Dutch convicted rapist considers quitting beach volleyball after Olympics criticism

HE WAS BOOED AT OLYMPICS

Paris 2024 Olympics - Beach Volleyball - Men's Round of 16 Match - Brazil vs Netherlands (Evandro/Arthur vs van de Velde/Immers) - Eiffel Tower Stadium, Paris, France - August 04, 2024. Steven van de Velde of Netherlands looks on. 

REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki/

Aug 14, 2024

AMSTERDAM - Netherlands beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, a convicted rapist, says he will consider quitting the sport if his participation in international tournaments continues to meet objections.

Van de Velde, who competes this week in the European Beach Volleyball Championships in the Netherlands, faced extensive criticism for taking part in the Paris Olympics and was jeered by sections of the crowd.

In a first interview since the Games he said he was considering his future in the sport.

"It was a tough experience, one that I haven't fully processed yet. The conclusion can certainly be - this is not worth it. Certainly for my family. So I will certainly take their opinion into account," he told Dutch NOS television in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.

Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in Britain in 2016 after he was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl. He was 19 at the time of the offence.

He spent 13 months in prison - one year in Britain and one month in the Netherlands. Under Dutch law his crime was re-classified as the lesser offence of committing indecent acts and his sentence was reduced.


Van de Velde returned to beach volleyball competition in 2017 but his selection for the Paris games was widely condemned by other delegations as well as women's rights groups. REUTERS

Japan ends megaquake advisory on Nankai Trough disasters


Aug 15, 2024, 

TOKYO - Japan on Thursday ended its call for higher-than-usual risks of a major earthquake, one week after a strong tremor on the edge of the Nankai Trough seabed zone caused the government to issue its first-ever megaquake advisory.

Citizens can now return to normal life as no abnormalities were observed in the seismic activity of the Nankai Trough located along Japan's Pacific coast in the past week, said Yoshifumi Matsumura, the state minister for disaster management.

A Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) expert panel on Aug. 8 released an advisory that there was a "relatively higher chance" of a Nankai Trough megaquake as powerful as magnitude 9, after a magnitude-7.1 quake hit the country's southwest.


While the advisory was not a definitive prediction, the government asked residents of a wide range of western and central regions to review evacuation procedures in case of severe earthquake and tsunami disasters.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cancelled a diplomatic tour to Central Asia and Mongolia over the weekend to prioritise disaster management.

On Aug. 9, a magnitude-5.3 earthquake hit eastern Japan near Tokyo, but its epicentre was located outside of the Nankai Trough zone where the JMA signalled the chance of a megaquake, and the damage was small as only three mild injuries were reported.

Central Japan Railway ended its week-long precaution of reducing the speed of trains running near coastal areas, although the risk of another natural disaster, approaching Typhoon Ampil, forced the company to cancel high-speed trains connecting Tokyo and Nagoya on Friday.

Japan has predicted a 70%-80% chance of a Nankai Trough megaquake occurring in the next 30 years.

The government's worst-case scenario has estimated that a Nankai Trough megaquake and subsequent tsunami disaster could kill 323,000 people, destroy 2.38 million buildings and cause 220 trillion yen ($1.50 trillion) of economic damage.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. More than 15,000 people were killed in a magnitude 9 quake in 2011 that triggered a devastating tsunami and the triple reactor meltdowns at a nuclear power plant in northeast Japan. 

REUTERS

Weeklong Japan megaquake alert ends

Public urged to remain vigilant and prepared


PUBLISHED : 15 Aug 2024
WRITER: Kyodo News

Signage showing evacuation routes from the shore in the event of an earthquake is put up at Shirahama beach in Wakayama Prefecture, as seen on Friday. (Photo: Kyodo)

KYODO - A weeklong government call for increased preparedness based on an advisory over a potential megaquake along the Pacific coast officially ended 5pm on Thursday, after no new major seismic activity was confirmed around the Nankai Trough.

The Nankai Trough megaquake advisory, the first since the system was implemented in 2017, prompted the central government and local communities to intensify disaster preparations over the past week. It also negatively impacted some tourism-related businesses during the summer holiday season.

Japan, a quake-prone nation, has long feared a magnitude 8 to 9 quake along the Nankai Trough within the next 30 years, with predictions that a wide area could be jolted and vast coastal regions engulfed by massive tsunami.

The megaquake advisory was issued just hours after a M7.1 quake rocked southwestern Japan on Aug 8, with its focus located in waters off Miyazaki Prefecture, on the western edge of the Nankai Trough.

The advisory is intended to inform the public of the higher-than-usual risk of a large-scale quake around the Nankai Trough for a week. The government is urging the public to remain vigilant and prepared, as the possibility of a major temblor has not been eliminated.

The Nankai Trough is an ocean-floor trench that runs along Japan's Pacific coast where the Eurasian and Philippine Sea tectonic plates meet.

The Japan Meteorological Agency stated that as of Wednesday, it had detected no seismic activity indicating any concerning changes in the presumed area where the megaquake could originate.

According to the Cabinet Office, the advisory has been applied to 707 municipalities across 29 prefectures where strong shaking and large tsunami are expected in the event of a major quake.

The government estimates that, in a worst-case scenario, a megaquake in the Nankai Trough could result in over 200 trillion yen (UScopy.36 trillion) in damage.

A M9.0 earthquake with an epicentre near land would increase the damage due to the collapse of housing and infrastructure, as well as reduced business activity.

