Brazil Indigenous expert was 'bigger target' in recent years

MAURICIO SAVARESE and FABIANO MAISONNAVE
Fri, June 17, 2022

SAO PAULO (AP) — Before disappearing in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, Bruno Pereira was laying the groundwork for a mammoth undertaking: a 350-kilometer (217-mile) trail marking the southwestern border of the Javari Valley Indigenous territory, an area the size of Portugal.

The purpose of the trail is to prevent cattle farmers from encroaching on Javari territory — and it was just the latest effort by Pereira to help Indigenous people protect their natural resources and traditional lifestyles.

While Pereira had long pursued these goals as an expert at the Brazilian Indigenous affairs agency, known as FUNAI, he worked in recent years as a consultant to the Javari Valley's Indigenous organization. That's because after Jair Bolsonaro became Brazil’s president in 2019, FUNAI began taking a more hands-off approach toward protecting Indigenous land and people — and the government unapologetically promoted development over environmental protection.

Deeply frustrated, Pereira left the agency and embarked on a more independent -- and dangerous -- path.

He was last seen alive on June 5 on a boat in the Itaquai river, along with British freelance journalist Dom Phillips, near an area bordering Peru and Colombia. On Wednesday, a fisherman confessed to killing Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, and took police to a site where human remains were recovered; some remains were identified Friday as belonging to Phillips, others are believed to belong to Pereira.

Pereira spoke several times with The Associated Press over the past 18 months, and he talked about his decision to leave FUNAI, which he felt had become a hindrance to his work. After Bolsonaro came to power, the agency was stacked with loyalists and people who lacked experience in Indigenous affairs, he said.

“There’s no use in me being there as long as these policemen and army generals are calling the shots,” he said by phone in November. “I can’t do my work under them.”

As a technical consultant for the Javari Valley’s association of Indigenous people, or Univaja, Pereira helped the group develop a surveillance program to reduce illegal fishing and hunting in a remote region belonging to 6,300 people from seven different ethnic groups, many of whom have had little to no contact with the outside world. He and three other non-Indigenous people trained Indigenous patrollers to use drones and other technology to spot illegal activity, photograph it and submit evidence to authorities.

“When it came to helping the Indigenous peoples, he did everything he could,” said Jader Marubo, former president of Univaja. “He gave his life for us.”

___

Like Pereira, Ricardo Rao was an Indigenous expert at FUNAI who, in 2019, prepared a dossier detailing illegal logging in Indigenous lands of Maranhao state. But fearful of being so outspoken under the new regime, he fled to Norway.

“I asked Norway for asylum, because I knew the men I was accusing would have access to my name and would kill me, just like what happened with Bruno,” Rao said.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly advocated tapping the vast riches of Indigenous lands, particularly their mineral resources, and integrating Indigenous people into society. He has pledged not to grant any further Indigenous land protections, and in April said he would defy a Supreme Court decision, if necessary. Those positions directly opposed Pereira’s hopes for the Javari Valley.

Before taking leave, Pereira was removed as head of FUNAI’s division for isolated and recently contacted tribes. That move came shortly after he commanded an operation that expelled hundreds of illegal gold prospectors from an Indigenous territory in Roraima state. His position was soon filled by a former Evangelical missionary with an anthropology background. The choice generated outcry because some missionary groups have openly tried to contact and convert tribes, whose voluntary isolation is protected by Brazilian law.

Key colleagues of Pereira’s at FUNAI either followed his lead and took leave, or were shuffled to bureaucratic positions far from the demarcation of protected lands, according to a recent report from the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies think tank and the nonprofit Associated Indigenists, which includes current and former FUNAI staff.

“Of FUNAI’s 39 regional coordination offices, only two are headed by FUNAI staffers,” the report says. “Seventeen military men, three policemen, two federal policemen and six professionals with no prior connection with public administration have been named” under Bolsonaro.

The 173-page report published Monday says many of the agency’s experts have been fired, unfairly investigated or discredited by its leaders while trying to protect Indigenous people.

In response to AP questions about the report’s allegations, FUNAI said in an emailed statement that it operates “with strict obedience to current legislation” and doesn’t persecute its officers.

___

On the day they went missing, Pereira and Phillips slept at an outpost at the entrance of the main clandestine route into the territory, without passing by the Indigenous agency’s permanent base at its entrance, locals told the AP.

Two Indigenous patrollers told the AP the pair had been transporting mobile phones from the surveillance project with photos of places where illegal fishermen had been. Authorities have said that an illicit fishing network is a focus of the police investigation into the killings.

Pereira wasn't the first person connected with FUNAI to be killed in the region. In 2019, an active FUNAI agent, Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, was shot to death as he drove his motorcycle through the city of Tabatinga. He had been threatened for his work against illegal fishermen before he was gunned down. That crime remains unsolved.

Pereira’s killing will not stop the Javari territory’s border demarcation project from moving ahead, said Manoel Chorimpa, an Univaja member involved in the project. And in another sign that Pereira's work will endure, Indigenous patrollers’ surveillance efforts have begun leading to the investigation, arrest and prosecution of law-breakers.

Before his career at FUNAI, Pereira worked as a journalist. But his passion for Indigenous affairs and languages — he spoke four — led him to switch careers. His anthropologist wife, Beatriz Matos, encouraged him in his work, even though it meant long stretches away from their home in Atalaia do Norte, and their children. More recently, they were living in Brazil's capital, Brasilia.

The Indigenous people of the region have mourned Pereira as a partner, and an old photo widely shared on social media in recent days shows a group of them gathered behind Pereira, shirtless, as he shows them something on his laptop. A child leans gently onto his shoulder.

In a statement on Thursday, FUNAI mourned Pereira's death and praised his work: “The public servant leaves an enormous legacy for the isolated Indigenous people's protection. He became one of the country's top specialists in this issue and worked with highest commitment."

Before the bodies were found, however, FUNAI had issued a statement implying Pereira violated procedure by overstaying his authorization inside the Javari territory. It prompted FUNAI's rank-and-file to strike, claiming that the agency had libeled Pereira and demanding its president be fired. A court on Thursday ordered FUNAI to retract its statement that is “incompatible with the reality of the facts” and cease discrediting Pereira.

