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How a Teenager’s Mysterious Death in China Is Eroding Public Trust in Authorities · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Confrontation outside the school after teenager found dead. Screenshot from youtube.
Chinese social media has been in uproar for a week after a video showing the dead body of a 14-year-old student lying on the ground went viral. The tight-lipped reaction of local authorities, who have cracked down on those discussing the case, has only seemed to feed the fire.
The incident happened on 1 April in Luxian, Luzhou City, Sichuan Province. The student, identified by his surname Zhao, attended Taifu Middle School. Speculation quickly spread about the manner of his death.
The following day, local authorities claimed that there wasn’t any evidence that Zhao’s death was a homicide. And on 3 April, Luxian police arrested four netizens for having “incited the public and severely disturbed public order.”
But many still believed that the boy was a victim of campus violence. The most widely shared theory was that Zhao was beaten to death by five other students for not paying protection dues of 10,000 yuan ($1,450) to a local group of bullies.
The case attracted crowds near the school, demanding that authorities disclose details, including the school’s closed circuit television footage. Below is video showing those gathered:
In response, local authorities blocked roads entering Luxian. A week later, they continue to crack down on “rumors” surrounding the incident and prevent journalists from interviewing students, school officials and the victim’s family, at the same time as refusing to provide the public any evidence that Zhao’s death was indeed an accident.
Even state-affiliated media outlets are getting impatient and slammed local authorities for blocking reporters from interviewing Zhao’s family. Xinhua News reporters wrote:
4月4日，记者好不容易突破制约跑了20多公里村道前去采访死者的爷爷奶奶和同学时，被跟随的“尾巴”招来一批镇村干部，实施各种暗示威胁干扰，迫使采访对象不敢说真话。而记者被当地的种种电话骚扰则更是到了无法忍受的地步。
On 4 April, reporters took the village route for 20 kilometers to avoid the road block and interview the victim’s grandparents and classmates. But they were tailed by the village officials who intervened in our interviews with all kinds of threats. All the interviewees refused to talk. Reporters also received excessive telephone harassment.
The report also quoted netizens from popular social media platform Weibo and urged local authorities to address public concerns:
你们都没有尸检，就排除了他杀了？你们现在又说静待结果！前后矛盾！
[The authorities] have not even conducted the autopsy. How could they rule out homicide? Now you asked us to wait, so full of contradictions!
高空坠亡只是死亡原因，什么时候可以作为证据排除他杀了？难道没有因人为外力导致坠亡的可能性？死者如果自杀请问遗书在哪？如果有校园暴力请问那几个校霸审问了吗？警方如此敷衍判案能平民愤？
Falling to death is the consequence, how can it be used to rule out a homicide? The fall can be caused by outside forces. If it is suicide, where is the suicide note? If the case involves school bullies, shouldn’t the police officers interrogate them? How can they conclude the case so quickly without addressing people’s concern?
The hardhanded reaction of local authorities has made people more and more skeptical. A Weibo user expressed his frustration:
泸州事件的真相是什么？越来越魔幻了，国度越来越魔幻了，很多人不说话了，也不能说话了，只剩一群小粉红在伪高潮…，也是无比恶心了，越来越失望了，对于这个国。
What is the truth behind the Luzhou incident? The whole thing is becoming more and more strange, the whole country is becoming more and more strange. Many people have stopped talking and cannot talk. What is left is a group “tiny pink” [online patriots] who keep faking orgasm [performing “love” to the country]… so disgusting. I feel so disappointed in this country.
Psychology professor Tang Yinhong wrote on WeChat what happened in Luxian as a “Tacitus Trap” (original post deleted. Copy of the post backup by Letscorp, a Chinese bridge blog):
要证伪民间的说辞并不难，只要公开相关信息，谣言很快就会不攻自破。…遗憾的是，官方没有采取公关应对措施，而是习惯性地采取了维稳措施，这很容易就造成官方与民间舆论的冲突和对立。…一旦控制信息传播，一旦开始封堵舆论，民众的质疑就很容易被激化和坐实，官方哪怕说的是实情，民众也倾向于不相信。这在政治学里被称为“塔西佗陷阱”（Tacitus Trap），“当公权力失去公信力时，无论发表什么言论、无论做什么事，社会都会给以负面评价。”
To prove netizens’ version of the story wrong is not difficult. Authorities just need to release more information and the rumors would fall apart… However, authorities did not do so and as usual, they took the stability maintenance approach and created conflicts between the government and people… Once they started to control information and stopped people from talking, people’s speculations erupted. Even if authorities were telling the truth, people would not buy it. Such a situation is called “Tacitus Trap” in political science. “If authorities lose their credibility, no matter what they say or do, society would react negatively”. [A quote from a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping].
Chinese authorities has led the way to a post-truth era, Tang argued:
所谓的“谣言”未必是恶意捏造，完全可能是在人群的传播链条中无意识地往里面添枝加叶，添油加醋，以讹传讹，以至于三人成虎。甚至，哪怕是恶意捏造的“谣言”，人们之所以会踊跃地、积极地参与到传播链条中去，绝大多数中间传播者是真诚地相信其为“真相”，因为符合他们对于事件的，基于经验的认知图式。
遗憾的是，只要事件进入维稳模式，用强力来肃清舆论，用封堵来杜绝“谣言”，“真相”其实就很难根植到民众的心中。这也就是我为什么无法根据“真相”来谈这件事情的原因。我不认为民间的舆论就是靠谱的；我也无法让更多的民众相信官方的说辞就是实情（其实我也无从判断）。在我的观念里，如果某一方面的信息被控制和封堵，那么另一方面得以传播的信息就有必要保持被质疑。
所以，我的建议是，我们都要适应这个没有“真相”的时代。你的态度取决于你的立场、经验以及价值取舍，唯独与“真相”没有必然关系。
The so-called rumors quite often are not spread with ill intentions. People just add on to the original story when distributing the information. And eventually the rumors become harmful. In some cases, people choose to participate in circulating ill-intended rumors because they sincerely believe that they are true. Their judgement and perception are based on their own experience.
Unfortunately, as long as the security maintenance mode has been turned on to repress public opinion and eliminate “rumors,” it is difficult for the “truth” to take root in people’s hearts. That’s why I cannot talk about the incident according to what is true or not. I don’t think public opinion has solid ground; but I cannot persuade people into believing the official version (actually I can’t even make the judgement). From my point of view, if the information from one side is under control or blocked, it is necessary to be cautious and question the other side of the story.
Hence, my suggestion is, we have to adapt to the situation when “truth” is being placed in a bracket. Your judgement will be built upon your standpoint, experience and values and is not necessarily based on fact.
China lacks a free press and the right to free association, while the government's propaganda machine and censorship efforts are omnipresent. In a “post-truth” environment like this, the media and civil society are prevented from promoting the truth, unlike the situation in some Western countries at the moment. That leaves people with the accepting the official version or sticking to beliefs that perhaps don't stand on solid factual ground.


