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Demonstrators in Peru March 180 Miles to Protest Lead Poisoning in Children · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Cerro de Pasco, the city and the open pit mine. Image from La Última Reina (The Last Queen)'s Facebook page.
Post originally published in the blog Globalizado by Juan Arellano.
The region of Cerro de Pasco, in the central Andes of Peru, has traditionally been a mining area. This area is rich in mineral deposits that have been exploited since the 16th century, beginning in the colonial era. This is also where there are currently 14 mining sites operating at high production levels. Nevertheless, the wealth extracted from Pasco's land and its natural resources are not enjoyed by the majority of the region's inhabitants. In fact, statistics from last year show that between 2013 and 2014, Cerro de Pasco was the region that saw the sharpest rise in poverty in all of Peru.
Moreover, mining activities have apparently enjoyed little oversight, and for years have been contaminating the rivers and the land, creating a variety of environmental liabilities in the Pasco region. In the specific case of the city of Cerro de Pasco, the mining industry has both contaminated the local environment and created an open pit mine in the city center—one that continues to grow and engulf the city.
Image reads: Environmental emergency. March of Sacrifice. District of Simon Bolivar in Pasco. For the children poisoned with lead in their blood. Join the march for life. Image obtained from the blog Tomate Colectivo.
It's in this context that the population and authorities of the district of Simón Bolívar, in the city of Cerro de Pasco, approved a motion on September 5 to hold a “march of sacrifice” to the capital city, Lima, a distance of 296 kilometers, on September 17. The goal is to protest the central government's neglect of the 2,000 children poisoned with high levels of lead in their blood—a case that has gone on unresolved for four years.
On September 17, the march began, led by the mayor of the district of Simón Bolívar, Zumel Trujillo, who is also an engineer. Originally consisting of 58 marchers, significantly more people joined as the procession approached the town of Colquijirca in the south. On the 18th, they marched southeast around Lake Junín through the town of Ninacaca. On the 19th they passed through Carhuamayo, in the Junín region of the highlands, where they received support from the authorities and people in the area. On the 20th, they marched south through Ucco and also through the capital town of Junín.
@tromepe #PASCO MARCHA DE SACRIFICIO EN CONTRA DEL GOBIERNO CENTRAL POR LA SALUD DE NIÑOS CON PLOMO EN LA SANGRE pic.twitter.com/djHsXKF9Tl
— Juana Trujillo (@Maribel_tp22) septiembre 17, 2015
@tromepe #PASCO MARCH OF SACRIFICE AGAINST THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE SAKE OF THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN WITH LEAD IN THEIR BLOOD
— Juana Trujillo (@Maribel_tp22) September 17, 2015
On September 21 and 22, on their way south to the town of La Oroya, there was some friction with the police in the town of Paccha and at the entrance to La Oroya. On the 23rd, the police injured one of the marchers. By the end of the day, three more marchers were injured at the hands of the police. The incidents took place when protesters blocked the Central Highway (Carretera Central) (the route they were traveling) while resting.
No a la represión la marcha de sacrificio sigue con firmeza pic.twitter.com/FbbMf5wYZ8
— Jorge PALPA MENDOZA (@jorgepalpa) septiembre 22, 2015
No to the repression. The march of sacrifice continues vigorously.
— Jorge PALPA MENDOZA (@jorgepalpa) September 22, 2015
On September 24, after staying the night in the mountain town of Morococha, the march crossed through Ticlio in the west into the province of Lima, one of the highest points on the Central Highway at 4,818 meters (15,807 feet) above sea level. On the 25th, they passed through Casapalca and Chicla to the southwest, arriving in the district of San Mateo on the 26th. On the 27th, they went through La Cascada and Corcona to the west, and on the 28th, they were already approaching Chosica and Chaclacayo, just outside Lima.
Photos and video of #Pasco‘s protesters: http://t.co/TTulqzJg6e http://t.co/35Rv1CTTl8 via @vittor_luis #Peru pic.twitter.com/ZzguRp6lyW
— #FreeTenharim (@PersonalEscrito) septiembre 25, 2015
Photos and video of #Pasco‘s protesters: http://t.co/TTulqzJg6e http://t.co/35Rv1CTTl8 via @vittor_luis #Peru
— #FreeTenharim (@PersonalEscrito) September 25, 2015
On September 29, the marchers crossed through the district of Ñaña. Near the district of Huaycán, new incidents with the police were reported. In the neighborhood of Santa Clara, already entering the capital city of Lima, there were more clashes that left two people injured. The Squad of 58, as the marchers now called themselves, arrived in Ate Vitarte, a district in Lima, in the late evening.
‘Marcha de sacrificio’ terminó en enfrentamiento con la Policía http://t.co/n4Uu2sHe7m pic.twitter.com/60AfdRQBKF
— Canal N (@canalN_) septiembre 30, 2015
The ‘March of Sacrifice’ ended in a confrontation with the police ow.ly/SQx9o
— Canal N (@canalN_) September 30, 2015
On September 30, now in Lima, the representative for the marchers, Mayor and engineer Zumel Trujillo, was received by the Congressional Energy and Mining Commission (Comisión de Energía y Minas del Congreso). That night, the marchers camped out on Abancay Avenue in the heart of the capital city.
Marcha de sacrificio desde #Pasco bloquea tránsito en Lima ► http://t.co/8Slc8fZU6g pic.twitter.com/n8u6H7sKeC
— El Comercio (@elcomercio) octubre 1, 2015
March of sacrifice from #Pasco blocks traffic in Lima ► bit.ly/1heUqX0
— El Comercio (@elcomercio) October 1, 2015
On October 1, the marchers walked through many streets of Lima, toward Plaza de Armas and Palacio de Gobierno. Nevertheless, their path was blocked several times by heavy police forces. Eventually, they were received on the floors of Congress, and later in the afternoon, the leaders of the march held a meeting in the office of Peru's Prime Minister. Once the meeting ended the next day in the early morning hours, the leadership reported back to the group of marchers about the details of the proceedings, later releasing a signed agreement from the meeting.