Kuroshio in Kochi Prefecture, western Japan, where a 34-metre tsunami is expected in the event of a megaquake, responded to the advisory by establishing a disaster response headquarters and increasing the number of disaster response staff.

According to the prefecture, over 100 evacuation centres have been established, with up to 63 people having sought refuge.

Some beaches in western and southwestern Japan that were closed for swimming following last week's quake have reopened.

History shows that a major earthquake around the Nankai Trough occurs every 100 to 150 years. About 80 years have passed since the most recent.

The quake that devastated northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggered massive tsunami and led to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster. It registered a M9.0, the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Japan.

‘We Are All on the Front Line’: DR Congo’s Young Women Rebels Take on M23

Country:
CONGO (DRC)
AUGUST 14, 2024
Author:
Sophie Neiman
GRANTEE

Pulitzer Center

ENGLISH

Project
Women and War in Eastern Congo

READ MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT


Marie Byamwungu, a 20-year-old fighter with the Union of Forces for the Patriotic Defence of Congo (UFPDC). Image by Sophie Neiman/Al Jazeera. Democratic Republic of the Congo.

LONG READ

Local self-defence militias called the Wazalendo are taking up arms against the M23 group that’s launching attacks in DRC.

Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo — Marie Byamwungu fiddles with the overlong sleeves of her camouflage shirt, the military uniform hanging like a costume on her slight fame.

But her lips curl back into a wry smile when the 20-year-old, whose real name we are not using for security reasons, describes fierce battles between her militia group and M23 rebels, who are in the middle of an insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

“I’ve seen heavy fighting, but I am proud. I can still go to fight,” she says, sitting in a paramilitary base some three kilometres (1.9 miles) from the front lines, north of the city of Goma.

Behind her, a group of young men lounge in a pocket of shade, joking loudly while holding assault rifles loosely across their knees.

The fighters have taken up arms under the umbrella of the Wazalendo, or “patriots” in Kiswahili — local self-defence forces who say they are fighting to protect their communities from M23 attacks.

Originally composed of former soldiers mutinying from the Congolese army in 2012, M23 resurfaced with increased military activities in early 2022.

The M23 rebellion has led to renewed violence and displacement. Some 1.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes in eastern DRC, with many living in makeshift structures of plastic sheeting and flimsy wood, built precariously on the outskirts of cities in North Kivu province.

According to the United Nations Group of Experts and the United States Department of State, M23 is backed by Rwanda and Uganda. The UN experts have also accused some 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan troops of fighting alongside M23, with their forces equalling those of the rebels. Both Rwanda and Uganda deny supporting the M23 rebellion.

In November 2022, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi called on young people to join the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) in its fight against M23, or at least to take up weapons independently.

“I invite them to organise themselves into vigilance groups with a view to propping up, accompanying and supporting our armed forces,” the president said in a speech broadcast on national television.

Afterwards, the leaders of several notorious armed groups met secretly in the remote eastern town of Pinga, to sign a non-aggression pact agreeing to unite with the FARDC against M23, according to Human Rights Watch. A subsequent government decree of September 2023 legalised the presence of militias within the national army.

In an embattled region that is home to more than 100 armed groups, the Wazalendo coalition now includes newly formed rebel units and long-established fighters who have battled in each of the successive conflicts to rock DRC over the last three decades.

Members of the Wazalendo and the FARDC say they are partners in the struggle against M23. The Wazalendo often charge into battle ahead of their military counterparts, with the FARDC following behind militia battalions.

Judith Verweijen, an assistant professor at Utrecht University studying militarisation in Congo, describes the situation in blunt terms. “These armed groups have, in fact, gotten a blank check from the FARDC to do as they please,” she told Al Jazeera.
Women on the front

Women have joined the Wazalendo for different reasons; among them, to escape economic hardship, seek protection, search for influence, or simply because they feel that they have no other options than to fight.

Byamwungu is one of the female fighters taking to the battlefield alongside the majority male combatants. She and most other women in the Wazalendo have enlisted in low rank-and-file positions, so are particularly at risk of dying in combat, experts say.

Conflict uprooted Byamwungu around the same time that Tshisekedi was calling on young people to take up arms.

She still remembers the sounds of heavy bombs and mortars falling on her village, as Congolese soldiers fought with M23. She could not save any of her possessions. The only option was to run wildly south towards Goma with her family, reaching a dilapidated displaced persons camp by a roadside leading out of the city.

Its feather-white tents were built atop hardened lava rocks left over from past eruptions of the nearby volcano Mount Nyiragongo, giving the very ground of the place a hellish quality.

She never had enough food to eat. Women who ventured into the nearby forest to look for sustenance were in danger of being raped by armed groups. Children who walked into Goma to beg were hit by motorcycles and cars.

“We were starving in the camp,” Byamwungu says bitterly.

Members of the Wazalendo often strode past her tent on their way to drink at nearby bars and manned positions in the surrounding hills, just visible from the camp.

After two years, Byamwungu decided to join the Wazalendo herself. Her mother begged her to remain with the family and stay safe, but her father did not try to stop her. He was pleased, Byamwungu says.

She opted to join an outfit of fighters called the Union of Forces for the Patriotic Defence of Congo (UFPDC), swearing her allegiance to them three months ago.

Byamwungu was trained to shoot a gun, and to aim it towards opponents. Alongside other female fighters, she took responsibility for cleaning the base and cooking for the male fighters.

