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Should you have to save a child to be allowed to stay in France? · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

“Let's give undocumented workers rights!” Protest on 1 May 2018. Photo by Flickr user Jeanne Menjoulet. CC BY 2.0
An undocumented Malian immigrant's heroic feat of saving a 4-year-old on the evening of 26 May 2018 in Paris’ 18th arrondissement has taken France by storm and highlighted the difficult situation many “sans-papiers” (those without papers) face.
Mamadou Gassama, 22, saw the young boy as he was hanging from the guardrail of a fourth-floor balcony, having fallen from the floor above. A neighbour was standing by, unable to reach the child due to the dividing wall between the two apartments. Gassama then scaled the building's balconies in 30 seconds, grabbed the child and passed him to the neighbour.
Gassama told his own account of what happened in subsequent interviews (via Brut Magazine):
Beaucoup de personnes sont en train de crier…mais je n'ai regardé personne, j'ai couru, j'ai traversé la route. C'est ma première fois [escalader un immeuble], Je n'ai pas pensé à ça [qu'il risquait sa propre vie], j'ai juste pensé à l'enfant, j'ai voulu le sauver.
A lot of people were shouting. I didn't look at anyone, I ran and followed the route. It was my first time [climbing a building], I didn't think about [how I was risking my own life]. I just thought about the child, I wanted to save him.
Some bystanders filmed the scene with their mobile phones. Several amateur videos have been uploaded online, the first of which reached 547,000 views, 739 comments and 3,600 likes within two days. That video was later taken down for copyright reasons as several people claimed its ownership. However, the following video is still online:
The child had been left alone in the apartment by his father, who had gone shopping and had been held up on his way home. The father was taken to court the next day.
Gassama was invited to the Elysée by French President Emmanuel Macron, who awarded him with a diploma and a medal for his heroic courage. Macron also announced that Gassama's immigration situation would be regularised immediately, and that he would be given a job at the Paris fire brigade. Furthermore, Macron invited Gassama to apply for citizenship.
The story has made headlines in French and foreign media channels and continues to be widely discussed on social networks. The television and radio site France Info has published and regularly updates a complete collection of articles on the different aspects of the feat.
The hashtag #MamadouGassama began trending on Twitter on 28 May, and has collected many reflections on the complexities and simplifications of the issue of asylum seekers and “economic migrants” in France.
In Mali, although a peace deal was signed in 2015, the conflict in the northern region continues to negatively affect the country. Political strife and the strengthened presence of Islamist armed groups are the main causes of the ever-present volatility and violence.
As such, folks like Gassama continue to leave Mali to escape the situation in the hope of providing a secure future for their families.
Once news of his action to save the child spread, the first reactions in Gassama's home country were to celebrate the Malian “Spider-Man”:
#Mali??: Un honneur de plus pour Mamoudou Gassama, le
Spiderman ?? de #Paris?.@julienlebot@AmbaMaliFrance#France#MamoudouGassama#kunafoni pic.twitter.com/EbJDLPq2b6
— kunafoni.com (@ikunafoni) May 31, 2018
#Mali??: The highest honour for Mamoudou Gassama, the Spiderman ?? of #Paris?
There was also a mixture of pride and regret for all the talent that Africa has lost:
Heureuse pour #Mamoudou Gassama mais je pleure pour mon continent.
Combien de héros a t’on perdu, désespérés,tournant le dos?
Combien de talents à qui on n’a pas permis de naître sont allés périr en mer?
Combien de forces,de cerveaux a t’on laissé partir bâtir d’autres nations?
— Dr Djamila Ferdjani (@DjamilaF) May 28, 2018
I'm happy for #Mamoudou Gassama but I weep for my continent.
How many heroes have been lost to you, turning their backs because they were desperate?
How many talents which we didn't nurture have left to perish at sea?
How strength and how many brilliant minds have left you in favour of other nations?
Outrage directed at African leaders was also not far behind:
L’Ambassadeur du Mali en France reçoit Mr Mamadou Gassama au Consulat: “Toutes nos félicitations, vous faites la fierté du Mali”
La honte n’existe pas chez les dirigeants Africains!!! Il peut même dire que c’est grâce à lui que tu es arrivé en France…#MamoudouGassama pic.twitter.com/2yYw2t1sSV
— Mrs M (@MrsScotty_M) May 28, 2018
The Malian Ambassador to France recieves Mr Mamadou at the Consulate: “Congratulations, you are the pride of Mali”
African leaders feel no shame!!! He could just as well say that it's thanks to him that you've come to France…
Around 1,000 asylum-seekers and migrants are sleeping on the streets of Paris, mainly scattered across the north-east of the city and in the borough of Seine-Saint-Denis. The situation has become considerably more difficult for migrants in Paris since the destruction of camps in mid-August, where more than 2,700 people were living around Porte de la Chapelle. Since then, they have been constantly moved on and hassled at night by authorities.
On April 23, the French National Assembly passed the first reading of a controversial new asylum and immigration bill that would make the process of seeking asylum stricter and enforce the expulsions of men and women whose refugee status had been denied.
The conversation surrounding Gassama's feat often pointed out this context. Le Monde Afrique explored the question in a French-language video: “Mamoudou Gassama, a Malian hero for how many undocumented immigrants?”
Some highlighted the ill treatment that migrants and their allies receive:
Peut-on imaginer que la France devienne ce pays où
✅ il ne serait pas nécessaire à un migrant de sauver un enfant pour être traité avec dignité ?
✅ celui qui sauve un migrant en Méditerranée, au col de l'Echelle ou ailleurs ne serait plus perçu comme un délinquant ? pic.twitter.com/nAScJmnbuS
— Maxime Combes (@MaximCombes) May 29, 2018
Can we imagine that France will become a country where
✅ it isn't necessary for a migrant to save a child to be treated with dignity?
✅ someone who saves a migrant in the Mediterranean, Col de l'Échelle or elsewhere isn't seen as a delinquent?
Others called out how authorities were using the case to cast themselves in a positive light:
La com a l'état pur. @EmmanuelMacron reçoit #MamoudouGassama le migrant héroïque. Pendant ce temps, sa police continuera de pourchasser tous ses frères d'infortune et de harceler les #solidaires qui leur viennent en aide. Sinistre et immorale comédie d'un pouvoir sans principes.
— Esther Benbassa (@EstherBenbassa) May 28, 2018
Empty PR move. @EmmanuelMacron receives #MamoudouGassama, the hero migrant. At the same time, his police force will continue to pursue all of his unfortunate brothers and to harass the allies who come to their aid. A sinister and immoral comedy of power without principles.
Outside of France, a Dutch caricaturist compared a “good” and “bad” migrant:
Bon ou mauvais migrant ? Ce dessin “tente de souligner l'hypocrisie des Européens”, nous explique le dessinateur de presse @Royaards https://t.co/0ElJ0dfb5v pic.twitter.com/s9QbDJB1Vl
— Le HuffPost (@LeHuffPost) May 30, 2018
A good or bad migrant? The @Royaards press artist tells us how this drawing “aims to highlight the hypocrisy of Europeans”
From the anti-migrants side, conspiracy insinuations gathered under the hashtag #mamoudoufake in particular. However, they were quickly debunked. While some suggested that young Malian should enlist in the Malian army to fight the jihadists, other far-right personalities or ordinary citizens expressed bitterness at the outcome of the situation:
Le bourrage de crâne médiatique généralisé sur les vertus supposées positives de l’immigration, en exploitant le courage de #MamoudouGassama est vraiment indécent.
— Thierry MARIANI ن (@ThierryMARIANI) 28 mai 2018
The widespread media brainwash of the supposedly positive virtues of immigration, exploiting the courage of #MamoudouGassama is really indecent.
What will happen when the media attention wanes?
Gassama isn't the first person to be regularised in France for an outstanding act of bravery. Mohssen Oukassi was an undocumented Tunisian migrant who was regularised after saving several people from a fire in 2014. But Oukassi's pathway to citizenship has stalled, he faces a lack of support for health issues from the fire, and finds himself unemployed.
Satire site Le Gorafi summarised the current situation:
Flash : Dans un communiqué, le ministère de l'intérieur rappelle que la fin de la période d'empathie envers les sans-papiers prendra fin aujourd'hui, à midi.
— Le Gorafi (@le_gorafi) May 29, 2018
Breaking news: the Minister of the Interior reminds us in a letter that the time for empathy towards undocumented immigrants will end today at midday.
The site also published the following tongue-and-cheek commentary, in light of the controversy of “crimes of solidarity” which has led to many citizens being harassed for aiding migrants:
Coupable d’avoir régularisé le sans-papiers Mamoudou Gassama, le président de la République a été mis en examen pour délit de solidarité.
« La loi c’est la loi. Aider un sans-papiers en France est un délit. Qu’on soit président ou pas. M. Macron doit assumer la gravité de ses actes. Que les Français soient rassurés, ce hors-la-loi est désormais entre les mains de la police » nous déclare solennellement le ministre de l’intérieur, Gérard Collomb.
Guilty of having regularised undocumented immigrant Mamoudou Gassama, the President of France is under investigation for a crime of solidarity.
“The law is the law. Helping an undocumented immigrant is illegal in France, whether you're the president or not. Rest assured, this unlawful act is now in the hands of the police”, Minister of the Interior Gérard Collomb solemnly announces.
For another take on this topic from Global Voices, please read: From zero to superhero.

author: Suzanne Lehn


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Telegram channel administrator could get death penalty for “insulting the Prophet” · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