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Iraqi Journalists Face Threats From ISIS, Armed Militias and the State · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Shifa Gardi reporting from the Mosul frontline on 25 February. She was killed the same day in a bomb explosion. Photo: screenshot from a video report aired on Rudaw.
On 26 February, Shifa Gardi, a journalist and presenter with the Iraqi Kurdish TV station Rudaw, lost her life in a bomb explosion while covering Iraqi forces’ operations to reclaim Mosul from ISIS. The journalist was killed while she was interviewing the commander of a militia group near an ISIS mass grave, when a bomb believed to be planted by the militant group exploded killing Gardi, the commander and four other fighters. The explosion also injured Rudaw TV's cameraman Younis Mustafa. Mustafa was released from hospital, tweeted Rudaw on 20 March, and he is recovering.
Gardi's story is not unique in Iraq, and rights groups are concerned that she may not be the last one to lose her life while doing her job as a journalist in a country where at least 178 journalists were killed since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The  Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), a non-profit organization promoting press freedom in the country puts the number of journalists, media support workers and technicians killed since 2003 at 299. The discrepancy between these numbers reflects different methodologies — CPJ only counts confirmed cases of journalists killed in direct reprisal for their work, or those killed while covering clashes and conflicts. The JFO, on the other hand, appears to include numbers of unconfirmed cases.
As the conflict continues in Iraq, so do the threats against journalists and media workers. Because of its brutal tactics, ISIS has so far received extensive coverage for its violations committed against media and press freedoms. However, journalists in Iraq also face threats from armed militia groups and government authorities.
After ISIS took over Mosul in June 2014, the city “turned into a death trap for journalists,” the JFO and Reporters Without Borders said in a report shedding light on media and press freedom violations committed by the extremist and violent group.
Between June 2014 and the date of the release of an updated version of the report earlier this year, the organizations documented the kidnapping of 48 journalists, media workers and journalism students by ISIS in Mosul. Thirteen of those kidnapped were executed, while 25 were released thanks to clan and tribal mediation, but only after they were subjected to torture and pledged not to practice journalism anymore. The fate of ten others remains unknown.
ISIS snipers have been responsible for killing journalists while they were on the frontline covering the Iraqi army's battle against the group. On 22 October 2016, Ali Risan a cameraman for Al-Sumaria TV channel was killed while covering clashes between Iraqi forces and ISIS, when a sniper hit him with a bullet in the chest. Just a day earlier, another journalist, Ahmet Haceroğlu of Türkmeneli TV, was killed while covering clashes between Kurdish forces and ISIS militants in the city of Kirkuk. According to the journalist's news outlet and police, Haceroğlu was hit in the chest by an ISIS sniper.
A reporter in Mosul, Iraq in November 2016. Photo by Mstyslav Chernov via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
“During the last three years we have lost many journalists: some were executed by Daesh [Arabic language acronym for ISIS] in the regions occupied by the terrorist group, and many others were killed while covering the clashes”, said Bahar Jasim a freelance Iraqi journalist and blogger previously based in Iraq. Jasim left the country in 2014 due to fears over threats in relation to his work.
Jasim is hoping that an end to the war with ISIS would “at least mean an end to the murder of journalists by the group” and that journalists “would not have to cover the clashes and put their lives at risk”. Although in the past few weeks, Iraqi forces have been making progress in the battle against ISIS, it remains unclear when the conflict will end, and to what extent the terrorist threat in Iraq will diminish. Most importantly, however, the threats, journalists and reporters face in Iraq, will not come to an end with the defeat of ISIS, as they are also at the mercy of armed militia groups.
Renad Mansour, a researcher on Iraq previously affiliated with the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, estimates the number of armed militias in Iraq between 60 and 70, comprising about 90,000 to 100,000 fighters. Government figures estimate the number of militia fighters at 140,000. Some of these militias are affiliated with political parties such as the Badr Organization, which has members elected to the parliament. Others have close ties to the government. The history of Iraq's militias dates back to the era of Saddam Hussein, where some were formed to counter his rule. Others like the prominent Sarayat al-Salaam (formerly the Mahdi Army) were formed with the purpose of opposing the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
Whether these militias are linked to the government or not, the impact on the work of journalists is the same, Jasim says: “the top of the pyramid in these militias and armed groups should not be touched.”
Militias “pose a threat to the lives of journalists and they narrow the space for freedom of expression in the country,” said Mustafa Saadoon, an Iraqi journalist and director of the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, in an email interview with Global Voices. He continued:
You find Iraqi journalists trying their best not to address anything that could harm the interests of those armed groups or powerful people who were complacent in abusing any journalist covering them to reveal their [involvement] in corruption or human rights violations.
Today, these militias are considered “key to the fight” against ISIS, the fundamentalist militant group which in 2014 captured parts of Syrian and Iraqi territories including the city of Mosul. Yet they themselves have been accused of committing human rights violations, amounting to what Human Rights Watch described as “possible war crimes.” To take just one example, in 2016, members of two Shia armed groups abducted and killed “scores” of Sunni residents in a town in central Iraq, and demolished and looted civilian properties.
“As the war intensifies, and the number of armed groups and their influence in Iraq grows, the pressure on Iraqi journalists will increase,” Saadoon told Global Voices. “With more of these groups, there will be more rights violations and illegal practices from their part.”
As the conflict and violations continue, these armed militias will increasingly seek to silence any critics, including those journalists exposing their abusive practices and rights violations.
Afrah Shawqi is one journalist who came under target from armed groups. On 26 December, eight armed men in civilian clothes claiming to be members of the security forces kidnapped Shawqi from her home, and released her nine days later after. While she was in their custody, they interrogated her about her work as a journalist and her online publications. A day before her kidnapping, Shawqi published online an article critical of armed groups and the impunity with which they operate. She was also interrogated about a fake (i.e. fabricated) news article published on the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, about a surge in pregnancies outside marriage coinciding with a religious Shia event in the Iraqi city of Karbala. The fake news report may have just been a pretext to target Shawqi, as she stopped working for Al-Sharq Al-Awsat several months before its publication in November last year.
In July if not earlier, Shawqi was said to be on a militia “black list” of hostile journalists & received threats: https://t.co/t4eqfNTBsz
— Nathaniel Rabkin (@NateRabkin) December 28, 2016
Some say Shawqi kidnapped because of recent article on police abuse. But might be b/c of her past work with al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper
— Nathaniel Rabkin (@NateRabkin) December 28, 2016
No evidence that Shawqi had anything to do with that bogus a-Sharq al-Awsat article, but could still be an excuse for militias to kidnap her
— Nathaniel Rabkin (@NateRabkin) December 28, 2016
Afrah Shawqi was unable to identify her kidnappers but said that they seemed to be “an unorganized armed group,” and despite the Iraqi government making pledges to hold those who kidnapped her to account, it appears unlikely that they will face justice. Impunity for crimes against journalists in Iraq is very high, with the country topping CPJ's list of journalists killed with complete impunity, with 110 unresolved cases since 1992.
The number of impunity cases is a concern for journalists and rights groups. Saadoon says the Iraqi government and the country's judicial institutions are not taking a stand in support of journalists who have been subjected to violations.
Ahmed Albasheer, presenter of the satirical talk show Albasheer Show, mocks a decision by the Iraqi Communication and Media Commission to suspend his program on Alsumaria TV. The program currently airs on DW Arabia and the Kurdistan based NRT Arabia.
Iraqi authorities are not only accused of failing to bring to justice those responsible for murdering or abusing journalists — they are also blamed of perpetrating their own attacks against the media. The JFO has documented several cases of security officers assaulting journalists. On 2 January, police violently dispersed journalists protesting in support of Afrah Shawqi while she was still held captive by her kidnappers. The police fired live bullets in the air and beat several journalists in the incident. In another case, on 14 February, a police officer in the city of Karbala pointed his gun at NRT TV journalist Haidar Hadi, insulted him, threatened him with murder, and prevented him from entering the local governor's building to cover a visit by the German ambassador.
The concerned government authorities “are not performing their proper duties” to ensure protection of media and freedoms, Jasim told Global Voices. He mentions as an example the Communication and Media Commission, established in 2003 by order of the Coalition Provisional Authority as an “independent and non-profit making administrative institution” to regulate the telecommunication and media industries in the country in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to freedom of expression. The commission, however, is rather “very active in going after TV programs,” says Jasim. In April 2016, it ordered the suspension of the news satire and talk show Albasheer show on Alsumaria TV for violating professional guidelines and for “its low language, and offensive suggestions to the public taste.”
Over the past few days, Iraqi forces have been making advances to take back control of Mosul, ISIS's last stronghold in the country. If they succeed in driving ISIS out of Iraq, journalists may breathe a sigh of relief. But the pressures and threats they face are not going to end anytime soon. On one hand they will still remain at risk of violations by armed militias that do not tolerate criticism or independent reporting on violence. On the other hand, they have to deal with abuses by security officers and the lack of government action to bring to justice those responsible for violating media and press freedoms.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Afef Abrougui


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Russia Blocks Walkie-Talkie App Zello As Truckers Strike · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Source: YouTube. A Russian truck driver protests the introduction of a new road tax.
Russia's media regulator announced plans on Monday to block Zello, a mobile push-to-talk app that Russia's long-haul truckers have used to organize protests in recent months—including to coordinate an ongoing three-week strike.
Roskomnadzor, the authority responsible for monitoring and censoring Russian media, posted a public announcement about the move in which it charged that the makers of the unencrypted walkie-talkie app had failed to submit company information necessary to be included in a federal registry by its deadline. Roskomnadzor said Zello had been asked to provide the information on the basis of a request from a “federal executive body,” which the news website TJournal identified as the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Following the introduction of a 2014 law passed ostensibly to help fight terrorism, the Russian government created a “Registry of Information-Dissemination Organizers,” a list of online platforms that Roskomnadzor oversees. Companies can avoid being included on this list if they give the Russian government unrestricted access to their data stream. Because it failed to submit the necessary documentation to Roskomnadzor, it does not appear that Zello, which has more than 400,000 users in Russia, will be added to the registry. Instead, it has been blocked.
A warning issued by United Truckers of Russia advising users of its Zello channel to use a VPN.
On April 8, Zello announced on Twitter that it had received a message from Roskomnadzor on April 6 saying that it had not alerted Russian authorities about the start of its operations in the country. Roskomnadzor informed Zello that it would be blocked this week if it does supply the requested information. The news daily RBK later reported that authorities had instructed internet providers to block mobile access to Zello.
We've got a notice from Roskomnadzor that Zello will be blocked in Russia next week. More to follow… https://t.co/vnTUyoJO9W
— Zello Inc (@Zello) April 7, 2017
Alexey Gavrilov, the Russian-born founder and CTO of Zello, which is based in the US (in Austin, Texas), wrote in a blog post published on Friday that his company would not comply with Roskomnadzor's request. He argued that the “Information-Dissemination Organizers” law is being exploited to block any “undesirable” internet-based service.
The demands of the law, he said “are not only absurd from a technical point of view, but they also contradict our principles and therefore we will not fulfill them.”
Zello became a popular among activists around the world in 2014, making it also a favorite government target: the Venezuelan government shut down Zello in 2014 after activists began using it to protest against President Nicolas Maduro's economic policies. In 2014, 15 Bahraini activists were arrested and disappeared after officials used Zello to lure them to a fake meeting. This prompted concerns about the app's vulnerability to hacking and government intrusion.
Technical security experts recommend that protesters seeking to communicate and organize privately use apps like Signal or Wire, both of which offer end-to-end encryption and allow users to make messages “disappear” shortly after they're read.
Zello, which allows users to communicate through private (but not wholly encrypted) channels, is popular among Russia's long-haul truckers, who have been on strike for the past three weeks in protest of a road tax that will increase their tax rate by 25 percent.
The protest's leaders say the new tax system will put truckers out of business. Andrei Bazhutin, the head of United Truckers of Russia (OPR, a trade organization) and an organizer of the strike, said as many as 700,000 Russian truckers could lose their jobs as a result of the tax.
Truckers have protested against the introduction of the “Platon” road tax system, which they say will enrich officials rather than improving the country's highways, since 2015, when the tax was approved; in response, authorities have postponed the introduction of the tax until this month.
Organizers say they expect more than 10,000 truckers to participate in the current strike, which is taking place across 80 of Russia's 83 regions (85, if you count illegally-annexed Crimea and Sevastopol). Truckers are using a Zello channel called OPR to organize their efforts. There is a link to the channel at the top of the OPR website, which advises users to use a VPN in light of Roskomnadzor's decision to block the app.