The plastic tents of her new home look much like the displacement camp she left behind, with temporary structures built haphazardly between low slopes and bushes. Empty bottles of gin litter the ground.

Byamwungu has not seen her parents since joining the Wazalendo. She misses them often, but her mother and father have since gone back to their village. When Byamwungu returned to the old camp looking for her family, she only found her brother, and hinted to him that she wanted to come home.

“My brother said, there is nothing to change. You cannot leave. Be patient and be courageous,” Byamwungu remembers. She listened and quickly went back to the rebel base.

“We have so many young people,” says General Mbokani Kimanuka, who founded the UFPDC during the first M23 war in 2012. “They are leaving their homes and businesses to join the fighting. They have all become patriots.”

Members of the Wazalendo say they are sustained by the kindness of nearby communities. “Local people tell us to be strong,” the General says. “They provide some food, plastic sheets and plastic boots.”

It is their familial connection to eastern DRC that keeps UFPDC fighters safe, Kimanuka claims. “We are native. We are born here. We have protection from our grandfathers.” Before each battle, Kimanuka and his troops pray to God and the ancestors.

Kimanuka’s UFPDC is not the only armed group to embrace female recruits.

When Tshisekedi called on young people to take up arms and defend the country, Vivienne Ntumba — also using a pseudonym for her protection — was eager to join the military.

Her mother forbade it, worrying that army operations would take Ntumba too far away from home. The young woman protested. At last, mother and daughter agreed that she would instead join one of the Wazalendo groups fighting against M23.

Ntumba selected the Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo (APCLS).

Established in 2006 by General Janvier Karairi, it was one of the militias to sign the non-aggression pact in Pinga in 2022. Since last year, Karairi has been subject to sanctions from the European Union over his involvement in armed violence in the country.

The APCLS wing, which Ntumba joined, occupies territory in Nyiragongo, not far from the front lines north of Goma.

Only 24 years old, Ntumba oversees a dozen other female fighters. She deploys the women to the places where fighting is fierce, and runs ammunition between male gunners.

“I feel proud because we are all on the front line,” she says, sweeping long red braids from her eyes. She also reminds fighters not to loot or steal.

Al Jazeera met Ntumba on the roof of a bar on the outskirts of Goma. As she told her story, other fighters drank deeply from bottles of beer and smoked cigarettes, green glass shining on the ground.

Young, exuberant and unpredictable, the Wazalendo casually stroll past displacement camps in uniform and carouse at local bars, feasting on greasy goat brochette and strong beer.

During an April visit to eastern DRC, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk accused members of the Wazalendo of committing human rights abuses. A report from the UN Group of Experts specifically charged the Nyiragongo contingent of APCLS, with which Ntumba fights, of violations including executions, kidnappings for ransom and arbitrary detentions.

General Nibunda Kakuru commands a brigade of the Nyiragongo contingent of the APCLS. Image by Sophie Neiman/Al Jazeera. Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Al Jazeera repeated these allegations to General Nibunda Kakuru, who commands a brigade of the Nyiragongo wing of APCLS. “It is lies. Lies,” he said calmly. “This is new information to me. I don’t know if there is any case of it.”

The general has been at war for almost half his life, working his way through the ranks of armed groups since he was 16 years old.

Kakuru told Al Jazeera that the Congolese military was providing food and unspecified “military equipment” to APCLS, and that the army and the Wazalendo share ammunition on the battlefield. “We are working together because we are all Congolese,” he said.

Al Jazeera held an interview with Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Njike Kaiko, who serves as the spokesperson for the military governor of North Kivu. The embattled province has been under a state of siege and military governance since 2021. Kaiko affirmed the collaboration between the Wazalendo and the government.

“They are partners like any other partner,” he said, alluding to the collaboration between the Congolese government, UN peacekeepers and soldiers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) deployed to eastern DRC. “We have the same objective, which is to push the Rwandan army outside our territorial limits.”

Al Jazeera asked Kaiko twice to respond — yes or no — as to whether or not the Congolese government was providing arms to the Wazalendo.

He did not answer directly. “The former armed groups, before the war [against M23] had weapons. Where did they get those weapons?” Kaiko replied.

When asked if the government had concerns about its collaborators in the Wazalendo, particularly given reports of human rights abuses by the armed groups, Kaiko was brusque. “The Wazalendo are not a trained military. They’ve not been trained in international human rights,” he said. This is why the Wazalendo are the vanguard of each battle, with the FARDC following behind to observe them, Kaiko explained.

Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Njike Kaiko, the spokesperson for the military governor of North Kivu. Image by Sophie Neiman/Al Jazeera. Democratic Republic of Congo.

“These groups are being given arms and ammunition and logistical support by the Congolese government,” said Verweijen, the academic. “That makes the Congolese government responsible for any types of abuses which these groups are committing against the civilian population.”
Broken families


Families of eager fighters who have joined the Wazalendo live each day with the quieter pain of wondering when and if they will see their children again.

Every time Ntumba returns to her mother, the woman says a prayer of thanks that her daughter is still alive. She is lucky to be able to spend time with her child at all.

Zawadi Tumsifi — who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition that her name be changed — says her daughter joined a Wazalendo group known as the Coalition of Movements for Change (CMC) last year.

As Tumsifi fled her home in the M23-occupied Bunagana town with her six children one early morning two years ago, her husband was killed by a bomb. “He was very kind,” she recalls quietly.

The family made it further south into Rutshuru territory, where they stayed for six months before war sent them running again, this time to a crowded displacement camp on the edge of Goma.