Rubens Valente, a journalist who has covered the Amazon for decades, said Pereira's work became inherently riskier once he felt it necessary to work independently.

“Fish thieves saw Bruno as a fragile person, without the status and power that FUNAI gave him in the region where he was FUNAI coordinator for five years," Valente said. “When the criminals noticed Bruno was weak, he became an even bigger target.”

___

Maisonnave reported from Atalaia do Norte. AP writer Débora Álvares contributed from Brasilia.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

  

Bolsonaro blamed as UN, activists denounce Amazon murders

Joao Laet with Jordi Miro in Brasilia
Thu, June 16, 2022,


The United Nations as well as environmental and rights groups expressed outrage Thursday at the murder of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, which they linked to President Jair Bolsonaro's willingness to allow commercial exploitation of the Brazilian Amazon.

Veteran correspondent Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, went missing on June 5 in a remote part of the rainforest rife with illegal mining, fishing and logging, as well as drug trafficking.

Ten days later, on Wednesday, a suspect named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira took police to a place where he said he had buried bodies near the city of Atalaia do Norte, where the pair had been headed.


Human remains unearthed from the site arrived in Brasilia on Thursday evening for identification by experts, with members of the federal police seen carrying two brown coffins through a hangar. Official results are expected next week, according to local media.

Federal police said Thursday that traces of blood found in Oliveira's boat belonged to a man, but not Phillips. Further analysis will be necessary to determine if it was that of Pereira.

There is still much to clarify in the case, including a motive and the circumstances surrounding the killings, apparently carried out by firearm.

Late Wednesday, the federal police chief of Brazil's northern Amazonas state said there was "a 99 percent probability" the unearthed remains corresponded to the missing men.


The UN human rights office said Thursday it was "deeply saddened by the information about the murder" of the two men.

"This brutal act of violence is appalling and we call on state authorities to ensure that investigations are impartial, transparent and thorough, and that redress is provided to the families of the victims," spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva.

Phillips, a longtime contributor to The Guardian and other leading international newspapers, was working on a book on sustainable development in the Amazon with Pereira as his guide, when they went missing.

Pereira, an expert at Brazil's indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, had received multiple threats from loggers and miners with their eye on isolated Indigenous land.
- 'Heartbroken' -

Phillips' family said in a statement they were "heartbroken" by the discovery of two bodies Wednesday, which they took as confirmation that the pair had been killed.

Beatriz Matos, the wife of Pereira, wrote on Twitter that "now that the spirits of Bruno are walking through the jungle and scattered among us, our strength is much greater."


The Javari Valley where the men went missing -- an area near the borders with Peru and Colombia -- is home to about 20 isolated Indigenous groups where drug traffickers, loggers, miners and illegal fishermen operate.

Greenpeace Brazil said the deaths were "a direct result of the agenda of President Jair Bolsonaro for the Amazon, which opens the way for predatory activities and crimes... in broad daylight."

Bolsonaro, who took office in 2019, has pushed to develop the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest.

He drew fresh criticism Wednesday for saying Phillips was "disliked" for his reporting on the region and should have been more careful.

On Thursday, the far-right president tweeted "our condolences to the families" of the men.

In Brussels, seven Brazilian Indigenous leaders deplored the climate of violence and "impunity" in the Amazon in front of the European Union headquarters.

One of them, Dinamam Tuxa, told AFP that "Bruno and Dom Phillips were victims of government policies."
- 'Political crime' -

Shamdasani said attacks and threats against activists and Indigenous people in Brazil were "persistent" and urged the government to step up protections.

The Univaja association of Indigenous peoples, which had taken part in the search for the missing men, denounced the suspected killings as a "political crime," while the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism said "the president and his allies have become protagonists of attacks on the press" uncovering environmental crimes.

"People dead for defending Indigenous lands and the environment. Brazil cannot be that," added ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will face Bolsonaro in October elections.

Investigations continue to look into the motive for the crime as well as the role played by Oliveira and fellow suspect Oseney da Costa de Oliveira.

On the ground, civil police carried out three search warrants, but no arrests were made. Authorities said they had so far been unsuccessful in finding the boat in which Phillips and Pereira were traveling when they were last seen, an AFP journalist confirmed.

Brazilian media report there may be three more people involved. Police have not ruled out more arrests.

jm/app/dga/mlr/bfm/dw

Brazil Amazon Police navigate the Itaquai River during the search for British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous affairs expert Bruno Araujo Pereira in the Javari Valley Indigenous territory, Atalaia do Norte, Amazonas state, Brazil, Friday, June 10, 2022. Phillips and Pereira were last seen on Sunday morning in the Javari Valley, Brazil's second-largest Indigenous territory which sits in an isolated area bordering Peru and Colombia. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros)

‘This is criminal activity’: Russia is selling stolen Ukrainian grain in Syrian ports as Putin holds world hostage over food


Vincent Mundy—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Tristan Bove
Fri, June 17, 2022

More ships flying the Russian flag have reportedly been spotted unloading Ukrainian grain abroad, as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues using the threat of a global hunger crisis to coerce Western countries into lifting their sanctions on Russia.

Two Russian bulk carriers, merchant ships designed to carry unpackaged bulk cargo such as grain, were spotted unloading grain at Syrian ports by U.S. satellite company Maxar Technologies, Reuters reported. The same ships had been seen days earlier loading grain at the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, Maxar said, where Russian troops have for weeks been reportedly loading stolen Ukrainian grain, according to satellite images taken by Maxar in May.

Syria has been a close ally to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began at the end of February, accepting Russian ships in their ports even as Ukrainian officials warned they were carrying stolen grain and urged countries not to buy from Russia.

But the war and an agricultural shortfall has brought several Middle Eastern and African countries to the brink of a catastrophic hunger crisis, including Syria, where around 60% of the population suffers from food insecurity, according to the UN.

At the beginning of the war, Putin sought to use Europe’s dependence on Russian energy exports as a bargaining chip, attempting to have European countries pay for Russian gas in rubles to prop up the failing currency. The European Union didn’t abide, and decided to cut off 90% of Russian oil imports and two-thirds of gas imports by the end of the year instead. Now, Putin appears to be moving on to using a looming global hunger crisis, and the worldwide strife created by missing Russian and Ukrainian food exports, to his advantage.