author: Isaac Webb


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Satirical News Show ‘China Uncensored’ Censored by Apple in Hong Kong and Taiwan · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China Uncensored host Chris Chappell interviews protestors in Mong Kok, Hong Kong during the Umbrella Movement. November 15, 2014. PHOTO: Matt Gnaizda/China Uncensored
Satirical news show, China Uncensored, says that the Apple TV app store has blocked users from accessing it not only in mainland China, but also in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Curated by Chris Chappell, the show was launched on YouTube in 2012 and is currently aired by New York-based New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD.TV), which is affiliated with Falun Gong — a religious practice that is suppressed in China.
The show mocks the Chinese Communist Party and its authoritarian rule by curating news about crackdowns on dissidents, persecution of religious minorities and state-sponsored hacking activities, and turning them into satirical reporting. Often times, its stories are a mixture of jokes and facts that are built upon the stereotypical image of a totalitarian China.
In a press statement on April 5, 2017, Chris Chappell stressed:
I totally understand why we’re blocked in mainland China. We’re clearly disrupting the Communist Party’s harmonious propaganda…but Hong Kong and Taiwan are not supposed to be under Chinese law.
Although Hong Kong is part of China, under the One Country Two Systems principle, the region has an independent legal system. As for Taiwan, it has been a de facto self-governed entity since Kuomingtang of the Republic of China was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party and fled to the island in 1949. In both regions, NTD.TV has reporters covering local news and Falun Gong members are free to practise their religion.
in March 2017, Apple approved the China Uncensored Apple TV app for availability in most of the world, but removed it from app stores in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Apple's legal team said its decision is in accordance with local laws:
Apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where you make them available (if you’re not sure, check with a lawyer). We know this stuff is complicated, but it is your responsibility to understand and make sure your app conforms with all local laws […]. And of course, apps that solicit, promote, or encourage criminal or clearly reckless behavior will be rejected.
While your app has been removed from the China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan App Stores, it is still available in the App Stores for the other territories you selected in iTunes Connect.
Chris Chappell responded with satirical questions in a press statement:
Is Apple so scared of the Chinese Communist Party that it would censor China Uncensored in Hong Kong and Taiwan, just in case? […] Or is Apple just confused about which places belong to China and this was all an accident? They should probably consult a lawyer, like we’ve done.
In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook on April 3, Chappell urged Apple to unblock the China Uncensored in Hong Kong and Taiwan app stores and vowed that he was prepared to take both legal and political action:
…we have retained a public interest attorney who will represent us and is prepared to bring in a major law firm to take legal action, although we would prefer to resolve this matter quickly and without lawyers.
If necessary, we are also prepared to discuss this issue with US federal regulators, who, while having no jurisdiction over Hong Kong or Taiwan, are nonetheless concerned with Apple’s business operations in general as Apple moves competitively into the television industry.
Since 2013, Apple has started taking down apps — including banned books and circumvention tools — from its China iTunes store in order to comply with local laws.
In June 2016, China tightened its control over mobile applications with the introduction of Provisions on the Administration of Mobile Internet Application Information Service. These regulations outlaw applications that spread rumors and information deemed harmful to national security. In January 2017, The New York Times was taken down from the Apple iTunes Store because of such provisions. However, the newspaper’s app remains available in the Hong Kong and Taiwan versions of the store.
In the letter to Cook, Chappell stressed that while he is aware of the restrictions in China, the management of Apple's Hong Kong and Taiwan app stores should be different:
No doubt, China Uncensored likely falls under some of mainland China’s dubious legal categories such as:
There is no point in disputing your app store decision with respect to mainland China… but Hong Kong and Taiwan are not ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. They are regions that operate under independent legal systems.
China Uncensored launched a petition on April 4, urging its viewers and supporters to tell Apple to “uncensor” the China Uncensored app from its Hong Kong and Taiwan app stores. As at the time of this story's publication, more than 5,800 people had signed.

author: Oiwan Lam


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The Thaw Is Over: The Next Wave of Repression in Belarus · Global Voices
Sergey Kozlovsky

An opposition protest in Belarus in 2007. Source: Wikimedia Commons
The history of protest in Belarus is brief: President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been labeled “Europe’s last dictator,” has been fiercely suppressing dissent since he came to power in 1994. Since 2000, large protests have taken place only twice: in 2006 and 2010, when opposition activists protested against what they called unfair presidential elections. And indeed, international observers reported numerous violations during those elections, which Lukashenko won by a large margin.
Though small protests take place on a regular basis, with activists carrying red and white flags and the Pahonia coat of arms—”banned symbols” that were the official emblems of Belarus from 1991 to 1994.—these rallies usually go unnoticed and the activists are arrested. In fact, authorities arrest nearly everyone who participates in street protests, which is enough to keep the vast majority of Belarusians from joining in. They have become accustomed to enduring hardship without saying a word; everyone understands that being outspoken can lead to being fired from your job, barred from entering university, or arrested.
Almost two years ago, however, the situation began to change slightly. After the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the War in Donbass, Lukashenko began to worry about his own future; because a large number of Belarusians speak Russian, no one could be sure that that Russia would leave Belarus alone.
Belarusians protests against the “social parasite tax,” poverty, and high unemployment. Screenshot: YouTube
These worries, coupled with economic concerns, resulted in a harsh dispute between Minsk and Moscow: Lukashenko, who has always played both sides, started to flirt more with the West, allowing the opposition to win two seats in parliament and freeing political prisoners.
As a part of this sudden liberalization, police were instructed to stop arresting protesters. Even those who carry banned symbols weren't detained—they were simply fined and sent home. This political thaw had a noticeably effect, with Belarusians beginning to realize that they could express discontent and get away with it.
By 2015, it was clear that Belarus’ economy was in tatters. Deeply connected with Russia, Belarus fell victim to the huge drop in oil prices in the summer of 2014. Many Belarusians, especially young men, went to work abroad, mainly to Russia. As of January, 2015, more than 1 million Belarusians worked abroad, according to the World Bank. To give some perspective, there are only 9.5 million people in the entire country of Belarus, according to official statistics.
Lukashenko is not pleased that so many Belarusians are working abroad, and thus not paying taxes but still receiving welfare benefits. In 2011, he said that people should not receive free health care, education, or housing subsidies if they work abroad. Because this notion proved very hard to implement as a policy, authorities invented a new way of taxing those who work abroad: a $200 per year tax on “social parasites.”
В Минске почти 2000 человек участвовали в акции «Мы не тунеядцы» https://t.co/wIYa0Ii1lK#новости #Беларусь #Россия #Украина #twiby pic.twitter.com/tUjqStC7sm
— Белновости (@BelnovostiBy) March 16, 2017
In Minsk, nearly 2000 people participated in the “We Are Not Parasites” demonstration.
Belarusians who are not employed in the country for 6 months must pay the so-called “parasite tax.” People who work low-skilled and low-paid jobs in Russia (mainly construction workers) are usually not registered in Russia, so they fall into this category, as do people who have lost their jobs, or for whatever reason are unable to secure employment.
The social parasite tax angered this group of people, bringing them to the streets to express their dissatisfaction. Protests swept across cities where there had been no opposition demonstrations for years. The authorities even allowed activists to organize a large rally in Minsk in February. People marched through the city center shouting “the president is the main parasite” and “Lukashenko, go away”.
But though many hoped the post-Crimea thaw might bring lasting change, authorities quickly reverted back to their repressive tactics to suppress dissent.
On March 25, the pro-European opposition celebrated Freedom Day—an unofficial holiday that commemorates the creation of the Belarusian People’s Republic on that date in 1918. Widespread social discontent and the new parasite tax led many to believe that more than 10,000 people might take part in this year's Freedom Day demonstration, which usually draws only a few thousand people, largely from the liberal intelligentsia. And indeed, if the Belarusian opposition had been able to bring thousands of people to the streets, it would have been an important symbolic victory.
But the authorities didn’t let that happen: preemptive arrests began several days before Freedom Day, with several activists and opposition leaders jailed for 15 days for taking part in the “social parasite” protests.
On March 20, government media reported that an identified truck loaded with guns and explosives had tried to cross the Belarusian border from Ukraine, though Ukrainian border guards maintain that the truck never crossed their border, suggesting that the story had been invented to provoke fear. The next day, Lukashenko announced that authorities had caught “a couple dozen armed fighters” who had been trained at camps in Ukraine and were financed by money transferred through Lithuania and Poland. Their aim, he said, was to topple the government of Belarus—including the president..
В Беларуси вооружённые боевики из Украины готовили провокации, – Лукашенко  https://t.co/PETl2NpY0v #таймер #одесса pic.twitter.com/R3rM9jb3bZ
— Таймер – Одесса (@TimerOdessa) March 22, 2017
On 21 March  Lukashenko announced that “a couple dozen of armed fighters” were detained in Belarus
Arrests began immediately after Lukashenko’s speech, with police detaining several dozen people, many of whom were political activists years ago. Several days later some of them were released; nine people were accused of sparking civil unrest.
Riot police block the street during an opposition demonstration in Minsk. Source: Wikimedia Commons
In the meantime, preparations for the Freedom Day demonstration continued, despite the fact that the protest had not been approved by the government and that its organizers were in prison for organizing other rallies. On March 25, police blocked access to where the protest was scheduled to be held, as several hundred people gathered near Yakub Kolas square. The authorities were ready for a war, it seemed. The city was full of police cars and paddy wagons. Even water cannons and vehicles for storming barricades were brought in.
Riot police quickly blocked the street where people had gathered and began detaining everyone, even old people, women, and journalists (though one could hear orders over police radios saying that journalists shouldn't be arrested). The protest was over in about 15 minutes, with some 700 hundred people having been detained.
And the thaw was over, too. Lukashenko will still try to cozy up to the West because he needs money, though it's unclear how those who are expected to provide the money will respond to the latest protests. But it’s now clear that the regime in Belarus hasn't changed; it’s just pretending to be democratic to get what it wants.