Marcha de sacrificio desde #Pasco: llegan a acuerdos iniciales ► http://t.co/r0DoJnnmis pic.twitter.com/HjWraCf5pp
— El Comercio (@elcomercio) octubre 2, 2015
March of sacrifice from #Pasco: reaches initial agreements ► bit.ly/1L8MhPW
— El Comercio (@elcomercio) October 2, 2015
One of the key points agreed upon was that the Ministry of Health will medically examine the children affected by high levels of lead in their blood. Also, the Peruvian government will carry out a technical site survey of the location to build a clinic for heavy metals detoxification and a modern toxicology lab. In addition, a healthcare center will be constructed in the Paragsha neighborhood of Cerro de Pasco, and other project plans to build health care centers in more towns will be evaluated. On the environmental side, the government agreed to monitor the closure of areas with strip mining, tailings, and toxic pools that still await shutdown, and to neutralize water sources that have become acidic, oversee all relevant audits.
Ministra Huaita destacó nivel de diálogo en negociación entre Cerro de Pasco y el Ejecutivo http://t.co/cbThnLQDax pic.twitter.com/zVSXcr3woK
— Ministerio de Mujer (@Mimp_Peru) octubre 4, 2015
Minister Huaita highlighted the level of dialogue in negotiation between Cerro de Pasco and the executive office goo.gl/NVJI9v
— Ministerio de Mujer (@Mimp_Peru) October 4, 2015
Lima media outlets covered the story of the march, and news of the poisoned children. Elizabeth Lino is the activist behind La Última Reyna (The Last Queen), a project aimed at giving visibility to these issues. According to Lino, “they succeeded in putting (the issue) on media and political agendas… almost all the channels covered it, even Telesur took note, but the problem is that more is said about the ‘children with lead’ and little is said about the environmental liabilities (toxic clean-up sites), which is what ultimately causes all of this.”
Gobierno debe cobrar indemnizaciones a minera Volcán por contaminación de plomo en Cerro de Pasco vía @Cuarto_Poder pic.twitter.com/dPbP4APpWG
— El Útero de Favre (@uterofavre) octubre 5, 2015
Government should charge indemnities from the Volcán mining company for lead contamination in Cerro de Pasco via @Cuarto_Poder
— El Útero de Favre (@uterofavre) October 5, 2015
The grassroots media project Tomate Colectivo, documented a few moments of the march as it passed through Lima and interviewed one of the marchers. Here is the eyewitness account:
To view the video with English subtitles, click here.
Espacio abierto (Open Space), another alternative media collective, also covered the March of Sacrifice to Lima, writing, “It is clear to us that the maneuvers of the press, the media, and the State will not cease to delegitimize the stories, the demands, and the righteous struggle these fellow Peruvians have come here to show us. Nonetheless, we believe it is possible to set up other potential communication channels—true communication with no intermediaries.”
To view the video with English subtitles, click here.
Finally, César Sáenz Suárez writes in his blog about the perhaps-little-known aspects of the Pasqueño issues, such as how the population has less access to water rights than the mining industry and the levels of contamination produced by the negligent mining production, among other concerns:
Las condiciones de vida son difíciles. Es increíble como este lugar aporta tanto a la economía nacional y sus habitantes carecen de servicios básicos. Han utilizado una laguna artificial como relleno sanitario. Utilizan este espacio como desague en cuyo alrededor viven personas. Este lugar es un foco infeccioso de alto riesgo. Los habitantes de este lugar no pueden seguir recibiendo la indiferencia del estado y la ciudadanía. Requieren la atención y solución de sus demandas. […] Uno no puede permanecer indiferente con la salud de los niños.
Living conditions are tough. It's unbelievable how this place adds so much to the national economy and yet its inhabitants lack basic services. They have used an artificial pond as a landfill. They use this space like a sewer, even though people live all around. This place is a hotspot for high-risk infections. The inhabitants of this place continue to receive only indifference from the state and its citizenry. Their demands require attention and solutions. […] One cannot remain apathetic to the health of children.
Related links:
Children with lead in their blood in Cerro de Pasco—a documentary uploaded to YouTube.
The cycle of mining sector violations—research from Convoca.pe.
The flat rate of large-scale mining—research from Convoca.pe.
Corporate strategy—research from Convoca.pe.
Ladies and gentlemen, come to tour the open pit mine—video awarded by the Global Voices VideoActivo project in the Environmental category.

author: Juan Arellano


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GV Face From Gaza: Living and Blogging Under the Occupation · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

Since October 1 knife attacks, shootings and protests have become near-daily occurrences in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. At least 57 Palestinians and eight Israelis have been killed since the beginning of the month.
During these tense times what is life like for Gaza's 1.8 million residents? The 40 kilometer-long strip is still reeling from the effects of the 50-day Israeli offensive in 2014 that killed 2,100 people and reduced 40% of the area to rubble.
In this episode we speak to Omar Ghraieb, a popular blogger and journalist based in Gaza. Omar talks about documenting life in the occupied strip since 2007.
Here are some excerpts from our conversation:
I started the first English language blog in Gaza and I decided to be me. If you want to be truthful, you have to share it as it is. The wars came and went. We survived. And I decided to not just share the news, that 40 people were killed. 100 people were killed. I decided to share stories. Also my own stories and through my own eyes. I shared tips, what to do, not to do, how to stay safe. […]
I live in Gaza. What is safety? What is fear? That is not something that I chose at all. That is something that was thrown at me and I had to live with it. So I decided to keep it real. Funny moments, sad moments, tips, everything.