Weakened by his hunger strike, prisoner of conscience Hamidreza Amini was transferred to a hospital in hand and ankle cuffs but was returned to prison before the treatment was completed. Photo shared with CHRI and reposted with permission.
Below is an edited version of an article that first appeared on the Centre for Human Rights in Iran website.
Hamidreza Amini could face the death penalty if he is convicted of “insulting the Prophet” for the content of his Telegram app channel, a source close to the prisoner of conscience told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on June 5, 2018.
Amini is due to go trial on June 25, 2018, for the charges of “insulting the prophet,” “insulting the supreme leader,” “acting against national security,” “propaganda against the state” and “disturbing public opinion,” said the source who requested anonymity due to the sensitivities in Iran around speaking to foreign media.
A 47-year-old mobile phone repairman, Amini was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Intelligence Organization in Tehran on December 2, 2017, for activities on his Telegram channel, which he managed under the pseudonym, “Ariyobarzan.”
According to the source who spoke with CHRI,
Hamidreza had created a Telegram channel where anyone could post her/his views, the IRGC held him responsible for everything others had written and when he told the investigator that he did not write those things, he was told that his channel and related groups had been shut down and therefore the IRGC could accuse him of anything they want.
“First of all, anyone is free to express his or her views and that’s what Hamidreza and the people in his group did,” the source said. “But most of the things he has been accused of, including ‘insulting the prophet,’ were written by others… He is being prosecuted for what 3,000 people did.”
Article 262 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code stipulates:
Anyone who swears at or commits qazf [slander] against the Great Prophet [of Islam] (peace be upon him) or any of the Great Prophets, shall be considered as Sāb ul-nabi [a person who swears at the Prophet], and shall be sentenced to the death penalty.
After his arrest, Amini was held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison’s Ward 2-A where he was interrogated without access to legal counsel.
In late February 2018, he was moved to the Great Tehran Penitentiary in Fashafouyeh, 20 miles south of Tehran, without a court order. However, he was returned to Evin Prison on June 3 after going on hunger strike to protest his condition, according to the source.
The source added that Amini was hospitalized for the effects of the hunger strike but transferred back to the prison before the treatment was completed.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Center for Human Rights in Iran


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‘You cannot be a liberator and a thief at the same time’: Video shows Russian forces disciplining Syrian soldiers for looting · Global Voices
Maria Mattar

Screenshot from the widely shared video showing Russian soldiers disciplining Syrian regime soldiers. Source: Al Aan TV YouTube Channel.
A video showing Russian forces disciplining Syrian regime soldiers caught in the act of looting in Babila town in southern Damascus went viral in mid-May 2018, just days after pro-regime forces recaptured the town from Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions.
In a scene of public humiliation, the soldiers were pictured lying face down in the street near flattened buildings, with rifles pointed at their heads. According to reports, the soldiers in the video were arrested afterwards, amid Russian warnings of a harsher punishment should future looting occur.
Video going viral. Russian soldiers in a town in rural Damascus caught Syrian soldiers (Assad army) looting homes. Russians arrested Syrian soldiers, forced them to face ground while spectators clapped.
This is price Bashar pays for Putin’s protection.pic.twitter.com/fBnW6fc5Lh
— Asma (@LibyanBentBladi) May 27, 2018
Scenes of looting have not been limited to Babila.
In mid-April, the Syrian military, aided by Russian forces and Palestinian militias, began an offensive to take control of the al-Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in Damascus and the adjoining al-Hajar al-Aswad area, which were at the time in the hands of ISIS and the Nusra Front.
After a month-long battles, the Syrian army declared Damascus and its surrounding “entirely secure” after forcing ISIS fighters to flee their last holdout near the capital.
Following the victory, there have been numerous reports that forces affiliated with President Bashar al-Assad's government went on a looting spree. Social media have been inundated with pictures and videos showing soldiers carrying away refrigerators, washing machines and furniture.
According to reports, the soldiers in the video were arrested afterwards, amid Russian warnings of a harsher punishment should future looting occur.
Known in the colloquial Syrian as “taafish”, the practice of looting property belonging to residents of conquered areas has flourished in recent years. The furniture is usually sold at stolen-goods markets, where some people seeking to recoup what they've lost find themselves obliged to buy back their own things at high prices.
In some areas these markets have sectarian overtones, like in Homs, which witnessed some of the most brutal crackdowns by the government and where one of the markets was called “Souq al-Sunna” (The Sunnis’ Market) in a crude allusion to the sect of the locals whose properties had been looted.
According to locals from southern Damascus, after the military offensive was complete they watched as their property was stolen in broad daylight. These reports didn't simply come from opposition supporters, but from the pro-government population too.
A video posted on YouTube shows a journalist affiliated with Liwa al-Quds, a pro-government Palestinian militia which took part in southern Damascus battles alongside the Syrian regime, engaged in a heated altercation with forces tied to the Syrian regime who he found looting his own house in al-Yarmouk camp.
There have even been reports of the government-affiliated Shabiha militants killing two children who protested against the looting.
Some of the looters cite financial hardships, largely considering it as a legitimate reward for their combat efforts or find justification in the low salaries they are paid by the regime.
The irony that many found in the incident of Russian soldiers punishing Syrian soldiers caught looting was multilayered. First, it set off sarcastic comparisons with scenes of degradation and torture meted out by regime forces against opposition activists.
Some on social media pointed out a striking similarity between the video and a famous one showing security forces kicking and humiliating detainees in al-Bayda town in the coastal city of Baniyas in the early days of the revolution in April 2011. However, some pro-regime accounts have dismissed that 2011 footage as fabricated, claiming it shows Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, not Syrian soldiers.
Online conversation surrounding the latest video also argued how it is humiliating to the Syrian government, as it highlights how Russia's clout in Syria is increasing, about three years since it intervened militarily in support of Assad.
الشرطة العسكرية الروسية في جنوب دمشق تعتقل عناصر من جيش النظام بتهمة نهب المنازل، وتهينهم وسط السوق.
من هو صاحب السيادة ؟ pic.twitter.com/dZh8HWUISD
— أحمد أبازيد (@abazeid89) May 26, 2018
Russian military police in south Damascus arrest elements from the regime forces on charges of looting houses. Who is the one calling the shots?
The second irony was that Russia appears to be casting itself as a protector of the same people whom its forces have either killed, maimed or made homeless after a month-long airstrikes against opposition-held areas in southern Damascus.
Now that the dust of battles is settling in Damascus and its surrounding areas, concern is high over the state of law and order in future Syria. There is a proliferation of militias and unchecked spread of arms in the hands of non-state military factions, including Russians and Iranians. And in the early aftermath of its military victory, the regime seemed unable, or unwilling, to curb widespread looting.
Maram, a Syrian-Palestinian English literature student from Yarmouk, told Global Voices:
They claim to be liberating us from terrorists but are looting our belongings and no one can stop them. You cannot be a liberator and a thief at the same time. This is the law of the jungle. I wonder what future awaits us.
Maram quoted a famous saying by George Orwell from the British author's famous novel “1984”, which she said encapsulates Syria's future as she sees it: “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever”.

author: Maria Mattar


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Leading independent websites go dark as Tanzania’s ‘blogger tax’ deadline approaches · Global Voices
Pernille Baerendtsen

Jamii Forum founder Maxence Melo. Photo via Facebook. Used with permission.
Alongside scores of independent blogs and social media pages, Tanzania's most popular independent news and user comment site, Jamii Forum, have shut themselves down in anticipation of the country's soon-to-be-implemented “blogger tax.”
On June 15, 2018, Tanzanian bloggers will have to register and pay over $900 USD per year to publish online. If blogs and other types of online content, such as YouTube channels, operate after June 15 without a license, they may be punished by a fine “not less than five million Tanzanian shillings” (around $2,500 USD), or imprisonment for “not less than 12 months or both.”
While the registration fee and subsequent fines are steep, many bloggers say the concern is not just about the money but also about the complexity and ambiguity of obliging the new regulations.
Since the directive was first issued by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) on March 16, 2018, Tanzanian bloggers and civil society organizations have responded actively to the new regulations in a variety of ways.
A coalition of the Legal and Human Rights Centre and other civil society organisations including Tanzania Human Rights Defenders, Media Council of Tanzania, Jamii Media, Tanzania Media Women Association and Tanzania Editors Forum created a petition which was presented at the Mtwara High Courts on May 4. The judge asked the team to resubmit their petition on technical grounds, during which time they secured a temporary injunction until May 28. However, their case was ultimately dismissed with the judge arguing that “the organizations failed to demonstrate how they would be affected by the regulations.”
Tanzanian bloggers have creatively protested against the new blogging regulations, openly commenting on the blogging regulations online. Aikande Kwayu, who has blogged particularly about Tanzanian politics and the 2015 elections (and also writes book reviews and flash fiction) suspended her website on May 1 in an act of protest.
Mtega, a tech and development blog owned by Ben Taylor who resides in the United Kingdom, invited Tanzanian bloggers to write guest posts on his blog. Chambi Chachage handed ownership of his blog Udadisi (“Curiosity” in Swahili) on April 27 to Takura Zhangazha, who resides in Zimbabwe. And Elsie Eyakuze put her blog The Mikocheni Report on hold, taking a break to become a “digital refugee”:
Yes.  Am taking a break, and as a digital refugees will depend on the kindness of others until I can figure out the answer to the What Next question.
— Elsie Eyakuze (@MikocheniReport) June 12, 2018
On June 11, the extremely popular Jamii Forum — which has been dubbed both the “Tanzanian Reddit” and “Swahili Wikileaks” — decided to shut down, creating big waves on the Tanzanian social media scene.
In December 2016, Tanzanian police arrested Maxence Melo, co-founder, and director of Jamii Forums, for refusing to disclose information on its members, a demand made under the Cybercrimes Act.
On June 12, Elsie Eyakuze tweeted with a reference to how social media has connected people offline in Tanzania, as well as Jamii Forums’ significant role as a platform for whistleblowers leaking documents related to corruption:
I mean. People were leaking documents like whoa all through the forum. Way pre Mange Kimambi. Never imagined I would end up meeting Mike and Max. They smiled more easily then. We were all so much younger! Then I met you all. Akina @mtega and @Dunia_Duara
— Elsie Eyakuze (@MikocheniReport) June 12, 2018
In an interview, Jamii Forum founder Maxence Melo told The Citizen: “It is obvious that our platform was being targeted when this regulation was formulated.”
The $900 USD annual license fee is a substantial amount of money in a country where nearly one-third of the population still live in extreme poverty. The requirement to register platforms and obtain a tax clearance certificate may be a bureaucratic hurdle as most bloggers are individuals without registered companies. Blog and online media owners are first required to be granted a license, and then, to make matters more complicated, they must adhere to a rather complex set of regulations.
On June 12, Aikande Kwayu elaborated in a tweet:
I also think the problem is not the payment as much as the subsequent responsibility following the license (if granted). It is not only a self-censorship license but a way to become the state's tool to censor others (contributors) civic right to express.
— Aikande C. Kwayu (@aikande) June 12, 2018
On April 12, Ben Taylor explained some of these complexities, highlighting that the regulations require a blog owner “must be able to identify everyone who posts content”, and a blog owner “must cooperate with law enforcement officers” in relation to these regulations.
A screenshot of TCRA regulations detailing questions and definitions related to the new law shared on Twitter.
Taylor suggests that this could entail “demands to reveal the identity of anyone posting on your site, making anyone who posts anonymous comments on blogs, newspaper sites or web forums vulnerable to having their identity exposed.”
In Tanzania, political tensions have risen over the past few years. Since the presidential elections in 2015, Tanzania's opposition has been restricted by a ban on opposition rallies and the stifling of independent media, sanctions, intimidation, and punishment of citizens for criticising President John P. Magufuli of the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM, Swahili for “Revolutionary Party”).
The country's Cybercrimes Act, passed in 2015, has played a significant role in stifling dissent. In 2015 and 2016 alone, at least 14 Tanzanians were arrested and prosecuted under the law, for insulting the president on social media.
Tanzania is not the only country taking control of its citizens’ use of online media in recent months. Uganda and Kenya have recently issued new online restrictions to content production and regulation.

