Mass killer who ‘hunted’ black people says police encouraged him

By Charlie Northcott, 

BBC Africa Eye
JULY 22,2024

BBC


A convicted South African murderer who shot dead dozens of black men during apartheid has told the BBC the police sanctioned his violence. Louis van Schoor says others should share the blame for the killings he carried out as a security guard. But in talking to BBC Africa Eye over the past four years, he has also let slip horrifying details that raise serious questions about his early release from prison.

Standing in the bedroom of a killer, your eyes naturally hone in on the details.

Van Schoor’s bed is immaculately neat - the duvet so flat it looks like it has been ironed. The air is heavy with the smell of cigarettes, their stubs piled high in an ashtray. Strips of sticky paper are dangling from the ceiling, writhing with trapped and dying flies.

The so-called “Apartheid Killer” has lost his teeth. His health is waning. Following a heart attack, both his legs were recently amputated, leaving him in a wheelchair, with painful scars. When his surgeon carried out this procedure, Van Schoor requested an epidural instead of a general anaesthetic - so he could watch them remove his legs.

“I was curious,” he said, chuckling. “I saw them cutting… they sawed through the bone.”

In speaking to the BBC World Service, Van Schoor wanted to persuade us that he is “not the monster that people say I am”. His enthusiastic description of his legs being removed did little to soften his image.

Over a three-year period in the 1980s under the country’s racist apartheid system - which imposed a strict hierarchy that privileged white South Africans - Van Schoor shot and killed at least 39 people.

All of his victims were black. The youngest was just 12 years old. The killings occurred in East London, a city in South Africa’s windswept Eastern Cape.

Van Schoor was a security guard at the time, with a contract to protect as many as 70% of white-owned businesses: restaurants, shops, factories and schools. He has long claimed that everyone he killed was a “criminal” who he caught red-handed breaking into these buildings.

“He was a kind of vigilante killer. He was a Dirty Harry character,” says Isa Jacobson, a South African journalist and filmmaker, who has spent 20 years investigating Van Schoor’s case.

“These were intruders who were, in a lot of cases, pretty desperate. Digging through bins, maybe stealing some food… petty criminals.”




The Apartheid Killer

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Van Schoor’s killings - sometimes several in a single night - struck terror into the black community of East London. Stories spread through the city of a bearded man - nicknamed “whiskers” in the Xhosa language - who made people disappear at night. But his shootings were not carried out in secret.

Every killing between 1986 and 1989 was reported to the police by Van Schoor himself. But the release from prison of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela in 1990 signalled an end to this impunity. Ripples of change swept across South Africa and, following pressure from activists and journalists, the security guard was arrested in 1991.

Van Schoor’s trial was one of the largest murder trials in South Africa’s history, involving dozens of witnesses and thousands of pages of forensic evidence.

However, the case against him largely collapsed in court. At the time of his trial, much of the apparatus of the apartheid system was still in place within the judiciary. Despite killing at least 39 people, he was only convicted of seven murders. He would go on to serve just 12 years in prison.

His other 32 killings are still classified as “justifiable homicides” by the police. Apartheid-era laws gave people the right to use lethal force against intruders if they resisted arrest or fled once caught.

Van Schoor relied heavily on this defence to maintain his innocence, claiming that his victims were running away when he killed them.


Louis van Schoor pointed out the places where he would track down intruders


The BBC’s investigation into Van Schoor scrutinised the evidence underlying these so-called “justifiable” shootings, delving deep into long-forgotten police reports, autopsies and witness statements.

The investigation was led by Isa Jacobson, and involved years of archival research in multiple cities across the Eastern Cape. The most important files were scattered among hundreds of boxes, hidden away in vaults.

“The whole scale of it is just mesmerising,” she said. “It's astounding that any court of law could allow this to happen.”

Some of the most harrowing evidence Ms Jacobson found were witness statements from people who were injured by Van Schoor, but survived. These accounts contradict the security guard’s argument that they had been running away when he shot them.

Multiple people said Van Schoor shot them while their hands were up, after they had surrendered. Others describe him toying with them, asking if they would prefer to be arrested or shot - before shooting them in the chest. Another victim described being shot in the abdomen, begging for water, before being kicked in his wound by Van Schoor.

The security guard was armed with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, frequently loaded with hollow-point bullets, which cause severe internal ruptures when entering a victim. In one case, he fired eight shots into an unarmed man.

