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Russia’s LGBTQ+ community reels after murder of activist Yelena Grigoryeva · Global Voices
Eilish Hart

A photo of Yelena Grigoryeva at a church service in memory of the murdered activist, July 28, 2019. Photo courtesy of Valentin Nikitchenko.
When Yelena Grigoryeva’s body was discovered on July 21, it had been lying in some bushes outside her apartment building in St Petersburg for 12 hours.
That same day, the city’s investigative committee opened a criminal case into the murder of the 41-year-old LGBTQ+ activist. On July 25, investigators announced the arrest of a 38-year-old man from Kyrgyzstan on suspicion of the murder. Another suspect, known to this man, was detained on August 1. Police investigators claim that Grigoryeva had known her killer, and that the two had been drinking together on the evening before the murder. Grigoryeva had allegedly died in the course of a “sudden domestic dispute” with her killer, during which she was stabbed at least eight times in the back and face, dying from her injuries at the scene.
Grigoryeva’s friends and colleagues have been quick to share their grief and anger on social media, along with their suspicions about the police’s account of events. They suspect that she was killed for her activism; specifically her LGBTQ+ activism. Their comments were posted under the Russian hashtag #ЗащититеЛюдейОтПилы and the English hashtag #ProtectPeopleFromSaw.
Я не верю, что Елена Григорьева была зверски убита обычным дворником-мигрантом, в то время как незадолго до убийства ей поступали угрозы от гомофобных нелюдей из группировки Пила
Я требую тщательного расследования. Государство не должно потакать убийцам #ЗащититеЛюдейОтПилы pic.twitter.com/f7VjXkr82b
I don’t believe that Yelena Grigoryeva was brutally murdered by some regular migrant worker, given that not long before her murder she had received threats from the homophobic non-people from the homophobic Saw group.
I demand a thorough investigation. The state should not appease murderers. #ЗащититеЛюдейОтПилы
— ᴀʀɪɴᴀ ᴅᴀᴢᴇ (@onprendra) July 23, 2019
Many were quick to point out that Grigoryeva’s name had featured on what appears to be a hit list from the homophobic website “Saw Against LGBT.”
The photojournalist George Markov writes:
В Петербурге все также проявляется активное давление на активистов. Если раньше это были аресты и уголовки – теперь это уже убийства. Политактивистка Елена Григорьева, сторонница ЛГБТ взглядов и просто человек с активной гражданской позицией была убита. […] Также хочу напомнить что Елена была в списке гомофобного сайта “Пила” который уже достаточно долго угрожает ЛГБТ-активистам по всей стране
In St Petersburg there is still active pressure on activists. If earlier it was arrests and criminal charges, now it’s murder. The political activist Yelena Grigoryeva, a supporter of LGBT views and simply a person with an active civic position, has been killed. […] And I also want to remind you that Yelena was on the list of the homophobic site ‘Saw,’ which has been threatening LGBT-activists throughout the country for a long time already.”
– George Markov, Facebook, 22 July 2019
While her colleagues said that Grigoryeva had reported violent threats to law enforcement before, the city’s branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs insisted that she had filed reports related to “various conflict situations” – but not death threats. The St Petersburg activist Dinar Idrisov, who knew Grigoryeva personally, rejected this account:
Лена и ее адвокат обращались в правоохранительные органы и по факту насилия, и по факту угроз, но заметной реакции не было. Все в стиле “будут убивать – звоните”, позвонить не успела.
Yelena and her lawyer had reported on violence and threats [of violence] to law enforcement agencies, but there was no discernible reaction. It was like they said “If they kill you – call us.” She wasn’t able to make that call.
– Dinar Idrisov, Facebook, 22 July 2019
Earlier this month, screenshots from the “Saw Against LGBT” website began circulating online after the group (named after the American horror movie franchise “Saw”) posted an “anniversary” message on July 1. Featuring a picture of a noose, the post outlined plans for anti-LGBTQ+ acts and promised “dangerous and cruel gifts” to dozens of Russian LGBTQ+ individuals, activists, allies, and journalists. Yelena Grigoryeva herself was among those who saw the group’s message containing her name. She even shared a screenshot of the threatening post on Facebook on July 3.
“Saw against LGBT” declares its five-year “anniversary,” promising a “new season” in its campaign against LGBT people. Website screenshot, taken from Yelena Grigoryeva’s Facebook page.
The list also named the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and Radio Svoboda, RFE/RL’s Russian language service, as well as several civil society organisations. The Yekaterinburg LGBT Resource Centre also reported receiving a threatening email from “Saw” on July 16. The Resource Centre has formally requested that local police investigate the email as a hate crime, and has previously been successful in persuading courts in the Sverdlovsk region to issue fines for homophobic comments on social media.
Following complaints by the Yekaterinburg-based NGO, the “Saw” website was blocked on July 17. LGBTQ+ rights activists have apparently been trying to get the authorities to investigate who is behind the website since it first appeared in spring 2018. Furthermore, the site has been responsible for leaking personal data on activists and anybody known or presumed to be LGBTQ+, and allegedly even offered to pay “gay-hunters” to attack people.
Grigoryeva’s death came as a shock to others whose names appeared on the “hit list.” On July 23, YouTube star Andrei Petrov shared his reaction on Instagram, stating that although he had initially dismissed the list as a “provocation,” Grigoryeva’s killing made him fear for his life. In a video the following day, Petrov shared the first threatening email he received from an alleged member of “Saw,” telling him to transfer money into a Sberbank account if he wanted to “avoid a gift.”
On July 28, self-described “openly gay” Youtuber Zhenya Svetsky shared what he called his “last video” in response to Grigoryeva’s death, saying he feared for his life because his name had also appeared on the list. In an accompanying Instagram post, he explained that he had been receiving threats from a member of “Saw” since February and that on June 20 he was given a month to leave Russia.
Recent days have also seen international support for an investigation into the suspicious murder. The German Foreign Office condemned Grigoryeva’s murder on Twitter, writing that they “expect a complete and transparent investigation of the circumstances, particularly whether her murder was related to her work for LGBTI rights.” On July 24, protestors also gathered outside of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to call for an investigation into the activist’s killing.
According to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, a Ukrainian NGO, the appearance of more hate speech against Grigoryeva online in response to her murder is further evidence that she may have been targeted for her activism. For example, self-proclaimed anti-gay “civic activist” Timur Bulatov referred to Grigoryeva’s murder as a “moral Jihad” and asked “who’s next?” on social media.
Nikita Tomilov, a lawyer and human rights activist, shared one of Bulatov’s posts with the words:
Вот такое вот сообщение пришло мне сегодня на Wattsap от Тимура Булатова по поводу убийства Елены Григорьевой. Я более чем уверен, что связь Булатова с этим убийством есть! Сейчас я призываю все ЛГБТ организации и правозащитников писать заявление о проверке сведений на причастность Булатова к группе «Пила».
Here’s a message I just received today on Wattsap [sic] from Timur Bulatov about the murder of Yelena Grigoryeva. I am more than certain that Bulatov has a connection to this murder. I now call on all LGBT organisations and human rights defenders to file a statement requesting an investigation be opened into Bulatov’s involvement in the “Saw” group.
– lowayerTomilov, Facebook, 23 July 2019
Social media posts dedicated to Grigoryeva’s memory also include photos demonstrating her extensive involvement in activism. After moving to St Petersburg from her hometown of Veliky Novgorod, Grigoryeva became a prominent member of the Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT People for Equal Rights, an organisation defending LGBTQ+ rights in Russia. Grigoryeva also opposed Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, speaking out on behalf of Ukrainian political prisoners jailed in Russia and against repressions against Crimea’s Tatar population. More recently, she demonstrated in support of the Khachaturyan sisters – three teenagers who are being charged with murder for killing their father after suffering years of physical and sexual abuse.
However, Grigoryeva’s background has also prompted debate over her political leanings. Grigoryeva was known to have supported nationalist causes in the past, and a July 2016 photo Grigoryeva posted to the popular Russian social network VKontakte displays a tattoo on her arm, which she described in the comments as “a matryoshka with a machine gun and the Odal rune.” Although the Odal rune is a symbol associated with Nazi movements, Grigoryeva’s colleagues claim that her political leanings had shifted towards more “right liberal” views over the years
В последнее время она становилась жертвой насилия и ей часто угрожали убийством. Было ли эти нападения, угрозы и теперь убийство связаны с ее политическими взглядами, которые менялись от националистических до праволиберальных и лгбт, с ее несомненно активной жизненной позицией, характером и стилем поведения – абсолютно не важно. У каждого человека есть право на жизнь. И государство Россия обязано было ей право на жизнь гарантировать.
Whether these attacks, threats and now the murder are linked to her political views, which changed from nationalist to right-wing liberal and LGBT, to her undoubtedly active lifestyle, character and patterns of behaviour – is absolutely unimportant. Every person has the right to life. And the Russian state was obliged to guarantee her the right to life
– Dinar Idrisov, Facebook, 22 July 2019
On July 23, dozens of people, including Grigoryeva’s friends and colleagues, took part in “solitary picket” protests in St Petersburg to mourn her death. Their demand is that the authorities seriously consider the idea that Grigoryeva was murdered for her political views. The next day, LGBTQ+ rights activists from  Vykhod – a St Petersburg organisation (whose name is translated on their site as “Coming Out”) offering free psychological and legal support to the LGBTQ+ community – formally requested that police investigate the “Saw” group’s possible involvement in Grigoryeva’s death.
Grigoryeva was buried at a village cemetery in Russia’s Novgorod region on July 28.
But Saw’s story might not be over yet. “They think that they’ve blocked our site and that now we won’t be able to find an audience, that we won’t be able to attract the people. We’ll start soon. Everybody’s interested to find out who’s next,” reads a message posted on July 31 by one of the group’s Telegram channels.

author: Eilish Hart


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Tech innovators in Tanzania connect 5,000 tutors with students in new online platform · Global Voices
Goodhope Amani