author: Pernille Baerendtsen


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Plastic trash is a serious problem in Uganda · Global Voices
James Propa

A photo showing mixed biodegradable and plastic trash in a Kampala suburb. Photo by Enno Schröder. CC BY 2.0
World Environment Day was celebrated on June 5, as it has been every year since 1974. The theme for 2018 was “Beat Plastic Pollution” — a call to action that is especially important for Uganda, where it's all too common for people to throw away plastic bottles and bags on the street.
The plastic litter can clog up drainage channels, increasing city flooding, and end up in lakes and oceans, where fish consume them, becoming a health risk to both aquatic life and humans. In rural areas, many of the plastics end up in farmlands and gardens which affects the way crops grow because they block proper flow of water and air.
Uganda has tried to ban plastic bags (popularly known as kaveera), but implementation has been spotty because of lobbying by manufacturers, disagreement among politicians and a lack of public awareness about the need for the ban.
On the website Earth Finds Uganda, author Baz Waiswa summarized in 2016:
But in April 2015, despite numerous callous demonstration from members of private sector, including court battles, the Ministry of Water and Environment under National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) effected the ban on importation, manufacture and use of polythene bag of gauge below 30 microns.
The implementation however has not been a rosy one as affected businesses and other government agencies including cabinet fought the ban calling for its suspension. This back and forth has left the public in a state of indecision. Some traders stopped packing customer purchases in the kaveera while others continued to use the ban substance despite threats of legal action from NEMA.
This year on World Environment Day, President Yoweri Museveni ordered 45 plastic manufacturers to stop making polythene bags, once again trying to give teeth to the ban. It remains to be seen if this time it sticks.
In Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city, plastic litter can prevent the flow of waste water. The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has made an effort to provide street dustbins, do garbage collection in a more frequent manner, and encourage recycling by signing a memorandum of understanding with Coca Cola to increase what people earn from collecting plastic waste, from $0.05 per kilogram to $0.13.
Individuals are also making efforts to beat plastic waste. For instance, in 2017 CGTN Africa profiled young entrepreneurs who collect plastic material and turn it into building blocks.
This year, for World Environment Day, the environmental conservation group Little Hands Go Green visited different schools in eastern Uganda to teach children the dangers of using plastic bags:
The best way to drive communication on importance of ridding polythene bags ‘kaveera'from our community. @LilGreenHandsUg @nemaug @NFAUG @JosephMasembe1 @Samsemah1 @WanjohiColetta @_AfricanUnion @ESusWatch @Twaweza_NiSisi pic.twitter.com/AGz3Ha4JG0
— Camila Wangoi (@CamilaWangoi) June 1, 2018
The general manager for Little Hands Go Green also tweeted under the hashtag #BeatPlasticPollution, encouraging travellers to properly dispose of their plastic drink bottles:
You can do the same …its a habit of travellers to litter along as they travel .Keep your trash and dump when you get to your destination .#BeatPlasticPollution #GogreenUg #Wed2018Ug @nemaug @NFAUG @nwscug @LilGreenHandsUg pic.twitter.com/rto5ICUjCS
— Samsemah (@Samsemah1) June 1, 2018
Plastic isn't the only source of environmental concern for the country. For example, extensive sand mining along the shores of Lake Victoria poses a threat to the aquatic life as the fish use the sand as their habitats and breeding places. The wetlands also work as a water catchment helping in the fight of floods. Uganda clearly has work to do when it comes to ensuring a sustainable and healthy environment for all its citizens.

author: James Propa


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What were Global Voices’ readers up to last week? · Global Voices
L. Finch

“Read.” Photo via Flickr by Jesper Sehested and TheDyslexicBook.com. CC BY 2.0
At Global Voices, our community researches, writes, edits, and translates stories with a mission to support human rights and build bridges of understanding across countries, cultures, and languages.
We don't publish just to grab clicks or follow a news trend. We do, however, like to keep track of the ways in which our hard work has impact around the world.
To that end, one useful metric is how readers respond to our stories and translations. So let's take a look at who our readers were and what caught their attention during the week of June 4-10, 2018.
Last week, our stories and translations attracted readers from 200 countries! The top 20 countries represented across all of Global Voices’ sites were:
1. United States
2. Brazil
3. Japan
4. Argentina
5. France
6. Mexico
7. Spain
8. Peru
9. Colombia
10. Taiwan
11. Italy
12. Germany
13. Philippines
14. United Kingdom
15. Canada
16. Bangladesh
17. Ecuador
18. Russia
19. India
20. Chile
But that's only a small slice of the diversity of our readership. Let's use the True Random Number Generator from Random.org and take a look at a few other countries on the list:
177. Kosovo
122. Latvia
140. Palestine
40. Mozambique
188. Dominica
The English-language site is where the majority of original content is first published at Global Voices. The top five most-read stories of last week were:
1. Puerto Rico’s flag is black and in ‘mourning’ over US-imposed oversight board (originally published in 2016)
2. How ‘African’ is Northern Africa?
3. Sorry, I don’t speak English. I speak Photography.
4. Singapore: Is it a city or country? (originally published in 2009)
5. Romanian government considering following Trump’s move and relocating its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
Lingua is a project that translates Global Voices stories into languages other than English. There are about 30 active Lingua sites. Below is last week's most-read story or translation on each active language site.

author: L. Finch


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Nicaraguan protesters and journalists face violent attacks on the streets and online · Global Voices
Melissa Vida