About Omar's reporting during the 2014 Gaza offensive, he explains:
I think I didn't sleep at all for the first three weeks. I was high on adrenaline. I didn't want to miss anything. I wanted to make sure my family is safe. I wanted to make sure I was tracking news, reporting it. It was a constant battle with you trying to stay safe, stay healthy, stay awake, stay alert, keep everything charged, make sure you have like five hundred backup plans for power outages, for the internet. I secured a generator, I secured three batteries for the router, my mobile, my laptop. It was truly a constant battle, everyday you have to go through it just to get online. You are telling everybody that you are fine. You are reporting. You are showing everything that is happening. I would be running frantically like my mobile is about to die, I have to move to my laptop. Even daily life here is a challenge. So have to through it through war. I don't know how I did it. I didn't lose my life. I didn't lose my house, my family. But I don't know how I got through it.
He continues:
Bombs are falling. The house is shaking. And what do I do? I am in the corner holding my mobile, reporting of course, in the dark, reminding myself that I'm going to write about what I like in Gaza. Who are the people here that inspire me? Just to hold on to hope. And sometimes it got to the point where my mobile resembled hope and life.That if it was a very loud airstrike, the house shakes and you move. I would be flying through the corridor. Holding on to my mobile so hard, more than life, because for me at that moment my mobile resembled life and hope. Because I was writing my own hope. I was holding on to life by reminding myself that I am going to survive this. Gaza is going to survive this. We have been through this. Gaza is beautiful.
Omar talked about the global network of activists that helped him and other Palestinians continue reporting during the offensive.
I was truly flabbergasted, impressed and heart-warmed that activists around the world who support Palestine came together, kept our accounts as safe possible. They kept us online. They fought back hackers, they sent us links. Told us what to do and how to stay online even if the internet goes out. It was truly a family of local activists, international activists and citizen journalists.
He emphasized that he doesn't want his reporting to be just about war, because that doesn't do Gaza or the people of Gaza justice:
There is something that most media do not show you. And is the beautiful side. People are humans here. We have families. We go out. We laugh. We love life. We love hope. In summer, most Gazans are on the beach, you can't see the beach from the amount of people there. We have amazing sunsets. People here are so warm. We have amazing weather and amazing people. And why shouldn't I shed light on that? That yes, Gaza is a beautiful place, despite what you see and hear, and despite what I see and hear.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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How Poor Service Turned Into Slut Shaming in Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Photo by Flickr user Charlotte Cooper. CC BY 2.0
Women always seem to get the blame. Case in point: a female customer who was having trouble with her iPhone took it to a Trinidad-based company called “Bad Robot” for repairs. Months later, nude pictures of herself — allegedly lifted from her phone — appeared all over social media.
She complained, both to the store owner and in an online post.
According to the blog Square Peg (Round Hole), here's what happened after that:
Angry that you would publicly reveal the wrongdoing as you saw it, the owner then attacks you via social media and shares the pics for spite. Even worse, people following this increasingly public spectacle are now blaming you for daring to use your personal property as you chose. Instead of… oh, I don’t know… condemning the person who stole from you.
Of course, not everyone was adopting the “blame the victim” stance. Most notably, Anya Ayoung-Chee, a former Miss Trinidad and Tobago and Project Runway winner who had the first-hand experience of having a sex video stolen and made public after her computer went in for repairs (albeit not at the same company), was quick to condemn the owner of “Bad Robot” for how the debacle was handled:
I am utterly shocked by your slanderous and outrageous behaviour. I highly recommend you immediately stop what you are doing, recoil, reflect and better yourself. You are doing yourself absolutely no favours as a business owner or a person who I assume wishes to maintain respectable relationships with other people in your community. For my own reasons I have NEVER even publicly addressed my own similar situation, however I cannot stand by and watch this happen to another person. This abuse MUST stop.
Even if your company was not at fault for the initial crime, you are personally incriminating yourself now. Find a more intelligent and effective method to address your purported grouse.
To all the salacious social media cowards following along — liking, commenting, sharing — I implore you to recognize that you are complicit in this deplorable act of invading someone's privacy and damaging their character. Believe me, you would not want the table's [sic] turned.
Ayoung-Chee's post attracted a huge wave of support and was widely shared. In a public post, Nigel Tyrell P. Reid commented:
The winner of the internet today is Anya Ayoung-Chee. Raucous applause!!!!! Just raucous!!!!!
The backlash may have prompted this “public apology” from the company's owner, Jeffrey Charles:
Recently a customer bought an issues to the management about some leaked nude photos and alluded it was done by one of the employees of the establishment. I indicated to the said customer that I will investigate the matter and get back to her as the employee in question in not in our employment anymore. To my surprise the next morning my phone is ringing off the hook and my inbox is fill with messages about the conduct of my store. I was then told that my store that I built from the ground up and put some many hours in to establish my brand was being dragged through the mud on social media.
I found this to be unfair as I had promise[d] to look into the matter. […] I lashed out at the customer in the same like manner on social media, which caused the matter to escalate further…
Charles said the employee claimed that he fixed the phone in full view of the customer, adding:
As everyone knows with the new iOS software iPhone requires a password. Her screen LCD was damage[d] and her entire phone was blackout [sic] so the only way to see the screen and enter the password was to change the screen, which was done in her presence. The question to be asked is at what point did the employee invade this customer[‘s] privacy? This incident occurred three months ago and it's unfair that Bad Robot[‘s] name is being dragged into dispute without any evidence of wrong doing.
To add fuel to the flame, mainstream media covered the story and interviewed local women's advocate Hazel Brown, who suggested that it was the woman's fault for not taking the necessary precautions to protect her images. Netizens were incredulous. Facebook user Rhoda Bharath said:
Hazel Brown slut shame the girl….I cyah make this shit up!
And they want a Ministry.
Dear Sweet Baby Jesus, I need a drink.
Soon she will say women does look for rape.