In a particularly brutal case on 11 July 1988, Van Schoor shot a 14-year-old boy who had broken into a restaurant searching for petty change.

The boy - who we have not named to protect his privacy - told the police he hid in the toilet when he saw Van Schoor with his gun. He says the security guard called him out, told him to stand next to the wall, and then shot him repeatedly.

“He told me to stand up, but I couldn’t,” said the boy, in his recorded testimony. “While I was lying there, he kicked me in the mouth. He picked me up and propped me up against a table and then he shot me again.”

The boy survived, but he was not believed. He was charged for breaking into the building. Many young black men and boys who gave first-hand accounts of being assaulted and shot by Van Schoor faced a similar fate.

Testimonies such as this were heard during Van Schoor’s trial, but the judge repeatedly dismissed the witnesses as “unsophisticated” and “unreliable”. There are no jury trials in South Africa. The opinion of the judge is final.




World of Secrets, Season 3: The Apartheid Killer

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At the time of Van Schoor’s trial, many members of the white community in East London supported him. One entrepreneurial businessman printed bumper stickers with pictures of the security guard. They said “I Love Louis”, next to a heart full of bullet holes.

“There was evident racial bias in the legal system,” says Patrick Goodenough, a South African journalist who led the 1980s investigation into Van Schoor. He also attended his trial.

“The support for him was massive… He would not have been able to get away with a fraction of what he got away with without it.”

There is no statute of limitations for murder or attempted murder in South Africa. In theory, there is nothing stopping the police from reopening Van Schoor’s case and re-assessing these “justifiable” shootings.

“Louis van Schoor was basically going out and murdering people for sport,” says Dominic Jones, a journalist who helped raise awareness of the security guard’s killing spree in the 1980s.

Some of the most shocking findings from the BBC's investigation came from interviews with Van Schoor himself, which strongly suggested he got a thrill from his activities.

“Every night is a new adventure, if you want to put it that way,” he told the BBC.


Journalist Isa Jacobson has spent years going through public records to scrutinise Louis van Schoor's case


Many of the businesses he protected installed silent alarms. When someone broke in, Van Schoor would receive an alert which allowed him to surprise the intruder - and identify exactly where they were inside the building. And he always went alone.

“I was barefoot. It’s quiet. You don’t have your shoes squeaking on tiles and stuff,” he said.

He would never switch the light on. Instead, he relied on his sense of smell.

“If somebody breaks in, the adrenaline gives off an odour. And you can pick that up,” he said.

Van Schoor claims he never went out “with the intention of killing black people” and says he is not a racist. But he admits he found stalking them in the dark “exciting”.

Before becoming a security guard, Van Schoor was a member of the East London police force for 12 years. He used to handle what he calls “attacker dogs”, which he used to track down and catch protesters and criminals - almost all of whom were black.

He compared this to “hunting, but a different species”.

Louis van Schoor
Louis van Schoor was previously in the police dog squad


Tetinene “Joe” Jordan, a former anti-apartheid activist who was operating in East London at the time of Van Schoor’s killings, remembers this well.

“He was hunting, literally hunting people,” he says.

Van Schoor strongly denies he is a “serial killer” and believes everything he did was “within the law”. If people feel aggrieved over his killings, he says they should blame the South African police.

He says the police never criticised or warned him, but actively supported and encouraged him.

“Every officer in East London knew what was going on… all the police officers knew,” he said. “Not once did anybody say ‘Hey Louis, you’re on the borderline or you should cool it or whatever’… they all knew what was happening.”

In the police records held in public archives, Ms Jacobson found instances of killings where officers had been present at the time of the shootings. At no point did they appear to question Van Schoor as a suspect.

In many instances, the police failed to take photos of the deceased at the scenes of shooting and failed to collect key forensic evidence, such as bullet casings. Van Schoor was often the only witness to his shootings, so this evidence could have been crucial for determining what had actually happened in each case.

“These were cover-ups… He had the backing from police officers from junior rank and senior rank,” said Mr Goodenough.

“They wouldn’t investigate. They’d sit down with him and have a cigarette while chatting, with bodies lying nearby.”

In all cases Van Schoor pulled the trigger - but between the police and the businesses that hired him, an entire community played a role in the killings which took place in East London.

“Van Schoor was a serial killer because there was a society that allowed him to be one,” says Ms Jacobson.