It was hard to get enough food to eat, says Tumsifi, who had once made a living illegally smuggling beer and sugar over the Ugandan border. While speaking she began to cry, as she does whenever she thinks of her lost husband and the life she left behind, quickly wiping her eyes on the corner of her wrap skirt.

In December 2023, Tumsifi ventured into the forest surrounding her displacement camp to search for firewood. She was raped.

Stories like Tumsifi’s are common. A survey by Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials, MSF, found that one in 10 women living in displacement camps around Goma had been raped between January and April of 2024. MSF told Al Jazeera it had treated an additional 620 cases of sexual violence in the month of May alone, at three of the clinics where it operates.

After her rape, a doctor revealed to Tumsifi that she had been infected with HIV/AIDS.

Tumsifi shared the diagnosis with her 19-year-old daughter, who furiously announced that she would join the Wazalendo. In an exhausted voice, Tumsifi recounted the conversation to Al Jazeera. “She told me, I have no father … now, you are sick. I have no other choice,” she repeated

.
Zawadi Tumsifi’s daughter joined a Wazalendo group known as the Coalition of Movements for Change last year. Image by Sophie Neiman/Al Jazeera. Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The young woman still visits the camp to collect water for her fellow fighters in CMC, and brings some for her mother when she does. On one of these occasions, she confessed that she was tired of fighting and wanted to leave. Tumsifi tried to negotiate with a CMC commander, asking him to please allow her daughter to return. But he demanded $300 in exchange, a sum she does not have.

“I hope she survives. I hope she comes back here to look after me,” Tumsifi says.

Women who remain with the fighters have limited future options. Even if the war with M23 ends, Byamwungu hopes to remain with the UFPDC. “I am used to being with the Wazalendo,” she says casually. “We have become like one family.”

Ntumba also struggles to imagine a life for herself away from battles and gunfire. “When this war is over, I’d prefer to stay in the army,” she says. “Maybe if peace is recovered, I can think of having a husband and children.”

The Congolese government has indicated that it hopes to integrate Wazalendo fighters into a reserve brigade of the national army.

For Verweijen, it is a move reminiscent of past cycles of conflict in DRC, when armed groups were brought into the army and promptly rebelled because they were dissatisfied with their postings.

“We’ve seen a very similar dynamic at the end of the Second Congo War when an agreement was signed between all former belligerent forces to integrate their troops into the FARDC,” she said, referring to a bloody conflict that took place between 1998 and 2001.

“Army integration basically created incentives for returning to the bush, creating more mayhem, and then trying, in another round of integration, to cash in on that mayhem and to obtain more important ranks and positions,” Verweijen added.

But when asked what they hope for the future of DRC, the women rebels give a simple answer: Peace, they say, clutching tightly to their guns.




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CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Singapore charges 2 ex-bankers for helping $2.2 billion money laundering ring

August 15, 2024 
By Reuters

Singapore

SINGAPORE —

A Singapore court on Thursday charged two former bankers for helping a group of foreigners who were convicted of laundering $2.2 billion last year in the biggest such financial crime in the Asian financial hub.

Both Wang Qiming and Liu Kai were relationship managers and Chinese nationals employed by Citibank and Swiss private bank Julius Baer, according to a Singapore Police Force statement and the court documents.

Wang, 26, faces 10 charges, including laundering almost $380,000 and forging loan documents. Liu, 35, was charged with using a forged Chinese tax document to help one of the convicted money launderers open a Julius Baer bank account in Switzerland, the court documents showed.

Julius Baer and the lawyers of the two men did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Citibank said: "The individual in question has not been in our employ since April 2022. We do not comment on matters that are before the courts."

Last August, authorities conducted simultaneous raids and arrested 10 foreigners holding multiple passports in a case that captivated the city-state because of the staggeringly large amount of money, cars, luxury goods and properties involved.

The 10 convicted money launderers were sentenced to jail terms of between 13 and 17 months and were deported and barred from re-entering Singapore after completing their sentences.

The case has prompted reforms that include making it easier to prosecute money laundering cases.

Authorities have also set up an inter-ministerial panel to review the anti-money laundering process and inspect financial institutions suspected of involvement.

In June, the government said Singapore's banking sector poses the highest money laundering risk in the city-state.

GENDER APARTHEID

Afghanistan: 20 years of steady education progress ‘almost wiped out’

14 August 2024

The de facto authorities in Afghanistan “have almost wiped out two decades of steady progress for education” there, putting the future of an entire generation in jeopardy, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural agency (UNESCO) reported on Wednesday.

Afghanistan is currently the only country in the world where secondary and higher education is strictly forbidden to women and girls over 12.

The Taliban swept back into power on 15 August 2021 and swiftly began curtailing women’s rights.

Three years to the day after the fall of Kabul, the nation’s capital, at least 1.4 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary education because of the bans.

Including the girls who were already out of school before the Taliban’s reimposition of strict religious legal codes, there are now almost 2.5 million girls in the country deprived of their right to education, representing 80 per cent of Afghan school age girls.

There has also been a decrease by over half of the number of students enrolled in universities since 2021, UNESCOOpens in new window said. As a result, the country will face a shortage of graduates trained for highly skilled jobs, which will only exacerbate development problems, according to the report.
Equally strong impact on primary education

While girls’ education is technically still permitted under the age of 12, the number of those enrolled in primary education has fallen drastically since 2021.