Square Peg added:
Let me be very clear: first of all, no one is responsible for anyone else’s behavior. Did the businessman have a right to get angry when he discovered that she had posted about the incident in relation to his company before (as he claims) he had a chance to investigate? Sure. Did that anger give him the right to compound the initial violation by posting the pics? Nope.
The situation had bloggers discussing the need for the implementation of the country's Cyber Crime Bill. The Eternal Pantomime blog went on to share practical online protection tips from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, saying:
Don’t fall for stupid guilt-tripping arguments whose only purpose is to make women feel ashamed for having sexual experiences and/or taping them. In the same breath, publicly posting and sharing your intimate moments are a No-No. That could get you – the sharer – into trouble as well. The owner/manager of that gadget repair company was relying on public naming and shaming and mob mentality to beat a woman into submission. Thankfully there were Trinis ready and willing to show him the error of his ways.
Square Peg further delved into the legality and ethics of the situation:
The victim (and yes, she is a victim) is a grown woman who has every right to use her personal property in any legal way she saw fit. Regardless of how you personally feel about it, her decision to take those pics was quite legal. What was quite possibly illegal (I’m not quite sure, given the state of limbo in which our cyber crime laws currently reside) and definitely morally despicable was the decision to steal her private photos and share them. And let me be clear here, everyone who has since shared them is equally guilty of violating her right to privacy.
Satirical website The Late O'Clock News couldn't resist getting a word in:
We have been warning women about their behaviour, and the consequences they attract. They take provocative pictures of themselves and complain when they get leaked. They wear revealing clothes, then complain when they attract unwanted attention. Well after countless hours of research and study, we have found that none of this would happen if women didn’t exist. By existing as a woman, by default you invite many ills into your life.
As for the store's owner? According to this public Facebook post, “no exposure is bad exposure”.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Kotatsu or Korsy? Is This Heating Method Japanese or Iranian? · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Japanese women lounge in their kotatsus. Image from Bored Panda's Twitter account.
‘Japanese or Iranian?’ asks Golnoush Niknejad, an Iranian-American journalist after reading a Bored Panda article on an “awesome Japanese invention” called the kotatsu.
Japanese or Iranian? https://t.co/X7nP0Q8G5D — Golnoush (@TehranBureau) October 28, 2015
While this Japanese winter warming technique of a heater under a blanketed table seems like a novel invention to outsiders, it's a familiar and traditional technique for Iranians.
Traditional coal burning Korsi used in Iran at the beginning of the 20th century. Image from Wikipedia, CC0 1.0.
Instead of kotatsu, Iranians call it a korsy, and it's a central piece in the traditional winter solstice rituals known as Shab-e Yalda.
It's not clear who invented it first, but a quick search of the Iranian version gives you results back to the beginning of the 20th century. Most Iranians maintain oral knowledge of the tradition passed through generations, associating it with the Qajar Iranian dynasty of the 18th century. The Wikipedia entry for the kotatsu, however, dates the invention to the 14th century.
The Global Voices Japan Editor, Nevin Thomson explains:
It’s hard to say when and how the kotatsu first developed in Japan, but it almost certainly dates back to the practice of having a charcoal fire in a sunken hearth (an irori) that would be used for cooking. Japanese homes did not have chimneys so the charcoal smoke was released directly into the thatch, and would have provided waterproofing over time.
Obviously an irori would not have provided too much heat (Japan in winter is actually pretty cold) so people would have to bundle up wearing clothes made of hemp (or later on, after contact, cotton).
After World War II when people finally became more affluent the kotatsu blanket would have been adopted.
Regardless of who came up with it first, it seems both Japan and Iran find common ground in cozy winter techniques.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Netizen Report: US Tech Companies Grapple with EU Data Rules in a Post-Snowden World · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Pirate Party demonstrators in Berlin, 2013. Photo by Mike Herbst via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The US and EU Internet industries are still reeling from the recent strikedown of Safe Harbor provisions between the EU and US, which facilitated the transfer of data between Europe and the US, despite the higher standards for privacy required in the EU.
The EU Court of Justice struck down the agreement in early October, expressing concern that US government surveillance as illustrated by the Snowden revelations rendered any safeguards instituted by US firms inadequate if not entirely moot. US companies are beginning to institute back-up plans, with some creating new data centers in the EU and others seeking to modify their systems at home.
Microsoft put forward a four-step proposal to address what Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith called the “privacy Rubik’s cube” of balancing privacy rights, public safety and the global Internet. In a blog post, Smith wrote:
…privacy rights cannot endure if they change every time data moves from one location to another. Individuals should not lose their fundamental rights simply because their personal information crosses a border.
The proposal stipulates that people’s legal rights must move with their data — so the US would only demand access to information coming from Europe in compliance with EU law. It also suggests that governments on both sides should only seek access to data by requesting it from the companies themselves, rather than spying on or hacking into companies’ systems.
The proposal does not address the thorny issue of the privacy rights of people who reside in Europe but hold citizenship in a third country. Like much commentary on the ruling, it seems limited to data belonging to “Europeans”, which could mean EU citizens or residents, but might not extend to people who are simply in the EU without official status of any kind. In light of the ongoing refugee crisis in the region, the question of to whom, precisely, the ruling will apply, may merit greater attention.
The Cuban street artist and political blogger Danilo Maldonado Machado, known to many as “El Sexto” (“the Sixth”), was released from prison October 20 after being held for nearly 10 months without charge. He was detained December 25, 2014 ,when he painted the names of Raúl and Fidel Castro on the sides of two pigs; he had planned to release them in a public park in Havana as an incendiary act of artistic expression. Amnesty International considered him a prisoner of conscience, and a large campaign to #FreeElSexto, now celebrating the artist’s release, was organized in response.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister announced plans to establish a registry of websites blocked for distributing “forbidden content.” Websites featuring pirated content violating copyright, child pornography, malware and viruses, and phishing content will be listed on the registry, though it’s unclear how such a blacklist would be instituted or whether court approval would be required to block a site.