author: Sergey Kozlovsky


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Are Trinidad & Tobago Police Actively Investigating the President’s Housing Allowance Like They Said They Would? · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

Screenshot of a section of the letter sent to Rhoda Bharath's attorney with regard to a request for information from the Office of the President.
Rhoda Bharath, the university lecturer in Trinidad and Tobago who, back in September 2016, brought the issue of a controversial presidential housing allowance to national attention, has posted a new Facebook Live video to update netizens on the latest developments — or lack thereof.
Social media users in the country have been routinely tuning in to Bharath's updates, and the online conversation has helped to keep the issue of alleged misconduct in public office on the front burner, even when mainstream media and civil society groups appear to not be pushing the matter.
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) announced on January 15, 2017, that its anti-corruption unit would launch an investigation into President Anthony Carmona's receipt of a monthly housing allowance of TT$28,000 (US$4,182). The president received this money while living in state housing, which is not allowed. Since then, the public has not been advised as to the status of the investigation or any of its findings.
Chief of Police (CoP) Stephen Williams stated in January that at the time the investigation was not a criminal one. In her newest Facebook Live, Bharath quipped that as far as she is aware, “the only thing […] that police investigate in Trinidad and Tobago is crime”. She also reminded social media users that she sought expert and independent legal advice based on the evidence she gathered, noting that the police investigation began “after a Queen's Counsel (QC) insisted that the president needed to be investigated”.
The apparent lack of progress with the investigation has renewed some netizens’ lack of confidence in the police service.
President Carmona has publicly insisted that the Salaries Review Commission (SRC) authorised his receipt of the housing allowance based on a commissioned report. The SRC, however, has since said it gave no such permission.
In her latest Facebook Live video, Bharath honed in on several new areas of concern. On January 11, 2017, there was a Joint Select Committee (JSC) hearing at which members of the Office of the President — including Accounting Officer Gregory Serrette — were present. Bharath, who tuned in to the broadcast hearing, noted that it revealed “a lot of craziness going on with respect to expenditure and hiring […] up to December 2016, two members of the president's household were on the payroll at the Office of the President”. As a result, she is asking President Carmona to clarify whether he has used taxpayers’ dollars to hire family members and even pay for their travel expenses.
Bharath also wants Serrette called to account, alleging that he himself has had at least one family member working at the Office of the President:
We in Trinidad and Tobago like to pretend that nepotism is not a big deal […] in fact, it is against the law. The Integrity in Public Life Act specifically says that you're not meant to use your position in public office to benefit friends and family members.
There's something else on Bharath's radar when it comes to the police investigation — “some sort of link” between the president and Chief of Police Williams — which to her suggests a possible conflict of interest. In 2009, Williams’ wife, Magistrate Avason Quinlan, faced misconduct charges. The matter was investigated by a one-man tribunal comprising “none other than then Justice Carmona”. Quinlan was subsequently vindicated.
In light of that, Bharath said she has “serious questions about whether the investigation will take place in an open, transparent and honest fashion”.
Facebook user Brian Chambers commented:
Interesting observation concerning the CoP's wife, I think there are good grounds for the Integrity Commission to get involved but do not hold you breath on that ever happening.
The country's Integrity Commission, for its part, has been besieged by a startling lack of integrity.
On the heels of official correspondence that Bharath's attorney received, which “respectfully refused” to disclose information that Bharath requested based on the fact that section 5. (1) (a) of the country's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) excludes the president, Bharath made a clear distinction between the president himself and his office:
The Office of the President is run by members of the civil service; they are audited by the auditor general and can be called before parliament to answer questions, which essentially means that they can be asked questions by us.
On the subject of that clause, Facebook user Barbara Jenkins commented:
That can't be correct. If it is the constitution is fatally flawed inviting just what we're witnessing now.
With President Carmona now 11 months away from leaving office and no public updates on the police investigation, Bharath argued that the housing allowance issue “is linked to the larger crime problem in the country”:
If you have a situation where the highest office holder in the land cannot be held accountable, refuses to answer any questions, and the police force who we have to reply on to investigate, solve crime and make people answerable […] if they're not doing their jobs, well…

author: Flora Thomas


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Russian Political Astroturf Is Back · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Young men protest outside Navalny's jail on April 10, 2017. Photo: Alexey Abanin / Twitter
Before Alexey Navalny was released from jail on Monday, a staged “student demonstration” was making headlines to spoil his public return. Navalny, the unofficial leader of Russia’s unofficial political opposition, went free after serving 15 days behind bars for disobeying police officers during a protest in late March.
Outside Navalny’s jail, a small group of young men gathered, holding signs complaining that he had promised them 10,000 euros and never delivered. “You promised? You deceived!” said one poster. “When do we get the 10,000 euros???” another man’s sign read. After letting them pose for some photos, officers soon escorted the men into a police van.
The posters referred to “RosEvroSud” (Russian Euro Court), a project Navalny launched to facilitate appeals to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Ahead of surprisingly well-attended nationwide protests on March 26, Navalny told demonstrators that his team would make RosEvroSud available to anyone unlawfully detained and fined during the rallies that weekend. In his public appeal, Navalny suggested that each person wrongfully prosecuted could win 10,000 euros in the ECHR.
Ilias Merkuri, a writer and “Anti-Maidan” activist who once trolled Russian oppositionists as a masked character named “Dick Riot,” tweeted photos from outside the jail on Monday, and his images appeared hours later in the Russian media, including in the pro-Kremlin tabloid “Life,” which ran a story with the headline “‘Lyosha, Where’s the Cash?’ Schoolchildren Demand Promised Rewards From Navalny.”
Ждут Навального у спецприёмника Νο2 с требованиями. pic.twitter.com/ILqkd6Boli
— Илиас Меркури⚖ (@imerkouri) April 10, 2017
They're waiting with demands for Navalny outside Special Detention Center Number 2.
On Tuesday, journalist Alexander Plushev revealed that at least one of the Navalny protesters — a man named Dmitry Molchanov — is actually a student at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, studying to work in the Internal Tax Service. Plushev even dug up Molchanov’s admission paperwork online.
An anonymous Twitter account based in Tomsk also tracked down Molchanov’s accounts on social media, finding a photograph of his student ID card, showing his registration at the Presidential Academy.
Molchanov's student ID card.
After protesting Navalny on Monday, Molchanov briefly deleted his Vkontakte account. When he restored it, his affiliation with Molodaya Gvardiya — the youth wing of Russia’s ruling political party — had mysteriously vanished.
Staged demonstrations like Molchanov’s attempt to portray Alexey Navalny as a deceiver of young people are not uncommon in Russia. Pro-Kremlin organization members often pose as students and oppositionists or recruit students under false pretenses to appear in public, where they’re photographed by reporters, who then write about the demonstrations as though they were organic displays of grassroots activism.
Just last week, Plushev outed a similar stunt by the Anti-Maidan movement (to which Ilias “Dick Riot” Merkuri has ties), where activists from the group posed as university students at a memorial for the victims of the St. Petersburg subway bombing.
This week, The Moscow Times reported that dozens of students from Moscow State Linguistic University were duped last week into standing in line outside the Russian Supreme Court to see proceedings against Jehovah's Witnesses. Never allowed in the building, the students waited around for nothing, while journalists photographed them, and later reported falsely that droves of menacing Jehovah's Witnesses had surrounded the court.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Vietnamese Continue to Demand Justice a Year After Toxic Waste Spill That Caused Massive Fish Kill · Global Voices
Don Le

Protests on the waters with a banner saying “Destroying the environment is a crime”. Source: Facebook page of Cọt's Hiếu
This article by Đôn Lê is from Loa, a news website and online radio project of Viet Tan that broadcasts stories about Vietnam. It is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Thousands of Vietnamese took to beaches and boats in various towns in central Vietnam and to social media during the first week of April 2017 to protest against a Taiwanese-owned steel plant, one year after its toxic spill caused a massive fish kill and left lingering damage.
Protesters blame the Formosa Hà Tĩnh Steel Plant as well as the Vietnamese government for what is being considered Vietnam’s worst environmental disaster.
The toxic spill resulted in more than 70 tonnes of dead fish and other marine life washing ashore the central coasts of Vietnam. It has also crippled livelihoods across four provinces — Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên-Huế. The deputy director of the local environment in Quảng Trị told Reuters that some 3,000 boats were affected in that province alone, and many fishermen and their families have had to abandon their boats.
Anger and frustration over the government’s slow response and lack of accountability in holding the steel mill responsible have spread across the country and protests have continued over the past year, despite a US$500 million settlement between Formosa and the Vietnamese government. Fishermen argue that the compensation is inadequate and has not helped the people most affected in the region.
Citizens in the town of Kỳ Anh, where the Formosa steel plant is located, took to the beach wearing white shirts depicting a fish skeleton to mark the anniversary. They waved signs calling for Formosa to end its operations.
Protesters march down the beach in Kỳ Anh, Hà Tĩnh Province. Source: Facebook of Bạch Hồng Quyền
Reverend Trần Đình Lai, one of the Catholic priests leading the protest, said:
Formosa must accept full responsibility and make efforts in returning the clean environment to our country, our people and central Vietnam before leaving Vietnam.
In neighbouring Nghệ An Province, locals took their demonstration to the sea. The fleet of boats brandished black flags with fish skeletons and five-colored heritage flags as they protested on the waters.
Meanwhile, over 8,000 people descended on the People’s Committee Building in Lộc Hà district of Hà Tĩnh Province.
Protesters gathered at the People’s Committee Building in Lộc Hà. Source: Facebook of Bạch Hồng Quyền
Earlier in the week, fishermen brought out fishing nets and stopped traffic on National Route 1A in Hà Tĩnh Province to demand further compensation.
#Vietnam Fishermen bring fishing nets on road 1A to protest against #Formosa & demanding payouts. See banner of children. #ichoosefish pic.twitter.com/BTZK5M16LS
— Paul Minh Nhật (@PaulMinhNhat) April 2, 2017
Meanwhile, Vietnamese netizens launched an online petition urging the international community to speak out against the environmental disaster. The petition quoted prominent figures in the religious and activist community who are calling for a proper resolution to the Formosa disaster. Within less than two weeks of launching, the petition garnered over 100,000 signatures.
An excerpt of the petition appeals for international support:
We hope the United Nations, EU, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and international environmental organizations urge the Vietnamese government to take up responsibility to rebuild our environment and the lives of the victims.
People across the country expressed solidarity with victims of the environmental disaster by sharing photos of themselves near the water on Facebook.
Activists in northern Vietnam supporting Formosa victims. Source: Facebook page of Hoàng Sa Club
Hà Nội based attorney Luân Lê wrote on Facebook:
Power at the wrong time, in the hands of the wrong people can ignite waves of rage. (Officials must) become a responsible government, professional, and brave when confronted with the people’s resentment.