For the relatives of Van Schoor’s victims, his freedom, and the failure of the state to thoroughly investigate his killings, is a constant source of pain. Some never recovered the bodies of their loved ones.

“It seems like we are stuck in this phase of being heartbroken, being angry,” says Marlene Mvumbi, whose brother, Edward, was murdered by Van Schoor in 1987. His remains were dumped in an unmarked grave by the authorities without the family’s consent.

“Lots of people are still missing and not even in the graveyard… there is no closure.”

Van Schoor’s case pre-dated South Africa’s 1995 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which gave compensation to many victims of apartheid-era crimes.

Sharlene Crage, a former activist who played a key role in pressuring the South African authorities to prosecute Van Schoor, is outraged that he was ever allowed to walk free.

“It’s a shocking miscarriage of justice,” she said. “There is no reason his case shouldn’t be reopened.”


Louis van Schoor admitted he found tracking intruders down thrilling


Van Schoor was sentenced to more than 90 years in prison at the conclusion of his trial in 1992, but the judge allowed him to serve each term concurrently. He was freed on parole in 2004.

The early release of apartheid-era killers from prison has become a contentious issue in South Africa.

In 2022, there were protests in Johannesburg over the parole of Janusz Walus, who killed anti-apartheid politician Chris Hani. A few years previously, Eugene de Kock, in charge of a death squad responsible for the abduction, torture, and murder of dozens of black activists was also freed.

Nowadays, Van Schoor spends most of his time watching rugby, smoking and playing with his pet rottweiler, Brutus. He says he has no memory of many of his killings.

Some reports have stated, without verification, that he shot as many as 100 people. Van Schoor denies this, but concedes his number of shootings may exceed the documented number of 39.

“I honestly don’t know how many I shot. Some say over a 100, some say 40… Let’s say for argument’s sake I shot 50 people,” he told us.

He says he is proud of his past actions.

“I don’t feel any guilt,” he said. “I’ve got no remorse inside.”

The BBC contacted the South African police for comment, but they did not respond. The authorities have given no explanation for why Van Schoor’s killings have not been reassessed in the post-apartheid era.

“There is too much pain, and for now I don’t feel that there is enough that is done for us to heal,” says Marlene Mvumbi.

“It’s not only the ones that were killed by Van Schoor. The ones that have similar stories from the killings of the apartheid regime.”

Investigation by Isa Jacobson and Charlie Northcott

UAE orders a trial of Bangladeshi nationals arrested for protesting their home government


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Authorities in the United Arab Emirates ordered an investigation and an expedited trial of Bangladeshi nationals arrested for protesting against their home government across the Gulf country, state media reported.

July 21, 2024
By Michael Wakin The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Authorities in the United Arab Emirates ordered an investigation and an expedited trial of Bangladeshi nationals arrested for protesting against their home government across the Gulf country, state media reported.

The protests in the UAE followed weeks of protests in Bangladesh by demonstrators protesting a quota system that reserved up to 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. The country’s top court on Sunday scaled back on the controversial system, in a partial victory for student protesters.

The UAE’s attorney general’s office indicted Saturday the Bangladeshis on several charges, including “gathering in a public place and protesting against their home government with the intent to incite unrest,” obstructing law enforcement, causing harm to others and damaging property, according to the state-owned Emirates News Agency, WAM.

Leaders of Australia and Japan react to Biden dropping out of 2024 US presidential race

“Based on the preliminary investigation results, the Public Prosecution has ordered their pretrial detention pending further investigations,” WAM reported.

The report did not specify how many Bangladeshis were arrested.

Bangladeshi nationals make up the UAE’s third largest expatriate community, many of whom are low-paid laborers seeking to send money back home to their families. The Emirates’ overall population of more than 9.2 million is only 10% Emirati.

Political parties and labor unions are banned in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms. Broad laws severely restrict freedom of speech and almost all major local media are either state-owned or state-affiliated outlets.

 

Russian propagandist justifies missile strike on Ukraine’s main children’s hospital because Ukrainians 'are not people'

19.07.2024   

Halya Coynash

Those who incite to genocide typically attempt to dehumanize their victims, but it is disturbing that Andrei Perla’s ‘justification’ for Russia’s killing and maiming of sick children has elicited so little reaction

Okhmatdyt after Russia’s missile strike

Russia’s missile attack on Okhmatdyr, Ukraine’s main children’s hospital, aroused enough international outrage for Moscow to go into denial mode. Not so, however, Russian propagandists, one of whom positively told Russians to quit making excuses.  The strike was no accident, according to Andrei Perla, a columnist for Tsargrad, and can be repeated as Ukrainian children, any Ukrainians “cannot be considered people”.

