherever their governments are. They have usurped the right of the courts of law and are giving collective punishment to the Muslim community without following the due process or the principle of natural justice,” he told Al Jazeera.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Monday, August 07, 2023

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