Adam A. Duma, a co-founder of Smartclass, an online learning platform, shows the mobile view of Smartclass during an interview. Photo by Goodhope Amani, used with permission.
The Tanzanian government has announced free education for primary through secondary school, but a quality education remains an intense debate in Tanzanian society.
Tech innovators in Tanzania are hoping to improve the quality of education through technology, seizing on the fact that about 45 percent of Tanzanians are now online, and that number is growing.
In January 2019, tech innovator, Adam A. Duma, launched Smartclass, an educational online platform that connects private, qualified tutors with students and other people interested in attaining all sorts of knowledge. Duma, the platform's co-founder, says the platform was the result of the intensive research that found that most parents struggle to get qualified tutors to teach their children various subjects —  especially primary and secondary subjects. He says:
“Smart class is an online platform which connects the best, trusted, qualified tutors to different students to different fields.  Students from normal schools, students from entrepreneurship, students from the health sector, agriculture and more than 300 fields.”
The platform, under incubation at the University of Dar es Salaam, provides an opportunity for qualified tutors to sell their skills for a minimum of 3,000 Tanzanian Shillings (1.30 United States Dollars) per hour. It has already attracted 5,000 tutors and 7,000 students since it started operating.
To ensure the authenticity and qualifications of a tutor, the platform connects to other educational institutions to help to verify their information.
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology helps to measure the qualifications of the tutors since we cannot verify certificates of every tutor physically. We have a database connected with The National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA), and University of Dar es Salaam, so this AI helps to verify the information. We are working to connect many institutions to accommodate many people,” Duma says.
Duma is also working with his team to troubleshoot some of the issues that come up between qualified tutors and their students. For example, some students request tutors and suddenly cancel the request when tutors are already on their way to a student's home.
“Another issue [we face]: Students do not respond well [while learning] so we ask them to be attentive. We deal with challenges [of] students and tutors because both … are our customers. Remember once you are a tutor, you become a student automatically — because you cannot stop … learning.”
Co-founder of Smartclass, Adam A. Duma, provides insights on the platform to an attendee during the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair, July 2019. Photo used by permission of Adam A. Duma.
The internet has changed the way people learn in Tanzania. As more people get online, access to YouTube tutorials, Slide Share, Google Scholar, Academia all opened doors to new ways of learning,  but it hasn't replaced the benefits of meeting face-to-face with a qualified tutor, in addition to online learning.
In recent years, the Tanzanian government has invested in motivating youth to utilize technology and the internet to innovate projects that contribute to problem-solving social and economic challenges.
The Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology ( Costech), for instance, operates various Innovation hubs such as Buni Hub, which promotes innovation in tech and business. In early October last year, Sahara Sparks, a technology and innovation company, organized a big event in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's cultural capital, where many tech start-ups had the opportunity to pitch their ideas and get support toward solving social problems.
According to a Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA)  2017 report on internet usage, 45 percent of Tanzanians actively use the internet and over 51 percent — 23 million out 45 million citizens — currently have access to it. Duma and his team of 14 believe that the future of Tanzania is promising, knowing that more people will get online to seek ways to improve their skills and increase productivity.
“The usage of internet is very low; you don’t use [a lot of data] bundles to access Smartclass — the problem remains for people who do not have access to internet. We are focusing now to build an offline feature which will allow many people to access it.
Adam A. Duma in his office. Photo by Goodhope Amani, used with permission.
Tanzania's 2016 national ICT policy 2016 seeks to transform Tanzania into a “knowledge-based society” through the application of ICT. Duma's company is working hard to sort out all challenges related to their new platform so that tutors and students are both satisfied.
Smartclass — freely accessible through registration as a tutor or student, is changing the learning environment in Tanzania. With many citizens now on their smartphones, tutors can more easily sell their skills and make a living, and students can literally become smarter — by using their phones.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Goodhope Amani


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Ugandan feminist Stella Nyanzi deploys nude protest to challenge free speech sentence · Global Voices
Rosebell Kagumire

Stella Nyanzi is found guilty of cyber harassment for a poem she wrote criticizing the president in 2018. Screenshot from NTV Uganda, August 1, 2019, via YouTube.
On August  2, a court in Kampala headed by magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu sentenced feminist scholar and writer Dr. Stella Nyanzi to 18 months in prison after being found guilty of of cyber harassment—though innocent of offensive communication— under the Computer Misuse Act.
Nyanzi, known for using “radical rudeness” as a form of political protest, has been in prison for nine months after writing and posting on Facebook that criticized Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. The poems makes several graphic references to Museveni's deceased mother's vagina and labia.
The magistrate stated that Nyanzi must serve nine more months in prison, where she has been held since November 2018. The sentence was read in absence of the activist, who refused to remain on a video conference after staging a nude protest in defiance. She accused the court of not affording her a fair hearing.
Stella Nyanzi @drstellanyanzi is on a screen rather than physically in the court room, but she just flashed her breasts on camera after shouting again and again “fuck you, fuck you” #FreeStellaNyanzi #PushforStellaNyanzi pic.twitter.com/Gwi6bgNzTy
— Alice McCool (@McCoolingtons) August 2, 2019
Today, Dr. Stella Nyanzi was convicted of cyber harassment! For using ‘immoral words’ against dictatorship, corruption and nepotism. The same courts which have severally defended and shielded the champions of these ills have no moral authority to talk about morals. pic.twitter.com/q94M4EsmAq
— Wanjiku Kang'ethe(Shi) (@Shikoohz) August 2, 2019
On August 1, when Nyanzi was convicted, she gave more than 20 minutes of testimonial submission to the court, reiterating that she had no remorse and wouldn't beg for forgiveness. On her Facebook page, she published a poem where she declared: “I did not enter your Court for legal battle/I was already condemned before I came in.”
I WAS ALREADY CONDEMNED BEFORE I CAME IN.I did not come to your court for Justice.I came to continue poking the…
Geplaatst door Stella Nyanzi op Donderdag 1 augustus 2019
During the sentencing Nyanzi staged a nude protest and shouted obscenities, flashing her breasts on screen:
At her sentencing for harassing #Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni, feminist academic & activist Dr. Stella Nyanzi -who appeared via a screen – staged a nude protest & shouted “fuck you fuck you.” She is a revolutionary engaging in the “radical rudeness” of anti-colonial activists https://t.co/12PsMKzQyi
— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) August 2, 2019
Stella said they brought her to dock in prison to hear her sentence against her will.
Nyanzi has used nude prostest before to show her indignation. probably first time anyone has stripped in court to protest the justice system in Uganda#FreeStellaNyanzi #PushforStellaNyanzi pic.twitter.com/8THTpXtfKe
— Rosebell Kagumire ♉ (@RosebellK) August 2, 2019
Here are snippets from Stella Nyanzi's defiant testimony in court which may have been edited out of other newsfeeds:
I could talk about my children because very many mothers would say ‘Oh, I have children who are minors, please don’t send me to jail.’ Your honour, I will not say that. My children celebrate my virtuous action. My children are protesters I have trained to freely express themselves. My children are taken care of by Ugandans who believe in ideals that espouse.
I will sacrifice motherhood to whatever altar I have to sacrifice motherhood to…I was born for this moment. I will speak to dictators even if it means speaking in language of vaginas.
I am disappointed that you don’t find me guilty of offending the president. I plan to offend Yoweri Museveni Kaguta because he has offended us. Find me guilty of offending the dictator. I planned to offend Yoweri Museveni Kaguta because he has offended us for 30-plus years. Find me guilty of cyber harassment, find me guilty of anything else, but please find guilty of offensive communication against Yoweri Museveni Kaguta! Find me guilty of offending Yoweri Museveni Kaguta because that’s what serious mothers in Uganda should be doing. We are tired of the dictatorship.
I paid for my freedom of expression. I don’t repent for anything. I celebrate that one woman was bold enough to deploy a dead woman’s vagina. Send me to Luzira if my crime is [to tell] a dirty delinquent dictator that he is a dictator and that Ugandans are tired. And I wish his mother’s vagina hadn't squeezed him out.
You say I am giving young people poison instead of food, giving them stones instead of bread, but the youth want to use their voices and speak whatever they have to speak. How do we teach young people in Uganda to remain silent, your honor?
The internet must be protected. The public media has been silenced. How many of us can afford OTT? I use a weapon that I paid for and I will not allow the dictatorship to tell me what words to say to the dictatorship. If it is a dirty vagina that gets the attention of the dictatorship, emana ewunyawunya ejjakukola (the dirty vagina will work).
I don’t beg for forgiveness. I don’t beg for lenience. I will survive.
A massive display of support for Nyanzi flooded social media as her defiant acts of protest continued during the sentencing, many using the hashtag #FreeStellaNyanzi
Africa Do you understand what is happening here. Stella Nyanzi is a fire that cannot and will not be tamed. May we all learn from her. #FreeStellaNyanzi#PushForStellaNyanzi
Thank you for keeping us updated Rosebell https://t.co/oGBnSMxoym
— Nancy نانسي Handabile (@arushapot) August 2, 2019
The powerful like to appropriate victimhood! Mbu Stella Nyanzi cyber harassed the most powerful man in the land. He isn't a private citizen whose affairs are unexpectedly now in the public sphere. He has insisted on remaining in the public eye, at public expense, for 34 years!
— Lydia Namubiru (@namlyd) August 2, 2019
Amnesty International issued a statement in support of Nyanzi, saying:
Stella Nyanzi has been criminalized solely for her creative flair of using metaphors and what may be considered insulting language to criticize President Museveni’s leadership.
A packed courtroom turned chaotic after an empty water bottle was thrown at the presiding magistrate. Many young activists showed up in support of Stella Nyanzi along with key political opposition groups with an interest in protecting freedom of expression and free speech in Uganda:
Chaotic end to the sentencing, there were many protests in court we could barely hear the magistrate. In the end someone threw a bottle at her and she vacated her seat.
Police arrested some people right from court.#FreeStellaNyanzi #PushforStellaNyanzi pic.twitter.com/dknXPs7s6z
— Rosebell Kagumire ♉ (@RosebellK) August 2, 2019

author: Rosebell Kagumire


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In Azerbaijan, trolls keep us at each other’s throats · Global Voices
Ismail Djalilov

Azerbaijani journalist Ismail Djalilov. Photo courtesy of Ismail Djalilov.
“A friend reported you.” It’s a phrase I find utterly disconcerting and one which unfailingly appears on my phone’s screen each time I hear the familiar chime of a new Facebook message. Given that my inbox is now flooded with this ominous warning, I’ve had a lot of time and reason lately to ponder its meaning. I find those words not just disconcerting but Orwellian, conjuring up images of smiling blonde children cheering for a Dear Leader. Maybe that’s just the way my mind works; maybe it’s my fault that I have these unhealthy associations. To my mind, a friend does not falsely report a friend to any authority, be it the government, or a digital authority. Things shouldn’t work that way, at least not in the universe I want to live in.