Weeks of stolen grain reports

The Maxar images corroborate reports from May provided by the intelligence arm of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense that Russian ships were ferrying stolen Ukrainian grain to Syria.

Both the UN and U.S. intelligence have warned that there is credible evidence that Russian troops have been stealing Ukrainian harvests. Last month, Russian trucks were also seen looting Ukrainian grain silos and transporting the stolen goods to Russian-controlled ports in Crimea, CNN reported.

Russian troops have stolen around 600,000 tons of Ukrainian grain during the war, according to UAC, a Ukrainian agricultural producers union. Of this, around 100,000 tons of wheat worth more than $40 million have been shipped to Syria over the past three months, the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon told Reuters earlier this month.

“This is criminal activity,” the embassy said.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied the claims that its troops are stealing Ukrainian grain, with Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko saying in an interview this week that Russia “does not ship grains from Ukraine.”

But in spite of Russia’s protests, Ukrainian officials have insisted that stolen grain from Ukraine is circulating in many Middle Eastern and African countries. One Ukrainian diplomatic envoy to Turkey told reporters this month that Turkish buyers were receiving large volumes of stolen grain shipments.

Putin’s strategy

Combined, Ukraine and Russia accounted for nearly one-third of global wheat supply, while Russia was a major exporter of fertilizer, and Ukraine of corn and sunflower oil. The reduced food exports from the two countries is aggravating a global hunger crisis, and Putin has made clear to the West that he intends to withhold supplies until sanctions are lifted.

The UN has expressed openness to negotiating with Russia, although the U.S. has so far remained staunchly opposed to lifting sanctions, even cautioning nations against buying Russia’s stolen grain supplies.

But several African nations—where years of drought and bad agricultural conditions have dramatically reduced domestic output—have become reliant on food imports, with some leaders joining Putin in calling for a lifting of Western sanctions.

The war in Ukraine has accelerated what the UN has called an “alarming rise” of hunger in the world’s most vulnerable regions, particularly around the Horn of Africa, where countries are especially reliant on Ukrainian and Russian food imports. In Sudan, where over half the country’s wheat imports originate in the Black Sea regions, the UN warned Thursday, one-third of the country’s population was facing “acute food insecurity.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Factbox - What has the WTO ministerial conference achieved?

World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Geneva

Fri, June 17, 2022, 3:54 AM·

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization's 164 members approved a series of trade agreements early on Friday that included commitments on fish and pledges on health and food security after more than five gruelling days of negotiations. [L1N2Y400M]

Here are details on those agreements

PANDEMIC RESPONSE

India and South Africa and other developing countries have sought a waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for over a year, but faced opposition from several developed nations with major pharmaceutical producers.

A provisional deal between major parties - India, South Africa, the United States and the European Union - limited to vaccines emerged in May and this is largely what has been adopted.

Developing countries will be allowed to authorise the use of a patent for production and supply without the patent holder's consent for five years, subject to a possible extension. The production need not be predominantly for the domestic market, meaning more exports are allowed to ensure equitable access.

Within six months, WTO members are to consider extending the waiver to therapeutics and diagnostics.

China has voluntarily opted out of the waiver, something the United States had insisted on.

Campaign groups had urged members to reject the text, saying it was too narrow and was not a real IP waiver at all.

The WTO also agreed a declaration on its response to COVID-19 and preparedness for future pandemics, stressing the needs of least developed countries.

Members further recognised that any emergency trade measures should be proportionate and temporary and not cause unnecessary disruptions to supply chains. Members should also exercise restraint in imposing export restrictions on essential medical goods.

FISHING

WTO members struck an agreement to reduce subsidies that contribute to over-fishing, a step that environmentalists say is vital to helping fish stocks recover.

Talks have been going on for 20 years and the deal is only the second multilateral agreement on new global trade rules that the WTO has agreed in its 27-year history. The fisheries outcome was seen as a critical test of the WTO's own credibility.

The agreement says that no WTO member shall grant any subsidy for vessels or operator engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing or for fishing of an over-fished stock.

Developing countries will be exempt for two years.

Members themselves will carry out investigations into activities off their coasts and all member will be required to notify the WTO of their fishing subsidy schemes.

India had earlier been one of the biggest critics.

Talks will however continue to achieve a more comprehensive agreement to crack down further on fisheries subsidies, ideally for the next ministerial conference, likely to be in 2023.

FOOD SECURITY

The WTO sought to respond to a food supply and price hike crisis exacerbated by export disruptions from major cereal producers Ukraine and Russia.

WTO members agreed in a declaration that they would take concrete steps to facilitate trade of food and agriculture, including cereals, fertilizers and other agricultural inputs, and reaffirmed the importance of limiting export restrictions.

WTO members also agreed to a binding decision not to curb exports to the World Food Programme (WFP), which seeks to fight hunger in places hit by conflicts, disasters and climate change. Members would still be free to adopt measures to ensure their own food security.

E-COMMERCE MORATORIUM

WTO members have extended a moratorium on placing customs duties on electronic transmissions, from streaming services to financial transactions and corporate data flows, worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

The moratorium has been in place since 1998. South Africa and India had initially opposed an extension, saying they should not be missing out on customs revenues.

The extension runs to the next ministerial conference, which would normally be held by the end of 2023, but in any case will expire on March 31, 2024.

WTO REFORM

All WTO members say the organisation's rule book needs updating, although they disagree on what changes are required.

Most pressingly, its dispute appeals court has been paralysed for nearly two years since then-U.S. president Donald Trump blocked new adjudicator appointments, which has curbed the WTO's ability to resolve trade disputes.

Members committed to work towards necessary reforms of the WTO to improve its functions. This work should be transparent and address the interests of all members, including developing countries, which are afforded special treatment.

The WTO committed to conduct discussions so as to have a fully functioning dispute settlement system by 2024.

The declaration highlighted the growing importance of services trade and the need to increase the participation of developing countries.

The members also recognised global environmental challenges including climate change and related natural disasters, loss of biodiversity and pollution. Some experts believe issues about the environment have the potential to give the body a new vitality and purpose.