New UNESCO data shows that Afghanistan had only 5.7 million girls and boys in primary school in 2022, compared with 6.8 million in 2019.

© UN Women/Sayed Habib Bidell
Girls and women across Afghanistan lack access to secondary education since the Taliban takeover.

This drop in primary school enrolment is the result of the Taliban’s decision to prohibit female teachers from teaching boys, exacerbating a teacher shortage. It can also be explained by parents’ lack of incentive to send their children to school, in an increasingly difficult socio-economic environment.

It is feared that the increasing drop-out rate could lead to a rise in child labour and early marriage.
UNESCO’s alternative learning methods

Since 2021, UNESCO has set up programmes with the support of local communities in 20 of the country's 34 provinces. Over 1,000 facilitators, including 780 women, have been trained to deliver literacy courses, benefiting over 55,000 young people, the vast majority of them girls.

UNESCO also invests in distance learning via radio and television, providing financial support and training to Afghan media wishing to develop and broadcast educational programmes.

The UN agency continues to call on the international community to fully commit to restoring the right to education for girls and women in Afghanistan, stating that face-to-face education in a classroom is the best possible way for people to learn.

“The right to education cannot be negotiated or compromised. The international community must remain fully mobilised to obtain the unconditional reopening of schools and universities to Afghan girls and women,” emphasised Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.

© UNHCR/Mercury Transformations
Young women who fled Afghanistan study in Pakistan.
International community must not ‘normalise’ Taliban rule

Meanwhile 36 UN independent experts are also calling on the international community not to normalise the de facto authorities in Afghanistan in a joint statementOpens in new window released Wednesday.

The rights experts who report to the Human Rights CouncilOpens in new window and who are not UN staff include the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett.

“Over the past three years, the people of Afghanistan, especially women and girls, have been subjected to an appalling and intensifying attack on their rights and freedoms by a regime that lacks legitimacy and inclusivity, quashes all forms of dissent, represses civil society and the media, and has shown a flagrant disregard for the principles of justice, non-discrimination, equality, and the rule of law,” the rights experts stated.

The experts emphasised that the deliberate subjugation of women and girls is so widespread and systematic that it has come to amount to crimes against humanity, including the crime of gender persecution.

The situation is so extreme that many Afghans say it is best described as “gender apartheid”.

“The people of Afghanistan deserve to live in a country where the rights, dignity, and humanity of all are respected and protected. Now more than ever, is the time for robust international action to meet their demands with increased protection, support and solidarity,” they concluded.

At Least 1.4 Million Afghan Girls Banned From Attending School Since Taliban Takeover, UNESCO Says

Taliban security personnel patrol a street as a burqa-clad Afghan woman walks by in Badakhshan Province (file photo).

At least 1.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary education since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency, said on August 15.

"In just three years, the de facto authorities have almost wiped out two decades of steady progress for education in Afghanistan, and the future of an entire generation is now in jeopardy," the agency said in a statement.

It comes as the Taliban marked three years since its forces seized Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, on August 15, 2021, after the U.S.-backed government collapsed and its leaders fled into exile.

Since the Taliban's return to power, women have been squeezed from public life -- banned from many jobs as well as parks and gyms -- and barred from secondary and higher education.

The restrictions amount to what the United Nations has described as "gender apartheid."

SEE ALSO:
Afghan Taliban Created World's Most Serious Women's Rights Crisis, HRW Says

There are now nearly 2.5 million girls deprived of their right to education, representing 80 percent of Afghan school-age girls, UNESCO said. This represents an increase of 300,000 since the previous count carried out by the UN agency in April 2023.

"As a result of bans imposed by the de facto authorities, at least 1.4 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary education since 2021," UNESCO said.

Access to primary education has also fallen sharply, with 1.1 million fewer girls and boys attending school, the agency added. It blamed the drop on the authorities' decision to ban female teachers from teaching boys as well as the lack of incentive for parents to send children to school.

The agency is "alarmed by the harmful consequences of this increasingly massive drop-out rate, which could lead to a rise in child labor and early marriage."

Enrolment in higher education is equally concerning, the statement said, adding that the number of university students had decreased by 53 percent since 2021.

SEE ALSO:
The Push To Recognize 'Gender Apartheid' As A Crime

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay urged the international community to remain mobilized "to obtain the unconditional reopening of schools and universities to Afghan girls and women."

Lack of access to education has been among the main points of criticism by Afghans toward the Taliban authorities.

"There are those who are not literate enough, and more importantly, a part of society, women, are deprived of education, and this is a big problem for the people of Afghanistan," a male resident of the northern Balkh Province who preferred not to be named due to security concerns, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

"The issues of education -- women's education and work -- and their participation at national and international level have been completely nullified and pushed to the sidelines," a female resident of Kabul, who also preferred not to be named, said.

The Taliban celebrates their return to power both in mid-August around the date Kabul fell and at the end of the month, when the last U.S.-led international troops left Afghanistan.

The withdrawal, agreed by the United States and the Taliban on February 29, 2020, allowed the radical Islamist movement's return to power 20 years after being ousted by U.S. forces following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

The Taliban government remains unrecognized by any other state.

WATCH: Rights groups have documented targeted killings, disappearances, and extrajudicial arrests of hundreds of former Afghan service personnel, while RFE/RL has spoken to two women who say they live in fear due to their past roles in the military.

Torture And Death: The Dangers Faced By Former Afghan Soldiers Under Taliban Rule

International aid organizations have warned that millions of Afghans struggle in "one of the world's largest and most complex humanitarian crises, three years after the change in power."