But then again, I’m a journalist from Azerbaijan. The universe I want to live in feels a long way off.
Here I should stress that I am writing not as a journalist, but as a private citizen who has had—and continues to have—profoundly eye-opening and terrifying experiences. I write as somebody who is not used to climbing the pedestal of victimhood. I write as an openly gay man and an overt secularist whose worldview is deeply informed by political openness and faith in democratic participation. Those values set the tone for my day, wherever I happen to be. Thus I am not at all surprised to be on the receiving end of a barrage of insults and disgusting comments from trolls. I just did not expect these trolls to come from the opposition.
And to cover all of that, I have to depart from the comfortable style and principles of objective, strictly fact-based journalism and enter the intimidating world of opinion.
I realise that my task is daunting, especially as an immigrant who has lived across the ocean from his homeland for half of his life, for whom a mixture of romanticism, longing, and detachment comes into play. Recently I half-jokingly wrote on my Facebook page (which is temporarily shut down and unavailable to me at the time of writing) that “being from Azerbaijan is a terminal diagnosis incompatible with happiness.”
In my native Azerbaijan, any journalist striving to preserve a shred of their impartiality has to navigate many landmines and risk confrontation with powerful forces. Our government is not too keen on criticism, to put it mildly. Those who do criticise it are often fined, imprisoned, tortured, and even killed. In a society where rulers impose such savage rules of the game, others have to adjust their actions and strategies to survive.
My thesis is, if the government employs trolls, those opposing it are forced to do so too. If the government uses harsh rhetoric, some in the opposition are forced to respond in kind. That is the corrosive effect of a despotic government: it imposes its own rules on everybody, stifling democratic inclinations others may have by invalidating them a priori. It lowers the level and quality of political discourse and legitimate political struggle.
My own contribution to raising that bar plays an important role in this story. Last winter, I launched a very small YouTube channel whose name translates from Azerbaijani as “straight talk” (the English pun does not quite translate into Azerbaijani, where “straight” does not have sexual connotations). After more than two decades of lurking on the margins of the Azerbaijani public consciousness, I kicked aside my self-doubt and briefly stepped into the limelight to comment on the outrageous situation in my home country. After that, running back into the shadows didn’t prove as easy as I had hoped.
On 12 November 2018, the BBC’s Azerbaijani service interviewed me as an Azerbaijani emigre now living in the United States. In retrospect, I am astonished by my lack of self-awareness. My interview was a long and angry tirade, but a cathartic one.
I laid into the regime. It felt as though I had finally exhaled for the first time in two decades.
I talked about violence against women and a culture which facilitates it. I talked about the utter crisis of education and healthcare. I talked about the lack of tolerance for the LGBTQ+ community and railed against the widespread ignorant conviction that sexual orientation has something to do with personal choice and willpower. It was ugly, I was a mess. I woke up early for the interview, and bellowed so much so I awoke my husband in the wee hours.
The interview had all the elements of a modern day made-for-Instagram drama. It made waves on social media, but the only thing people seemed to pay attention to was my sexuality. It wasn’t a public coming out; that took place decades earlier when I was pushed out of the closet with a bang during a live radio broadcast. Nothing else mattered: not education, not corruption, and not violence against women.
In a subsequent interview with another Washington-based colleague, I criticised a certain Azerbaijan-based journalist, a former colleague at a now-shuttered independent TV and radio company. I drew attention to his reemergence as a government lapdog. I called him by name, reminding him how he used to be: fearless, fair, outspoken, and captivating. He responded with an insulting tirade containing nothing but allusions to my sexuality (fair game), and with an intentional slip of the tongue called my late father (certainly not fair game) a homosexual. I filmed an indignant, yet measured and polite video response on the spot. It was picked up by an opposition newspaper and aired on their website, gaining more than 400,000 views. (It is still the most-viewed video on my little channel.)
So I stayed in the limelight, and while there I started to interview politicians and newsmakers in Azerbaijan. I grew accustomed to the trickle of trolling comments and insults. As my channel grew in popularity, so did the troll attacks. Many of them weren’t aimed at me, but at guest of mine, the chairman of an opposition movement who had criticised another opposition leader.
I was caught in the crossfire. I spent two full days deleting insulting comments from my channel’s comments section. Over time, the attacks were made not only against my channel; trolls launched a concerted effort to report my Facebook account, claiming that I was impersonating somebody else. An absurdity that could have been resolved by a reasonable human being comparing my pictures with my live videos was dealt with by Facebook bots as yet untrained in the intricacies of human interaction. I woke up to see the “A friend has reported you” message from Facebook. My page was gone.
I had to go through the indignity of sending a picture of my photo ID. Hours later, I was asked to send in a picture of myself holding my photo ID. At the time of the writing in mid-June, my Facebook page has been deactivated eight times in the span of six days in response to complaints by trolls. There is no way of knowing how many more times it might disappear.
For objectivity’s sake I must add that I have no direct evidence of the source of these attacks; such is the nature of the faceless mass of internet trolls. But my suspicions are painful to comprehend: I believe that I was attacked not by pro-government trolls, but trolls working for those I had considered my friends and allies. I was not the only one to be attacked by these trolls; the list of their previous victims is quite long. Given the identity of other targets, I am confident enough to believe a certain party was responsible.
Once my Facebook account was restored, I made a rather emotional video appeal to the leadership of the party I had suspected all along, asking them to rein in the trolls they control. It was not my proudest moment. I felt that I lost my balance due to anger, outrage, disgust, and shock. I demanded that they either deny that these trolls worked for the party, or join with me in condemning their role in distorting public discourse in Azerbaijan. But their response was a blanket denial from mid-level party officials, as well as their numerous supporters. Although I called him out, saying that I no longer believed he was a friend to free media, the party’s leader did not acknowledge my appeal.
Sadly, this episode made clear to me that when a despotic regime attacks freedom of speech, it has a domino effect. Those in opposition feel the need to respond in kind. They do so either to protect themselves from the government, its henchmen and trolls, or out of a mistaken desire to level the playing field a little in their own favour. Whatever the thinking behind it, free and independent media suffers, as does its ability to inform the public and guarantee a free flow of impartial information.
I could go on, but I won’t. I must interview a grieving father of a 14 year-old girl who died at the hands of our incompetent and corrupt education and medical systems—a father who has just discovered that his child’s grave was desecrated. The least I can do for him is not make him wait. The story of my own victimisation will have to wait till later. Much later.

author: Ismail Djalilov


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Hashtag campaign against Pakistani religious minority group during PM Khan’s US visit · Global Voices
R Umaima Ahmed

President Trump meets with Ahmadi community member, Abdool Shakur, on 17 July 2019. Screenshot from Youtube video.
Pakistan's minority Ahmadiyya community has been subject to persecution since the 1953 Anti-Ahmadiyya Riots in Lahore when religiopolitical parties, including Jamaat-i-Isami, Majlis-i-Ahrarul Islam, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, agitated against the community. For years, followers of this sect have been speaking out against their institutionalised discrimination and disenfranchisement in the country. Most recently, Ahmadiyya community member Abdul Shakoor had the chance to meet with President Trump to call attention to the plight of the Ahmadis in Pakistan.
After news of the meeting was shared online, social media exploded with anti-Ahmadiyya messages and a hashtag campaign which sparked fierce debate all over the country.
Pakistan is home to a large Ahmadiyya community which follows the teachings of Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad. The group's beliefs are controversial in Pakistan because they profess that their founder was the last Messiah. This goes against a core tenant of Islam as followed by the majority Sunni Muslims who believe that “the Prophet Mohammad was God’s last direct messenger.”
This conflict of belief led the Pakistani government to declare Ahmadis “non-muslim” by an amendment in the 1973 constitution of Pakistan. Since then, the community has been subject to a number of rules that prohibit calling their places of worship ‘mosques’, limit their public worship, and penalise sharing information about their faith.
On 17 July, Abdul Shakoor, an 82-year-old Ahmadi living in the US, met with US President Trump to appraise him of the situation faced by the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan. Shakoor was arrested in 2015 on charges of spreading the Ahmadiyya faith as well as inciting religious hatred and sectarianism. He was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison, of which he served three.
During the meeting with President Trump, Shakoor was accompanied by Shaan Taseer, co-founder of Pakistan for All, a group that advocates for minority rights in Pakistan:
Happy to be Mr Shakoor’s translator to @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/WurSIIsgPq
— Shaan Taseer (@ShaanTaseer) July 18, 2019
After the video of Shakoor's meeting with President Trump was released (and shortly before a planned US visit by Pakistani PM Imran Khan), the hashtag “#Qadianis are the worst infidels on earth” began trending widely on social media [*Qadiani is a term used in Pakistan for Ahmadiyya Community].
Days after the video's publication, Taseer published a comment on his Facebook page about online hate posts he was receiving:
I want to apologize to my friends on social media for the vitriol they may have faced in the last few days from my detractors.
Though I see this as part and parcel of my work,it is not something you all signed up for when becoming my friends.
People have advised me to adopt a complete blocking policy for the hate trolls. Though I do block the occasional transgressor, I generally let their comments remain so we all know and remember that some roads are difficult roads to travel and if we walk them we don’t forget the perils the lie in our way.
Thank you all who have supported this cause. Do not forget the 200 Aasia Bibi’s in jail without fair trial. They need your support.
#PakistanForAll
Pakistan Zindabad
The hashtag trend was initiated from the account @HashirMalikPTI. It belongs to the same team that recently started a hashtag campaign against journalists. According to the profile picture and bio, the profile belongs to a follower of the Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf (PTI) ruling political party:
قادیانی پاکستان میں دِن بَدِن متحرک ہوتے جا رہے ہیں ۔ ختم نبوت پر پہرا دینا ہر مسلمان کے ذمہ ہے۔۔اسی سلسلے میں @TeamPakZindabad  کل 3 بجے #میرا_ایمان_ختم_نبوت
ٹرینڈ کرے گی
اس ٹرینڈ میں بھر پور حصہ لیں اور اس ٹویٹ کو ریٹویٹ کریں@MiaNaMateenPti pic.twitter.com/4anzkjgZr1
— مُحـــمّد حَــاشِر مَلِک??? (@HashirMalikPTI) July 25, 2019
Qadiani's are becoming active by the day. It is the duty of every Muslim to guard the finality of prophet-hood. TeamPakZindabad will start a trend.
Hamza Ali Abbasi, a Pakistani TV and film actor tweeted in support of the Ahmadiyya community and questioned the trend. Abbasi was part of a TV show on the Ahmadiyya community a few years ago but had to stop due to immense pressure from anti-Ahmadiyya elements in Pakistani society, he said:
Sad to c this hashtag! Kaafir? Majority of us Muslims don't even know the proper definition of KAAFIR yet we dare use this term with such ease! A Kaafir is sum 1 WHO KNOWS THE TRUTH in his heart & knowingly rejects it (Deliberately covers the truth). #قادیانی_دنیاکابدترین_کافر
— Hamza Ali Abbasi (@iamhamzaabbasi) July 19, 2019
In a TV interview, Orya Maqbool Jan, a popular Islamist TV personality, said that Abdul Shakoor should be charged under Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan [Article 6 is related to treason]. He claimed that “Hardly 20 Ahmadi's have been killed, as compared to 70,000 Pakistanis killed due to terrorism.”
اوریا مقبول جان نے بڑا مطالبہ کردیا
ٹرمپ کے پاس جانے والے قادیانی نے آئین پاکستان سے غداری کی آرٹیکل 6 لگنا چاہیے
بکواس کرتے ہیں کیا 70 ہزار قادیانی دہشتگردی میں مرے؟؟
pic.twitter.com/2Hiq6AyHVP
— Azeem ヅ (@Azeem3284) July 19, 2019
Orya Maqbool Jan has made a  big demand, Charge The Qadiani who went to Trump under Article 6 of the Constitution for treason. They just talk, have 70,000 Qadiani's been killed in Terrorism?”
A week after Shakoor's meeting with President Trump, PM Imran Khan spoke at the United States Institute of Peace during his US state visit. While being interviewed, he was asked about the conditions for minorities in Pakistan.
In his response, the PM asserted his support for the protection of minorities in Pakistan but highlighted one area where there was still a “problem”:
“We are making sure that all minorities are given full protection…….but there is one element where we still have a problem……there is one aspect I can't talk about it.”
Yasser Latif Hamdani, a lawyer and book author, wrote an article titled “Jinnah, the Ahmadi issue and Imran Khan” in Naya Daur:
Imran Khan’s statement on minorities made at the USIP is very encouraging. If Imran Khan can implement Jinnah’s 11 August speech and give equal rights to Pakistanis of every faith, he will win over naysayers like me as well. He said though that there was one thing even he could not talk about. The Prime Minister was most probably talking about Ahmadis and their continuing travails in Pakistan.
PM Khan's statement shook religious political parties such as the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F). The leader of the party, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, criticized PM Khan and the Ahmadi community while addressing a Million March in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan, Pakistan to agitate the issue. The party also started twitter trends and online attacks on Ahmadiyyas:
12 بجے ٹرینڈ شروع کرنی ہے
آج کی ہیش ٹیگ ?#JUI15thMillionMarchQuetta
— مطیع اللہ خان (@Matiullah886) July 28, 2019
Will begin the trend at 12pm. Today's trend #JUI15thMillionMarchQuetta
آج سجے کا میدان
گرجے گا فضل الرحمن
لرزے گا عمران۔#JUI15thMillionMarchQuetta pic.twitter.com/0Cp8kOfmdE
— Abdullah Muhammad (@Abdulla20727496) July 28, 2019
The ground will be set, Fazal ur Rehman will address the gathering, Imran will be scared
Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the daughter of former PM of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, was also targeted for supporting Ahmadiyya community. She quickly responded that it was a fake picture upload/post:
This is a fake image. Shame on those doing it. https://t.co/waVU11D70f
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) July 28, 2019
Zain Siddiqui of Dawn News tweeted a thread on the topic:
PML-N once again stoking anti Ahmadiyya sentiment to use it as weapon against government. Marked uptick in anti-Ahmadiyya posts on social media in lead up to US visit and now Rana Sana's wife saying "Imran Khan Amreeka mai qadiyanioun ka baap ban kar baitha hua hai". Contd.
— Zain Siddiqui (@zainsid1) July 23, 2019
Anti-Ahmadiyya hate campaigns make the community members more vulnerable as the law of the country also doesn't provide them any protection.