Zainab Al-Khawaja was sentenced by the Bahrain Court of Appeal to a year in prison for insulting the king of the wealthy Gulf nation and served a fine of roughly USD 8000. Zainab is the sister of internationally recognized Bahraini human rights defender Maryam Al-Khawaja, who serves as acting president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
The German Parliament passed a new data retention law requiring Internet and telecommunications companies to store their users’ metadata, including phone numbers, date and time of phone calls and text messages, location data, and IP addresses—and make it available to law enforcement agencies when they investigate “severe crimes.” The bill looks marginally more protective of Germans’ privacy than a 2010 data retention law that was struck down by Germany’s constitutional court. This version excludes the content of communications, reduces the retention period from six months to 10 weeks, and requires that data be encrypted and stored in Germany. The bill still must pass the parliament’s upper house and be signed by the German president before it becomes law.
Netizens from around the world marked the one-year anniversary of the imprisonment of Alaa Abd El Fattah, an icon of the Egyptian revolution who was given a five-year prison sentence for allegedly taking part in a protest, “assaulting a policeman and stealing his walkie talkie.” Abd El Fattah has been jailed under each of Egypt’s governments since (and including) the regime of Hosni Mubarak. To express their support for Alaa, allies changed their avatars to an infamous image of him and tweeted about his case and work as a human rights advocate throughout the day on October 27. In Cairo, Alaa’s family took the protest to the streets, standing in front of the Ittihadeya Presidential Palace to protest his imprisonment.
Ethiopia’s Zone9 bloggers, who were acquitted of terrorism charges and released from prison last week after spending 18 months behind bars, reflected on their experience in an article on Global Voices. They wrote:
Our detention tells a broader story of our country. We were able to witness the price of freedom of expression is dearly expensive. We are firsthand witnesses of injustice. More than anything, we have learned that a nation which is rampant with injustice is the foremost enemy of its law abiding citizens.
The bloggers also expressed their thanks for the support of their friends, family, media organizations, rights groups, and the community who showed solidarity for their cause.
Ellery Roberts Biddle, Sam Kellogg, Hae-in Lim, James Losey and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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On Drawing Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution as a Comic Strip · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

Hong Kong's Admiralty protest site in 2014. PHOTO: Jason Li
Editor's note: This article is written by Jason Li, the cartoonist behind “Add Oil Comics“. In it, he reflects upon how he was inspired by the discussion surrounding Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution, a series of protests demanding genuinely democratic elections. The thing that makes Jason's work different from other satirical comics is their use of images to communicate the stories of social events to ordinary people—the comics’ conversational style invites non-activists to join in the discussion. That's the reason they sometimes go viral after inmediahk.net releases them on its Facebook page. This is the first in a series of articles reflecting on this experiment in creating a new genre of political cartoons.
We were entering the second month of Occupy Hong Kong. Throngs of students and adults were camped out in high-traffic neighborhoods, waging a long battle for a more open and democratic process around the election of the city’s highest-ranking government official, the Chief Executive.
Despite occupying a four-lane highway downtown and key intersections elsewhere, the protesters had yet to persuade the government to change its plans for electoral reform. They had the numbers—over 100,000 people joined the protest at its peak. They had the world’s attention—Occupy Hong Kong graced the cover of Time magazine not once, but twice. And they were asking nicely—the protests remained peaceful despite police and gang incursions). What more could the protesters do to convince the government to change its mind?
I supported the protests, and I wanted to help. But as an outsider to the world of politics, I wasn’t sure what I could do. For many nights in a row, my friend Lokman Tsui and I had been showing up at the protest site down by the highway to show our support. It was electrifying to be part of the movement, but as the weeks wore on it began to feel disempowering. Our numbers were thinning, and the government seemed content to sit back and wait for us to tire ourselves out. The atmosphere on the ground was tense. Nobody knew what was going to happen next.
Like many others around me during this period, I was glued to the news. Scanning the headlines one day, I came across an article on Inmediahk—a local independent Chinese-language news site—by a young teacher-in-training about her struggles at home. The piece was powerfully written, poetic in its succinctness, and described a common problem faced by many of the student protesters. The author writes about the tense situation that existed between her, an avid supporter of the protests, and her mother, who thought of the protesters as entitled brats. She ends the piece with a plea to her mother, asking the latter to look at the broken system around her, rather than simply rely on biased reports in the local mainstream media.
Reading the article, I found myself subconsciously imagining what it would look like as a comic strip. By the time I reached the end the cartoonist in me had decided that it would make a great comic. But to make sure my instincts weren’t completely off the mark, I checked in with Lokman. I sent him an email and asked, “What about turning this letter into a comic like this — can do Chinese and English versions?” “I love the idea!” he replied.
1st draft of the comic.
After several days of drawing, re-drawing and coloring, I was at last satisfied with the end result. I released the comic online: on Tumblr, Twitter and the Inmediahk website. The comic received some traction on Tumblr and Twitter (35 and 50 reblogs and retweets, respectively) but failed to elicit much of a response on Inmediahk (1–2 paltry comments). It wasn’t a stellar response, though I didn’t have any expectations at the time. Turning the article into a comic was as much an act of self-expression as it was an experiment in internet publishing and awareness raising.
Read the original, Chinese version of this comic:
A few days later, Lokman and I spoke to the team at Inmediahk about publishing the comic on their Facebook page. We figured it couldn’t hurt to ask, as we ourselves didn’t have access  to Inmediahk’s core audience of Hong Kong-based, Chinese-speaking students and professionals. (Tumblr and Twitter do not have much reach here, for example.) After some back and forth, they agreed to publish it.
A few hours later, it went viral.