The official Russian defence ministry line was, and seemingly remains, that all Russia’s exclusively military aims on 8 July had been achieved.  Any missile strike on the youngest cancer patients and children needing dialysis had, purportedly, been caused by a Ukrainian air defence rocket. Or, the regular favourite, it was ‘Ukrainian provocation’.

This official version can be easily refuted, but should not be ignored, since similar denials, about Russian atrocities in Bucha, Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities have been used as justification for sentencing Russians, who reported the truth, to lengthy terms of imprisonment.  Russian propagandist Andrei Perla has not only acknowledged, in an officially registered Russian media, that Russia carried out the missile strike, but states, in the title, that “the children’s hospital in Kyiv was no accident”.  So where are the criminal proceedings under Article 207.3 of Russia’s criminal code (for so-called ‘military fakes’)?  There have been no criminal charges, and virtually no scandal, although the original article, posted on 8 July 2024, may have been quietly removed.

Screenshots remain available of the article which appeared on Tsargrad on 8 July, under the title ‘The children’s hospital in Kyiv is no accident.   It’s time to admit this and stop being afraid.’   The Tsargrad ‘collage’ under this title shows three small children looking up as a bomb is dropped from a fighter plane.   The argument is that used by all those who advocate genocide: Russia’s armed forces need not avoid targeting children or any civilians as “there are no people on the other side”. 

Andrei Perla screenshot of the title and Tsargrad collage with children looking up at the missile being released

In his own words:

“The pitiless law of war is very simple – such enemies cannot be considered people. We must acknowledge the simple and terrible [truth] that there are no people on the other side.  Not one person.  Our missiles do not kill people, not one person.  There are no people there.”

“Simple and terrible, but we shouldn’t try to justify ourselves for hitting a children’s hospital.  We need to say: do you want it to stop?  Then surrender. Capitulate.  And then, perhaps, we will spare you.

“If we don’t forbid ourselves from viewing them as people, from pitying them, protecting them – we will weaken ourselves.  We will restrict our ability to save our own children. We will obstruct the path to Victory.”

“If the aim of the SMO* is to ensure Russia’s security, denazify and demilitarize Ukraine, then the path to this aim is for surviving Nazis  [sic] and all their families to have to flee in panic to the West. Before the Polish border.  From shelling. From the ruins of their cities and homes, losing on the way their blue and yellow flags and slippers.”

In May 2022, over 30 international human rights lawyers and scholars issued a stark warning that there was a serious risk of Russian genocide in Ukraine. Among the features they pointed to was the clear incitement to genocide from both Russia’s leaders and the state media, like Russia Today.  They cited the rhetoric and terms used to dehumanize Ukrainians and attempts to “portray a substantial segment or an entire generation of Ukrainians as Nazis and mortal enemies, rendering them legitimate or necessary targets for destruction.”  There have, in fact, been numerous studies since then of such incitement, with those most openly engaged in such hate speech including Dmitry Medvedev, former (nominal) Russian president, close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and effective head of Russia’s security council.  Medvedev has repeatedly cast into doubt Ukraine’s continued existence as a sovereign state and recently declared, quite unequivocally, that Russia will not stop until it seizes all Ukrainian territory.  In June 2024, the International Federation for Human Rights, together with the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG), the Centre for Civil Liberties and a Russian NGO lodged a legal submission with the International Criminal Court.  They called on the Court to take action against Medvedev and five top Russian propagandists for their use of hate speech to fuel international crimes in Ukraine.

It has been clear, in fact, since 2014, that Russia’s state media were directly involved in Russian warmongering and anti-Ukrainian rhetoric.  Former employees of state media have revealed how orders on the language to be used, the narrative about Ukraine, etc. all came from the Kremlin.

For this reason, it is disturbing that Perla’s words have not caused any major scandal.  Even in October 2022, children proved to be a red line not to be crossed even by Anton Krasovsky, then the broadcasting director for Russia Today and virulent in his hate speech against Ukraine.  In a talk show, he proposed that Ukrainian children be drowned and burned.  In the same show, he also claimed that elderly Ukrainians wanted to be raped, that Ukraine had no right to exist and that those with whom it would be difficult to share one country should be shot, however it was only the words about children that resulted in RT chief and leading Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan announcing that he was to be dismissed.