(Reporting by Emma Farge and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Walking on Hot Coals: A Company Event Goes Wrong

The sense that walking across burning coals requires a special inner state has motivated its transformation from a mystical spiritual tradition into a capitalist self-improvement project. 

Alex Traub

Fri, June 17, 2022

Walking barefoot across hot coals, an ancient religious ritual popularized in recent years as a corporate team-building exercise, has once again bonded a group of co-workers through the shared suffering of burned feet.

In the latest case of the stunt going wrong, 25 employees of a Swiss ad agency were injured Tuesday evening while walking over hot coals in Zurich, officials said. Ten ambulances, two emergency medical teams and police officers from multiple agencies were deployed to help, according to the Zurich police. Thirteen people were briefly hospitalized.

“We very much regret the incident and we are doing everything we can to ensure that our employees get well again quickly,” Michi Frank, the chief executive of the company, Golbach, said in a news release. The company declined to provide more details of the event.

The sense that walking across burning coals requires a special inner state has motivated its transformation from a mystical spiritual tradition into a capitalist self-improvement project. 

The practice appears to have emerged separately thousands of years ago as a religious tradition in various places around the word.

In Greece, the tradition involves singing, dancing and fire-walking, commemorating the rescue of icons from a burning church. Seemingly unrelated traditions also exist in Bali, Fiji, India and Japan.

Travel journalists have popularized it, sometimes in mystical terms. “The secret is concentration,” The New York Times reported in 1973 from a fire walk at a temple above Kyoto. “Either mind, body and environment are perfectly in harmony and all sequences of cause and effect become simultaneous, or they are not, and nothing will go right.”

In the years since, it has become a trope in movies and on television, notably as the signature group activity at seminars led by Tony Robbins, the life coach and motivational speaker.

“Now let me show you how to walk on fire,” Robbins likes to announce. He organizes long lines of people to walk across a short row of burning coals while leading participants in a bloodcurdling call and response of “Say yes!” and “Yes!”

“The purpose of the fire walk,” he explained at a 2017 event, “is just a great metaphor for taking things you once thought were difficult or impossible and showing how quickly you can change.”

Sometimes the metaphor gets a little too real. Dozens of attendees who walked on coals at Robbins seminars in 2012 and 2016 were injured, with some hospitalized with third-degree burns.

“It is always the goal to have no guests with any discomfort afterward but it’s not uncommon to have fewer than 1% of participants experience ‘hot spots,’ which is similar to a sunburn which can be treated with aloe,” a spokeswoman for Robbins told The Washington Post after the 2016 episode.

Pop culture has sometimes mocked the emancipatory potential of walking on fire. In a 2007 episode of the NBC sitcom “The Office,” Dwight Schrute attempts to blackmail his boss, Michael Scott, by not crossing hot coals at a corporate retreat, but instead remaining torturously standing on them until he is granted a promotion. In “Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls” (1995), Jim Carrey’s character crosses the coals only by flinging someone else atop them and stepping on him.

But other depictions have touted the potential for spiritual transformation, including the first season finale of the CBS reality show “Survivor” in 2000. Along the way, reports of injuries have risen. In 2001, a dozen Burger King employees were hurt at a corporate retreat in Key Largo, Florida, that featured walking on hot coals.

Was this a spiritual failing? Not likely. With proper instruction and preparation, experts say, walking across hot coals is not as dangerous as it looks.

“For the vast majority of people, maybe a blister the size of your little fingernail is the worst thing that can happen to you,” a physicist, David Willey, said in a phone interview on Thursday. Willey, who taught for years at the University of Pittsburgh, once shared the world record for the longest distance walked on hot coals.

The promises made by corporate retreat organizers are frequently unjustified, Willey said.

“They’re telling you that it’s all in your mind and this will give you powers that will continue,” he said. “It’s not in your mind. Anybody can do it. And I don’t think the confidence you get from it is necessarily going to last that long.”

Willey said that coals at 1,000 degrees are safe to walk on for 20 feet or more, adding that he walked on coals at that temperature for 495 feet without getting a blister.

On his website, he writes that at a brisk walk your bare foot comes into contact with coals for just around a second, which is not enough time for heat to be transmitted painfully from coals to the human flesh. Both the coals and skin have vastly lower thermal conductivity than, for instance, metal, he said.

But mistakes can lead to injuries. These include curling your toes and trapping a coal between them; walking on coals that are too hot; choosing the wrong type of wood, since some get hotter than others; and performing a fire walk on a beach, where your feet might sink into sand, Willey said.

The organizer of the event in Zurich, Thomy Widmer, said in an interview with the Swiss news outlet Blick that he had warned participants to not “stroll run or hop across” the fire, but to walk across it in a steady, quick “military step”-like clip. Widmer said he felt sorry for anyone who got hurt but denied that he had responsibility for the accident. “It could have been a great event,” he said.

© 2022 The New York Times Company

Why Rwanda and Congo are sliding toward war again

CARA ANNA
Fri, June 17, 2022,

People walk on the road near Kibumba, north of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, as they flee fighting between Congolese forces and M23 rebels in North Kivu last month. (Moses Sawasawa / Associated Press)

The threat of war with neighboring Congo is simmering under the tidy surface of Rwanda’s capital as the East African nation hosts the British prime minister and other world leaders next week for the Commonwealth summit.

Decades-old tensions between Rwanda, which has one of Africa’s most effective militaries, and Congo, one of the continent's largest and most troubled countries, have spiked along their shared border a few hours' drive from Rwanda's capital, Kigali. Alarm has reached the point where Kenya’s president is urging the immediate deployment of a newly created regional force to eastern Congo to keep the peace.

Each side has accused the other of incursions. Congo now seeks to suspend all agreements with Rwanda. If Rwanda wants war, “it will have war,” a spokesman for the military governor of Congo’s North Kivu province told thousands of protesters on Wednesday.

Here’s what’s at stake.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

Eastern Congo lives with the daily threat from dozens of armed groups that jostle for a piece of the region’s rich mineral wealth that the world mines for electric cars, laptops and mobile phones. Earlier this year, one of the most notorious rebel groups, the M23, surged anew.