"Heavily dependent on humanitarian aid, Afghans are trapped in cycles of poverty, displacement, and despair," a statement by 10 aid groups -- including Save the Children, World Vision, Islamic Relief Worldwide, and the International Rescue Committee -- said on August 13.

SEE ALSO:
Afghan Evacuees Remain In Limbo In Albania 3 Years After Taliban Takeover

Women and girls are among the most seriously affected by this humanitarian crisis, Human Rights Watch has said. The Taliban has created "the world's most serious women's rights crisis," the organization said on August 11.

With reporting by AFP

Joint Statement by the Alliance for Human Rights in Afghanistan: Need for an Urgent Rethink of International Response to the Human Rights Crisis in Afghanistan:

Three years after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the undersigned organizations, remain alarmed that the international response to worsening Taliban human rights violations, especially against women and girls, is increasingly ineffective and sometimes even harmful.

View Report in English

Download PDF

SHOW TRIAL FOR THE PUBLIC

Iraq Orders Release of Officer Convicted of Killing Anti-Government Protesters

Officer Omar Nizar. (Facebook)

Baghdad: Fadhel al-Nashmi

15 August 2024 AD ـ 10 Safar 1446 AH

The Iraqi federal court of cassation ordered on Wednesday the release of an Interior Ministry officer who was convicted of the killing of anti-government protesters in Nasiriyah city in November 2019.

A ruling signed by court of cassation President Faiq Zaidan said it decided to release Omar Nizar over a “lack of evidence”.

Nizar was found complicit in the killing and injury of protesters near the Zeitoun bridge in Nasiriyah city in the Dhi Qar province. Over 70 people were killed and 225 wounded when the police were ordered to crack down on the protesters. The incident has since become known as the “Nasiriyah massacre.”

The Dhi Qar criminal court had condemned Nizar to life in prison over the incident in June 2023.

Despite the ruling, the court of cassation on Wednesday ordered “the investigation closed due to a lack of evidence.” It also called for annulling the charges against the officer and ordered his release.

The move will likely spark outrage among activists and the relatives of the victims.

At least 750 activists were killed and 20,000 protesters wounded during the October 2019 anti-government rallies that raged for over a year.

The governments of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and Mustafa al-Kadhimi both formed investigation committees to probe the violence against protesters. The results have yet to be announced and none of the suspects have been held to account.

Commenting on Nizar’s release, head of the Iraqi Press Freedom Advocacy Association Mustafa Nasser noted that amid the various crises the country is going through, “the Iraqi judiciary overruled the conviction against the criminal Omar Nizar, the killer of the Dhi Qar youths, and acquitted him of all charges.”

“Once again, a cannibal is set free in broad daylight,” he lamented in a post on the X platform.

Journalist Ahmed Sheikh Majed slammed the release, saying the political class views the October 2019 protests as a “terror that must be stifled forever.”

“Anything related to the protest movement is quashed and never alluded to,” he said, while noting that the protests have been systematically painted in a bad light by “agents, embassies, foreign parties, political interference and others.”

“We are now left with a government that has eliminated everything related to the protests,” he added.

He noted that “Hisham al-Hashemi's killer was previously released, several important issues have been cast to the side and now, we are confronted with the acquittal of the butcher of the Zeitoun massacre.”

“Who is the real criminal here? The political system acts like a tribe. They are returning the favor to the armed factions because they believe they averted a revolt during the October 2019 protests,” he explained.

Ultimately, the political class doesn’t want to hold any of the killers and criminals to account because that would be an acknowledgment of the legitimacy of the protests, he remarked.

Climate crisis activists halt traffic at major German airports

Last Generation activists disrupt traffic at Berlin, Cologne-Bonn, Nuremberg and Stuttgart airports by gluing themselves to the tarmac

Ayhan Şimşek |15.08.2024 - 


BERLIN

Climate crisis activists disrupted air traffic at Germany’s major airports on Thursday morning by gluing themselves to the tarmac.

Activists from the Last Generation group gained access to the tarmacs of Berlin, Cologne-Bonn, Nuremberg and Stuttgart airports, forcing authorities to temporarily suspend flight operations for several hours for safety reasons.

The group shared photos and videos of the action on X, showing several activists in orange safety vests sitting on the tarmac with banners saying “Oil kills” and “Sign the treaty.”

The protests were part of the global "Oil kills" campaign.

“Together with allied protest movements, including in the US and Canada, the Last Generation is calling for the signing of a fossil fuel phase-out treaty,” the group said in a statement.

“The German government should commit to international negotiations with the aim of signing an intergovernmental treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030,” the statement said.

Germany: Climate activists breach security at four airports in nationwide protests

The Last Generation campaign group said in a statement that eight activists had stopped or reduced traffic at the Berlin, Cologne-Bonn, Nuremberg and Stuttgart airports and published pictures of activists with their hands glued to the tarmac

Reuters Berlin Published 15.08.24

A view of a display showing cancelled flights on the day activists of the "Letzte Generation" (Last Generation) protest for a change in climate policy at the Cologne-Bonn airport in Cologne, Germany, August 15, 2024.Reuters

Two German airports temporarily suspended flights on Thursday morning after climate activists breached their airfields as part of a larger protest action targeting four airports nationwide.