author: Don Le


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Bend It Like Poonam: Teen Girls Challenge India’s Patriarchy on the Football Field · Global Voices
VideoVolunteers

Image: Pixabay
This post originally appeared on Video Volunteers, an award-winning international community media organization based in India. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Poonam is a teenager from Varanasi, a city in the Uttar Pradesh State of North India. She used to believe firmly that girls should stay at home and eventually get married. “Today, I feel that girls should have full freedom,” she says. What changed for Poonam? In a word: sports. She and a bunch of girls in her community learned to play ball.
Rekha Chauhan is the project director of Mahila Swarojgar Samiti (MSS), an organization that helps teenage girls in Varanasi shape their identity and be more confident about their sexuality through football. Rekha says:
When these girls play, they play very freely: they don’t care if anyone is staring at them, their breasts. It’s an expression of complete freedom as if they are flying in the playground!
Systemic gender discrimination means that adolescent girls face challenges on multiple fronts. Secondary-school dropout rates among adolescent girls are much higher than boys. Teenage pregnancy and marriage also pose serious risks, and more adolescent girls are also malnourished and underweight than adolescent boys. More than half of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are anaemic in India.
Coupled with these obstacles are the country's crippling social restrictions on women's mobility and freedom.
Playing sports can often be seen as a masculine activity, and women who challenge this often face societal censure. Even when families are supportive, institutional neglect often forces young girls from poorer families to give on dreams of becoming star athletes. But breakout successes, like Kashmir's eight-year-old gold-medalist kickboxer Tajamul Islam, can be enormously inspiring to young girls.
MSS’ programme is trying to facilitate more of this, building a space where girls take up sports and encourage other girls to do the same.
MSS has created 25 groups of girls that meet regularly to discuss gender, patriarchy, sexuality, and reproductive health. And to play football, of course! Each group has 20 teens from economically marginalised families in Varanasi.
Neha works at MSS and oversees this programme. She says she's seen with her own eyes how football makes the girls more confident:
It energises their whole body and boosts health and also plays a crucial role in shaping their sexuality.
Initially, the girls themselves along with their parents questioned the decision to teach them football. Rekha Bharati is one such teenager:
I had never even seen a football before in my life! I want to change my parent’s perspective so that they stop differentiating between sons and daughters.
Three-quarters of the girls in these groups attend school. As many as five are already married. All the girls come from Dalit or Muslim communities. Since joining the group, some of the girls say they've been able to take concrete steps toward changing their families’ attitudes. Several have also been able to negotiate their way out of teenage marriages — quite a feat in poor communities, even though pre-adult marriage is technically illegal in India.
Rekha says she knows how something as seemingly innocuous as football makes big social changes possible: “Football has remained an unchallenged male domain. When [girls] succeed in a supposedly ‘male’ domain, their confidence grows. They see that they are capable of what was a taboo for them and are eager to break down other restrictions,” she says.
Indeed, research from across the world confirms that playing team sports is an effective means of boosting self-esteem in adolescent girls, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds. Groups like MSS hope they are showing the way forward for communities across the country.

author: VideoVolunteers


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China’s Latest Step to Root Out Foreign Spies? Cash Rewards for Informants. · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China's National Security Bureau released a video warning people not to be lured by spies. Screenshot.
China's National Security Bureau is offering large cash rewards to citizens who report foreign spies.
A national hotline, #12339, has been available for citizens to report suspected espionage since November 2015. But starting on April 15, under the newly introduced “Measures on Rewards for Citizens Reporting Leads on Espionage Conduct”, citizens will be given up to 500,000 yuan, or about 73,000 US dollars, if their reports are useful.
According to an article in Beijing Morning Post, the reward system is meant to build an “anti-spy iron wall“:
随着我国改革开放的深入，对外交往明显增多，出入境人员逐年递增。境外间谍情报机关和其他敌对势力也借机加紧对我国进行政治渗透、分裂颠覆、情报窃密、勾连策反等破坏活动。
还有一些人出于个人私利，出卖国家利益，给境外间谍情报机关以可乘之机。北京作为首都，是境外间谍情报机关和其他敌对势力对我进行渗透、颠覆、分裂、破坏和窃密等活动的首选地。
基于以上原因和背景，反间谍侦查工作急需创新工作方式和工作方法，广泛发动群众，激发群众维护国家安全的积极性和自觉性，逐渐构筑起反奸防谍的钢铁长城。
As a result of the open-door policy in our country being expanded, interaction with foreigners has increased rapidly. The number of people entering and exiting the country has escalated. Foreign intelligence agencies and other hostile forces have been penetrating our country’s politics, inciting separation and subversion, stealing secrets and committing espionage activities.
Moreover, some individuals out of personal interest have sold out national interests to foreign intelligence agencies. Beijing as the capital is the number one location for foreign intelligence agencies and other hostile forces to organize activities for the purpose of penetration, subversion, separation, destruction and stealing secrets.
Against such a backdrop, there is a pressing need for anti-spy investigations to take an innovative approach by mobilizing the masses, making people aware and giving them the motivation to protect national security and to eventually build an anti-spy iron wall.
The new measure stresses that the identity of those forwarding along tips would be keep anonymous and ill-intended reports would be subjected to a fine.
The National Security Bureau also released a video via various outlets instructing citizens on what to be on guard for and explaining the details of the reward system. The video hosted on China Central Television’s social media account on Miaopai attracted more than 450 million views in one day.
Propaganda officials began advising the Beijing public to be on the lookout for foreign spies last year. One of the cartoon posters they released, titled “Dangerous Love,” warns Chinese women against being seduced by foreign men who have undercover motives.
According to the counter-espionage law passed in 2014 and the foreign NGO management law passed in 2016, it can be considered an act of espionage to work for organizations that receive foreign funding without the prior approval of the government.
In the past two years, a number of foreigners have been arrested for “posing a threat” to national security. In January 2016, Peter Dahlin, a Swedish human rights activist, was expelled from China after 23 days in detention. The more recent cases are the arrest of Taiwanese human right activist, Lee Ming-cheh, and the detention of Australian-based Chinese professor Feng Chongyi.
The China Youth Communist League was among those on popular social media platform Weibo that cheered the reward system, doing so with a rap song. The league's followers on Weibo reacted to the video by pointing at liberal public opinion leaders’ negative comments about China as an act of espionage. Below are some of the most liked comments on the video thread:
不白和尚：微博上至少有几十万。日本美国韩国各个国家都用基金会的名义收买他们，让他们带节奏，侮辱民族英雄，侮辱先烈，挑动地域歧视，民族歧视，职业歧视等所有分解民心的行为，并借助新闻事件造谣惑众，推波助澜。营造国家一团糟的氛围。诸如此类背后都有他们活跃的身影。
“Non-white monk”: There are at least tens of thousands [of spies] on Weibo. Japan, the US and Korea, they use all sort of premises to buy them off so that they lead the choir insulting national heroes, and inciting regional, ethnic and employment discrimination. They also make use of news incidents to create rumors and confuse people in order to paint a chaotic image of the country. They are active behind all this.
辰时赏雨：其实，间谍不一定是刺探，也许是卧个槽，以正义的名义来传播负能，以真相的方式来煽动极端。
“Watching rain at dawn”: actual spies are not necessarily those who are spying. They can be those who circulate negative energy with a sense of righteousness, those who incite extreme acts by revealing the truth.
Some supporters of the Youth League started naming public intellectuals as spies in the comments section:
橘子洲头12345：我举报教育部语文出版社长王旭明、袁腾飞、贺卫方、茅于轼是美国间谍。哈哈
“Mandarin zhoutou 12345″: I here reported Wang Xuming, the director of Language and Culture Press under the Education Bureau; Yuan Tengfei [a history teacher and a famous blogger]; He Weifang [a law professor]; and Mao Yushi [a prominent economist] as American spies.
苏麻离青rua：袁腾飞之流所谓公知，对国家政府冷嘲热讽，含沙射影。大吹欧美民主台湾正硕。这样的怎么举报？
“Su-ma-li-qing rua”: Yuan Tengfei and the so-called public intellectuals, they keep mocking the country and the government and keep praising western democracy and Taiwan's experience as the right path. How to report this?
In another news discussion thread on Weibo, voices were more critical:
还间谍呢，先管管贪官污吏再说吧，可别再走清朝老路了，家门都没清理干净，都不需要间谍，自行垮掉。
Still have time to talk about spies. Focus on corruption first or the country will be following the path of the Qing Dynasty. If you don’t fix your own house, it will collapse on itself.
看看评论 文革就是这样互相举报互相伤害搞起来的
Read the comments. The Cultural Revolution began with reporting and hurting each others.
如果微博评论自己的观点，都去捉，那得捉多少人？有言论自由不好？ 那些观点跟自己不一样就说要捉别人的人，你们都是些什么人？
If talking about one’s opinion on Weibo deserves arrest, how many people will end up in jail? Free speech is bad? What kind of people would like to jail those who have different opinions other than their own?