The M23 launched an offensive against Congo’s military after saying the government had failed to live up to its decade-long promises made under a peace deal to integrate its fighters into Congo’s military. This week the M23 seized a key trading town, Bunagana, sending thousands of people fleeing into neighboring Uganda and elsewhere.

At that, Congo’s military accused Rwandan forces of “no less than an invasion,” alleging that Rwanda backed the rebels in their capture of Bunagana.

Congo’s government has long accused Rwanda of supporting the M23, which Rwanda denies. The accusations have surged again in recent weeks. Many of the M23 fighters are ethnic Tutsis, the same as Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.

Rwanda, for its part, has accused Congolese forces of injuring several civilians in cross-border shelling.

WHAT’S THE HISTORY OF TENSIONS?

Relations between Rwanda and Congo have been fraught for decades. Rwanda alleges that Congo gave refuge to the ethnic Hutus who carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In the late 1990s, Rwanda twice sent its forces deep into Congo, joining forces with Congolese rebel leader Laurent Kabila to depose the country's longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. The Rwandan forces in Congo were widely accused of hunting down and killing ethnic Hutu, even civilians.

Millions of Congo's people died during the years of conflict, according to rights groups, and the effects still run deep today. Many women live with the scars and trauma of rape.

Eastern Congo continues to see divisions along ethnic lines at times. The region's history of instability, loose governance and its vast distance — more than 1,600 miles — from Congo's capital, Kinshasa, have dampened investment and left some basic infrastructure such as roads tattered or nonexistent.

Congo and Rwanda have long accused each other of supporting various rival armed groups in eastern Congo, a restless region and major hub for humanitarian aid. A United Nations peacekeeping force of more than 17,000 personnel is based in Goma, but a top official this week made clear that the tensions with Rwanda and Uganda are not a part of its role.

“That’s not the reason why were are here,” said Lt. Col. Frederic Harvey, the U.N. mission’s chief of liaison with the Congolese military. “We are here to accomplish our mandate, which consists of protecting the civilian population and preserving national integrity.”

Goma, the region's key city of more than 1 million people, was briefly seized by M23 fighters a decade ago. Many Goma residents now call on the international community to intervene to help establish peace and stability. “Kagame, enough is enough,” read one sign in a protest on Wednesday.

Pope Francis had planned to visit Goma next month as part of a trip to Congo and South Sudan but canceled it last week, citing doctor’s orders because of his knee problems. The visit was meant to draw further global attention to populations long wrestling with conflict, even as this new one develops.

NOW WHAT?

With an eye on the growing tensions, the six-nation East African Community — Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania — earlier this year created a regional force meant to respond to trouble. Now Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the current chairman of the bloc, wants the force to be activated immediately and deployed to eastern Congo, noting the “open hostilities” there.

Kenyatta also calls for the eastern Congo provinces of North and South Kivu and Ituri to be declared a “weapons-free zone” where anyone outside mandated forces can be disarmed. Within hours, his call was “warmly” welcomed by the president of Burundi, which borders both Rwanda and Congo.

Regional commanders of the member defense forces will meet on Sunday in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, at the heart of East Africa's economic hub.

The regional force was agreed to by leaders from the countries now seemingly closing in on war — Congo, the EAC’s newest member, and Rwanda, the largest African troop contributor to U.N. peacekeeping missions worldwide.

But Rwanda notably was the only EAC member to skip a meeting of the heads of regional armed forces earlier this month in Goma. And there was no immediate response from Rwanda on Thursday to Kenyatta's call to action.

Congo, too, didn't comment directly on the call to deploy the regional force, but government spokesman Patrick Muyaya welcomed the Kenyan president's request for a cessation of hostilities and weapons-free zones.

Associated Press writer Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo, contributed.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Philippine militants accused of beheading tourists surrender


JIM GOMEZ
Fri, June 17, 2022

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Two long-wanted Abu Sayyaf militant commanders accused of beheading two kidnapped Canadian tourists and a German in the southern Philippines have surrendered to authorities, officials said Friday.

Almujer Yadah and Bensito Quitino gave themselves up to military officials in Jolo town in southern Sulu province and surrendered their assault rifles, Sulu military commander Maj. Gen. Ignatius Patrimonio and other security officials said. The officials did not provide details of how and when the surrenders were arranged.

The two were briefly presented in a news conference in an army camp in Jolo and later turned over to police.

Sulu provincial police chief Col. Jaime Mojica said they will face multiple murder and other criminal charges, including violation of the country’s anti-terrorism law. The militants are accused of beheading the hostages after failing to obtain large ransoms they had demanded.

They also were involved in other ransom kidnappings and bomb attacks, Mojica said.

Canadian tourists Robert Hall and John Ridsdel were abducted by Abu Sayyaf gunmen from a marina on southern Samal island along with a Norwegian and a Filipino in September 2015 and taken to jungle camps in Sulu.

Hall and Ridsdel were beheaded by the militants months later after the deadline for payment of the ransoms passed. Videos released by the militants showed the victims being brutally killed in front of an Islamic State group-style black flag. The Norwegian and Filipino hostages were eventually freed.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time that he was horrified by the killings and affirmed Canada’s refusal to “pay ransoms for hostages to terrorist groups, as doing so would endanger the lives of more Canadians.” He said Canada was working with the Philippine government “to pursue those responsible for these heinous acts and bring them to justice, however long it takes.”

Other key suspects in the kidnappings and killings of Hall and Ridsdel were killed earlier in clashes with Philippine forces.

Mojica said the two militants were also involved in the 2017 beheading in Sulu of German hostage Jurgen Gustav Kantner. Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized Kantner at gunpoint and killed a woman sailing with him off neighboring Malaysia’s Sabah state. Villagers later found a dead woman on a yacht with a German flag off Sulu’s Laparan Island.

The United States and the Philippines have labeled the Abu Sayyaf a terrorist organization for kidnappings, beheadings and bombings. The small but brutal group emerged in the early 1990s as an extremist offshoot of a decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion in the southern Philippines, the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.

The Abu Sayyaf has been weakened considerably by decades of military offensives, surrenders and infighting, and is currently estimated by the military to have less than 200 armed fighters, but remains a national security threat.