The Last Generation campaign group said in a statement that eight activists had stopped or reduced traffic at the Berlin, Cologne-Bonn, Nuremberg and Stuttgart airports and published pictures of activists with their hands glued to the tarmac.

The activists did not enter the runway area, it added.

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Germany: Climate activists protest at Leipzig/Halle airport

German politicians have demanded better protection for the country's airports after climate activists were able to breach fences and disrupt air traffic, including at the country's busiest airport, Frankfurt, for two days in a row last month.

The Nuremberg airport suspended flights for a little over an hour due to the activists, leading to six delayed flights, one cancellation and one rerouted flight, it said on Facebook.

Traffic at the Cologne-Bonn airport was running since 0525 GMT after being halted early Thursday, with some delays still expected, according to the airport on social media platform X.

Police were on site at the Berlin-Brandenburg airport, the largest one affected, and were able to remove the two protesters who had entered the airfield by cutting through a fence, said a police spokesperson, adding flight operations were unaffected.

Air traffic at the Stuttgart airport was also unaffected after two people who blocked a taxiway were immediately apprehended by police, the airport said in a statement.

Last Generation has listed several countries across Europe and North America where similar disruptions are planned as part of a protest campaign calling for the German government to pursue a global agreement to exit oil, gas and coal by 2030.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on X that the protesters' "criminal actions are dangerous and stupid."



The ministry has proposed severe prison sentences in response to such actions and is obliging airports to significantly improve their facilities' security, she added.

Opinion

It is time for Arabs to stop blaming Hamas for the genocide in Gaza. Blame yourselves, instead


August 15, 2024 


Lifeless bodies of Palestinians who lost their lives after the Israeli attacks on Maghazi refugee camp, lay on the ground of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital mortuary prior to burial in Deir al Balah, Gaza on August 14, 2024 [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency]

by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
MFetouri


The overwhelming majority of ordinary Arabs and Muslims support and sympathise with the Palestinian people. They usually express this support and show such sympathy through their use of words in referring to Hamas and other resistance groups fighting Israel. They commonly call them heroes, courageous men and, when they want to elevate them into a higher and more holy status, they borrow the Quranic description of such people, calling them Mujahedeen.

In doing so, the common man still feels the pain and suffering inflicted by Israel on the people in Gaza. Millions of Arabs are traumatised because of the murdering of children and women in the ten months’ war.

However, this is not the case with the few who consider themselves to know better and who are always trying to go deeper in analysing the Israeli war on Gaza, while attempting to make their point. They usually end up grounding their analysis in one of the imaginary ‘conspiracy theories’ flying around from the day Hamas launched its incursion into Israel. Such pundits tend to propagate their own governments’ position in a more fashionable manner.

OPINION: Sadistic violence in war: The Israeli aggression in Gaza

The governments of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco did not even condemn the Israeli genocide in clear statements and, when they did, like Bahrain, they condemned Hamas before equating it with Israel. Their elite supporters went further and accused Hamas of being in conspiracy with Qatar or some other imaginary country to bring havoc and destruction on Gaza and the entire Palestinian Territories. Ask them to back up their views and they would go on ranting about many things, but not the subject at hand.

Almost all of them refer to the fact that Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation and this, to them, is enough to make it evil by default. This kind of cheap talk contradicts two things: firstly, even if it is true that the Brotherhood is evil, no one can deny their role in fighting colonial powers, starting in Egypt itself where the Movement once flourished. Secondly; Hamas, being Islamic-based ideology, is totally different from traditional other branches of the Brotherhood, simply because its very existence and legitimacy stems from the fact that it is fighting Occupation. Hamas fighters are not fighting for power and the privileges it brings. All of them know too well that they are being hunted down and they could die at any time, just like their top leader, the late Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran last month. From Yahya Sinwar, all the way to the last fighter in Jabalya, they believe death is round the corner but the cause is so worthy that they cannot flee the fight.

Others blame Hamas and Islamic Jihad for being allies to Iran. They point out that Iran is Shia and Hamas is nothing but a Tehran proxy—the most disgusting term to use to describe Hamas. They justify such outrage by saying that Iran is using Hamas and Islamic Jihad to further its ambitious agenda in dominating the mostly Sunni Arab world. But they forget the simple fact: Hamas and Islamic Jihad would welcome any support they can get from anywhere. As liberation movements, they do not have the luxury of choosing their allies, as long as such allies agree with them on the principle: liberation and freedom for Palestine.

Furthermore, and in a religious context, Jihad does not have any prerequisites other than fighting colonialism, in this case. Nowhere in the Quran has it said that you have to be a Shia or Sunni to be accepted as Mujahid, simply because true Islam does not recognise the sectarian version of Islam revised and being presented to Muslims by the West. Such ideas are meaningless talk that cannot stand up to scrutiny.

If being Shia means fighting apartheid colonial Israel, I am sure the majority of Palestinians and Arabs, including myself, would not hesitate in announcing their allegiance to the Shia! Being a Shia does not mean you are Iranian or supporter of Iran or being its proxy.

Other analysts and political gurus raise the issue of timing by asking if it would not be better if Hamas had accumulated more power before launching its incursion into Israel. The question appears an honest one but, in fact, it is far from it. It implies that, if Hamas had delayed its attack, it might have become more powerful to prevent the amount of losses and destruction in Gaza. But this kind of discussion ignores the simple fact that timing of any operation against the Occupation is a complicated issue and only the people on the ground can decide the best moment to go ahead. Also, operational timing is determined by, among other factors, what the ultimate goal is of launching an attack.