The comments poured in. First, there was a wave of commiseration:
我以為得我一個先同老豆老母抄大獲 :-(
I thought I was the only one who had a big fight with my parents :-(
我爸媽都係咁的:’(
My dad and mom are like this too :’(
Sad but true.
Then a wave of consolation:
你地只想用生命同身體來改變社會,但你父母只想用身體同生命來守護你
You want to use your body and life to change society, but your parents only want to use their body and life to protect you.
不要緊。相信自己的信念就可以了。父母年紀大、要改變他們的想法不是一件容易的事。
Don’t worry. Stick to your beliefs. Our parents are old, it’s not easy to change their minds.
A few sympathetic parents even joined the fray:
我跟兒子一起去旺角，看見他中胡椒噴霧，吃警棍，心好痛，跑到前面叫警察不要亂打示威者。只為了兒子將來在香港可以生活得有尊嚴。
I went with my son to Mong Kok, saw him get pepper sprayed, beaten with a police baton, my heart hurt, I ran up front to tell the police not to randomly strike protesters. I just want my son to be able to live with dignity in Hong Kong.
The amount and intensity of the responses was overwhelming. I had hoped that my comic would resonate with the inmediahk.net audience. But I had not anticipated that people would connect to it emotionally, take solace in its words, and feel compelled to share their own stories. Nor did I ever dream that it would be shared on Facebook 2,696 times (the original, text-only article was shared “only”  810 times) and reach a grand total of 783,872 people there. Over the next few days I watched, wide-eyed, as the comments and numbers continued to roll in.
As the activity slowed to a halt a week later, I realized that maybe I was on to something.
A version of this article was originally published on Medium on October 24, 2015.


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Russian Lawmakers Reportedly Consider Adding ISIS to List of ‘Undesirable’ NGOs · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Open Russia's Maria Baronova invites questions. Her civic organization is threatened with being outlawed in Russia. (Text translated into English by Kevin Rothrock). Photo: Facebook.
The Russian government has a formal list of what it calls “undesirable organizations.” Any group on this list is said to threaten the country’s “basic constitutional order, its defense capability, or its state security.” When an organization becomes “undesirable,” it’s forced to shut down all operations in Russia, and its employees face criminal charges, if they don’t find new jobs. The heads of these organizations can go to prison for up to six years.
So far, the Russian authorities have registered just one organization on the “undesirables” list: the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a US-Congress-funded nonprofit group. Russia’s Attorney General and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are responsible for determining which groups go on the list, which is itself hosted and enforced by the Ministry of Justice. (The list is available online here.)
Though they lack the legal power to make groups “undesirable,” Russian lawmakers have still tried to play a role in the process, petitioning the Attorney General and Justice Ministry to add more than a dozen other organizations. (Note to readers: one of the groups on lawmakers’ list is the Open Society Foundations, which funds RuNet Echo.) Groups of deputies in the Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, have written letters, and a committee in the Federation Council, the parliament’s upper house, has drafted its own informal “stop-list.”
Yesterday, October 27, sources told the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia that senators are preparing new additions to their “stop-list,” including the Ford Foundation (which closed its Moscow office in 2009), the Jamestown Foundation, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s new group Open Russia. Surprisingly, there’s also talk about adding ISIS, the militant group and self-proclaimed Islamic state and caliphate, which is already banned in Russia as an extremist organization.
Adding a jihadist group to a list mainly populated by US-led democracy-promotion organizations would send a powerful signal, equating to terrorism things like fellowships for activists and journalists.
The Federation Council’s “stop-list” doesn’t carry the power of law, however, and NED is still the only truly outlawed “undesirable” in Russia. Landing on the “stop-list,” though, is still gravely concerning to these groups, given senators’ claims that they’re working in close consultation with the Attorney General and other officials. If police did agree to ban any of the groups on the Senate’s list, it would be devastating to that organization’s civic efforts in Russia.
Facing this threat, you might expect the staff at these institutions to shy from the public eye and hope the authorities forget about them.
Open Russia’s Maria Baronova, who lives in Moscow and coordinates the organization’s projects on the ground there, is doing no such thing. Yesterday, she posed nude to promote her online ask-me-anything session with the website TheQuestion, where she parodied a recently-published NSFW nude photoshoot with Lesya Ryabtseva (a controversial figure at the radio station Echo of Moscow), and drew additional attention to the potentiality of her employer being outlawed alongside ISIS.
On Twitter, Baronova fielded several unserious questions about her nudity, but she also received a number of sincere queries about her political beliefs and the merits of civic activism in Russia today.
Given the possibility that her outfit could be added to a list with ISIS, it’s ironic that Baronova is rather hawkish on foreign policy issues, supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea, placing significant blame on Kyiv for the “civil war” in eastern Ukraine, and sarcastically saying Russia’s intervention in Syria and return to Great Power politics is “cool.”

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Social Media Help Trinidad and Tobago Police Arrest Child Abuser · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

Photo by Tom Raftery, August 6, 2010. CC 2.0. Edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Trinidad and Tobago used its social media powers for good this past week, when a video of a man abusing a toddler for refusing to drink a bottle of milk was widely shared, leading to the arrest of the man, Dexter Gobin, and his Jamaican wife, Yanique Taylor-Gobin, neither of whom are the child's parents. Gobin has since been granted bail at TT $150,000 (slightly more than US $23,000), which he apparently could not raise. (His wife is still in detention on the grounds of overstaying her time in Trinidad.)
Note: Global Voices is not sharing the original video out of respect for the rights of the child and the laws relating to abuse and domestic violence in Trinidad and Tobago.
The social media outcry was swift and vociferous. One Facebook user, Franz Gillezeau, posted a status update that echoed what many netizens were feeling:
Once they are found I hope they are dealt with in kind.