Two students sue shipping giant Maersk, alleging sexual assault and harassment


By Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken, CNN
Wed June 15, 2022


Shipping giant Maersk is the subject of two new lawsuits, filed by students from the US Merchant Marine Academy who say they were victims of sexual misconduct on one of the company's ships

(CNN)An 18-year-old US Merchant Marine Academy student who was repeatedly harassed and groped by older, male crew members during a training program aboard a commercial ship was so terrified of being sexually assaulted that she slept in a locked bathroom, clutching a knife for protection, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.

Using the moniker Midshipman-Y, the young woman's account represents the latest blow to the federal academy, which has struggled to protect students from sexual abuse both on campus and at sea, and hold offenders accountable. Last year, the academy briefly shut down its mandatory "Sea Year" training program following the published report of another student who said she was raped by a senior crew member at sea in the summer of 2019, when she was 19 years old.

Both students had been placed on the same Maersk ship during their respective Sea Years, two years apart. Now, just days before the end of the school year, they are suing Maersk in separate lawsuits filed this week, alleging the shipping giant did not have safeguards in place to protect them and that it fostered a culture where sexual assault and harassment weren't taken seriously.

"It is common sense that putting a 19-year-old girl on a ship full of older men, where many of the men have unfettered access to her stateroom via master keys, and where the men routinely get heavily intoxicated, could foreseeably lead to a teenaged girl being sexually assaulted," attorneys wrote in one of the lawsuits.

Maersk Line, Limited said in a statement that it is reviewing the lawsuits but does not comment on pending litigation. The company noted, however, that it has "zero tolerance for assault, harassment or any form of discrimination on our vessels or in our company."

"We take all allegations of assault or harassment very seriously, and we remain committed to ensuring that the shipboard environment is safe, supportive and welcoming to all," the company said in the statement.

According to the lawsuit filed by Midshipman-Y, the now 19 year old was assigned to undergo training aboard the Maersk ship, the Alliance Fairfax, last summer. Upon boarding, she alleges she was warned by a fellow female student leaving the vessel about "creepy guys" onboard and to "be careful." The departing student said she should avoid wearing a bathing suit or shorts so as to not attract any attention. But from the moment she stepped on board, Midshipman-Y said she became the subject of sexual comments and jokes from a number of crew members. An electrician and senior crew member also began making unwanted sexual advances, allegedly telling her he wanted to have a sexual relationship with her and repeatedly groping her.

"You're the only girl. We should pull your pants down, lay you on the table, and let everyone slap your ass," he allegedly said to her one day while she was playing a card game with two other cadets. While high ranking officers overheard the exchange, no one confronted the electrician or reported him, the lawsuit alleges. "Not only did the senior officials on the Alliance Fairfax not enforce the anti-[sexual assault and sexual harassment] policies, but they were among the offenders," it states.

Culture of fear at Merchant Marine Academy silences students who say they were sexually harassed and assaulted

As detailed in her lawsuit, Midshipman-Y said she didn't feel safe in her room, since other crew members had master keys that could open any room on the ship. So she slept on the floor of her locked bathroom and held a pocket knife in case the electrician tried to find her. She tried seeking help from the one other female on the ship, but that woman only shared her own stories of harassment. For weeks, she was unable to reach anyone off of the ship because of limited Wi-Fi and an unreliable satellite texting device given to her by the academy, according to the suit.

Around 45 days into the journey, she reached a port where she was finally able to call her mother — who encouraged her to get off the ship. Even though she knew that cutting her time at sea short could mean she wouldn't be able to graduate, the lawsuit states, Midshipman-Y requested an "emergency evacuation" anyway, the lawsuit states.

'It's just going to keep happening'

The second lawsuit came from the student who had published her explosive allegations of being raped at sea under the pseudonym of Midshipman-X. On Tuesday, she identified herself in court records by her real name: Hope Hicks.

Hicks, in an interview with CNN, said that hearing Midshipman-Y's story of harassment on the same ship where she was allegedly assaulted two years earlier shows just how bad the situation is.

Hope Hicks, a student at the US Merchant Marine Academy, wrote an anonymous account under the pseudonym "Midshipman-X" alleging that she was raped at sea. Now she and another student are suing Maersk for negligence.

"That just goes to show even if there is a change of people there isn't a change of culture. Until it changes it's just going to keep happening," Hicks said, adding that she hopes her lawsuit will give other victims the courage to come forward so that Maersk and other shipping companies will be forced to create safe working environments for female crew members, who are significantly outnumbered in the industry.

When Hicks came forward with her rape allegation in a blog post last fall, it sparked the attention of lawmakers and prompted Maersk to suspend and later fire five crew members. The company, however, said it was "unable to make any findings with respect to the rape allegation" because certain employees refused to cooperate with the investigation. The Coast Guard investigated the alleged rape as well and referred the case to the Department of Justice, but prosecutors declined to comment on whether charges would be filed, citing the ongoing investigation. The Maritime Administration, which oversees the academy, temporarily halted Sea Year in November and later rolled out a series of reforms aimed at better protecting students from sexual harassment and assault.

In Hicks' lawsuit, her attorneys allege that the Maersk "took insufficient measures to protect the teenaged cadets under its charge." The only female on the Alliance Fairfax, Hicks alleged she was ordered to log in under the names of other crew members to complete the sexual assault and harassment training that was federally mandated in order to have cadets on board. Hicks said members of the crew often looked on as she was sexually harassed by her supervisor on the ship and did nothing to intervene.

Then one night, her superiors demanded that she leave her room and forced her to take repeated shots of liquor, despite Maersk's "zero tolerance" policy for drugs and alcohol, her lawsuit states. She woke up the next morning to find blood on her sheets and bruises on her body. She said she knew immediately that she had been raped, but she was too scared — both of the retaliation she could face and academic consequences — to report what happened.

"If it's the commanding officers who are assaulting you and harassing you, who are you going to report to?" she told CNN. "Those are the people you are supposed to trust. I did not feel like the school could protect me. I did not feel like the school would believe me. I certainly did not feel like anyone on my ship would believe me."

CNN reported earlier this year how school policies created significant barriers to the reporting and investigation of alleged assaults. The Maritime Administration declined to comment on the lawsuits but previously acknowledged that more needs to be done to remove barriers that prevent students from speaking up.