author: R Umaima Ahmed


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Mozambique, Cote d’Ivoire make legal strides for women and children’s rights  · Global Voices
Susie Berya

Women from all over Cote d'Ivoire gather to celebrate International Women's Day at the Palais de la Culture in Abidjan, the capital. March 8, 2005. Photo by Ky Chung/United Nations via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In July 2019, Mozambique and Cote d'Ivoire became the latest countries in sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen laws to empower girls and women.
Mozambique passed a law to criminalize child marriages. Cote d'Ivoire pushed for gender equality by amending a marriage law that suppressed a woman’s rights over marital property.
On July 24, 2019, the Mozambican government passed the Law on Prevention and Combat of Premature Unions. This new law criminalizes girl child marriages. Any individual who officiates or authorizes underage marriages will be sentenced to imprisonnment for at least two to eight years. Any adult who enters a marital or sexual union with a child under the age of 18 will be imprisoned for at least eight to twelve years.
Mozambique Passes Law to End Child Marriage https://t.co/fbtOAwcjdX
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) July 19, 2019
According to Mozambican Family Law (2004), the legal age of marriage is 18. It allowed for marriage at 16 with consent from parents, guardians or courts. Article 19 of this law forbids child marriage, yet, 48 percent of girls in Mozambique are married before their 18th birthday.
Mozambique is among the top ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa with a high prevalence of child marriages. This recently passed law eliminates the clause that allowed marriages under 18.
In 2017, the United Nations reported that drought drove families to marry off girls. Poverty, gender norms and adolescent pregnancies are the main factors behind girl child marriages in Mozambique.
The amendment comes on the heels of other reforms to end discrimination against parenting and pregnant teen girls. In December 2018, the Ministry of Education revoked a decree that banned adolescent pregnant girls from attending day classes and required them to study at night.
Netizens all over the world praised the Mozambique government for this step toward ending child marriage.
Great news! #Mozambique‘s national assembly adopted a law banning #childmarriage. In addition to ensuring the law is fully enforced, govt authorities shld review efforts to increase school retention for girls as part of its strategy to end child marriage https://t.co/4CxIzRuCoJ pic.twitter.com/VYXcqcqU9V
— Juliana Nnoko-Mewanu (@NnokoMewanu) July 19, 2019
However, some worried about issues with the law, such as implementation and enforcement:
The problem in this case is enforcement. #Malawi got such a law years back, but 14-year-olds are still entering marriages
— K Iron Sanje Msiska (@msiskas) July 22, 2019
Two girls smile on Mozambique Island in January 2011. Photo by Bita Rodriguez via USAID/Flickr/US government works.
According to Human Rights Watch, Cote d'Ivoire is on the verge of passing new marriage reforms that will provide married women equal rights to household assets. It will also protect a woman’s right to inherit when her spouse dies.
Under the current Law on Marriage (2012) husbands administered all marital property. Married women were not allowed to manage or dispose of marital property. This includes property women inherit through marriage. The only provision to women is the right to provide consent over major transactions over marital property.
The new law will also provide married women with access to financial resources by allowing them the use of land as collateral. Traditionally, the husband registers land under his name and male village chiefs regulate all land-related decisions. Despite legal reforms and government initiatives to grant women the right to obtain credit, women were still not allowed to use inherited land as collateral — which made credit difficult to access.
Gaps still persist under this new marriage law. It does not protect marital property rights in non-formal marriages. Non-formal marriages include customary and religious unions, which are more common in rural areas. Women face frequent discrimination because male family members mediate all decisions and the unions are not legally bound.
The Cote d'Ivoire inheritance system highly favors men in all cases. Despite the Law of Succession, which grants both female and male surviving spouses, daughters and sons equal rights to inherit, widows from non-formal marriages do not inherit anything.
Cote d'Ivoire has been working to eliminate gender inequality and empowering women for years under former President Alassane Ouattara. In November 2012, the government passed a marriage law that made married women joint heads of households, but it was strongly opposed and ultimately led to the dissolution of his government. Yet, the Law on Marriage was adopted soon after the government dissolved.
Some netizens were quick to credit United States presidential adviser, Ivanka Trump, for the new reforms after Trump traveled to Cote d'Ivoire in April and visited a cocoa farm. She then spoke at a forum on women's economic empowerment, where she announced a $2 million project to support female cocoa farmers.
But other netizens were quick to point out that marriage reforms were already in the works long before Trump's visit:
The Ivory Coast has been debating the Marriage Law for many years. It was the current government that facilitated its passage…..NOT Ivanka. She did visit a cocoa farm though.
— Birdie (@longviewsky) July 10, 2019
Nearly 62 percent of women are entrepreneurs in Cote d'Ivoire, the world's largest cocoa producer. Rural women are major agricultural producers despite existing discriminatory customary practices.
Throughout Africa, women continue to lead and produce in their homes and communities despite legal, financial and social discrimination, according to the 2015 African Gender Equality Index.
These new reforms take essential steps toward realizing a sub-Saharan Africa safe for all girls and women.