Almost two years later, the reaction from Russians has largely been limited to those Russians forced to live in exile and / or to publish even social media comments as being those of a so-called ‘foreign agent’.  While the Tsargrad media group is not, at least officially, state-funded, it is the outlet of Konstantin Malofeev, the Russian ‘businessman’ and close Putin ally who has been under western sanctions since 2014 for his role in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.  There has been no official, nor mass, outrage at all although Perla not only stated that Russia had bombed the children’s hospital, but that this was, supposedly, a legitimate thing to do. 

Perla article iii (screenshot)

Perla article ii (screenshot)

Perla article iv (screenshot)

 

Russia destroys monuments to Victims of Holodomor and Stalin’s Terror in occupied Luhansk

22.07.2024   

Halya Coynash

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is accompanied on all occupied territory by efforts to destroy historical memory and Ukrainian identity

Destruction of the memorials to the Victims of Holodomor and Stalin’s Repression in occupied Luhansk From the propaganda video

Missiles are the deadliest, but by no means the only weapon Russia is using in its determination to eradicate Ukrainian identity and Ukrainian historical memory on all occupied territory. 

The latest attack on Ukrainians’ memory of Holodomor, the man-made Famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine, and of Soviet repression was reported on 18 July 2024 in occupied Luhansk.  The Russian propaganda ‘Luhansk information centre’ announced the dismantling of stone monuments to the Victims of Holodomor and to the Victims of Stalin’s Repression on Remembrance Square in occupied Luhansk.  The report, although very brief, was filled with all the standard aspects of Russia’s narrative about Ukraine.  This, for example, includes labelling any Ukrainians or Ukrainian organizations with a pronounced sense of Ukrainian identity and patriotism as ‘nationalist’.   These are claimed to have been places of pilgrimage for “Ukrainian nationalists” and Prosvita activists, with this clearly viewed as something suspect.  The Prosvita, or Enlightenment, Society was only ‘radical’ to Russians who wanted to deny Ukrainian statehood, and the importance of Ukrainian as the state language. 

Even more typical is the pretence that the destruction of monuments honouring the memory of Ukrainians deliberately starved to death or persecuted was at the initiative of ‘Luhansk residents’.  It is claimed that there were appeals from “veteran organizations” which purportedly “demanded the dismantling of monument-fakes that have no historical or cultural significance and insult the patriotic sentiments of Luhansk residents.”

Memorial to the Victims of Holodomor in occupied Luhansk on 27 November 2023 Photo Realna Gazeta

Worth noting a poignant photo from 27 November 2023 of roses underneath the words: Rest in Peace, Those Starved to Death’  in occupied Luhansk.  The victims of this genocide are honoured throughout the world each year on the third Saturday in November, with at least one ‘Luhansk resident’ willing to take a major risk and lay flowers in memory, even though this was at the Monument to the Victims of Holodomor in a part opposite the Russian-controlled ‘ministry of state security’.

It is telling that the monuments, like others to Victims of Holodomor in particular, have been demolished since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and openly annexed Ukrainian territory, including Luhansk.  While a huge number of countries have joined Ukraine in recognizing Holodomor as an act of genocide, Russia has carried out an aggressive campaign of denial and disinformation.  The current regime under Russian leader Vladimir Putin has not openly denied the crimes of the Soviet era, and specially the Terror under bloody dictator Joseph Stalin.  It has, however, actively sought to ‘rehabilitate’ or whitewash Stalin and his henchmen, the notorious secret police from Cheka to KGB and has persecuted those organizations and activists who seek to remember the victims of the regime’s crimes.   Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, huge numbers of books on Ukrainian culture and history have been banned as ‘extremist’, including any books telling the truth about Holodomor and Soviet history.

The Monument to Victims of Stalin’s Repression in Luhansk that the Russians destroyed

The attacks on Ukrainian historical memory began back in 2014 in both occupied Crimea and the Russian proxy ‘Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics’ [‘LPR/DPR’].  In August 2015, a Memorial to the Victims of Political Repression and Holodomor was dismantled in Snizhne, within ‘DPR’. Such destruction was claimed to be aimed at the “reinstatement of historical justice”.  