In a later post, Gillezeau commented:
‘Accused child abuser Dexter ‘Jahlo’ Gobin had to be separated from other prisoners…yesterday after they threatened to kill him.’
Yes fat man, you in for a good ole time on the inside. Have fun.
Prison inmates in Trinidad and Tobago are known to have no tolerance for child abusers and often carry out vigilante justice on anyone incarcerated for such crimes.
Several bloggers shared their thoughts about the incident. Interestingly, before the video was even released, Barbados Underground published a post by human rights activist Felicia Browne, where she argued that violence against children is far too widespread across the region:
In many Caribbean societies, child abuse has created serious developmental challenges for children and young adolescents. Young children are increasingly becoming victims of abuse, especially in domestic violence cases.
Over the past few months, the Caribbean Mentorship Institute is alarmed by the number of children that have died due to abuse. Child fatalities due to abuse and neglect are still underreported. One report on national child abuse and neglect deaths estimates that approximately 50 percent of deaths reported as ‘unintentional injury deaths’ are reclassified after further investigation by medical and forensic experts as deaths due to maltreatment or physical abuse.
[…]
The Institute adds that though effective parental education is being provided to new parents, not enough is being done to guard against excess force being inflicted on children.
Sheila Rampersad, guest blogging at Wired868, saw the video as “yet another window opened into the culture of violence in T&T”:
What of the thousands of children being similarly brutalised—and then some—who are not filmed and featured in news stories? What of those being savaged as you read this?
There is an epidemic of violence against women and children. Those who write letters to the editor and call in on radio talk shows to ask ‘What has become of T&T?’ have been living under rocks; this has always been a dark, violent place.
Social media and greater public awareness are showing us what has existed for generations and what is largely responsible for the explosion of violent criminality in contemporary times.
Her post went on to explain that the rights of society's most vulnerable groups—”children, women, the elderly, the disabled, [and] the homeless”—have not been put on the political front burner or made a national priority. Neither has the electorate spoken out en masse to demand it, she writes, saying “politics keeps pushing against progress and ultimately abusing those most vulnerable”:
Sitting in the gender ministry is an action plan for children and families compiled by former minister Verna St Rose-Greaves. After she was unceremoniously removed from the Cabinet, one or two references were drawn from it but follow-through action was discontinued in pure political bad mind. […]
Forgive me as I repeat ad nauseam that until the Children Act (2012), government after government was satisfied with legislation on children dating back to 1925 and the package of legislation to protect and nurture children drafted under then attorney general Ramesh Lawrence-Maharaj remained untouched under two PNM administrations only to be rushed through Parliament in the dying hours of the PP administration. The consequence is that there are legal provisions in place with very few supporting structures.
Rampersad's solutions? She advises utilising the University of the West Indies to assist in producing better trained social workers, as well as introducing constant tracking and monitoring of children to reduce the risk of abuse, a properly staffed police unit dedicated to child protection, and improved facilities for children in state care.
One blog, A Trini Speaks, which posts in dialect, recalled several other incidents of child abuse that have been shared on social media:
Is not de first child abuse in T&T tuh reach social media. Orf de top ah mih head ah recall it had one wid ah woman beatin she chile wid ah shovel an ah next one wid ah lil boy chained up in dis yard like ah dorg.
[…]
Mih sense is dat it eh have no excuse, none, tuh explain how or why ah hard-back big-belly man would act like he wrestlin somebody he size an force feed ah toddler while he woman blamin de chile. How de two ah dem pick up an run when de video went viral prove dey know dey did do wrong. […] Some people does forfeit dey place in dis world because ah how dey treat chirren. Just because dese cyar beat up nobody big like dem ah chile have tuh suffer? Sometimes turn arong is really fair play.
It's not the first case of child abuse in T&T to reach social media. Off the top of my head, I recall there was one video with a woman beating her child with a shovel and another one with a little boy chained up in a yard like a dog.
[…]
My sense is that there is no excuse—none—to explain how or why a hard-back big-belly man would act like he's wrestling somebody his own size and force feed a toddler while his woman blames the child. The way in which the two of them picked up and ran when the video went viral proves they knew they did wrong. […] Some people forfeit their place in this world because of how they treat children. Just because these two can't beat up someone their own size, a child has to suffer? Sometimes turnaround is really fair play.
While many on Facebook saw the arrest of the couple as “an example of social media being used productively”, some netizens were skeptical; Janine Mendes-Franco, referring to a 2014 incident in which a video was posted of a Trinidadian mother hitting her child with a belt, commented:
Waiting to see what comes of it. As I recall, social media was key in establishing the identity of the mother with the belt as well, but as far as I know she was never charged. What's the difference in this case? The age of the child? The fact that the perpetrator is not the child's parent? Abuse is abuse.
Interestingly, social media outed another case of abuse against Trinidad and Tobago's most vulnerable, as a photograph of a caregiver standing on a patient at a home for the elderly was circulated online. The nurse has since been brought in for questioning by police, prompting Facebook user Rhoda Bharath to quip:
Facebook and Police….the New National Security Task Force.
Popular satirical website The Late O'Clock News was immediately on the situation:
The man who was arrested after a video of him using excessive force on a toddler went viral on social media, has come forward with his opinion on another viral video, this one depicting a caregiver standing on an elderly man at a home for the aged. The man […] has condemned the caregiver’s actions, saying they were ‘terrible’ and ‘wrong’ as she did not have any right to treat an adult, particularly a senior citizen, in that manner.
Speaking with The Late O’clock News from a jail cell, he said ‘How yuh go treat a big man so? I find them people in them homes need to have more respect for the elderly. Yuh can’t treat a big man like if he’s a little child’. When asked if he should have respected the rights of the toddler he is accused of abusing, he stated, ‘No. Adults is adults. Children is children.’