author: Susie Berya


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Hong Kong anti-extradition protests accelerate into a movement against Beijing-backed police authorities · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Riot police chased after protesters to Wong Tai Sin and fired tear gas near a highly populated residential area. Image from inmediahk.net (CC BY-NC 2.0)
After the mob attack incident, when armed men in white-shirts stormed the Yuen Long subway station on July 21, 2019, Hong Kong's anti-extradition protests have transformed into a citizen movement against the Beijing-backed police authorities, who turned a blind eye to the violence of Triad, an organized crime allegedly responsible for the mob attack.
Since March 2019, anti-extradition protesters have been fighting against an extradition bill that would “allow local authorities to detain and extradite people wanted in countries or territories that Hong Kong does not have extradition agreements with, including mainland China and Taiwan.” Anti-extradition protesters fear Hongkongers would lose their independence by placing them under Chinese jurisdiction.
Video footage and testimonies have emerged in the past two weeks showing that the regional police authority in Yuen Long was notified of organized attack one day before the incident but did not take any action to disperse the mob, which started to gather in the streets at around 6 p.m.
The mob broke into the station platform at about 10:30 p.m. and two police officers were seen on video footage walking away from the chaos. The riot police arrived 39 minutes after the attack broke out, a little after 11 p.m., and the armed group left the platform. As soon as the riot police left, the mob launched a second attack and 45 people were injured.
A 7-minute-long Now TV video, which has since been removed from Facebook, showed high-ranking police officers who entered a nearby village to negotiate with Triad leaders the same night. After the meeting, however, a police representative told the press outside the village that they had not seen any armed men in white shirts. The attackers walked away from the platform after the attack and police authorities did not arrest anyone on the spot that night. The deferred arrest could give time for key suspects to escape.
Did @Facebook collude with Chinese and #HongKong gov't and delete evidence of police-triad cooperation in the 721 #YuenLong attack? Netizens found 7 minutes of NOWTV's FB news live mysteriously disappeared from the review, which showed white-clad thugs and police met. #AntiELAB pic.twitter.com/PKlylIiJlI
— Benson Tong (@tong_benson) July 29, 2019
The police arrested 19 “white-shirts” so far and charged the violent attackers with the minor offense of unlawful assembly, which comes with maximum 3-year imprisonment). On the other hand, 44 anti-extradition protesters have been charged with rioting, with maximum 10-years imprisonment.
Evidence continues to emerge that China’s Liaison Office has worked behind the scene to coordinate the Yuen Long attack. Various media outlets, including the Hong Kong public broadcast RTHK, have sorted out a timeline leading to the attack:
Li Jiyi, director of the liaison office’s New Territories office, delivered a speech at a community event urging villagers and district councilors to keep anti-extradition protests from spreading to Yuen Long.
A number of anti-extradition activists were attacked by mobs when they attempted to show footage of police violence in a park near Yuen Long subway station.
During an assembly in support of the Hong Kong police force, a pro-Beijing public figure, Arthur Shek, suggested to police supporters to use bamboo sticks and metal pipes to teach protesters a lesson.
Pro-Beijing lawmaker, Julius Ho, was seen on video footage shaking hands and giving a thumbs-up to key Triad members who led the attack at around 10 p.m. near Yuen Long station.
In reaction to the Yuen Long attack, more than 200,000 citizens rallied in Yuen Long on July 27 against the violent attack in spite of the police’s refusal to issue a protest permit. The illegal protest again led to the firing of tear gas and violent crackdown.
This time, instead of the white-shirt mob, riot police officers cornered protesters in the Yuen Long subway station, arresting 11 people and causing injury to 23.
17:23 Tear gas fired in front of an ambulance on On Lok Road in Yuen Long pic.twitter.com/l9fiK8eQYL
— Rachel Cheung (@rachel_cheung1) July 27, 2019
Kris Cheng from HKFP summed it up on Twitter:
Summary: Protesters limited themselves not to enter villages, but by occupying main roads in Yuen Long, police used weapons w/o limits: tear gas, rubber bullets, sponge grenades, assaulting protesters at MTR station – more people beliving the perception of police-triad connection pic.twitter.com/3X7ygPso7Y
— Kris Cheng (@krislc) July 27, 2019
On July 28, protesters held another rally on in Hong Kong Island, calling for an independent investigation of the causes and responsibilities of escalated conflicts surrounding the extradition saga.
As protesters walked toward China's Liaison Office in the Western district, riot police fired round after round of tear gas, pepper canisters and rubber bullets in Sheung Wan district near Central. At least 16 were injured and 49 people were arrested in the turmoil:
#HKFP From 9:38pm — After multiple rounds of tear gas were fired by police, smoke hangs in the air on the streets of Sheung Wan.
Poor ventilation in the inner streets means that the smoke takes longer to dissipate. #HongKong #antiELABhk #HongKongProte… pic.twitter.com/Ygd32a6WdC
— Hong Kong Stream (@hkstream) July 29, 2019
While the latest poll by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute found that 79 percent of respondents support an independent investigation into the extradition saga, the police authorities strongly oppose it. When Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung stated that he would not rule out an independent investigation and apologized on July 26 to the public over the Yuen Long attack, the Police Inspectors’ Association reacted with a statement calling for his resignation.
Beijing's top office on Hong Kong affairs also held a rare press conference on July 29 to voice their support of the city's police force.
This Beijing-Hong Kong police alliance has escalated pre-existing tensions within the city. The Hong Kong government administration has not taken any steps to make peace with protesters because pro-Beijing hawks continue to ramp up an offensive agenda. The Hong Kong police are getting ready to deploy water cannon trucks to disperse the crowds in upcoming protests.
On August 1, the 92nd anniversary of the establishment of China's People Liberation Army (PLA), Chen Daoxiang, the PLA head in Hong Kong, stated that the army could not tolerate disruptive anti-extradition protests and was determined to protect national security and sovereignty.
The PLA released a propaganda video that same day stating in Cantonese that “all consequences are at your own risk,” while forcing back protesters in an anti-riot drill:
A blunt warning for #HongKong secessionists and their foreign backers? First, the PLA's Hong Kong garrison commander vowed to safeguard Hong Kong's stability; then shortly after, the #garrison said it has the confidence to protect HK. https://t.co/USZJcMKHue pic.twitter.com/MCO36XSRNT
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) July 31, 2019
Rumors began to spread about the deployment of PLA to clamp down on anti-extradition protests.
In an unprecedented twist, on August 2, about 20,000 Hong Kong government civil servants gathered in the central district, urging the administration to meet protesters’ demands to withdraw the extradition bill completely and set up an independent investigation.
Protesters remain determined and shifted to a flash mob protest strategy. On August 3, police fired tear gas across a large part of Kowloon peninsula, from Tsim Sha Tsiu to Wong Tai Sin, as protesters ran around and disrupted traffic like wild cats.
As seen in Wong Tai Sin district, after the protesters dispersed, hundreds of residents confronted riot police, charging them to leave the district:
How police failed in Wong Tai Sin via Telegram #antiELAB #ExtraditionBill #HongKongProtests pic.twitter.com/SrHWAsXY0o
— Galileo Cheng (@galileocheng) August 3, 2019

author: Oiwan Lam


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How protesters are ‘deanonymising’ Russia’s riot police · Global Voices
Maxim Edwards

Police detain a protester in Moscow, 27 July 2019. Photo courtesy of Christina Hebel.
After uniformed police beat protesters and detained passersby in an unauthorised demonstration in the centre of the Russian capital, many Muscovites are very angry. Some of them have found a novel if controversial way to settle scores: by identifying the men behind the helmets, truncheons, and riot shields, and sharing their names, dates of birth, and links to their social media profiles online.
Police say that 1,500 attended the mass protest held in central Moscow on 3 August, though independent observers have given much higher estimates. According to OVD-Info, a project which monitors freedom of assembly in Russia, 1,001 people were detained. It followed another protest held on 27 July at which 1,373 people were detained. Both were sparked by the refusal of Moscow’s electoral commission to register independent opposition candidates ahead of local elections on 8 September.
The online flashmob to “deanonymise” policemen has assembled around the hashtag #ониразгонялипротест (“they broke up the protest”), and was launched by the Twitter profile of anti-corruption project Municipal Scanner on 27 July. The website itself does not mention the “deanonymisation” move.
If it is difficult to say whether a specific team is coordinating these posts, that is because there is probably no need for one. “Deanonymisation” is not rocket science; with patience, persistence, and a steady internet connection, anybody can do it.
Ruslan Leviev, head of the Conflict Intelligence Team, an online research agency, tweeted about the methods used to “deanonymise” the policemen. Leviev, who has stressed that he has no ties to Municipal Scanner, suggested that the online tools being used are FindClone, which allows users to upload a face and have it matched with the photos of users of Russian social media network VKontakte, and the reverse image search function of Russian search engine Yandex. The latter then allows the faces to be linked to active VKontakte accounts (an article by the independent investigative journalism website Bellingcat provides a more detailed explanation of these methods.)
Masked riot police patrol a Moscow street, 3 August 2019. Photo courtesy of Marc Bennetts.
So far, most policemen being identified are those involved in the dispersal of the 27 July protests in Moscow. But a matter of days after the August 4 protests, photos from that event started surfacing online, among them Serhiy Kusyuk, a Ukrainian police officer who commanded the Berkut riot police on 30 November 2013, when the unit attacked protesters on Kyiv’s Maidan. After the revolution of 2014, Kusyuk fled to Russia alongside several other functionaries of the ousted government of president President Viktor Yanukovych. Kusyuk is currently wanted by the Ukrainian authorities.
But “deanonymisation” cuts both ways. On 1 August, the website Ugolovka.info appeared, which identifies participants in the Moscow protests, linking to their VKontakte profiles. In February 2018, a similar website called JeSuisMaidan was launched which included the personal details of hundreds of supporters of Alexey Navalny living in St Petersburg; men with cameras wearing jackets bearing the site’s name were seen at a protest in the city that year. The creators of both websites remain unknown.
Police appear to be shaken by the “deanonymisation” drive. On 30 July, the Telegram channel of Baza, a recently launched independent online publication, reported that the head of Moscow’s city police had ordered all employees to change their social media details and delete any public photos where their faces are visible.
The order by Moscow city police headquarters allegedly came after a certain police captain Syakin said that his mother received a threatening note at home saying “we’ll burn your house.” As lawyer Andrey Knyazev told BFM Radio in a 30 July interview, the main legal hurdle to the “deanonymisation” drive could appear if a member of the public decided to act on the information provided and take revenge on a police officer. If the prosecutors’ accounts are to be believed, on 4 August one man from the Moscow Region was arrested for calling for violence against a police officer’s children; the investigative committee added that similar cases will be considered a criminal offence.
But others say there are good grounds to be suspicious of the authorities’ portrayal of the risks posed by the “deanonymisation” of police officers. Sergey Smirnov, editor of MediaZona, a publication monitoring persecution in Russia, noted on Telegram after the 3 August protests that the police would be watching social media particularly closely in order to find pretexts to make further arrests.
Nevertheless, with tempers high, Municipal Scanner has had to warn its supporters on its VKontakte to not harass family members of the “deanonymised” officers. “The wives, parents, and most of all the children of these criminals are in no case to answer for the criminal’s actions,” read the statement. Other supportive social media users made the same pleas:
Друзья! Не пишите оскорбительные сообщения в соц.сетях тем сотрудникам,которых идентифицировали по фотографиям.Не будьте такими же,как пропагандистские тролли из Ольгино. А “гвардейцы” рано или поздно(лучше раньше) поймут,какую ошибку они допустили к своему народу
— Kafelnikov Yevgeny (@KYevgeni) July 29, 2019
Friends! Don’t write insulting messages on social media to the [policemen] who were identified by the photographs. Don’t be like those propagandistic trolls from Olgino. The “guards” will sooner or later (the sooner the better) understand what mistake they have allowed to happen to their fellow citizens.
— Kafelnikov Yevgeny (@KYevgeni), Twitter, July 29, 2019
Some social media users went as far as to call “deanyonymisation” illegal, arguing that policemen had a right to privacy:
Статья 137. УК РФ. Нарушение неприкосновенности частной жизни 1. Незаконное собирание или распространение сведений о частной жизни лица, составляющих его личную или семейную тайну, без его согласия либо распространение этих сведений в публичном… ну и далее!
— Таки Я# (@srvfdr4) July 28, 2019
Article 137 of Russia’s Criminal Code. On violating the inalienable right to privacy. 1. The illegal collection or distribution of information about a person’s private life, comprising his personal or family secrets, either without his consent or by disseminating this information to the public… and so on!
— Таки Я# (@srvfdr4), Twitter, July 28, 2019
Municipal Scanner argued in response that its campaign was perfectly legal:
1. Правомерно. Используется только публичная информация и сбора персональных данных нет
2. Сотрудники полиции должны понимать, что живут они в обществе, и их работа – защищать граждан, а не калечить их (а они калечат, привет @CKonovalov), превращаясь в опричников https://t.co/YOBV6d7Cyo
— Проект “Сканер” (@munscanner) July 30, 2019
1. It’s legal. Only public information is used and no personal data is being collected.
2. Police officers should understand that they are part of society and that their work is to defend citizens, not to maim them and become like oprichniks [Tsar Ivan the Terrible’s guardsmen known for terrorising civilians]
The same Twitter account added that there would be no need for “deanonymisation” if police wore badges displaying their identification numbers as required by law. The founders of PravNomer, an initiative to demand that police observe the law, note that police frequently cover these badges beneath their bulletproof vets. On 28 July the group launched a petition for identification numbers to be printed on police uniforms and helmets. These facts were widely pointed out by social media users discussing the “deanonymisation” campaign:
И какая вообще может быть “деанонимизация” применительно к сотруднику полиции? Сотрудник полиции по закону обязан представиться, прежде чем что-то делать с гражданином, нет у него никакого права на анонимность.
— водка и мельдоний (@treugolny_hui) July 30, 2019
How exactly can “deanonymisation” apply in the case of police? A policemen is legally obliged to introduce himself before engaging with ordinary citizens; he has no right whatsoever to anonymity.
— водка и мельдоний (@treugolny_hui), Twitter, July 30, 2019
What does deanonymisation tell us about the volatile state of Russian politics in mid-2019?
llya Milshtein, a columnist at Grani.RU, an independent news website blocked in Russia, wrote on 2 August that “deanonymisation” was a sign that the advanced technology used by authoritarian regimes to repress and surveil political opponents can be a formidable weapon in the hands of dissidents themselves. “Yes, the balance of power is unequal, but the faces of ‘deanonymised’ [policemen] armed to the teeth betray the same fear as the unarmed who oppose them. The outcome is unpredictable,” concluded the columnist.
Deanonymisation has reopened questions about what, or whom, militarised police forces appear to be hiding from; a question which is not only being asked in Russia. In his recent ode to Russia’s riot police written after the 3 August protest, Russian musician Andrey Makarevich wonders why the country’s riot police have taken to wearing balaclavas:
А может быть, маска нужна для острастки,
Чтоб знали, что люди, надевшие маски,
Порядок пришли защитить
И вовсе не склонны шутить
Наверно, всё так. Только я полагаю,
Задача у маски немного другая:
Она — чтобы не было видно,
Когда вам становится стыдно.
Maybe the mask is just for show,
You wear it so that others know,
That you defend the order of things,
That you’re no jokers; you serve kings,
That’s probably why; but I surmise,
The real need for your disguise:
Is so no-one will know your name,
When at long last you feel ashamed.
— Andrey Makarevich
“Deanonymisation” has shown that in times of near-complete digital surveillance, even the strong arm of the state cannot remain faceless, and neither can the masses of ordinary citizens in its way.