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Iran’s Election Race Sees a Popular President Up Against Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader’s Favourite Cleric · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Former populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces his intention to run for president in the May 2017 presidential elections. Photo by Mohammad Ali Marizad for Tasnim News Agency, which publishes photos with the rights to be redistributed.
The Iranian elections are almost a month away, scheduled for 19 May 2017. However, 11 April marked a significant day — official registration for candidates opened, and more than a hundred candidates have already thrown their hats into the ring.
Two high-profile candidates have risen above the fray to steal the media's focus: Ebrahim Raisi, the figure expected to succeed Ayatollah Khamenei as Supreme Leader, Iran's most important religious and political figure; and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country's controversial former president.
Registration will last for five days, followed by a period of time when the registrants will be screened for their political and Islamic qualifications by the hardline and religious body tasked with vetting, the Guardian Council. The council is typically responsible for disqualifying the majority of registrants for making it to the final candidates list.
Prior to 11 April, momentum has been building as to who the final candidates will be. Persian social media erupted on 6 April when Raisi — the favourite candidate to replace the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei — announced his intention to run for president.
Conservative Ebrahim Raisi officially announced his candidacy for the presidential election
— Rohollah Faghihi (@FaghihiRohollah) April 6, 2017
Reactions of worry were quick to spread, as Raisi is an influential cleric with a close relationship with Khamenei. He will pose a significant challenge to the reelection of popular moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
به نام خدا بنده استرس انتخابات گرفتم. وضعیت برای میانه رو ها خراب شد.
— نازلی کاموری (@inazkam) April 6, 2017
In the name of God, I have got election stress. Conditions for moderates have now deteriorated.
In the history of the Islamic Republic, which has held 11 presidential elections, there has never been an instance where a sitting president has not served for two terms. However, many believe this election will be one of the most significant in the regime's history, as it's a period many expect to see the aging and ailing Supreme Leader's passing. The last time a Supreme Leader was elected was upon the death of the founder and first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini. During that time, the Assembly of Experts chose Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the sitting president, to replace him, motivated by the knowledge that he was a particular favourite of the deceased Khomeini.
Earlier this week, President Rouhani held a press conference where he skirted questions about his plans to run for a second term.
#Rouhani twice dodges question of whether he'll run in elections – says “let's wait and see over next 5 days when candidates register”
— Golnar Motevalli (@golnarM) April 10, 2017
While not discussing his participation in the forthcoming election, his press conference did seem like an early form of campaigning. Rouhani spent the majority of the conference defending his record on helping improve conditions for poor Iranians and the benefits that the country's has experienced from his efforts to lift international sanctions.
With a Raisi-Rouhani match-up, the election was already shaping up to be tense. Then, on April 12 ex-President Ahmadinejad threw a curve ball into the race with his announcement that he intends to run.
More *potentially* big 2017 #Iran presidential election news: #Ahmadinejad and #Bagahei BOTH register prospective candidates. 1/ pic.twitter.com/I87g2a20SU
— Farzan Sabet (@IranWonk) April 12, 2017
Ahmadinjead is most notable for being the president whose reelection was tainted by irregularities, which in turn sparked the Green Movement of 2009, which saw hundreds of thousands of Iranians take the streets in protest.
In September 2016, Ahmadinejad announced he would not join the race, after being warned by the Supreme Leader that his candidacy would cause polarization and harmful divisions in Iranian society. While also banned in 2013 from running for reelection, Ahmadinejad campaigned for the election of his former chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. Mashaei, however, was not able to make it past the Guardian Council‘s vetting of the final list of presidential candidates.
Ahmadinejad's former vice president, Hamid Baghaei, also registered his candidacy, and some theorize that the two are running in an effort to increase their election odds, as there's speculation that Ahmadinejad won't make it past the Guardian Council's vetting.
Registration | Day Two | the moment when the one hundred or so photographers and journalists who'd crammed into the basement of the Interior Ministry in #Tehran made a collective ? and ? as Mahmoud #Ahmadinejad was handed his identity papers by his protege and former deputy Hamid Baghaei and prepared to take a seat to register to stand in #Iran's presidential elections. It's a shock move, in defiance of the advice of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and furthermore confounding because Baghaei also registered to stand. The big question now is whether Ahmadinejad actually intends to withdraw and make this a purely symbolic move or whether he wants to wait and see if he will be disqualified from running by the powerful Guardian Council, who are widely expected to reject Baghaei's application for candidacy. #Iran #IranElections #انتخابات
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author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Russian Journalists Say One of NYT’s Pulitzer-Winning Stories Was Stolen · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

Photo: Sari Dennise / Flickr / CC 2.0
This week, The New York Times was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for ten articles about “Vladimir Putin’s efforts to project Russia’s power abroad.” Ivan Kolpakov, the chief editor of Meduza, an independent Russian news site, says one of those articles was stolen from his newsroom.
Meduza first raised its concerns in late December, when The New York Times published an article by Andrew Kramer, titled “How Russia Recruited Elite Hackers for Its Cyberwar.”
According to Meduza editor Aleksandr Gorbachev, Kramer’s story retells two investigative reports by Meduza’s star correspondent Daniil Turovsky: an article in September 2015 about Russian state corporations hiring outside firms to launch distributed denial of service attacks, and a story in November 2016 about how the Russian state recruits hackers.
“Take one text by Turovsky on Meduza, then take a second text by Turovsky on Meduza, stir, stir, and POOF you’ve got a New York Times article,” Gorbachev wrote on Facebook on December 30, adding, “As Donald Trump says in these cases, DISHONEST!”
The same day, Turovsky echoed this complaint, writing, “And so I debuted today on the front page of The New York Times. Actually, a reporter for the newspaper completely retold two stories that came out in Meduza a month and a half ago and a year and a half ago.”
Within hours, Andrew Kramer responded in a comment:
Daniil, I spoke with you while preparing this article and explained that I intended to follow in the footsteps of your fine work, that I would credit Meduza, as I did, and thanked you for your help. I disagree with your assessment that the article “in whole” retold two Meduza articles. Our story included reporting not in the Meduza articles, in particular concerning prison recruitment. Specifically and importantly our article explicitly said that Meduza “first disclosed the recruitment effort” and included a link.
Thirty minutes later, Kolpakov joined in, asking Kramer why his article only hyperlinked to Meduza’s November 2016 story, ignoring Turovsky’s September 2015 text. Kramer didn’t comment again.
The scandal seemed to end there, until this Monday, when Kramer’s story was included among The New York Times’ Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporting.
The next day, Kolpakov announced that Meduza would hire an outside expert to analyze Turovsky’s work and Kramer’s story, to determine if anything was copied or misrepresented. If Meduza’s suspicions are confirmed, Kolpakov says he is prepared to take the matter to the Pulitzer Prize Board.
“I don’t want anyone to lose their prize, but I would be comfortable if this text [Kramer’s] were removed from the list of winning work,” Kolpakov explained on Facebook.
Aside from general complaints that The New York Times failed to give due credit to Meduza for breaking the story covered in “How Russia Recruited Elite Hackers for Its Cyberwar,” Kolpakov says Kramer appears to have translated into English comments computer programer Aleksandr Vyarya made to Turovsky in his report.
“We happen to know from the main source [Aleksandr Vyarya] that he didn’t really want to talk to the NYT,” Kolpakov says. “And most likely Kramer didn’t manage to get the quotes he needed. Also, it’s hard to imagine a person who talks to journalists in identical phrases.”
Kolpakov also shared the following email he received from Michael Slackman, The New York Times’ international editor:
I spoke with our bureau chief, Neil McFarquhar, who I believe you also reached out to. Neil tells me that your reporter, Mr. Turovsky, was immensely generous in helping to steer Andrew in the right direction. The story does note the recruiting effort was first reported by Meduza and it provides a link to the article.
The story and quotes, however, are all the result of original reporting, completed either in person, by phone or email. Nothing was simply lifted from Meduza, though I understand why you raised the concern.
Andrew is a long time, trusted correspondent who has always demonstrated a commitment to the highest ethical standards and I am certain he has here, as well.
Kolpakov says he was also told by Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times’ Moscow bureau chief, that Kramer had to fight to keep the small reference to Meduza that did make it into his story’s final draft. “In fact,” MacFarquhar informed him, “in the initial edit done in New York, the paragraph crediting Meduza had been excised for space, and Andrew insisted that it be restored.”
Commenting on Kolpakov’s Facebook post, Ivan Nechepurenko, a Moscow correspondent for The New York Times, advised Meduza to appeal to Liz Spayd, the editor who manages the paper’s issues of journalistic integrity and news judgment.
This time, Kramer stayed away from Facebook, but he sent along the following message through Russian columnist Oleg Kashin:
In fact, I was in contact with Vyarya directly. I verified and discussed elements of his story. And he gave me a quote that was similar to and slightly different from what he told Meduza.
Kolpakov says the outside expert will speak to Vyarya to confirm Kramer’s claims, but Meduza’s newsroom remains unconvinced. Commenting online, Daniil Turovsky said he’d already asked Vyarya about his contact with Kramer. “Is he for real? I politely sent him packing for now,” Vyarya apparently told him.