“Stop the blockades”, a common phrase among Daniel Ortega's supporters referring to the blockades people have made in different cities in Nicaragua to limit people and vehicles circulation as a way of protesting against the government. Detail of the image shared by Twitter user Ricardo Zambrano, widely shared through social media.
Since April 18, 2018, Nicaragua has fallen into chaos and the rights of protesters and media have come under direct threat.
While demonstrators demanding social security and government accountability have endured violent attacks by police, military and other actors, journalists have been attacked and had their equipment and footage stolen. The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights estimates that 146 people have been killed in protests and crossfire, including video journalist Angel Gahona, who was shot as he filmed a protest on April 21.
Online censorship and intimidation of journalists and protesters have also been rampant. Multiple independent news outlets have had their websites attacked and in some cases brought down altogether. Just this week, Nicaraguans began reporting that their Wi-Fi networks were being hacked and re-named with a slogan supportive of the ruling government.
As political demands for regime change keep spreading, the effects of these incidents feel ever more acute, limiting access to information when it is needed most.
The crisis began on April 18, when the government – led by President Daniel Ortega and First Lady Rosario Murillo, who is also the vice president – unilaterally adopted an executive decree reducing the pension allowance by 5% and implementing additional social security taxes to employers and employees.
In response, retirees and students organized peaceful demonstrations to voice their disagreement but were met with anti-riot police forces and members of the Sandinista Youth parastatal group. Chaos erupted from there. Clashes have since turned violent and some protesters have reported that police are using live ammunition.
After failed attempts at a dialogue with Daniel Ortega for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, many Nicaraguans called for him to resign.
Many journalists have faced threats online and in real life since mid-April. In one recent incident on June 10, Josué Garay, a journalist for La Prensa Nicaragua, was assaulted and robbed by people whom he believes are local members of the Sandinista Youth. His passport and cellphone (which contained video footage and information from his investigative work) were stolen.
It appeared the attackers wanted to threaten Garay and prevent him from leaving the country, on the basis of his journalistic activities. Garay shared his testimony on Facebook:
En la madrugada dos hombres entraron a mi casa y directamente, entre amenazas con machete y tubo, me exigieron el celular (corporativo de La Prensa), mi billetera y mis documentos, entre ellos mi pasaporte. Me golpearon la cara y reventaron mi boca. Me sacaron de la casa y tiraron al patio, exactamente al sitio donde boto la basura. Cuando uno de ellos me iba a machetear le pedí que no me hiciera daño y el otro le dijo: “Hay dejalo, ojalá escarmiente”. Gracias a Dios estoy bien. Sin celular, así que toda comunicación por acá. Gracias a quienes han estado atentos y me han ofrecido su casa para quedarme. Dios nos proteja de este régimen.
En the early morning, two men broke in my house and, in between threats [and holding] a machete and a pipe, directly demanded my cellphone (which is a corporate phone from La Prensa), my wallet, my documents, among those my passport. They hit me in the face and burst my mouth. They threw me outside and on the patio, exactly where I throw my garbage. When one of them was going to slice me with the machete, I asked him not to hurt me and the other one said to him: “Leave him, let's hope he'll learn his lesson.” Thank God I am alright. Without a phone, so every communication will be done here [on Facebook]. Thanks to those who have been attentive to me and offered me to stay at their home. God protect us from this regime.
This was not the first time he was attacked. On May 9, police officers threatened Garay and colleagues with firearms while they were reporting. Other journalists from La Prensa, including Uriel Molina and Ivette Munguía, have been assaulted and had their gear stolen by mobs and police. And on June 8, the studio of state-run Radio Nicaragua was set on fire.
With mainstream media outlets accused of bias towards the government, many Nicaraguans have become especially dependent on the internet to stay informed. But this too is becoming difficult.
This week, hundreds of people reported that their SSID (their Wi-Fi username) had spontaneously changed in the middle of the night. All of those reporting the change are subscribers to Claro, a subsidiary of the Mexican telecommunications giant America Movil.
WiFi networks were renamed “QuitenLosTranques”, which means “#StoptheBarricades” — a reference to a common protest tactic of blocking roadways. This message has been used consistently, mainly as a hashtag, by government actors and supporters online. Barricades have been popping around the country in an effort to pressure Ortega to leave power and protect communities from state violence.
Demonstrators form a tranque in the Nueva Guinea region of Nicaragua. Photo shared on Twitter by Rezaye Alvarez.
Este es el internet de la empresa CLARO en Nicaragua, @ClaroNicaragua. El pueblo es el que paga el servicio de internet no el gobierno. Revisen esto o no vamos a pagar. #sosnicaragua #FueraOrtegaMurillo pic.twitter.com/UVToKaBOKP
— Raúl Sandino (@sandino_raul) June 8, 2018
This is the internet of the company CLARO in Nicaragua, @ClaroNicaragua. The people are the ones who pay internet service, not the government. Revise this or we won't pay. #sosnicaragua #OrtegaMurilloOut
Claro, which dominates the telecom market in Nicaragua, has publicly stated that the hack happened outside of their control and that they do not wish to engage with any type of political message
While it is clear that the perpetrators of these hacks are on the side of the government, it is not clear exactly who is responsible. But the technical components of such a hack could also allow the attacker to spy on the network activity of the subscriber, suggesting that this may be a tactic intended to intimidate subscribers.
Some Nicaraguans fear that the attacks are being carried out by hackers who support — or are working for — the Ortega government. Others suspect that Claro, the telecommunications company, is to blame. Claro has already been criticized for having complied to the government’s request of taking down three TV channels when the protests first started in April.
Aparte de la censura de canales que aplicaron en los días anteriores, la falla constante en Facebook y Twitter que no cargaban los comentarios en los post, y todavía dicen que el cambio de nombre en las SSID no es culpa de ustedes?
— #RespeteLaPatria (@MinousculusVand) June 9, 2018
Apart from the censorship of [TV] channels that you applied before, the constant errors on Facebook and Twitter which weren't downloading the comments under posts, and you still say that the SSID name change is not your fault?
— #RespectTheCountry
Twitter users share ways to secure people’s SSID and change the username into one of the protests’ mottos, #QueSeRindaTuMadre (#YourMotherShouldSurrender).
Fuera de nicaragua ?? respeten al pueblo #SOSNICACARAGUA pic.twitter.com/xj5uGEw3Vq
— Ronald (@RonaldAntoniom) June 8, 2018
Out of nicaragua ?? respect the people

author: Melissa Vida


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On being black in the white-dominated aid industry · Global Voices
Rosebell Kagumire

Haitian Ministry of the Interior aid workers work with US Marines to hand out supplies near Cotes de Fer, Haiti in 2010. (Photo: Official Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Wayne Campbell. Public domain.)
I am a firm believer in making journeys, taking steps far out of my comfort zone for the sake of learning and seeking new experiences. That rule applies to both physical and intellectual spaces. So, when an opportunity for a short-term assignment with a major international non-governmental organization (INGO) came up, I packed my bags and headed to Europe.
This wasn’t much about the big money we are made to believe awaits you there, though the pay was decent. The thing no one prepares you for, and which is rarely talked about in-depth is what it means to be an African in an institution operated by a white majority.
Growing up in Uganda and working mainly in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, I had not much of an idea of what this would mean. While I was aware of the dynamics in the development sector back home, as satirically depicted in the film “N.G.O – Nothing Going On” by Arnold Aganze, a filmmaker originally from Eastern Congo, I was yet to experience life as a minority.
Internationally, we have seen a few shake-ups in the last few months since the revelations of the Oxfam sex scandal in Haiti, where international NGO workers paid local women for sex. Following this storm and few other high-profile abuse cases in the international aid sector, Angela Bruce-Raeburn, the former Senior Policy Advisor for the Humanitarian Response in Haiti at Oxfam America penned one of the most relatable responses.
Bruce-Raeburn’s ‘But wait until they see your black face’, which examined inclusion and racism in the sector, resonated strongly with me. And the responses of other black women in the sector about the mental gymnastics and marginalization one has to engage in to survive were all too familiar.
I have consulted with international agencies at different times, being was well aware of the need for local people to have agency in these organizations. I was already outspoken regarding the caricatures peddled by the media about people in need. This current opportunity also offered me a chance to immerse myself in one of the greatest challenges states across the world are facing—forced migration. But neither my education in gender issues and media nor my experiences during short visits abroad and one year of living in a foreign country could have prepared me for this scenario.
I would later learn that I had arrived at a time when there was a push for diversity (not inclusion). My supervisor showed me off to management, wanting to be recognized for having brought in a qualified African woman. A few months later the all-white communications department acquired two brilliant recruits, a Kenyan and a South Sudanese. Once the supervisor stopped the organization’s only senior African manager in the corridors and called the three of us over to show off his African recruits. Perhaps this was how people in that agency received credit, but this was the first sign that things would not go well. We exchanged awkward smiles with the manager and went back to work. That was the first time I had ever been singled out in a workplace simply because of the colour of my skin.
When one of the African recruits could not deliver a piece strategy at short notice—an unreasonable demand given that the person had not even finished orientation—the supervisor came to my office and asked me to tell her that “if she did not have her strategy by end of the day she would be on the next plane back to her country.” Before this day, no amount of bullying from the supervisor had managed to break me. But this instance of blatant racism and insensitivity made me close my office door and weep.
I wept because this African woman had escaped war with her sanity intact and had come with a Master’s degree to offer her skills, only to encounter a man like this. I wept because I could not bring myself to break the news to my African colleague, believing it was my duty to protect her from such vileness.
The supervisor in question was a white European male who had never been to Africa or the Arab world, but was considered ‘well suited’ to speak about experiences of migrants—and you know which group makes up a good number of migrants: “poor Africans”, as I’ve heard on several occasions. To this man, we were simply African informants, not people with skills and rightly deserving of our jobs.
To make matters worse, there was the murky situation with the only white woman on the team. I say murky because everything this woman brought up at meetings had to be taken seriously. Once this woman suggested I attend a certain meeting which I didn’t think was a priority, as I had lots of work on my table that day. Within the next thirty minutes, the supervisor was at my door demanding that I go, telling me that I could not say no to her. I was living amidst white privilege. The role this white woman played in this racist and sexist environment was all too clear. She was the one who decided whether your contract got renewed, as my Kenyan colleague learnt the hard way. I cannot count the number of times I was called after work and bombarded with hailstones of abuse because one thing had not been executed on that day. And God forbid if someone in another department complimented your efforts.
Staff meetings became predictable. The supervisor consistently expressed animosity towards female managers—who were all white—and did not shy away from making sexist comments about these women. While most mid-level managers were aware of the abuse this man meted out, there was no opportunity to address this. So, while the work was interesting and I was learning a lot, it came at the price of having to cope with ignorance, sexism and racism.
After six months I got a contract with another department, but he demanded that he remain my supervisor. My having got a contract without his sanction only drove him to the worst behaviour. I shared an office with another white male communications officer who took his calls on the speakerphone, and the supervisor would call in talking about me and calling me all sorts of names. I learned from others that their plan was to drive me out, though that was not of course lost on me.
But I had built a digital system from nothing. I had been able to build relationships with staff in country offices that usually tremble at the mention of the head office. But all this amounted to nothing unless I was grateful and obedient to this man. As a result of this blatant bullying and abuse, two colleagues left their posts; one changed departments and another was denied a contract for not obeying the department’s white female head.
We tried in vain to report this racism and sexism. We were told by friendly senior colleagues that it was impossible to do anything, as “he had good connections with the big boys at the top”. Also, it was useless to go to the Ombudsman. Even the one newcomer in the human resource office assured me it was useless to make a report as a consultant, as I would risk leaving with a bad record.
Given these hindrances and limitations, I decided after one year to leave the organisation rather than continue flogging a dead horse called due diligence and justice. But damn, was I depressed. Women make up less than 30 per cent of the workforce in an industry where women are the majority affected, and I hope that the conversation around #AidToo starts revealing the extent of racism and abuse in the development sector. Those in charge need to work towards solutions and inclusion—not just in the sense of increasing numbers and getting minorities and women in positions of leadership, but by ensuring that there are genuine policies, practices and avenues for preventing such abuses of power.
A version of this article was previously published on the African Feminism blog.

author: Rosebell Kagumire


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Port Harcourt: Nigeria’s city of ‘soot so thick’ · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