author: Maxim Edwards


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Netflix’s ‘The Great Hack’ highlights Cambridge Analytica’s role in Trinidad & Tobago elections · Global Voices
Jada Steuart

Screenshot taken from YouTube video, showing an excerpt from “The Great Hack,” a documentary related to Cambridge Analytica's alleged work during Trinidad and Tobago's 2010 general elections.
Netflix's new documentary “The Great Hack” — which takes a deep dive into how Cambridge Analytica and its former parent company, the SCL Group, were able to manipulate elections all over the world — has renewed an online discussion about corruption and voter manipulation in Trinidad and Tobago.
Cambridge Analytica is best known for using the data of millions of people without their consent for strategic marketing purposes in political campaigns like Donald Trump's 2016 presidential bid and Brexit's Leave Campaign. But the company also helped influence voting behaviour in Global South countries, Trinidad and Tobago being the most notable example highlighted in the documentary.
In the film, Cambridge Analytica says it worked for “the Indians” — meaning they worked on behalf of the majority-Indian United National Congress (UNC) party — and, by extension, the group of smaller affiliate parties that teamed up to defeat the incumbent People's National Movement (PNM), which primarily attracts Afro-Trinbagonian voters.
The audio from a Cambridge Analytica sales presentation illustrates how the company sought to influence young, black voters through a campaign titled “Do So”. At the time, most citizens thought the campaign was simply inspired by the actions of Percy Villafana, an elderly pensioner who defiantly crossed his arms in denial of access to his property when the then-prime minister and PNM leader, Patrick Manning, was canvassing voters in Villafana's neighbourhood pre-elections. But revelations about how Cambridge Analytica operated have since cast the seemingly grass roots movement in a far more sinister light.
A Cambridge Analytica spokesperson in the film said the campaign attempted to “increase apathy” among young, black voters so that this demographic would interpret the refusal to vote as “a sign of resistance against […] politics” and not show up at the polls.
The UNC went on to win the 2010 election:
After the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data scandal broke in 2018, the UNC has routinely denied knowledge of the company's existence and of having any relationship with them. UNC party leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, passed the buck, but the Congress of the People, one of several political parties that comprised the UNC-led coalition government back in 2010, later admitted that there had been “discussions and some engagement [with] SCL”.
Since the documentary's release on Netflix on July 24, 2019, both the general public and members of the government have responded, including Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, who revealed that his office has been in discussions with attorneys for Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie. The Trinidad and Tobago government wants Wylie to testify in front of a Joint Select Committee to shed light on the issue of micro-targeting in the country and provide evidence regarding which UNC members played a part in sanctioning the political strategy employed by Cambridge Analytica.
Many people who watched the documentary, both locally and internationally, expressed their shock that the company was able to manipulate the 2010 election by making people “not vote”:
This was a reverse nudge–sludge to supress voter turnout which capitalised on the youth sentiment to be lazy and rebellious. Quite interesting how they managed to make it work.
— Pratyasha Rath (@pratyasharath) August 3, 2019
Really appalling and sad! The awesome and distructive power of data in shaping how a country’s citizens view themselves… a thing to behold.
— Nikkia (@nikkastar) July 28, 2019
Others seemed unfazed that Trinidad and Tobago's name got called:
I not even surprised Trinidad & Tobago in this Cambridge Analytica bacanal
— Migz (@Migzdakid) July 29, 2019
Despite the massive amount of press that the Cambridge Analytica scandal received globally, the issue of how the company helped manipulate the electoral process in developing nations has been underreported, even though the majority of the company's elections-based clients are from the Global South.
The fact that many of these countries — including Trinidad and Tobago — do not have up to date cybersecurity laws has made it easier for companies like Cambridge Analytica to fly under the radar and work the system:
Out this week. The section about Cambridge Analytica’s work in Trinidad and Tobago (encouraging voter apathy in certain voters) is imho the most important bit. The way data analytics firms work in countries with less developed privacy laws is scandalous & still happening.
— Jamie Bartlett (@JamieJBartlett) July 21, 2019
The hope is that if and when Wylie comes to Trinidad and Tobago, he will not only provide evidence of a relationship between some of the UNC's top officials and Cambridge Analytica, but also enlighten the country's policymakers on the effects of micro-targeting on the internet. Wylie's potential visit is still under discussion between his attorneys and the Office of the Attorney General.

author: Jada Steuart


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A Hong Kong artist’s ‘surreal’ depiction of the anti-extradition protests · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Surrealhk: Colourful sticky notes are taking over the city… literally. Mostly supporting the protests and expressing anger against the Hong Kong government. From Surrealhk Facebook. Use with permission.
The Hong Kong Lennon Wall is a collective artistic work which draws its name from the original wall created in Prague after the death of singer John Lennon. The Hong Kong version of the mosaic wall first appeared during the 2014 Umbrella Movement when protesters posted colorful sticky notes with messages of support on the stairway heading to the Central Government Offices. During the 2019 anti-extradition protests, the wall was built again and other Lennon Walls appeared all over the island.
The edited image above, showing the exterior of Hong Kong government headquarters covered in blown-up sticky notes, has recently gone viral on Hong Kong social media. The artist behind the image is Tommy Fung, a photographer and graphic designer, who created the Surreal Hong Kong social media account to comment on life in Hong Kong.
In a telephone interview with Global Voices, Fung said that he migrated to Venezuela when he was a child and returned to Hong Kong in 2016 after the political and economic environment in Venezuela became increasingly difficult.
He started the Surreal Hong Kong project as a personal hobby in 2016 but the social media account has attracted advertisements and job requests, becoming a major income source for Fung. The artist explained why he used “Surreal Hong Kong” as the theme of his work:
When I first returned back to Hong Kong, everything looked so surreal to me: people here keep working without taking rest, everything is moving so fast. Back in Venezuela, the economy was so poor and political environment so unstable, but people are happy. While in Hong Kong, the city is so rich and safe, people are unhappy and do not have a sense of humor. The project is an outcome of my exploration of the city. At the same time, I want to magnify the sense of surrealist order which supports the rational reality that we are living in.
He compared his image editing style with others’ works:
A majority of the photoshopped images circulating online are too politically loaded. Very often, they are satire and mockery of the political situation. Politics is at the center of the work while artistic aspect is secondary. While my works are inspired by the reality and they cover a diverse aspect of lives in Hong Kong with a more positive attitude.
“No matter how colorful they are, after subdivided flats into rooms, they are just tiny dark cubicles that people call home.” From Surrealhk Facebook. Use with permission.
But the artist is not apolitical at all. Both of his most favorite pieces have strong social and political messages embedded in them. His first pick is an edited image of Choi Hung Estate:
Choi Hung Estate has become a popular touristic site for photo-taking because of its distinctive rainbow color. I edited the image to reflect the housing problem in Hong Kong – that apartments have become smaller and smaller as the property market is getting out of control.
His favourite piece is the government headquarter Lennon Wall (feature photo). He took the inspiration from the streets. It took the artist 20 hours to edit the image as every post-it note from the image was taken from a real one posted on the Lennon Walls in various districts.
The message of this work is very clear, every voice deserves to be heard.
Tommy has participated and taken photos of the anti-extradition protests since June. In addition to the Lennon Wall, his work has likened the protesters to superheroes, compared protest power to Dragon Ball Z, and depicted the protesters fighting against Gozilla.
“Stand up and raise your voice! Together we are more powerful than you can imagine!”  From Surrealhk Facebook. Use with permission.
“You don't need superpowers to be a hero!”  From Surrealhk Facebook. Use with permission.
“We are the light in the darkness… well, we and Goku!”  From Surrealhk Facebook. Use with permission.
The protests have been very surreal and it inspired me to represent and magnify the messages. I know that protesters are very depressed and hope my works can inject more positive energy into the movement. For example, when I see the lights on the protesters’ mobile-phones, the small dots can be aggregated into a powerful force like the dragon ball.
The artist did not hide his frustration with the Hong Kong government:
I really hope that they could work harder for a better Hong Kong and take Hong Kong people’s interest as the core of their administration.
When asked if he had anything to tell Global Voices’ audience, Fung replied with a phrase of support for Hong Kong and one of the most popular slogans in the anti-extradition protests: Hong Kong Add Oil!
To read more about Hong Kong anti-extradition protests, visit Global Voices’ special page.