author: RuNet Echo


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International Scholars Search for Ways to Protect Syria’s Ancient Heritage · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Hagar, portrait bust of a woman with Syriac inscription c. 150 CE (on loan from Australian War Memorial). Triumphal Arch Palmyra replica: Image courtesy Flickr user GothPhil (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
After six years of war, it is difficult not to picture a country in total ruin when peace finally comes to Syria. Rebuilding after the carnage and devastation seems like an unimaginable task.
Yet behind the scenes, archaeologists and other scholars across the world are working to save the remains of Syria’s ancient heritage.
Among the many issues that face heritage preservation in Syria is the illegal antiquities trade. Many of the factions involved in the Syrian civil war have turned a blind eye to this trade or even took part in it, notably ISIS (Daesh) and the Assad regime. This suggests that there will be no easy solution to this dimension of the Syrian crisis.
But far away from Syria, one university is trying to shed light on some of the possible solutions.
Melbourne University’s Ian Potter Museum of Art is currently hosting an exhibition that focuses on that very challenge. Syria: Ancient History – Modern Conflict (سوريا: التاريخ القديم – الصراع الحديث) “explores three decades of fieldwork conducted by The University of Melbourne in Syria within the context of the current conflict and destruction”.
Archaeological tools. Top photo with permission of Andrew Jamieson. Bottom photos are by the author.
As well as numerous artifacts, the exhibition includes a collection of archaeological tools and record-keeping devices. Some of these are of historical significance themselves.
In a public lecture with the same title, Professor Andrew Jamieson, senior lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, reflected on his decades of work in the Euphrates River valley at sites such as El Qitar, Tell Ahmar, Jebel Khalid and Tell Qumlug.
University of Melbourne Fieldwork – Syria. Author's photo from exhibition
Before the war, Jamieson was part of attempts to preserve the vast collections that already existed. In 2010, a collaboration known as the Syrian-Australian Archaeological and Historical Research Project was being developed to establish a repository at Qal'at Najm’s castle in Syria. He stressed the vital importance of producing material in Arabic.
View of Qal'at Najm from the south. Photo by Hovalp via Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 2.0
He also gave an overview of the work of SHIRĪN, an international body that aims to preserve and safeguard Syrian sites, monuments and museums. Formed in 2014, it tries to document and assess reported damage. Some scholars were concerned that little was being done despite the existence of 140 foreign excavation permits before the outbreak of war.
Professor Jamieson stressed that it is vital for permit holders to remain engaged. Tasks such as paying guards of these sites, for example, where possible are “a last line of defence”.
In a 2016 presentation at TEDxBern, Cynthia Dunning Thierstein, Mohamad Fakhro and Mohamed Alkhalid also outlined SHIRĪN’s efforts. They explained why this work is so important for Syrians’ dignity and their cultural identity:
The challenges are daunting: the much-publicized deliberate destruction of monuments by ISIS; widespread looting for the illegal global market by different groups; collateral damage caused by artillery, bombing and the like by the Assad regime or rebels; or even simple but unavoidable neglect.
Some of the proposed solutions are contentious and the role of digital archaeology is a key issue. For example, the replica of Palmyra’s Arch of Triumph in London in 2016 raised some misgivings. According to Professor Jamieson, there are concerns about the possibility of digs becoming part of a “digital Disneyland” if replicas are built on the original sites.
The following video from The Guardian tackles some of these issues. Staff from the replica's designers at the Institute of Digital Archaeology argue that:
We should not allow hostile groups of any kind to define the apparent cultural background of a nation, a country, of any kind of site. […] It's not really a matter of whether or not we should copy. It's really a question of how do we copy.
Writing after the first of two recaptures of Palmyra from ISIS, Emma Cunliffe of the University of Oxford explored some of the issues at news analysis site The Conversation:
But many argue that 3D printing fails to capture the authenticity of the original structures, amounting to little more than the Disneyfication of heritage. They also point out that the fighting is still ongoing: 370,000 Syrians are dead, millions are displaced, and perhaps 50%-70% of the nearby town has been destroyed. Given the pressing humanitarian needs, stabilisation alone should be the priority for now.
The role and responsibilities of archaeologists were among the themes addressed by Professor Jamieson, who suggested an ethics charter as one way forward.
This is all the more important given the high risks taken by Syrian archeologists. The death of Khaled al-Asaad, renowned Syrian archaeologist, at the hands of ISIS in 2015 provoked a global outpouring of grief. Al-Asaad was executed for apparently refusing to divulge the whereabouts of artifacts moved for safekeeping.
Finally, it is hard not to agree with Emma Cunliffe's conclusion on Palmyra, applicable to the rest of Syria:
One thing is clear: while Palmyra may hold great significance to the world, the final decision should belong to those who have lived alongside it, cared for it, managed it, fought for it, and protected it for generations: the Syrian people.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Survivors Share Their Stories About the Dangers of Migrating Across the Sahara Desert · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Migrants rescued from an inflatable raft. Public Domain photo by the U.S Navy.
Aware Migrants is a social media campaign that aims at informing migrants from 15 African countries about the dangers of migrating across the Sahara desert, Libya and the Mediterranean Sea.
For years, thousands of migrants and refugees from Africa and Middle East have been trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe to escape poverty and political persecution.
The project is organised by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with the technical and creative support of Horace communication agency, and financed by the Italian Ministry of Interior, Department of Civil Liberties and Immigration.
IOM reported last March 10, 2017 that 19,567 migrants arrived by sea to Italy but 521 have died at sea, which is 50 more compared to the same period in 2016. Majority of the migrants were from Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal and Gambia.
Some migrants told IOM that their journey was far more dangerous than expected:
Many are unaware of the dangers and risks of migrating with the assistance of smugglers, not only at sea or in the desert, but also in transit countries like Libya. Recalling the life-threatening risks along their journey is often very distressing and in many instances, most migrants wish to forget and move forward with their lives and therefore tend not to share their experience with peers who are still back home.
The campaign uses Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter to provide social media platforms for migrants to exchange opinions and testimonies through pictures and videos gathered throughout the journey.
The campaign has already produced 31 video testimonies. Below is the story of Trika who travelled from Sebha to Tripoli:
Paco shared his year-long prison ordeal:
Lamin lost his loved ones during the journey from Libya:
Ebrima was told to go to the sea or be killed in Libya or Tunisia:
Blessing said she was raped and beaten everyday:
Imasuen saw some men who died from hunger in the desert:

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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These Are the Contributions to Science Made by 10 Latin American Women · Global Voices
Autor Invitado

“Stop and take a look. 10 Latin American women in the sciences”. Image published by the Karisma Foundation under Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 2.5 CO).
This article by Karisma Foundation was originally published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Colombia license. An edited version appears below.
According to UNESCO, 29% of all the people in the world who dedicate themselves to research are women. The figure is a little more encouraging in Latin America, where the average reaches 45%. In fact, the region has the highest rate on a global scale in terms of the number of female researchers. In Colombia, the average reaches 37%, whereas in terms of leadership, out of the 4,000 registered research organizations in Colciencias, only 34% are led by women.
Despite the advances, these figures indicate that there is still some progress to be made, especially when comparing the situation of women with their male colleagues in the field of sciences. That is to say, women are involved, but still not on equal terms. All it takes it to try to put together a list of the names of female inventors, scientists, mathematicians or engineers that we learn about in school, and we realise that we do not know of many.
We invite you to pause for a moment and get to know the stories of 10 Latin American women who have built their careers in the field of natural sciences, medicine, engineering, technology and mathematics, as an invitation to question what would happen without the contribution of women to the different professions in the world.
Her interest in the field of biology is closely connected with the place in which she grew up: the Pacific/Chocó natural region, a place of exuberant and rich flora, but, paradoxically, one of the poorest and most unknown areas of the world. This landscape is what compelled her to work to draw attention to the high value of the flora from Chocó and to contribute to the reduction of the multiple challenges tied to the poverty of this Colombian region. She's worked hard to make more visible the high values of Chocoan flora and thus propose solutions to the multiple ways in which poverty is a problem in the region. She's also been fundamental in the training of a new generation of researchers and scientists inside her region through her academic work at the University of Quindío; in the Armenia province. (Source: Fundación Karisma interview.)
Triana Moreno has developed her academic and investigative activities in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Caldas in Manizales, Colombia. Her lines of scientific investigation include pteridology – a field of biology that studies ferns and related plants – as well as botany and ecology. Her scientific activity has made her worthy of various prizes and scholarships, as well as having a plethora of bibliographic output and significant participation in national and international scientific events. (Sources: Wikipedia and CvLAC.)
In an effort to inspire young people to take an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, Bonnie organised a summer camp in 2015 for adolescents from disadvantaged areas of the Colombian city of Quibdó. In 2010, she earned an internship that made one of her biggest dreams a reality: working at NASA. There, she worked on enhancing the development of robotic vehicles for space exploration. She's currently following a doctoral program in Astrodynamics and Spacial Application at the University of Purdue in Indiana (US) (Sources: ALE, Purdue University and El Tiempo.)
As well as having to overcome family members who didn't fully appreciate that she wanted to study and build a career in the sciences, the big challenge that Ángela faced was the resistance of some directors “to recognise that women knew how to keep their word and would come back to teach at the end of their studies outside the country”. She advises female scientists “to never lose optimism nor the desire to open doors for those who follow them”, that they try “to change the world” through their work, that “they are always enthusiastic” and that they “are open to chasing lofty goals”. Restrepo has been responsible for the education of generations of microbiologists and has been the only woman to be part of the “council of wisemen” a group of major scientists in the country that has worked in important proposals for the development of education. (Sources: IANAS and EAFIT.)
Together with her colleague Aideé Vargas, in 2006 she rediscovered the “Tome's sword-nosed” bat that had been believed to be extinct for more than 70 years. Her work brought about the creation of the first ecological sanctuary in Latin America dedicated to the conservation of a bat species. (Sources: Wikipedia, L’Oréal-Unesco and La Información.)
The academic activities of Valeria de Paivahave been geared towards the study of the logical approaches of computation, especially using category theory, knowledge representation and the semantics of natural language, as well as functional programming with a focus on foundations and type theories. Moreover, she is a principal research scientist in natural language and artificial intelligence in the technology laboratory Nuance, where the objective is to create bridges between experts in linguistics and engineering in artificial intelligence. (Sources: Nuance, LinkedIn and Valeria de Paiva.)
Together with the positions and achievements that she has obtained, the idea that mathematics is universal — it always answers to the same laws and enables natural communication between different cultures and states — is, perhaps, the most satisfactory thing about her profession. In 2015 she was chosen by an assembly of mathematics representatives from all over the world as vice president of the International Mathematics Union from 2015 to 2018, a position that was given for the second time in 97 years to a woman. (Sources: Nexciencia and Fundación Karisma interview.)
Idelisa Bonelly is known as “the mother of marine conservation in the Caribbean”. She has furthered marine biology on the island in her role as professor at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, where she prompted the creation of the biology degree with the express purpose of motivating young women to become scientists. Moreover, she participated in the creation of a research center (CIBIMA) on the subject. (Sources: Wikipedia and UN Women.)
María Amparo Pascual is the first female Cuban specialist in biostatistics, dedicated primarily to research methodology and then to clinical research in oncology. This experience enabled her to participate in the creation of Cuba's National Clinical Trials Coordinating Centre (CENCEC), for which she served as the founding director from 1991, in a time when women hardly ever obtained director positions. (Sources: Fundación Karisma interview and Siempre Latina.)
Her work has contributed to the discovery of the infectious agents of stomach cancer, liver cancer and cervical cancer. One of her greatest satisfactions as a scientist is having discovered the human papilloma virus at the main cause of the latter type of cancer. This work earned her the Canada Gairdner Global Health prize in 2009 and a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2008. (Sources: Fundación Karisma interview, El Espectador, Canada Gairdner Global Health Award and Revista Arcadia.)