A screen shot from #StoptheSoot Campaign in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Port Harcourt, the center of Nigeria's oil industry, has long been choked by thick, dusty, toxic soot that people fear is hurting the health of its million or more residents.
The poisonous air has led residents to constantly clean up the soot from their cars and homes and wear protective gear to take necessary precautions, sparking public consciousness about the severity and scope of this crisis. Saatah Nubari who spoke with CNN said:
“You're wiping your face with a handkerchief and everything is black. You're trying to clean your car and everything is black. Or you look at the soles of your feet and it is just pitch black.”
George Kerley, writing for TheCable, further warned:
The increasing level of soot in the air and environment of Port Harcourt is largely due to two factors, the activities of security agencies who burn off illegally bunkered petroleum products and the activities of illegal oil refinery operators who run their operations from the creeks and hinterlands of some of the communities around and surrounding Port Harcourt. It has been established that soot causes cancer and lung disease and maybe the second biggest human cause of global warming. It has also been established that long-term exposure to urban air pollution containing soot increases the risk of coronary artery disease.
As residents across the city raise their concern about the environmental crisis, Nigeria's Ministry of Environment declared the air pollution as an “emergency situation” early last year, but put the blame on illegal crude oil refineries and the burning of tires.
The blame game has neither stopped the soot nor made the air cleaner, prompting netizens to voice their rage on Twitter using the hashtag #StoptheSoot:
One Twitter user shows city skyline covered in thick black fumes:
#stopthesoot, it's not just PH, it's almost everywhere in the SS, this is terrible pic.twitter.com/GJBVHZikjw
— Hrodeberth (@Pablo_H_Itachi) May 26, 2018
Another shared this picture of soot covering his house:
Dis is what we inhale here in Port Harcourt! OMG… Cleaning my room this morning! @WHO @NGRPresident #stopthesoot
We are dying here @CNNAfrica pic.twitter.com/GbB3WEKt2s
— ♚ David Love 14 Feb (@iamDavidlove) May 19, 2018
#StoptheSoot has morphed from a Twitter hashtag to a full-blown environmental movement demanding clean air and a safe environment throughout the Rivers State region located in the Niger Delta. The advocacy group has taken to the streets to protest and has held meetings with the Rivers State government.
Another citizen-led action by the Global Shapers Community Port Harcourt called global attention to Port Harcourt's environmental disaster by petitioning the United Nations Environmental Programme.
Ebenezar Wikina, a member of the group explains:
The funniest thing is people who are freaking out the most about the soot are people who just got to know about it only few weeks or days ago. The soot thing was first noticed by Port Harcourt residents as far back as October 2016. Yes, October…. Although the Commissioner for Environment, Prof Roseline Konya, eventually came out to engage citizens through various radio stations in Port Harcourt, but in the heat of our advocacy the authorities were silent. The best we heard was that testing was currently being done. Testing, Testing. Testing what? Is it a microphone? People were vexed! The hashtag trended for days as people kept showing evidence of the soot around them — at home, at work, and even in their nostrils.
It was at this time the Port Harcourt Global Shapers decided to call for higher powers. We started a petition on Change.org (which at the moment is closing in on 300 signatures). We have taken it further by informing [United Nations] UN Environment officially about the issues. Of course, the UN cannot come down to solve our problems for us but maybe if the international community is aware, the challenge we’re facing will be handled with more urgency.
The movement calls for urgent and tougher actions to protect the environment, asserting that a safe and healthy environment is key to sustainable development and human rights.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


text:
Taiwanese and Vietnamese activists are working together to pursue justice for the victims of the Vietnam marine life disaster · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

A Vietnamese fisherman in a one-man fishing coracle. Screenshot via YouTube from the episode “The Death of Vietnam's Fish” by Taiwanese public television program “Our Island”.
By the Global Voices Chinese Lingua team
In 2016, toxic waste from the Taiwanese-owned Formosa steel plant caused a massive marine life disaster in Vietnam. Two years later with activists in prison and local livelihoods destroyed, the fight for justice is far from over and has seen significant collaboration between Taiwanese and Vietnamese.
The extent of the environmental damage remains unclear. The Vietnamese government has not released its official investigation report or environmental data to the public.
Authorities claim that almost all affected residents have been compensated; however, many of them say they have not received it or only received part of it.
While fish have started to return, their numbers are fewer than before the disaster. Fishermen have been left jobless, and people are worried whether it is safe to eat the caught fish.
Vietnamese from the affected region have protested, but their actions have met repression by authorities. Based on the investigation led by activists, scholars, and Vietnamese in Taiwan, 17 Vietnamese have been arrested or face arrest in relation with the Formosa disaster to varying degrees. Among them are:
In addition to legal prosecution, Catholic priests and churches, which have been helping the fishing communities to get compensation, have received threats from a communist party-affiliated group called “Red Flag”. The mission of that group, according to a priest named Dang Huu Nam via Radio Free Asia, is “to constrain the Catholics from protesting against Formosa Steel Plant and to get rid of ‘Catholic enemies'”.
Criticism against the steel plant and the government's handling of the disaster, as well as calls for pollution monitoring, have been viewed as subversive to the one-party state.
Suppression of dissent, however, can't make the country's environmental problems go away.
After Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007, the ruling communist party has striven to boost economic growth through attracting foreign investment. But the rapid development has come at an environmental price.
In 2016, 50 major toxic waste scandals were reported in Vietnam. Among these scandals, illicit dumping of toxic waste into waterways is a particularly severe issue, and 60 percent of these violations were from foreign-invested firms.
With a coastline stretching 3,000 kilometers, Vietnam is home to one of the world's largest seafood industries. Around 3% of Vietnam’s export is seafood, and around 10% of the total population of Vietnam is estimated to have their main income come directly or indirectly from fisheries. Most of the fishing communities are poor, and fishing and aquaculture contributes to an average 75% of their household income. In addition, half of Vietnamese’ dietary protein is from these aquatic products.
The company behind one of the worst environmental disasters to hit the country, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corperation, is by far the largest foreign investment in Vietnam. It was initially formed by Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group in 2008 and later in 2015 attracted further investment from the Taiwan-based China Steel Corporation and Japan's JFE Steel.
Its operations were halted after the spill, but in mid-2017 they resumed, and they plan to increase its production capacity with a second blast furnace in 2018.
The 2016 fish kill hasn't been its only safety issue. In May 2017, a dust explosion took place during the plant's test operations. And in December 2017, the plant was fined 25,000 US dollars for burying harmful solid waste.
The environmental disaster and its aftermath has been an embarrassing situation for Taiwan's government, given that the steel plant is owned by a Taiwanese company and the governments New Southbound Policy, which aims to enhance cooperation with fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Vietnam is a member.
Taiwan offered to send their environment specialists to Vietnam after the disaster, but were turned down. Beyond this, however, Taiwanese authorities haven't taken much action, and so Vietnamese in Taiwan and Taiwanese activists have tried different approaches to seek justice in the avenues available to them.
They have requested that Formosa Plastics Group publicize their environment monitoring data and take social responsibility, but so far have been ignored. They also questioned the other Taiwan-based investor, China Steel Corporation, but its representatives say they know nothing.
Because Vietnam's courts do not accept lawsuits against Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation, Vietnamese had hoped that Taiwanese could help them sue the company in Taiwan. However, it is not possible, because Formosa steel plant is based in Vietnam.
Father Peter Nguyen Van Hung, a Vietnamese Catholic priest in Taiwan, has been travelling with other priests from the affected regions in Vietnam and a number of Taiwanese NGOs representatives to Europe in order to raise international attention of the environmental and human right issues caused by Formosa Plastics Group and the Vietnamese government. He also visited organizations in the US that are willing to provide legal support for the victims.
Father Hung also works with Vietnamese, scholars, and NGOs in Taiwan, including Environment Jurists Association (EJA), Taiwan Association for Human Rights, and Covenant Watch in Taiwan, to pressure Formosa Plastics Group and the Taiwanese government to face up to the disaster.
In December 2016, Taiwanese NGOs requested that Taiwan's Legislative Yuan host a public hearing about the incident and asked to review the Statute for Industrial Innovation, which is related to encouraging foreign investment. Though the Statute was eventually revised in November 2017, no audit or evaluation article was added to it, which means the Taiwanese government cannot penalize a corporation for environmental and human rights misdeeds overseas.
Before the environmental disaster was known, Formosa Plastics Group received another 3.5 billion US dollars in loans from more than 30 banks in Taiwan and overseas. Afterward, Taiwanese NGOs asked two banks that are 100% controlled by Taiwan government, Bank of Taiwan and Land Bank of Taiwan, to consider adopting the Equator Principles — a set of standards for financial institutions to assess environmental and social risk in project finance — but they declined. On the other hand, two others commercial banks among the 30, Cathay United Bank and E.SUN Commercial Bank, have signed them.
Taiwanese are no stranger to environmental disasters. Yuyin Chang of the EJA talked about how the past influenced their solidarity during a demonstration in 2016:
美國的RCA公司(民國)59年到80年在台灣設廠，造成台灣的土地、地下水的污染，以及人民許許多多健康的損害，目前都還在台灣訴訟當中，這是台灣人民切身的痛，我們台灣人民曾經有過這種痛，不應該再移植到越南去。
The US company RCA set up its factories in Taiwan from 1970 to 1991, and they caused a lot of pollution in Taiwan's land and groundwater and made a lot of people sick. This is a case still being litigated. This is the pain of Taiwanese. If we experience this kind of pain, we should not then inflict it on Vietnam.