By October 2022, the Russians had destroyed the Memorial to Victims of Holodomor in Mariupol.  The monument was made of granite and erected in 2004 near the Drama Theatre which was sheltering around a thousand residents when it was bombed by the Russians on 16 March 2022.   Here too the Russians produced a propaganda video claiming that Mariupol residents were in favour of the monument’s destruction, while only showing one collaborator who actually claimed that it was not Ukraine which had suffered from the Famine of 1932-33.   There was an especially cynical note in the attempt to justify the destruction by claiming that the granite was to be used ‘for construction work’.  No mention, of course, was made of who had destroyed Mariupol hospitals, residential buildings and places of culture.

Monuments to the Victims of Holodomor were also ostentatiously destroyed in occupied parts of Kherson oblast in late 2023.  The occupation forces in Ivanivka Hromada boasted of having destroyed at least fourteen memorials to Victims of Holodomor.  They prefaced Holodomor with the word ‘so-called’, and reposted images of the destruction, however did themselves wear masks to conceal their own identity.

How loss of India's vultures might have led to half a million deaths

Near extinction of the invaluable carrion eaters in 1990s left cattle carcasses piled up and disease spreading widely


Vultures performed a crucial public health service by clearing away carrion but a drug used to treat livestock poisoned most of the birds
(Image credit: Pascal Deloche / Godong / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

BY HARRIET MARSDEN, THE WEEK UK

Vultures have long evoked images of death, hovering over ailing animals and feeding off their rotting corpses.

But the near extinction of the scavenger birds in India during the 1990s led to the spread of disease-carrying pathogens – and may have killed half a million people, according to a new study.

The working paper, due to be published in an upcoming issue of the American Economic Review, estimates that the related public health crisis between 2000 and 2005 cost the Indian government nearly $70 billion a year.

'Nature's sanitation service'

In India, vultures are a "keystone species", said Science, "essential to the functioning of many of the country's ecosystems".

Unlike mammal scavengers, vultures do not also hunt. They only feed on carrion – and in a country with more than 500 million livestock, they perform a crucial duty of removing disease-ridden carcasses. That also helps to "reduce the populations of other scavengers, such as feral dogs that can transmit rabies".

The birds were once widespread in India, acting as "nature's sanitation service", said The Economist. They are also highly efficient. "A group of vultures can polish off a cow's carrion in 40 minutes."

But in 1994, farmers began giving their livestock a painkiller called diclofenac. When they disposed of dead livestock, the vultures who fed on the carcasses were poisoned by the anti-inflammatory drug, dying within weeks.

In one decade, India's vulture population fell from 50 million birds to just a few thousand: the fastest population collapse of a bird species in history. The worst-hit species, the white-rumped vulture, "declined by a dreadful 99.9%" between 1992 and 2007", said Bird Guides.

Cattle bodies piled up around tanneries and fields "became carcass dumps" for feral dogs and rats, said Science, leading to the spread of disease. The government also forced tanneries to use chemicals to dispose of the carcasses, which caused toxic substances to "leach into waterways used by people".

The vulture wipeout was later attributed to diclofenac, and India banned the use of the drug in 2006. Pakistan and Nepal followed suit. But India's vulture population is unlikely to ever completely recover.

The human cost of vulture wipeout

Anant Sudarshan, an environmental economist at the University of Warwick, witnessed the crisis growing up in India. Sudarshan, and Eyal Frank of the University of Chicago, co-authors of the upcoming American Economic Review paper, compared maps of vulture habitats to health records for more than 600 Indian districts between 2000 and 2005.

In districts that were "highly suitable to vultures", there was an average increase in human deaths of 4.2%. That implies about 104,386 additional deaths each year, or half a million in total. Previous research had calculated that India would spend roughly $665,000 to save one life. The economic damage, according to the team's estimates, was about $70 billion per year.

"This [upcoming paper] will be a classic in the field," said Atheendar Venkataramani, a health economist at the University of Pennsylvania. It could also convince lawmakers to "push forward policy and conservation measures", said Andrea Santangeli, a conservation scientist at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies.

"Scientific evidence suggests the Earth is undergoing a mass extinction of species, caused by human activity," said Sudarshan and Frank. "Evaluating the social costs of losing non-human species is necessary to manage biodiversity and target conservation resources."

Traditional Zoroastrian burial rites are also becoming "increasingly impossible to perform" because of the decline in vultures, said The Guardian. Parsi communities in India and Pakistan have for thousands of years placed their dead on top of dakhma, or "towers of silence", built above the soil to prevent contamination. Vultures "eat the flesh on the bones", which are later collected in an ossuary pit.