Power in numbers

Both Hicks and Midshipman-Y were severely traumatized by what happened to them at sea, their lawsuits state.

Shortly after returning to campus, Midshipman-Y says she became extremely sick from her anxiety — ultimately passing out in the dining hall from a panic attack and being transported to the emergency room via ambulance. A good student before her time on the Alliance, according to the complaint, she struggled to focus on her studies and failed three classes before she was sent a notice of disenrollment from the academy, which would require paying back tens of thousands of dollars in tuition or enlisting in the military.

She appealed the academy's decision and was given a "compassionate setback" to the class of 2025 and is currently living at home with her family attempting to heal from the trauma she experienced, her lawsuit states.

Lawmakers push for more reforms to prevent sexual assault at sea

The young woman, who was working to become a fighter pilot in the military, is not sure if she will ever feel emotionally ready to return to campus — or to sea to complete the training hours needed to graduate, her attorneys said.

Hicks, meanwhile, said she suffered from both depression and panic attacks — sometimes succumbing to bouts of uncontrollable tears. She celebrated her 22nd birthday Tuesday and will graduate from the academy this weekend. Her rape, she said, destroyed the interest she had in pursuing a career as a Merchant Marine engineer.

 Instead, she said, she is set to join the Navy after graduation as a commissioned officer.
Hicks said she suffered some pushback from fellow students who figured out she was the anonymous student who had come forward and worried their Sea Year studies would be affected. But, she added, she was overwhelmed by the support she received from many other students on campus and is determined to do everything she can to seek justice for what happened to her and others.

"The system makes it very hard for victims to come forward. I want to make others feel like it is safe to come forward with their own stories," she said. "I am going to keep fighting for this cause until there is actual change. There is power in numbers; the more people who come forward the better."

JUST LIKE THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
China is encouraging college graduates to work in the countryside

By Laura He, CNN Business
Mon June 13, 2022


Hong Kong (CNN Business)China is urging college graduates to seek jobs in the countryside as youth unemployment in urban areas soars to the highest level in history.

Local governments should attract college graduates to work as village officials, according to a joint statement issued last week by the ministries of education, finance, civil affairs, and human resources and social security.

The government will offer tax incentives and loans to college graduates who start businesses to serve the rural community, the statement added. Similar benefits will be offered to existing small businesses in villages that hire college graduates, including in fields such as housekeeping and elderly care.

Typically, college graduates in China prefer to work for well-paying companies in major cities, and there is a significant income gap between rural and urban areas. But this is not the first time in recent years that the government has urged them to seek employment in the nation's vast but less developed countryside.


Students look for job during a campus job fair in Xining, northwest China's Qinghai Province, March 24, 2022.

In July 2020, when the initial coronavirus outbreak hit the Chinese economy, authorities encouraged college graduates to move to rural areas, rather than clustering in cities and fighting for limited job opportunities.

These appeals have reminded many on Chinese social media of a government initiative in the tumultuous days of the founder of Communist China, Mao Zedong. Known as the "Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement," the original policy was launched by Communist leaders in the 1960s, ostensibly to move privileged urban youth to far-flung corners to learn about farming and politics from poverty-stricken peasants. The result: China's "lost generation" who squandered their best years in the countryside.

Chinese college graduates are facing the toughest graduation season as a record 10.76 million are set to finish college in the next two months.

Aerial photo shows a job fair held in Zigui, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 8, 2022.

The world's second largest economy has slowed significantly in the first half of this year, meaning there are fewer urban jobs available. Small businesses — a major source of jobs — have been hammered by China's sweeping Covid lockdowns.

China's huge tech sector is also staring at a severe jobs crisis. The once-freewheeling industry was long the main source of well-paid employment in China, but major companies have reportedly been downsizing at a scale not seen before to cope with President Xi Jinping's regulatory offensive on private enterprise.

The urban unemployment rate for the 16-24 aged soared to a historic 18.2% in May, according to most recent government statistics. The figure did not factor in new college graduates for this year.
China only surveys employment in urban areas.

College entrance exams 'insanely' difficult

As the employment situation deteriorates, getting into a college is becoming even harder in China.
A record number of 11.93 million students took the country's grueling college entrance examination last week. These students are competing to get in to the country's top universities, often under enormous pressure from their parents and families.

This year, students have taken to social media to complain about how exceptionally difficult the exam was, and related topics have been trending on Weibo since the weekend.

According to social media posts, many students burst into tears while taking the maths test, and some complained that questions in the Chinese literature test were so "insanely" difficult that even authors of those classical books wouldn't be able to understand them.

Responding to the online controversy, the education ministry said in a state media interview that the difficulty of the mathematics exam is to "play the role of selection" and better serve the government's goal of building a quality eduction system.

Agnipath: One dead as trains set on fire across India amid protests against army reforms

Shweta Sharma

Fri, June 17, 2022

A protester died and several others were injured after police in India’s southern Telangana state allegedly opened fire on them as the country continued to witness anger over recent reforms announced in the recruitment process of the Indian armed forces.

Large scale nationwide protests continued to take place across India for the third consecutive day, leading to violence and trains being set on fire after protesters crowded railway stations.

Large crowds have taken over railway stations and blocked roads and highways in major Indian states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Rajasthan and national capital Delhi, demanding the government to reinstate the earlier recruitment process.

A train on a railway platform in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia was set ablaze by a protesting crowd, causing damage to several coaches before police resorted to using force to disperse the crowd.

The situation escalated in Secunderabad when a violent mob ransacked railway platforms, vandalised computers and electronics, destroyed CCTV cameras, lights and set fire to 4-5 train engines and 2-3 coaches.

Smoke billows out from a passenger train coach after it was set on fire by protestors during a protest against the ‘Agnipath’ reforms for recruiting personnel for armed forces in Secunderabad city on 17 June (Reuters)

Police fired at least 10 rounds to control the situation, leaving at least 15 people injured. One of the protesters, identified as Damodar Kumar, succumbed to his injuries, reported the Indian Express.

Eight other injured protesters are receiving treatment at Gandhi Hospital while two remain at the railway hospital.

In the eastern state of Bihar, which is the worst hit by protests, at least two coaches in two different trains were set on fire in the Lakhisarai and Samastipur stations.