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Algeria: A victory on the pitch and in the streets · Global Voices
Amina

The Algerian football team is welcomed home on July 20, 2019, after winning the African Cup of Nations 2019. Photograph by Amina Grine and reproduced with authorization.
Algeria's men's football team are champions of Africa again after a 29-year hiatus, but their 1-0 win over Senegal in Cairo, Egypt, is much more than a sports victory. Inspired by the protests for political change that have gripped Algeria since February, the team's success has steeled protesters in return.
Friday, July 19, 2019, will go down in history as the night Algeria regained the African Cup of Nations. It also saw the 22nd consecutive Friday protest since the self-styled hirak (meaning “movement” in Arabic) began in February to oppose then-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika assuming a fifth consecutive term in office.
Though Bouteflika resigned in early April, demonstrations have continued across the country, and in France and Canada, where there are large Algerian populations. Now, protesters call for root-and-branch political change, rejecting the old guard of politicians associated with Bouteflika.
On the night of the final game, the whole country was glued to the action in Cairo. Baghdad Bounedjah scored early, and Algeria held their lead to the final whistle, upon which millions of Algerians poured into the streets to joyfully celebrate the long-awaited title. Madjid Zerrouky, a journalist for Le Monde, posted this video from the heart of the celebrations in Algiers:
Et c'est parti pour une longue nuit de folie #Alger pic.twitter.com/8I7wsBs8k7
— Madjid Zerrouky (@madjze) July 19, 2019
Here goes for a long, crazy night #Algiers
The Algerian team showed great resolve to go through the tournament unbeaten, scoring thirteen goals and conceding two. The street protests of the five previous months had inspired them to win for the country, as midfielder Adlène Guedioura told the online newspaper AtlasTimes:
#Algerie: La Victoire de l’équipe nationale est due au Mouvement de révolte populaire le #Hirak annonce @AdleneGUEDIOURA pic.twitter.com/ZoFNVTpNhQ
— AtlasTimesأطلس تايمز (@Atlas_Times) July 20, 2019
The national team's victory is due to the people's uprising movement #hirak says @AdlèneGuedioura
Guedioura's remarks are echoed by journalist Hamdi Baala:
On s'habitue au bruit de l'hélicoptère mais pas à la révolution qu'il surveille. Le 22e vendredi de manifestations a commencé à Alger et il est spécial : l'Algérie va aussi jouer la finale de la CAN ce soir. Et ça inspire. pic.twitter.com/Rcs5d11Ee3
— Hamdi (@HamdiBaala) July 19, 2019
We've got used to the sound of the helicopters, but not the revolution they watch over. The 22nd Friday demonstrations have started in Algiers and they are special because Algeria are also playing the AFCON final tonight. And with that comes inspiration.
“No to the dictatorship and yes to the Africa Cup of Nations”, tweeted another young Algerian:
Et “oui” pour la coupe d'Afrique ?✌?#Algerie #حراك_19_جويلية https://t.co/BTIyFr6wjL
— Houda Henniche (@HoudaHenniche) July 17, 2019
Protest songs, such as “La liberté” [“Freedom”] and “La casa d'El Mouradia”—an unofficial anthem of the demonstrations written last year by football fans criticizing Bouteflika's four terms in office—were sung in the streets on the day of the final and again when the team prevailed. During the final, the fans’ song rang out from the stands in the Cairo International Stadium. It was recorded by an Egyptian supporter in the crowd:
Since I’ve been away, allow me to share some of my favorite moments from #AFCON2019 final, the top one being Algeria’s fans singing La Casa Del Mouradia pic.twitter.com/OI68kWYA08
— Mena (@menaaaly) July 24, 2019
Paradoxically, Algerian authorities had actually tried to harness the football team's success to diffuse the spirit of protest gripping the country. They flew 4,800 fans on 28 planes to Egypt for the final. Many Algerians saw straight through the ruse:
L'Algérie est championne d'Afrique ???, mais le combat continue ✊ pour la liberté !
> Le chants des supporteurs le jour de la finale : « Dites-leur, vous ne nous entuberez pas avec le ballon. Dites-leur : on arrachera la liberté quoi qu’il en coûte ». #Hirak #Algerie #CAN2019 pic.twitter.com/1OqGjt9eAV
— Bellahsene Nabil (@BellahseneNabil) July 22, 2019
Algeria are champions of Africa, but the fight for freedom goes on.
On the day of the final fans chanted “Tell them, ‘you will not shaft us with the match ball.’ Tell them we will take our freedom whatever the cost.'” #Hirak #Algeria #AFCON2019
Yazid Ouahib, chief sports editor of newspaper El Watan said that “the authorities reckon on reaping the rewards [of the victory] but are deaf to protesters’ demands. It is a form of corruption that will have no impact on the protest movement because the people have shown since February 22 that they will not be messed about.”
Their footballers’ success at the African Cup of Nations is a victory for all Algerians, which inspires the majority to go ahead and reform the country.
Une deuxième étoile en attendant la deuxième république. #Hirak #Harak #Algérie #TOTALAFCON2019
— Azeddine SALMI (@zsalmi) July 20, 2019
A second star [on the jersey] while we wait for the second republic.
#HIRAK #SON #EXCELLENCE LE #PEUPLE #ALGÉRIEN #UNI#Merci #LesVerts #Merci Pour #CAN2019
Sans #Oublié que le Peuple est plus que jamais déterminés à faire aboutir sa révolte jusqu’à #Satisfaction des #Revendications. #VOUSDÉGAGEZTOUS#NousNeSommesPasDupes pic.twitter.com/R787WD3EvX
— KARIM (@kingman20142019) July 23, 2019
#Hirak #HIS #Excellency the #United #Algerian #People #Thankyou #TheGreens #Thankyou for #AFCON2019
Not to #forget the People are more determined than ever to see the uprising through until the #demands are #satisfied
#Getoutthelotofyou #Wearenotfools

author: Amina


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Three naïve questions about Belarus · Global Voices
Ales Plotka