OPINION: From Gaza to Jenin, international complicity with Israel must not be ignored

7 October came to prevent the unprecedented wave of selling what remained of Palestine by some Arab and Muslim states for nothing. Normalisation of ties between countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel was almost a done deal and had to be stopped or, at least, delayed. The Saudi Kingdom is not any other country and having ties with Israel would have been much more detrimental to the Palestinians than, say, Libya doing the same. If the Oslo Accords made Palestinian Territories mere disputed Territories, as the late Palestinian thinker, Edward Said, once said, then having the Israeli embassy in Riyadh would make the entire Palestinian people a mere misfortuned nation roaming the planet, begging for handouts.

Finally, many advocates of defeatism blame Hamas for the huge price being paid by the Palestinians. This is the most outrageous and silliest of all arguments to make against Hamas. It is outrageous because it ignores the entire human history in fighting colonialism and it completely overlooks the Palestinian fighting history. Even in the regional Arab context, such an argument is fictitious, to say the least. Some 1.5 million Algerians were killed before colonial France was defeated in 1962, some 132 years after it colonised Algeria. Almost three quarters of Libyans, 83,000, were killed at the hands of Italian colonialists during nearly three decades of Italian occupation. In the wider world, Vietnam would serve as a perfect example here. Between 970,000 and three million people, including civilians, lost their lives before Vietnam became an independent country. I am not calling for the killing of more Palestinians, but freedom has price to be paid.

If anyone is to be blamed, it is the 22 Arab countries who are watching helplessly. Palestine is part of the Arab League and a signatory to the Arab Joint Defence Treaty of 1950, obliging other members to come to its defence. So where are they?

Indeed, the price is huge and the death rate is almost impossible to even comprehend, but this is how it is and there is no other way. The entire world is hurting and sad because of what genocidal Israel is doing in Gaza but what alternatives do Gazans have, other than to stay put and fight back?

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

NIGERIA

How National Hajj Commission Officials Overpaid Selves For 2024 Hajj Operational Costs, Mismanaged N90Billion Fund


August 15, 2024

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, Jalal Arabi, and the commission’s secretary, Abdullahi Kontagora, are currently in the custody of the EFCC.

Following controversies that greeted the management of the 2024 Hajj N90 billion fund and subsequent invitation of the National Hajj Commission Chairman by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the EFCC says it has recovered some misappropriated funds from the hajj programme.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, Jalal Arabi, and the commission’s secretary, Abdullahi Kontagora, are currently in the custody of the EFCC.

Quoting official documents, The PUNCH reported that the anti-graft agency said, “A total of SR314,098 was recovered,” from the NAHCON chairman and other high-ranking officials.

The EFCC in the ongoing investigation revealed that from the N90 billion Hajj subsidy, Arabi fraudulently overpaid himself and others the necessary operational cost.

Also, according to the document, the approved 2024 Hajj operational cost for the Chairman/CEO, Commissioners, Secretary and Directors/Chief of Staff in the 2024 budget are stipulated as $4,250, $12,750, $3,825 and $15,300, respectively.

The EFCC accused the chairman of fraudulently overpaying himself, commissioners, secretary and directors for the 2024 hajj operational cost.

It said, “The chairman was entitled to SR15,929 but he got SR50,000; three commissioners who were meant to get SR 15,929 each received SR 40,000 each. The secretary got SR 30,000 instead of SR14,336. Directors/Chief of Staff received SR 30,000 instead of the SR2,550 they were entitled to.

“The total of SR314,098 were recovered from all of them.”

The anti-graft agency first grilled Arabi for hours on July 29 and released him on bail.

Sri Lanka president faces tough challengers in elections

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe faces 38 challengers in polls next month

By AFP
August 15, 2024

Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe - Copyright AFP Ishara S. KODIKARA

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe faces 38 challengers in polls next month, the election commission said Thursday after nominations closed, with ally-turned-rival Sajith Premadasa leading the pack.

It will be the first vote since Wickremesinghe took over two years ago after protesters furious at an unprecedented financial crisis toppled strongman president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and the economy remains at the forefront.

Wickremesinghe, 75, faces a daunting challenge from 57-year-old career politician Premadasa, the parliamentary leader of the opposition, as well as from leftist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, 55, whose National People’s Power (NPP) coalition is popular among the young.

But what started as a three-way battle became a more complicated contest last week, when the influential Rajapaksa family withdrew crucial support for Wickremesinghe in place of one of their own — Namal Rajapaksa.

The 38-year-old is a member of parliament and son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president and prime minister, and brother of Gotabaya.

The South Asian majority Buddhist island nation of around 22 million people will vote on September 21.

A record 39 candidates have entered the fray to contest, none of them women, Election Commission chairman R.M.A.L. Rathnayake said.

“Please ensure you are within the law,” Rathnayake said in a televised address, warning candidates to follow election rules.

“Don’t influence public officers to any illegal activity to help your campaigns.”

Election law violations are common in Sri Lanka, but prosecutions rare.

Wickremesinghe has shed his right-wing United National Party (UNP) and presented himself as an independent candidate hoping for broader support.

There were 35 candidates for the November 2019 presidential election won by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced out in 2022 after months of protests over his mishandling of the economy.

Wickremesinghe was elected by parliament in July 2022 for the balance of Rajapaksa’s term

More than 17 million are eligible to cast a ballot, results are expected within a day of voting, and the new president must be sworn in within two weeks.