author: Guest Contributor


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Trinidad and Tobago’s religious leaders ‘unite to divide’ people around the issue of gay rights · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A cross section of the crowd outside Trinidad's Hall of Justice in Port of Spain on April 12, 2018, after the high court ruled in favour of Jason Jones, who brought a case against the state claiming that the country's “buggery” law was infringing upon his constitutional rights. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
Two months after high court judge Devindra Rampersad ruled that sections of Trinidad and Tobago's Sexual Offences Act which criminalise anal sex between consenting adults are “unconstitutional”, a group of religious leaders has said that it will vigorously oppose the introduction of same-sex marriage as well as any amendment to the country's equality laws to protect sexual and gender minorities.
Members of the group included Roman Catholic archbishop Jason Gordon; representatives of Muslim and Christian evangelical sects; and secretary general of the Hindu organisation Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Satnarayan “Sat” Maharaj.
The religious leaders haven't always gotten along: In May 2016, Maharaj, known as a controversial figure, told Gordon's predecessor, Joseph Harris, to “mind [his] own damn business” when it came to the issue of child marriage, saying it was a matter for the Hindu community and the state. Child marriage has since been made illegal in Trinidad and Tobago.
But the group has found common cause in rhetoric about biology and gender, “Adam and Steve”, and the “fabric of society” — the traditional family structure — being “at risk”. Jason Jones, who brought the successful case against the state challenging the “buggery” law, called their position “disgusting”.
At a press conference “facilitated” by a new non-governmental organisation called Rebuild TT, the religious leaders called on the country's politicians to amend the Marriage Act through a special majority, in order to block the legalisation of same-sex marriage. They are also against any amendments being made to the country's Equal Opportunity Act.
The Roman Catholic archbishop was reported to have said, “A very vocal minority should not be able to get their agenda through.” He also claimed that his group's views reflected the opinion of 90% of Trinidad and Tobago's society, but did not cite any source for those statistics.
Judging by the widespread criticism online, social media users must comprise the remaining “10%” — the majority of whom feel that the religious group's priorities are misguided, and who were irked at hypocrisy of its stance, given the leaders’ personal histories and the histories of the institutions they represent.
On Twitter, journalist Judy Raymond commented:
Doing what you can to reduce murder, child abuse, domestic violence, gang warfare, homelessness, threats to free speech, income inequality, corruption…nah, more important to use your leadership position to say who should or shouldn't be allowed to love each other
— Judy Raymond (@heyjudeTT) June 12, 2018
Fellow journalist Kejan Haynes tweeted:
Today in Trinidad and Tobago, dozens of same sex couples told each other I love you, and went about their days.
Also, a man nearly beat his estranged female companion to death before killing himself.
Guess which one our religious leaders saw as a matter of national urgency
— Kejan Haynes (@KejanHaynes) June 11, 2018
Haynes’ post was widely retweeted and posted on various other social media platforms. When challenged on his criticism of the religious leaders by another Twitter user who asked whether having a different belief system is tantamount to being intolerant, he replied:
If you are actively trying to stop being from getting basic human rights then yes. Yes you are. https://t.co/faXJZVQwDE
— Kejan Haynes (@KejanHaynes) June 12, 2018
Facebook user Patricia Worrell was also quite put off:
And on the news tonight, what do I see but Archbishop Jason Gordon holding hands with Sat Maharaj in a common stance of religious leaders against gays, who are, they say, degrading the moral fabric of our society.
In a totally unrelated story, I see Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Chilean bishops who were involved in covering up a child sex abuse scandal
However, it seems the clergy of the Catholic Church have been contributing their own widow’s mite to moral fabric disintegration in different parts of the world, Jason….How will you act on that? What do you say?
#lethewhoiswithoutsincastthefirststone
Activist Tillah Willah posted a photograph of the band of religious leaders, commenting:
Like heroes from a fairytale! Our very own dwarves Backwardo and Rapey, Pedo and Gropey, Grabby and Hatey. Here they are, mustering the remnants of their erectile tissue, to dig a hole back to the surface. Past the destroyed lives of child brides, the broken bodies of thousands of women forced to pray for their abusive partners, generations of boys abused by priests.
We're saved y'all. We're safe.
Then, of course, there were the memes. One spoofed the “Justice League” movies, calling the group the “Injustice League: Religious Leaders Unite to Divide T&T…Once and for All!”:
@KejanHaynes pic.twitter.com/TJiIiiuQuc
— danielle francois (@dead_goddess) June 12, 2018
Another adapted a scene from American music artist Childish Gambino's popular video “This Is America“, instead showing the archbishop holding a gun to a rainbow equality flag:
This is Trinidad pic.twitter.com/l38DrR75jA
— Kejan Haynes (@KejanHaynes) June 11, 2018
Finally, in one of the most eloquent posts about the issue, poet Shivanee Ramlochan wrote:
Faulty men have run religion since we could trace the sign of the cross in the rich, lifegiving dirt. Men have always been asking themselves, ‘What Would Jesus Do?’, then they have done the opposite, in Jesus’ blood-consecrated name. In Shiva’s. In the Prophet’s. The men who spoke compellingly of the need to refuse your rights today – those men not only work at cross-purposes to each other, they work at the ultimate cross-purpose: a refutation of the love that a benevolent God promises his children. They may speak for the ordering of their religious houses. But we know that that is not where you find God. They may denounce the worthiness of your moral constitution, and declare you members of a fringe, rogue group, one with a collective big mouth. But that is what maximum oppressors have always done. With muzzles. With inverted swastikas. With the promise of Hell, and the punishment of disenfranchisement, disrepute, and death. And everywhere, from Stonewall to Georgetown, we who are called rebels raise our hands, our persistently queer fists to the firmament from which raineth the rain of God, equally on us all, to say, you can’t kill us out of the rights we deserve. Some of us. Not all.
We are much more than ten percent. […]
My dear, queer friend, when you decide how you love God. Whether as a man who died on a cross. A serpent-tongued, blackskinned Goddess necklaced by skulls. A samaan tree. […] When you find your God, and your God finds you. When you commit yourself to that loving service, in all its light, dark and complication. No holy man can lay his tongue against you without also revealing the rot of his heart. No judgement issued from your body of worshippers – who, you plainly see, are not your family in love, but your acquaintances in enmity – can so much as blister the smallest dot on your soles.
They may throw you out. They may disown you. They may raise their hands against your body and reject you at the doors to your place of work. But if you want him. If you want her. They cannot take your God from you. They can only rob themselves.
Trinidad and Tobago's government has said that it will appeal the sodomy law ruling. A further hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 4, 2018, and Jones remains optimistic that the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC), which was supportive in his case, will be instrumental in the move for inclusion of vulnerable communities in the Equal Opportunity Act.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari shot dead · Global Voices
Ieshan Wani

Shujaat Bukhari, Srinagar based Journalist/Writer and Editor-in-Chief of Rising Kashmir. Image via Twitter account of Shujaat Bukhari
Shujaat Bukhari, the editor of prominent Kashmiri English daily Rising Kashmir, was shot dead in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, sending shock waves throughout the region.
His vehicle was surrounded by a group of suspected militants who opened fire on him and his security personnel. Two security personnel later died as a result of their injuries at a hospital.
Bukhari's colleague said that he had just stepped outside his office after finishing his daily work and was heading to break his fast when the attack took place.
(Warning: Graphic image in the tweet below.)
Journalist Shujaat Bukhari Attacked near Press Colony in Sringar.
His PSO is also critically injured pic.twitter.com/g6AsFuudyr
— Jyoti NS Pachnanda (@PachnandaJyoti) June 14, 2018
After the attack on Shujaat Bukhari It's clear indication that nobody is safe in kashmir. The incident took place in the heart of city Lal Chowk. Shujaat Bukhari was probably leaving from his office when he was shot dead by Terrorists. Whosoever did this must be his close aide.
— Ibne Sina (@Ibne_Sena) June 14, 2018
Not a single day passes without blood being spilled in #Kashmir. Go through Shujaat Bukhari’s work to know who must have been after his life. Everything is uncertain. One can be killed anywhere and anytime .
— Burhan Gilani (@Katar_Koshur) June 14, 2018
Bukhari was one of the few moderate and bold voices in Kashmir who stood for dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
Read more: The Kashmiri People Versus the Indian State
Protests for independence (called “azadi”) and self-rule in the Kashmir Valley have been active since 1989 and ever since, Jammu and Kashmir has been under Indian military presence with statutes such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act giving them wide-ranging powers. The Indian government has officially stated that it believes all of Jammu and Kashmir to be an integral part of India.
An Indian policeman stands near an alley in the uptown of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir. Image by the author via Instagram.
Bukhari had worked for several top national and international publications and written hard-hitting articles, never shying away from taking an unpopular stand. He was special correspondent with The Hindu newspaper from 1997 to 2012 and continued to write for Frontline magazine.
The Press Club of India has expressed its shock and dismay over the incident in the Kashmir valley.
The Editors Guild of India tweeted a statement:
The Editors Guild of India unequivocally condemns the assassination of Rising Kashmir Editor Shujaat Bukhari. This is a grave attack on press freedom and democratic voices. We will be issuing a more detailed statement soon
— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) June 14, 2018
Condolences are pouring in via social media.
Siddharth Varadarajan, the Editor of the Wire news portal, tweeted:
Shujaat Bukhari and I were colleagues at The Hindu. He was a formidable reporter, and, as editor of Rising Kashmir, a powerful voice for the embattled media fraternity, a true voice of sanity and reason. No words of condemnation are enough for the scum who have assassinated him.
— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) June 14, 2018
Marvi Sirmed, a member of the executive council of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and special correspondent for the Daily Times Pakistan, tweeted:
Shujaat Bukhari was a voice of reason in Kashmir. Brilliant journalist who pandered to no extremes. He did his job honorably till his last breath & paid the price of being upright. Objectively reported human rights violations at the hands of Indian forces & extremists in Kashmir.
— Marvi Sirmed मार्वि ماروی (@marvisirmed) June 14, 2018
This wasn't the first time that Bukhari was targeted.
On July 8, 1996, a militant group abducted 19 local journalists in the Anantnag district and held them as hostages for at least seven hours. Bukhari was among those abducted.
He was also given police protection after an attack against him in 2000.
Student politician Shehla Rashid tweeted:
Even in a senseless place like Kashmir, the assassination of Mr. Shujaat Bukhari doesn't make sense. Everyone in the state is asking one question: “Why would anyone want him dead?”
Except the govt which seems to have reached a conclusion
Appeal to @MehboobaMufti to ensure probe
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) June 14, 2018
Former chief minister of Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, tweeted:
The show must go on. As Shujaat would have wanted it to. This is today’s @RisingKashmir issue. That Shujaat’s colleagues were able to bring out the paper in the face of insurmountable grief is a testament to their professionalism & the most fitting tribute to their late boss. pic.twitter.com/ADP70D4F1q
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 14, 2018
According to Reporters Without Borders, Shujaat Bukhari escaped a murder attempt by armed men in June 2006. Shujaat Bukhari told Reporters Without Borders, “It is virtually impossible to know who are our enemies and who are our friends.”
Despite this, the guns couldn't silence his pen.

author: Ieshan Wani


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Mob lynching in India based on WhatsApp rumors claims lives of two innocent men · Global Voices
Devika Sakhadeo