“Thrive, Belarus!” reads this poster quoting the country’s national anthem. Minsk, 2017. Photo (c): Maxim Edwards. Used with permission.
There’s a proverb in my country: “whatever you say about a Belarusan, it will not be true.” Never are those words truer than when foreigners discuss Belarus, repeating common conjecture and myths about one of Europe’s poorer-known countries. The best way to dispel those myths is to ask questions—but the questions I am asked also highlight the level of ignorance about Belarus.
What follows is my humble attempt not just to answer those questions; I’ll consider what they say about how others view us and how we view ourselves.
1. So, are you part of Russia or what?
Many casual acquaintances from places west of the River Bug (which is how we Belarusians define “The West”) simply don’t know that a country called Belarus exists. If they do know, then they usually know very little. If you can confidently find our country on the map, you can skip this part or re-read it to enlighten your friends who still have blind spots in their knowledge of European geography.
Why do so few people know about Belarus? First of all, good old human laziness plays its part, along with an unwillingness to delve into the complexities and realities of a immense territory that is often defined in the EU and US as the “post-Soviet space.” We might wonder why some countries are not referred to en masse as “post-Nazi.” This category frequently goes hand-in-hand with assumptions that everything on between Europe and China can be described as “Russian”. Secondly, this tragicomic misconception stems from the word “Belorussia,” which though anachronistic, is still widespread in both English and Russian. The word is an archaism, and is occasionally directly translated into foreign languages as “White Russia,” “Белая Россия,” “Weißrussland” or “La Russie Blanche.” But we’re not White Russians, we’re Belarusians or Belarusans (the author uses the form “Belarusan”, most commonly used by American Belarusans and activists — ed.)
2. But I’ve surfed the internet with Google Translate, and there are different versions of the country’s name…
In the Russian-speaking internet, the use of “Belorussia” versus “Belarus” (Белоруссия and Беларусь in Russian) is a heated conflict for armchair warriors of different ideologies. There are—without exaggeration—millions of comments of varying levels of offensiveness and logic about the issue. In the end, these can be boiled down to two arguments.
The first argument stresses the fact that some Russian dictionaries allow the usage of the word “Belorussia”. The second states that the country’s endonym in the Belarusian language is “Беларусь”. Those who argue for “Belorussia” often fall into the “apples and oranges” fallacy by referencing the fact that Russian speakers don’t use endonyms for other countries (e.g. “Suomi” for Finland or “Deutschland” for Germany). The catch here that Belarus is officially a bilingual country and all Belarusians also speak Russian. And officially, only “Belarus” and “Republic of Belarus” are considered the country’s endonyms, even when writing and speaking Russian.
This standoff results in each side gently mocking the other, a fair amount of memes, and occasionally some very heated and ugly disputes. And while the apolitical mass of people doesn’t think there’s much value to discussing the issue, more politically engaged people see the “Belorussia” versus “Belarus” test as one of the best ways of determining “us” from “them.”
Local intellectuals and active part of the society sees the term “Belorussia” not only a mistake but a markedly imperialistic and Russocentric reading of the country’s name. In the Belarusan capital of Minsk, more or less all publicly known Russians have taken this test with varying degrees of success. In 2014 Galina Timchenko, editor of the Russian independent news website Meduza, defended her use of “Belorussia” to news site Bolshoy.by with reference to dictionaries and even the Russian constitution. Furthermore Andrey Makarevich, frontman of Mashina Vremeni (or “Time Machine,” a popular Russian rock band) explained at a 2016 concert in Minsk that he wasn’t trying to anger Belarusans, and that he had just gotten used to the old, Soviet-era name for their country.
The two Russians’ answers weren’t met with the same amount of applause.
3. So do you see the Soviets as occupiers or friends?
As Belarus was a part of the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1991, many people feel a strong connection to the society in which they were born, as people would anywhere else. There are no other reference points; after all, connections to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (a large state which existed from the 16th to 18th centuries and included Belarus—ed.) are much more distant. The Soviet-era myth about the close brotherhood between the East Slavic peoples (Belarusans, Russians, and Ukrainians) also remains strong, but with each passing day we understand more and more that nostalgia for the Soviet past among Belarusan citizens and among citizens of neighbouring countries can mean totally different things.
In short, there is no consensus in Belarusan society on whether the Soviet period should be seen as occupation or not.
The official Belarusan historiography employs a favourable interpretation of the Soviet times, emphasising economic development and with no deep analysis or comprehension of the brutal repressions unleashed by the Soviets in the 1930s. On the other hand, these are not denied by official accounts and times are changing. Take Kurapaty, a wooded area on the outskirts of Minsk where the Soviet secret police carried out executions in 1937. Kurapaty played an important symbolic role during the collapse of the Soviet regime and the restoration of Belarusan independence in 1991. Over the following decades, only pro-democracy activists continued to commemorate the tragedy there. But today, even the former editor-in-chief for the newspaper published by the president’s office shows an interest.
The Belarus of the early Soviet period was a more diverse place than today. The name of the capital in four official languages (Belarusian, Russian, Polish and Yiddish) above Minsk Railway Station, 1926. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Unlike official accounts of the period, independent historiography doesn’t close its eyes to the fact that it was the Soviet project that dealt a decisive blow to Belarusan national identity. It was in Minsk where Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet leader from 1953 to 1964, remarked that Belarusans would be the first people to “build communism”, as they had nearly abandoned their mother tongue in favour of Russian. By the 1960s, all the state-sponsored programmes to develop national languages and cultures in the Soviet Union had been wound down. Khrushchev’s words still echo today and are considered to explain a lot about the Soviet attitude towards Belarus. But while this truth is bitter, it is not deadly.
Nowadays there is a renewed interest in studying, rethinking, and rediscovering the culture of Soviet Belarus of the 1920s and 1930s, before Josef Stalin’s purges. That interest makes sense; early Soviet Belarus was widely seen as a successor to the short lived Belarusan Democratic Republic (Bielaruskaja Narodnaja Respublika, BNR) which was proclaimed during WW1. Before the BNR declared its independence on 25 March 1918, the Soviet leadership generally didn’t regard Belarusans as a separate ethnic group.
During the first 15 years of the Soviet Belarusan government, officials from Moscow clearly understood that they literally spoke different languages from the target audience of their political project. Thus they decided to promote the Belarusan language, prompt heated debates about national identity in the newspapers, and declare not one but four official languages (Belarusan, Yiddish, Polish, and Russian), a very socially progressive move for the time that allowed for peaceful coexistence.
In some ways, the atmosphere of the period can be compared with the Weimar Republic in Germany. It certainly inspired a generation of young, socialist, Belarusian-language authors and was glorified in the memoirs of the Belarusan-born Polish writer Sergiusz Piasecki, who wrote of daring attempts at cocaine smuggling across the border with Poland. Soviet planners in Belarus called the country “Red Denmark” in homage not only to that country’s agricultural success but also in recognition of the fact that Belarusans would doggedly refuse to change their way of life on the khutor farmsteads for large socialist collective farms.
By 1937 the purchase funnel of Soviet idea has reached its aim, the need to gain popular support for Soviet rule had collapsed. Along came the Stalinist purges in which dissenters would either disappear or accept the new reality. Intellectuals who had advocated for the Belarusan language and culture, as well as the planners of the “Red Denmark,” took their place six feet under. Their course was abandoned in favour of harsh discipline of the new Soviet man. This new model citizen had been the subject of the speech in which Khrushchev derided the Belarusan language (in fact, he here had just repeated Stalin). All that was national was methodically eradicated until the cultural renaissance of the late 1980s, when dissenting voices gained strength again, only to restore sovereignty with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In February the renowned researcher Hanna Sieviarynec complained to me that she hadn’t been able to publish a research article on the rule of the Belarusan “national communists” in the 1920s and 1930s. Because the heroes of that story are inconvenient for all sides: state publications find them too nationalist and independent publications find them too “red.”
So only very few people today can give a sophisticated answer to this question—those who are ready to assess Belarusan life under the Soviet government not only through the victimisation of the former or the glorification of the latter. Everyone else still prefers the black-and-white reading.

author: Ales Plotka


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Indian government abolishes Kashmir’s special status, announces bifurcation · Global Voices
GV South Asia

Kashmiri woman protestor dares a policeman to stop her from moving ahead during restrictions imposed in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Administered Kashmir. Photo by Ieshan Wani, used with permission.
The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, issued a constitutional order on August 5 to revoke Article 370 of the Indian constitution that gave special status to the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. The move by India's BJP-led government, which would end seven decades of autonomy of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, is sparking political unrest, protests, and opposition.
Amit Shah, India's Home Minister and chief of right-wing ruling political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an affiliate, enforced the presidential decree to end the special status accorded to the region under the Indian constitution. The Home Ministry also seeks to pass a bill that would bifurcate the Jammu and Kashmir region into two separate union territories ruled by New Delhi. Integration of the disputed territory of Kashmir was one of the pledges made by the BJP in the April-May general elections.
Article 370 of India's 1949 constitution gave significant autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir. Any law passed by the Indian parliament could only be applied in the region after approval by the state governments. The August 5 decision of scrapping Article 370 brings Jammu and Kashmir under Indian law, as well as nullify Kashmir's constitution, flag, and laws pertaining to property and inheritance.
During the lead-up to the decision, internet shutdowns were reported. The government has flown tens of thousands of armed force personnel into Kashmir, fearing a repeat of the February 2019 suicide attack in Pulwama, which killed more than 40 Indian soldiers, ahead of India and Pakistan's Independence day celebrations in August.
Meanwhile, local Kashmiris, who have borne the brunt of incarcerations, mass rapes of Kunan Poshpora and injuries through pellet guns for seeking a referendum as mandated by United Nations, are being subjected to curfews and internet shutdowns since August 5. According to tracker internetshutdowns.in this is the 51st internet shutdown in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
Before the decision, India placed prominent politicians under house arrest and deployed thousands of armed force officials which some locals called the start of a long night for Kashmir.
Arrests have started. #Kashmir https://t.co/qaax0ejqDx
— Ieshan Wani (@Ieshan_W) 4 August 2019
The valley of Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947. For the last thirty years, Indian-administered Kashmir has faced an insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives. Modi's BJP had in its election manifesto promised to repeal Article 370, but only after consultations with all stakeholders. But experts have pointed out that Article 370 had been continuously violated during Modi's second term.
India and Pakistan have fought five wars over Kashmir. India's neighbour Pakistan, also a stakeholder in the Kashmir issue, has asked New Delhi to reverse its August 5 decision.
Wajahat Habibullah, a former senior bureaucrat in Jammu and Kashmir, has told Indian news agencies:
“This is a completely regressive step. You are reducing the power of the people…if you are making it (J-K) a UT, then it comes under the direct rule of the Union government. I think particularly at this time when the state is in the grip of unrest, it is an unwise decision. How? How does it change the border? How does it change anything? Does it change the borders at all or increase the deployment of forces? How will it change anything, it makes it worse.”
Meanwhile, India's opposition led by the Indian National Congress staged a walkout of the parliament on Monday. Leaders from local political outfit Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, along with Congress leaders Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, protested against the government's move terming it a “catastrophic step.”
The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti tweeted:
The overwhelming mandate that Modi ji got had given us hope that like a statesman he too would tread the path taken by Vajpayee ji & reach out to people of J&K. What an utter betrayal of trust.
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) 5 August 2019
Thankful to CPI(M) for speaking up. By spinning stories about a possible attack on Amarnath Yatra, GOI pulled wool over the eyes of Kashmiris. Flagrant violation in the most cowardly manner possible. Shameful https://t.co/Q30fHpMbuj
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) 5 August 2019
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan said:
Bifurcation of J&K requires consent of the elected assembly of the State. Also any amendment thru 370 to the subjects the Union can deal with in J&K, also requires consent of the J&K assembly. Can't be done by just President or Governor's consent. Unconstitutional
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) 5 August 2019
Journalist Aditya Menon questioned the move:
Accession of Kashmir to India was conditional to Article 370 and Section 35a. Now that govt wants to do away with it, does it mean accession is now null and void?
— Aditya Menon (@AdityaMenon22) 5 August 2019
Journalist Priya Ramani wrote:
pic.twitter.com/XKv0FYrsrh
— DarkSaber (@toy_vader) August 6, 2019
Phillip Bennion, EU Parliament member, said:
It's basically like England walking into Scotland with troops and getting rid of the Scottish Parliament and arresting all the Scottish nationalists. This is just not acceptable.
Author Krishna Partap Singh said:
When demonetisation was announced many of us warned that it was economic suicide,& the current state of the economy bears that out. Similarily,I predict that the brutish manner in which Modi Govt has handled Kashmir today is going to be seen as a Himalayan blunder in yrs to come.
— Krishan Partap Singh (@RaisinaSeries) 5 August 2019
Journalist Shivam Vij warns Indians to be worried about the government's decision:
It was a midnight coup at 11 am. The ensuing darkness is ominous. This could just be the beginning of a long night for the democracy in India. The Modi government will just decide to do whatever it likes to the Constitution, to laws and regions and territories, and people’s lives. And, it will get away with it.
The United States and China must not allow Kashmir to become a pawn in their ongoing disputes; on the contrary, the United States, China, the United Nations and other powers with influence over India and Pakistan must urgently do what they can to prevent India’s folly from escalating into a perilous and unpredictable regional crisis.
Journalist Iftikhar Gilani wrote:
Ironically, 100 year ago, Kashmir Pandits, raised slogan Kashmir for Kashmiris, forcing Maharaja Hari Singh to enact law to bar outsiders to buy land or seek employment in the state. Because, outsider Punjabi Muslims were dominating court, buying land &marrying Muslim girls.
— Iftikhar Gilani (@iftikhargilani) 5 August 2019
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the situation in Kashmir.

author: GV South Asia