A mob outside the house of Bihar’s deputy chief minister Renu Devi attacked her residence and caused damage to property.

“Such type of violence is very dangerous for the society. The protesters should remember that this is a loss for the society,” Ms Devi, who was not at home at the time of the attack, told news channel NDTV.

Section 144, a prohibitory order used often by the government to ban gatherings of more than four people, was imposed in Haryana’s Gurugram, 20km away from the national capital, after a large number of people clashed with police.

On Friday, more than 200 train services were impacted, including 35 trains services cancelled and 13 terminated across the country, according to the Indian railways.

The ongoing demonstrations have forced the government to allow an exemption in the age limit just for this year by increasing the upper limit to 23 years from the existing 21.

A police vehicle burns after it was set on fire by the protestors during a protest against ‘Agnipath’ in Patna city (Reuters)

Protesters, however, said they want the scheme to be rolled back as it would potentially leave them unemployed.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who unveiled the scheme on Tuesday, said the one-time waiver on the age relaxation “indicates that the Government cares for our youth”.

Under the new plan, referred to as the “Agnipath” programme, translates literally to “path of fire”.

Around 45,000-50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually among candidates aged between 17.5 years and 23 years.

Of the total annual recruits, only 25 per cent will be allowed to continue for another 15 years under a permanent commission, while others will be let off with skill certificates and bridge courses.

The contentious scheme has been harshly criticised by army veterans and aspirants for deploying a “hire and fire” culture into the armed forces as they say recruits will end up unemployed after a four-year stint.

The programme was announced despite existing anger as recruitments have been stalled for around two years due to the Covid pandemic, causing frustration among millions of aspirants fearing they might exceed the existing age limit.

The new scheme has not only shortened employment tenures to four years from the existing 17 for the lowest ranks, but has also made 75 per cent recruits ineligible for government pension.

Mr Singh claimed the scheme is needed to make the Indian armed forces battle ready and more youthful, by reducing the average age of personnel over time.

“Agnipath… is a truly transformative reform which will enhance the combat potential of the armed forces, with a younger profile and technologically adept soldiers,” he said.

Backlash grows to India’s plan to introduce US-style ‘tours of duty’ for military service

Shweta Sharma

Thu, June 16, 2022

Violent protests broke out in major Indian cities on Thursday, two days after the government announced a major overhaul to the recruitment process in the Indian armed forces.

Hundreds of young aspirants set train coaches on fire, blocked railway tracks and roads, and clashed with security forces as they raised slogans against the new US army-style short-term recruitment plan that they say will leave them unemployed.

The government of India on Tuesday unveiled the “Agnipath” or “Path of Fire” programme, which will induct aspirants for a short-term four-year contract into three services – navy, airforce and army. On completion of this programme, only 25 per cent will be retained and the others will be released.

Touted by defence minister Rajnath Singh as “major defence policy reform” to make the Indian armed forces more “battle-ready” and youthful, the move is aimed at cutting down ballooning pensions and salaries, which has been a long-pending issue for one of the world’s largest forces.

Demanding the rollback of the plan, a huge number of people hit the streets in the state of Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and raised slogans such as “down with the Indian government” and “give us jobs or kill us”.

Police resorted to baton charging and fired teargas to control the angry crowd.

However, several coaches of a train were set fire in Chhapra in Saran district of Bihar as protests intensified.

“The protesters set fire to a train bogie [coach] in one place,” said Sanjay Singh, additional director general of police in the eastern state of Bihar, adding that roads and railway tracks were obstructed in dozens of places.

Around 22 trains of East Central Railway in Bihar were cancelled and 29 others were affected due to demonstrations.

Under the new plan, around 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually for candidates aged between 17.5 years and 21 years. Of the total annual recruits, only 25 per cent will be allowed to continue for another 15 years under permanent commission, while others will be let off with skill certificates and bridge courses.

The employment duration has been significantly reduced from up to 17 years for the lowest ranks.

Successful candidates will be given Rs 30,000 (£316) each month and other benefits during the four-year period. The short-term servicemen would get Rs 1,171,000 (£12,372) at the end of their contract.

The four-year-stint has effectively made 75 per cent of recruits ineligible for pension, which was one of the main benefits of joining the armed forces for hundreds of thousands of aspirants as it provided social security to those coming from marginalised backgrounds in absence of resources to get degrees for other career options.

The Indian army – one of the world’s biggest with 1.4 million personnel – was one of the main employers in the country. But frustration was already building up as the recruitment process had been frozen for the past two years due to the coronavirus pandemic and aspirants were worried about passing the age limit.

“Where will we go after working for only four years? We will be homeless after four years of service. So we have jammed the roads; the country’s leaders will now get to know that people are aware,” a protestor in Jehanabad, Bihar told Indian news agency ANI.

The new scheme has also triggered a debate among politicians and army veterans, many of whom say that lack of job security can lead to low motivation levels. Additionally, it poses the risk of having thousands of young unemployed youth with arms training in society, potentially causing a law-and-order fallout.

Major General GG Dwivedi in a column in The Indian Express dubbed the Tour of Duty model “tourist soldiering”, and said it is in vogue in the US and the west, where they have “peaceful neighbourhoods with settled borders”.

Protesters blocked roads and highways in Indian state of Bihar (ANI via Reuters)

But the scheme is “flawed and merits a holistic review” as India faces the stark reality of a two-front threat on borders with hostile neighbours Pakistan and China, he said.

Retired Lieutenant General Zameer Uddin Shah said it is a “retrograde step” and “the most detrimental measure inflicted on armed forces”.

“With a year spent on training and six months on pre-release formalities, the soldier will get only 2.5 years to serve, which is inadequate to inculcate regimental ethos, affiliation, and discipline,” the veteran said.

Retired major general GD Bakshi said he was “flabbergasted” by the scheme.

“I thought initially it was a trial being done on a pilot basis. This is an across the board change to convert Indian armed forces to a short tenure quasi-conscript force like the Chinese. For God’s sake, please don’t do it,” he said in a tweet.

“Let’s not destroy our institutions in a time of great threats from China & Pak. Armed forces have performed well. Just for saving money let us not destroy what we have.”