Two men lynched on suspicion of being child abductors in Karbi Anglong in Northeast India. Screenshot via YouTube by The Assam News.
Mob lynchings in the state of Assam in Northeast India are nothing new. In February 2018, two Sikh men were killed in a mob lynching. A video of the attack that went viral the following month.
In June 2018, Assam has seen about four separate incidents of mob lynchings, fed by rumours of witches or child abductors that spread via Facebook, WhatsApp and word-of-mouth.
One of the attacks in Assam, in the Karbi Anglong district, resulted in the death of two innocent young men from the city of Guwahati. They were out for a walk in Kangthilangso when they were killed by a mob.
On 8 June 2018, Nilotpal Das and Abhijeet Nath were returning from Kangthilangso, a picnic spot with a waterfall in the vicinity, when they were attacked near the Pajuri Kachari village in the Karbi Anglong district.
According to reports, a man spotted them in their SUV and started shouting that Das and Nath were child abductors. He threw stones at the car and called for other people for help. A crowd of about 200 villagers gathered around the car, forcing the two friends out of the car and beating them to death.
Pajuri Kachari village and the surrounding area had reportedly been living in fear because rumours regarding “xopadhora” were being spread. Xopadhora is a myth about a child abductor who, according to some versions of the story, has long hair and sometimes carries bags to put children in. Other rumours suggested that two Bihari men abducting children.
Since central Assam has the highest number of child abductions and trafficking in the state, people there are understandably sensitive to such rumours.
A video of the mob lynching was circulated on social media, in which Das is seen shouting out, “I am an Assamese,” in an attempt to convince the attackers that they had the wrong man. The two were beaten to death.
Residents of Assam were quick to respond with rallies across Guwahati, the capital of the state. These public demonstrations demanded speedy justice for Das and Nath, stricter anti-mob lynching laws, and action against police officials under whose jurisdiction the incident fell.
A Facebook group called “Justice for Nilotpal and Abhijeet”, which garnered around 60,000 members in 24 hours, organized a candlelight march. A silent protest in Guwahati turned violent with the police resorting to the use of a lathicharge (baton) to control the situation.
Many also expressed their outrage on social media:
The Karbi Anglong incident showed a true message. We don’t need DIGITAL INDIA, but a LITERATE INDIA. Because of which, illiterate people are sharing the video through their social sites instead. We don’t need such digital india, but first a Literate India #KarbiAnglong
— atanu bhuyan (@atanubhuyan) June 9, 2018
Vigilante justice, mob lynchings are now normalised in India. It is barbarism that is rarest of the rare, brings out the most primitive instincts of men. Unless there is exemplary (capital) punishment in such cases mobs will feel brave enough to kill anyone anytime. #KarbiAnglong
— Neelesh Misra (@neeleshmisra) June 9, 2018
Deeply pained at the hapless incident in Karbi Anglong where two young artists Abhijit Nath and Nilotpal Das were brutally killed. My condolences to the bereaved families.The Govt should take stringent actions against the perpetrators of this henious crime.
— Tarun Gogoi (@tarun_gogoi) June 9, 2018
I am distressed at an unfortunate incident in which 2 young men Abhijeet Nath & Nilotpal Das were killed after they were mistaken as kidnappers.
The spiralling cases of rumours through social media & @WhatsApp pose a threat to society & we all must get vigilant to curb it.
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) June 9, 2018
Candle light vigil last night in #KarbiAnglong by Karbi Students’ Association, KNCA and many other organizations, demanding justice for #NilotpalDas and #AbhijitNath and an end to lynch mob culture all over the country pic.twitter.com/o2cPqeSUCt
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) June 11, 2018
#shameonKarbiAnglong.It is sad & disheartened me to see how those illiterate,Stupid ,Cruel Morons have killed two young boys brutally..its heartbreaking#RIPNilotpal&Abhijeet #JusticeforNilotpalandAbhijit #illiteracykills #stillBackward
— Devoleena Bhattacharjee (@Devoleena_23) June 10, 2018
A few illustrations related to the victims and their assailants made the rounds on social media as well:
Whatsapp rumour leads to lynching in Assam! #Assamlynching #FakeNewsCanKill pic.twitter.com/UoMcCK4c1I
— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) June 13, 2018
a tribute to two beautiful souls we lost. (two things at their edge of extinction – Nature & Humanity) #JusticeforNilotpalandAbhijit pic.twitter.com/9QVOTlMphp
— jimmy mushahary (@JimmyMushahary) June 11, 2018
#JusticeforNilotpalandAbhijit #KarbiAnglong #karbianglonglynch #Assam pic.twitter.com/7QqzLGw24q
— Cartoonist Nituparna Rajbongshi (@NituparnaRaj) June 10, 2018
While my guitar gently weeps… #KarbiAnglong pic.twitter.com/T9u5boAIz0
— Queen Hazarika (@queenhazarika) June 10, 2018
The family of Das urged people to not politicize the issue and not to fall prey to other rumours.
In the subsequent police investigation, many people were identified as having involvement in the killings and more than 20 arrests have been made. Police accused a man named Alphajoz Timung the instigator of the mob and have taken him into custody.
According to a statement of the director general of police, after being arrested and interrogated Timung revealed that he had an argument with Das and Nath after calling them xopadhora. The two left in their car after the argument. But Timung's anger supposedly led him to tell the villagers that the two had taken a child along with them.
This spread quickly and villagers stopped Das and Nath a few kilometres away.
In addition to the 20 people arrested for participating in the mob, at least 40 have been arrested on accusations of spreading child abduction rumours or publishing hate messages on social media.
Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted his condolences to the bereaved families:
Deeply anguished at the unfortunate incident in Karbi Anglong where two young artists Abhijit Nath and Nilotpal Das were killed. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. May the departed souls rest in eternal peace.
— Sarbananda Sonowal (@sarbanandsonwal) June 9, 2018
Later, the Chief Minister’s Office tweeted about a meeting being held to discuss mob lynchings and social media rumours. The result of the meeting was a program called “Sanskar” that aims to create awareness regarding superstitions (“sanskar” can be roughly translated to “traditions”).
The Office later tweeted that authorities would also look into skills training for 5,000 youths from all districts of Assam to tackle superstitions.
In the meeting, it was also decided that 5000 youths from all districts of Assam will be imparted skill training in Guwahati to create awareness against superstitions.
— Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) June 12, 2018
Mob lynching is a serious issue that isn’t restricted to the state of Assam. In Aurangabad, Maharashtra, a western state in India, two men died in a case of mob lynching that was also fueled by rumors spread through WhatsApp messages. Any action taken against mob lynching will need to be done with the entire country in mind.

author: Devika Sakhadeo


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Netizen Report: New rules in Cambodia and Tanzania force independent media to quiet down — or shut down altogether · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

A newsstand advertising The Citizen, an independent newspaper in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Photo by Adam Jones via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
With elections approaching in July, Cambodia’s National Election Committee has published a set of plans intended to monitor and control online news.
A new inter-ministry working group, formed to investigate media outlets deemed to be spreading “fake news”, has put forth a new regulation that bans journalists from including “personal opinion or prejudice” in their reporting, publishing news that “affects political and social stability”, conducting interviews at polling stations or broadcasting news that could sow “confusion and loss of confidence” in the election. Violations are punishable by fines of up to USD $7,355.
The Ministry of Information will be empowered to censor websites and social media pages found in violation of the regulation. Internet service providers will be required to install software that enables the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to “easily filter or block any websites, accounts or social media pages that are deemed illegal”.
These measures follow the demise of the country's only two independent newspapers — The Phnom Pehn Post and The Cambodia Daily. After receiving crippling tax bills, the Daily ceased its operations in September 2017, while the Post's owner sold the newspaper. The publication now belongs to Sivakumar S Ganapathy, who is the managing director of a Malaysia-based ASIA PR company that has worked on behalf of Cambodia’s ruling party and Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Meanwhile in Tanzania, a much-maligned “blogger tax” goes into effect on June 15, and will require bloggers and independent website owners to register and pay roughly $900 USD per year to publish online.
If blogs and other types of online content, such as YouTube channels, operate after June 15 without a license, they may be punished by a fine “not less than five million Tanzanian shillings” (around $2,500 USD), or imprisonment for “not less than 12 months or both.”
Multiple major independent news sites have preemptively closed up shop, saying that the costs are high — both financially and legally. The extremely popular Jamii Forums — which has been dubbed both the “Tanzanian Reddit” and “Swahili Wikileaks” — has shut itself down last week on grounds that the law creates insurmountable regulatory barriers for sites like Jamii. In December 2016, Tanzanian police arrested Maxence Melo, co-founder, and director of Jamii Forums, for refusing to disclose information on its members, a demand made under the Cybercrimes Act.
Reporters Without Borders has called on the government to scrap the new regulation.
Bangladeshi secular writer Shahzahan Bachchu was shot and killed near his home town of Munshiganj. Bachchu was known as an outspoken activist for secularism, and printed poetry and books on humanism and free thought. He was reportedly dragged out of a pharmacy and gunned down by men on motorcycles.
Bachchu’s death follows a series of attacks on humanists and freethinkers in Bangladesh, including the murders of writers and digital advocates Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman, Ananto Bijoy Das and Niloy Neel, among others. In the past, government officials including the prime minister Sheikh Hasina have blamed the attacks on atheists for criticizing religion.
Algerian blogger Merzoug Touati was sentenced to ten years in prison in late May for reporting online about austerity strikes, job protests, and human rights violations. Touati, who has been in jail since January 2017, was convicted of providing “intelligence to agents of a foreign power likely to harm Algeria’s military or diplomatic position or essential economic interests” after posting an interview with an Israeli official online. Touati is expected to appeal the sentence.
A man from Kerala, India was arrested by police after writing a Facebook post about a damaged road, calling on a local politician to repair it. The politician alleged that the post was “defamatory” and that insulted her gender and religion. She filed a complaint with police who subsequently made the arrest. The man was released on bail shortly afterward.
Russian reporter Alexandra Terikova was forced to resign for posting an Instagram video of kindergarten students singing a song for Russian President Vladimir Putin and then giving an interview about the video to an independent channel. The video was posted alongside a sarcastic hashtag and a message critical of the jingoistic tone of the song.
An Iranian man is facing the death penalty for posts made on his Telegram app channel, where he allowed users to freely post their opinions. Hamidreza Amini will go to trial on June 25 on charges of “insulting the prophet”, “insulting the supreme leader”, “acting against national security”, “propaganda against the state” and “disturbing public opinion”.
Amini was held in solitary confinement and interrogated without access to legal counsel after his arrest. He went on hunger strike on June 3 to protest his conditions and was hospitalized but then transferred back to prison before receiving adequate treatment, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran.
The Iranian Judiciary issued an order on April 30 to block Telegram on national security grounds. Since then, a parody song about the filtering of Telegram by the Iranian musical group DasandazBand has gone viral on social media, poking fun at government attempts to get Iranians to adopt the state-owned messaging platform Soroush platform.
Two Venezuelan news outlets that have managed report on the country’s ongoing political and economic crises for the past four years were knocked offline on major state-affiliated internet service provider networks during the first week of June. Anecdotal evidence and technical testing confirmed that both La Patilla and El Nacional were inaccessible on CANTV, the country’s largest telecommunications provider, which is controlled by state authorities.
The block followed a court-issued fine of one billion Venezuelan Bolivares (about USD $10,000) against El Nacional, on claims by the state that the newspaper had inflicted “moral damages” on United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) Vice President Diosdado Cabello, when he served as president of the National Assembly.
Ahead of elections in Pakistan on July 25, the website of a political party named Awami Workers Party was blocked on multiple ISPs in Pakistan for at least three days. Despite writing to election commission and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (which is responsible for the blocking), party officials have been given no explanation for the block.
On June 7, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) ordered Facebook to take down “untruthful information about [presidential] candidate Marina Silva” within 48 hours of the ruling. This was the first time that an injunction has been issued based on a 2017 resolution intended to regulate the spread of disinformation during the 2018 elections.
The court ruled in favor of the presidential candidate and her political party Rede, which challenged five links posted in 2017 by the right wing page “Partido Anti-PT” (the Anti-Worker's Party, in Portuguese) claiming Silva was being investigated by Operation Car Wash, a major money-laundering investigation involving more than 100 Brazilian oil executives and politicians. There have been no formal accusations of corruption against Silva. The page has more than 1.7 million followers.
The French parliament started debating a government-proposed bill aimed at curbing the “manipulation of information” in the three-month period preceding an election. The law would allow candidates to complain about the dissemination of false information about them online and judges will have 48 hours to decide on a case. During a parliamentary session discussing the bill on 7 June, leftwing and rightwing MPs from the opposition slammed the bill.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Marianne Diaz, Nwachukwu Egbunike, Rohith Jyothish,  Mong Palatino, Inji Pennu, Talal Raza, Taisa Sganzerla and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Research reveals malicious digital campaign against Pakistani human rights defenders · Global Voices
Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman

Phishing attack. Image by Tumisu via Pixabay. CC0.
Cybersecurity researchers have found that commercially available spy software has been used to infiltrate the activist communities in Pakistan.
A May 2018 report by Amnesty International describes how rogue accounts engage with activists and trick them into downloading malicious software that can spy on them through their phones and computers. Lookout, a cybersecurity firm, also published similar findings that month.
Anna Neistat, Amnesty's senior director for research tweeted:
In #Pakistan, #HRDs are faced w/ new forms of intimidation and threats through their phones and computers. @amnesty’s report reveals a relentless campaign of fake social media profiles, targeted phishing, malware + spyware attacks directed at activists: https://t.co/6dB06ZfZ0O
— Anna Neistat (@AnnaNeistat) May 24, 2018
Human rights researcher and Executive Director of @EquidemResearch Mustafa Qadri tweeted:
New .@amnesty report, Human Rights Under Surveillance: Digital Threats against Human Rights Defenders in Pakistan, reveals attackers use fake online identities, social media profiles to ensnare human rights defenders online for surveillance, cybercrime https://t.co/W8sSqOl8Gk
— Mustafa Qadri (@Mustafa_Qadri) May 16, 2018
The Amnesty report identifies a network of falsified social media profiles that use “social engineering” to gain proximity to human rights defenders, infect their devices with malware and obtain their email and social media credentials.
The report finds that attackers were using at least two different types of surveillance software, one known as Crimson, and the other StealthAgent.
A custom-build Android spyware, StealthAgent can intercept phone calls and messages, steal pictures, and track victims’ locations once installed on a victim’s Android phone. Amnesty believes this was custom-built for the attackers, but may have been derived from technical code in a commercial spy software called TheOneSpy, which is owned by the Australian company Ox-I-Gen. TheOneSpy is marketed as a tool for parents to monitor their children's mobile phone activities.
The report highlights the story of Diep Saeeda, a well-known activist from the eastern city of Lahore who became the target of a well‑orchestrated and relentless surveillance campaign.
Saeeda had been involved in Aman ki Asha, an initiative to bring peace between India and Pakistan. On December 2, 2017, one of her friends, Raza Mehmood Khan, a peace activist who tried to bring people from India and Pakistan together through activities like letter-writing, was subjected to an enforced disappearance.
According to Amnesty, a Facebook user who claimed to be an Afghan woman named Sana Halimi living in Dubai and working for the UN contacted Saeeda via Facebook to get information about her missing friend Raza Khan. The operator of the profile sent her links to files containing malware called StealthAgent which, if opened, would have infected her mobile devices.
The accounts under the name of Sana Halimi used for a profile picture a photo of Salwa Gardezi, a 21-year-old Pakistani business student and a chef from Lahore. Gardezi is known for her critiques of Pakistani military.
Gardezi registered an official complaint with the Federal Investigative Bureau or FIA.
It was very shocking for me because I have no relation or interest in politics or anything like that. It is a very horrifying phase for me to see my face used as Sana Halimi. I’d like to share that I feel physically threatened.
Unlawful surveillance of human rights defenders is not a new phenomenon and the threats attached to them are increasing. Surveillance of civil society organizations and individuals has become a tool used by repressive regimes to track activities and for the crackdown on voices of dissent.
In 2017, the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab uncovered Nile Phish: Large-scale phishing campaign targeting Egyptian civil society. This report describes Nile Phish, an ongoing and extensive phishing campaign against Egyptian civil society. In recent years, Egypt has witnessed what is widely described as an “unprecedented crackdown,” on both civil society and dissent. A 2016 research report by the same group showed evidence of attacks against journalists, activists, and dissidents in the United Arab Emirates.
Amnesty International and local civil society organizations have demanded that, as an elected member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Pakistan immediately order an independent investigation to uncover those running the campaign to ensure the security of human rights activists both online and offline.

author: Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman


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This digital novel narrates the violence against ethnic Chinese during the 1998 riots in Indonesia · Global Voices
Juke Carolina

A digital illustrated novel tells the stories of Indonesian Chinese who were attacked during the riots that toppled the Indonesian government in 1998.
In May 1998, violent riots erupted across Indonesia demanding the resignation of then President Suharto who had ruled the country for over three decades. The riots led to a change in government but thousands of innocent civilians — in particular, Indonesians of Chinese ancestry– were injured, raped, and killed. Many Orang Tionghoa (how Indonesians with full or partial Chinese ancestry are called) fled the country because of the escalating violence that targeted them.
A government report released in October 1998 revealed that, while some violent incidents against Indonesian Chinese were spontaneous, most cases appeared to be systematically planned by local thugs supported by powerful political and military forces. The report also documented cases of rape that victimized many Indonesian Chinese women.
After two decades, victims of the attacks in 1998 and their families continue to seek justice.
Written by Melbourne-based artist Rani Pramesti, the ‘Chinese Whispers’ illustrated novel narrates the tragedy that forced her to flee her beloved country in 1998. It also features the stories of women who witnessed the 1998 riots.
Global Voices interviewed her about the novel and her motivation for initiating this project:
The Chinese Whispers was inspired by my personal experiences of how the May 1998 racial violence impacted my sense of identity as well as by the historical context of May 1998.
I noticed how 1998 became an important unspoken issue (among) Chinese Indonesian diaspora in Australia.
I can’t speak for other people’s experiences. But I can speak about mine. My family and I were spared from (the) 1998 looting, rape, and violence but we lived the era where we were subjected to politically motivated racism. Being raised unequivocally Indonesian, a proud one that is, the 1998 riot questioned my identity.
Through the Chinese Whispers, I want to reveal what politically motivated racism (PMR) could do to people, (and it) doesn’t matter how many years after it happened. PMR has real human costs, not just in Indonesia but the entire world today.
She explained why she chose the title ‘Chinese Whispers’ for her novel:
During the creative process with the community, we talked about many things and everything. Yet, when I brought up the events that took place in 1998, of our whereabouts and what not, the voices in the room were reduced to whispers.
As a student of dramatic arts, I learned to observe tones, body languages, expressions. What I came across during the meetings and dramatic workshops, 1998 held a certain significance to the community.
Many said that the 1998 riot is something taboo to talk about. It remains sensitive, it’s hard to talk about the events, but taboo’s not the word to describe it.
And this is what she hopes her work will accomplish:
One day I attended a poetry reading by Mark Gonzales, one of his poems reads “We cannot heal what we will not face.” That rang true to me.
20 years on, 1998 is barely acknowledged. There [are] a lot of things to be done in terms of healing, to obtain some forms of justice. I’m not only talking about healing at the personal level, but also as a nation.
I want my readers to remember what 1998 entails and to be moved by the experiences of individuals who went through it.
In my work, my 12-year-old persona experienced having her identity torn apart by politically motivated racism.
I love how dramatic arts contributed in telling my personal stories. After all, despite the macro stories we hear everywhere, in the end, we are all human beings, we all have our micro stories and that is how we connect at the most profound level — from one person to another.
One of the pages of the Chinese Whispers. Used with permission.
Currently, the Chinese Whispers is available in Indonesian. Its English version is due out by the end of 2018. Rani's work can be found on her website and she can be reached through her Facebook page and Instagram.

author: Juke Carolina