author: Autor Invitado


text:
Venezuelan Migrants Face Prejudice and Bureaucracy in Northern Brazil · Global Voices
Rodrigo Borges Delfim

Frontier area between Brazil and Venezuela. Photo: Rodrigo Borges Delfim, published with permission.
Journalist Rodrigo Borges Delfim is the editor of Migramundo, a partner of Global Voices. His trip to Roraima was partly funded by readers through a crowdfunding campaign.
Today there are thousands of Venezuelans living in Roraima, a state in northern Brazil that has made international headlines as a refuge for people fleeing Venezuela's economic crisis. As officials in Roraima have complained about a lack of support from the federal government, migrants say they've experienced prejudice from local Brazilians, and suffered under the state's bureaucracy.
“We're not here to play around. We are cursed because we speak Spanish. We suffer discrimination because we are Venezuelan,” Merlina Ferreira told Migramundo, a psychologist who has been living in Roraima's capital city Boa Vista for a year. She is one of the 30,000 Venezuelans who have settled in Roraima since early 2016, according to data from the state government.
This wave of migrants includes indigenous Warao people, the second largest indigenous ethnic group in Venezuela. Many of these people survive by selling their wares or begging for money in the streets.
Large numbers of displaced Venezuelans have come to the border town of Pacaraima, which neighbors the Venezuelan town Santa Elena de Uairén, and and they've arrived in Boa Vista. Many of these people have no access to permanent shelter, and must sleep in the open.
The migrants haven't gone unnoticed in the Brazilian media, where you can find reports about displays of both solidarity and prejudice from the local population.
In March, trying to understand the situation better, the Brazilian Public Prosecutor's Office sent a delegation of 40 representatives from different government agencies and NGOs to Roraima. The delegation was made up of people from all across Brazil.
“We must have a humanitarian perspective, but we also need to go deeper, as these people are the subjects of rights. Solutions can't just be short-term; we must think of solutions that are permanent,” said Federal Prosecutor João Akira Omoto, who led the delegation.
For three days, the delegation spoke to migrants and officials from numerous local and state agencies, also visiting a temporary shelter outside Boa Vista, before stopping in the town of Paracaima (where there is no shelter for migrants).
At the end of the mission, the Prosecutor's Office held a public hearing with migrants and federal, state, and local authorities.
Venezuelan migrants and indigenous people meet with delegates from the mission organized by Brazil's Public Prosecutor's Office. Photo: Rodrigo Borges Delfim, published with permission.
Both the city administration of Boa Vista and the state government of Roraima complained about a lack of resources to manage the influx of people from Venezuela. State officials argued that this was an issue for the federal government, also complaining that migrants were arriving without the proper documents. In fact, indigenous migrants from Venezuela typically don't carry papers of any kind.
“I can't register irregular migrants in our healthcare system. Without this registration, for example, I can't get more funding and so I risk providing medical care to the rest of the population. We don't have the resources to take charge of healthcare for those people here,” the attorney-general from Boa Vista, Marcela Medeiros, told Migramundo.
“What we're doing here is humanitarian aid,” said Suely Campos, governor of Roraima. “We won't leave women and children vulnerable in the street. Because there is an indigenous component to this, the question is even more profound. That's why we want the federal government to help us.”
The area outside the temporary shelter provided for migrants on the outskirts of Boa Vista. When the delegation visited the shelter, 193 people were registered there, mostly indigenous Warao people, who numbered 136. Photo: Rodrigo Borges Delfim, published with permission.
Locals haven't been thrilled about the influx of Venezuelan migrants, who often crowd public squares to sell wares and beg for money. Local police say the rush of migrants has been accompanied by a spike in thefts, robberies, and even homicides, though formal studies are necessary, before this correlation can be understood fully.
Prosecutor José Gladston Viana Correia, one of the delegates, cautioned local officials against rushing to any conclusion about the rising crime rate. “We need data to prove whether such suspicions are true,” he stated.
Federal Prosecutor João Akira Omoto echoed this sentiment, saying, “The federal police have found no record of criminal activities carried out by Venezuelans up to December 2016 in Roraima. It's necessary that this information is clarified before it goes public. What is being publicized doesn't match the official records.”
According to Gustavo da Frota Simões, a professor of International Relations at the Federal University of Roraima, alarming crime statistics reported by the media in an environment of fear can help create a sensation that Venezuelans are “invading” Brazil.
“The way local newspapers cover the Venezuelan migration reveals a lack of understanding of the issue and the outlines of xenophobia. The immigrant, or ‘the Venezuelan,’ is always ‘the author of the crime’ — the one who causes increase in prostitution, drug abuse, and other woes,” Simões says.
Simões says he believes the problems mentioned by the authorities existed long before the influx of Venezuelan immigrants: “The way I see it, this state of emergency is being used as an excuse by local authorities to negotiate public debts and receive more funds, as well as to justify faults that have happened since before the arrival of the Venezuelans.”
Firsthand accounts of prejudice and discrimination were widespread among the 50 or so Venezuelan migrants who attended the public hearing at an auditorium of the Federal University of Roraima, in Boa Vista.
“We're not a problem. The situation in our country is very difficult, that's why we're here,” said a Venezuelan man named Bruno Florian.
“We want to be part of the solution. We suffer a lot with discrimination here. The women are all labeled ‘prostitutes,’” added another man named Freiomar Villena.
Venezuelan indigenous migrants gathered at a square in the border town of Pacaraima. Photo: Rodrigo Borges Delfim
While Venezuelans can freely enter Brazil with their ID cards, those who intend to settle and work in the country experience difficulties when it comes to obtaining documents like the employment record book (Carteira de Trabalho), which allows foreigners to seek legal employment.
Many Venezuelans, and immigrants from other countries, have to settle instead for the legal limbo of filing and waiting for an asylum request. In Brazil, while they wait for their application to be processed, asylum seekers are eligible for documents like a social security number, passport, and the employment record book.
The review process itself can take months or even years. In the meantime, migrants can work and reside freely in the country, while accessing all public services. According to Conare, the National Agency for Refugees (the agency responsible for asylum applications), the number of requests from Venezuelans skyrocketed from 341 in 2015 to 2,230 last year.
Foreigners only qualify as refugees if they can prove that they have suffered some kind of persecution or violation of human rights in their home country, and Brazilian officials say most asylum requests from Venezuelans don't fulfill those requirements.
Last year, Conare granted refugee status to only five Venezuelans.
To circumvent this obstacle, Brazilian's National Council for Immigration (CNIg) recently allowed anyone to enter the country by land to request “temporary residence,” if they are from countries with which Brazil doesn't have bilateral free-residency agreements — which includes Venezuela. To take advantage of this program, however, individuals must pay the steep price of R$400 (U$S127) per head.
Migrants without such means can also hope that Brazil's National Congress will pass a new bill on migration that's now under consideration. The legislation would expand the provision of humanitarian visas (currently only granted to Syrians and Haitians) to include Venezuelans.
Meanwhile, Brazil's local authorities are doing what they can to address the needs of their communities and their newest arrivals. During the public hearing near Boa Vista, several officials admitted their mistakes in trying to provide assistance to migrants, and promised to do better in the future.
“Our expectation now is that a joint effort really happens and that public entities really respond to civil society,” Ana Carolina Bragança, a prosecutor in Roraima, who also helped organize the public audience, told Migramundo.

author: Rodrigo Borges Delfim