Offering the body to the birds is "the devout Zoroastrian's ultimate act of charity", one Karachi resident told The Guardian. The vulture's eye is believed to help the soul's transition. But there are only two remaining towers of silence in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. "We've lost a way of life, our culture," said one resident.

This year, there are "signs of stabilisation" among India's critically endangered vultures, said Bird Guides – but they are "still in a precarious situation".

Images of their "blood-splattered bills" tend to "evoke less sympathy" than "majestic tigers, adorable pandas" or other staples of wildlife conservation campaigns, said The Economist: animals that "tug at human heartstrings".

But "conserving these animals should be a priority. They may not be cute or cuddly, but they are important."

Social Media Accountability In Pakistan – OpEd

 

 July 22, 2024 

By Dr. Sahibzada Muhammad Usman

In recent years, social media platforms have become an integral part of daily life in Pakistan, providing a means for people to connect, share ideas, and access information. However, with the increasing influence of these platforms, there is a growing need to address various issues arising from their use. It is crucial for social media companies operating in Pakistan to respect local laws, follow to cultural norms, and fulfil their tax obligations. It’s important to investigate the necessity of reigning in social media platforms in Pakistan to ensure they operate in a manner that is respectful and beneficial to the country’s legal, cultural, and economic landscape.

One of the primary concerns with the operation of social media platforms in Pakistan is their compliance with local laws. The Pakistani government has implemented several regulations aimed at ensuring the responsible use of digital platforms. These regulations include the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016, which addresses cybercrimes and provides a legal framework for controlling online content. Despite these measures, social media platforms often fail to fully comply with local laws, leading to issues such as the spread of fake news, hate speech, and other harmful content. To address this, it is essential for social media companies to cooperate with Pakistani authorities and ensure their platforms are used responsibly. This includes implementing robust content moderation policies, promptly responding to legal requests from the government, and taking down content that violates local laws. By doing so, social media platforms can contribute to a safer and more secure online environment in Pakistan.

Pakistan is a country with a rich cultural heritage and deeply rooted social norms. The influence of social media on societal values and behaviours cannot be underestimated. Unfortunately, the content shared on these platforms often does not align with local cultural norms, leading to the erosion of traditional values and the promotion of behaviours that are considered inappropriate or offensive. Social media companies need to be more sensitive to the cultural context in which they operate. This means developing and enforcing guidelines that respect Pakistani cultural values and prevent the dissemination of content that could harm societal cohesion. By fostering an environment that respects and upholds local cultural norms, social media platforms can become a force for positive social change rather than a source of cultural conflict.

Another critical issue related to the operation of social media platforms in Pakistan is their tax obligations. Like any other business entity operating within the country, social media companies are expected to pay taxes on their revenue. However, many of these companies have been found to be evading taxes or underreporting their earnings, depriving the Pakistani government of much-needed revenue. The government must take stringent measures to ensure that social media platforms fulfil their tax obligations. This includes implementing clear tax regulations specific to digital businesses, improving the tax collection infrastructure, and taking legal action against companies that evade taxes. By doing so, the government can ensure that social media platforms contribute their fair share to the country’s economic development.

To effectively reign in social media platforms, the Pakistani government, civil society, and the platforms themselves must work together. The government should continue to refine and enforce regulations that address the challenges posed by digital platforms while ensuring these regulations do not stifle freedom of expression. Additionally, the government should engage in dialogue with social media companies to understand their concerns and find mutually beneficial solutions. Civil society also plays a crucial role in this process. Advocacy groups, non-governmental organizations, and media watchdogs can help monitor the activities of social media platforms, raise awareness about their responsibilities, and hold them accountable. Public awareness campaigns can educate users about the importance of responsible social media use and encourage them to report content that violates local laws and cultural norms.

The need to reign in social media platforms in Pakistan is evident, given the challenges related to compliance with local laws, adherence to cultural norms, and fulfilment of tax obligations. By fostering a cooperative relationship between the government, civil society, and social media companies, Pakistan can ensure that these platforms operate in a manner that respects its legal and cultural landscape while contributing to its economic development. It is only through collective effort and mutual respect that the benefits of social media can be fully realized without compromising the values and laws that define Pakistani society.

Dr. Sahibzada Muhammad Usman is a Research Scholar and Academic;
Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Pisa, Italy. Dr. Usman has participated in various national and international conferences and published 30 research articles in international journals.