And in Trinidad and Tobago, both adults and children were grateful for the power of social media this week. In the words of Facebook user Franz Gillezeau:
Facebook has been responsible for the arrest of three people in connection with different forms of physical abuse […]
Facebook wins this week.

author: Flora Thomas


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A Tale of Two Presidents, an Audacious Kidnap Attempt and Misogyny in Turkish Football · Global Voices
John Lubbock

Trabzonspor's trophy room. Creative commons.
Hours after a hotly-contested game between the Trabzonspor and Gaziantep football clubs in Turkey ended 2-2, Trabzonspor President Ibrahim Hacıosmanoğlu found himself defending his controversial decision to kidnap the match officials, a move so extreme that it precipitated a personal intervention by Turkey's head of state.
Once the crisis was averted, the same president made enemies out of feminists across the country by pledging that “nobody has the power to make us live like a woman.”
After the game — in which Trabzonspor were denied victory by a disputable penalty decision — the match officials had gone to change and write their match reports. When they tried to leave, Trabzonspor's management informed them that the doors of the stadium were locked and that they would be held until President Hacıosmanoğlu arrived in the morning.
‘”I told my managers – ‘Show [them] the hospitality of Trabzonspor, order his tea and coffee and food, until the morning, until I come that referee will not leave that stadium,'” said Hacıosmanoğlu of the kidnap.
While the situation was developing, government figures attempted to contact Hacıosmanoğlu but he didn’t answer their calls.
At around 3 am, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally telephoned him to resolve the situation, and the match officials were released at around 3.27am.
They were escorted to safety by police, as around 500 Trabzonspor fans loudly shouted abuse at them.
Hacıosmanoğlu explained why he complied with Erdoğan’s request:
After that valuable person to whom I also have respect, with whom I have a heart-connection called me, after his words — “Let’s not have a big disgrace, both in Turkey and in the world…the mistakes by referees will be questioned too….” — I called my friends. We allowed the people who murdered us to leave the city without any physical intervention, as any Trabzonspor supporter would do.
Hacıosmanoğlu ateş püskürdü! https://t.co/bWCFmxGlqq pic.twitter.com/kvNavP0ivX
— TRT Spor (@TRT3SPOR) October 29, 2015
‘Hacıosmanoğlu blows fire!’
But an apparently firm relationship with Erdoğan was not enough to save Trabzonspor from punishment for the incident.
#Trabzonspor will be referred to #ProfessionalFootballDisciplinaryCommittee for events which took place in game against #Gaziantepspor
— TurkishFootballNews (@TRFootballUpdat) October 29, 2015
Following the incident, Hacıosmanoğlu proceeded to make a rambling statement in which he expressed his support for President Erdoğan:
I do not have to pronounce his name; everybody would understand whom I am referring to. Turkey has a leader who serves this nation, a leader who will leave a strong country to my children in the future, that the world conjuncture plays games to make him leave the post. I am ready to die for him.
Hacıosmanoğlu’s statement also insinuated that the refereeing team was part of a broader conspiracy to damage Trabzonspor football club.
He continued:
The Turkish Republic will see what’s going to happen from now on. If we will die, we will die like a man, we will not live like a woman. Nobody has the power to make us live like a woman.
His words spurred an angry response from Turkish feminists and female MPs.
Trabzonspor başkanı Hacıosmanoğlu ölmek istiyorsa biz engel olmayalım.Kadınlardan uzak dursun.
— ifk feministler (@ifkfeminist) October 29, 2015
President Hacıosmanoğlu, if you want to die, we will not be an obstacle. Stay away from women.
Önce İNSAN olmakla başla… Trabzonspor Bşk: Öleceksek de adam gibi öleceğiz, kadın gibi yaşamayacağız https://t.co/ai9p2w8xqw
— Sedef Kabas (@SedefKabas) October 29, 2015
First start by being a HUMAN… Trabzonspor Pres – ‘we will die like a man if we will die, we will not live like a woman.’
An MP for the Kemalist CHP opposition party Aylin Nazlıaka said:
I guess what he understands about manhood is only threats and contempt. He doesn’t have either the honour or virtue to live like a woman. He could not even be the nail of a woman.
It is not the first time that Turkish football has been criticised for overt misogyny. Supporters of Fenerbahçe last week burned a blow-up doll dressed in a Galatasaray football strip after holding a mock engagement party for the doll.
Holding these mock engagement parties has become a tradition for supporters of Fenerbahçe, whose cross-Bosphorus Istanbul rivalry with Galatasary is among the fiercest in world football.
Sibel Yukler, writing for the news agency Jinha, commented:
Female students and academics who talked to Jinha said the incident reflects on one side the pornographic face of the violence; on the other side the hegemonic male mindset which puts women and the enemy on an identical level.

author: John Lubbock


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Indian Scholars Return Their National Awards to Protest Rising Intolerance · Global Voices
Sakshi Rai

Protest at Kollam against the murder of M M Kalburgi. Image by Fotokannan via Wikimedia Commons. (5/9/2015) CC BY-SA
More than 40 writers have returned their prestigious awards from India's national academy of letters, called the Sahitya Akademi, to protest what they perceive as a spike in intolerance in the country. Formed in 1954, the Sahitya Akademi Award honours literary scholars from all 24 Indian languages (including English) for their exceptional contribution in the field.
Renowned writer Nayantara Sahgal was among those who gave up the award in response to the state of free expression and tolerance in India. Many noted scholars like Ashok Vajpayee, a Hindi poet, have followed the suit. Novelist Salman Rushdie took to social media, extending his support to this protest:
I support #NayantaraSahgal and the many other writers protesting to the Sahitya Akademi. Alarming times for free expression in India.
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) October 12, 2015
India has had a long and complex history of limiting free expression, but conversations on the rise of religious intolerance have especially swirled since the 2014 election of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Several high-profile cases of communal violence have fed fears that the country has indeed become more intolerant. In February 2015, Govind Pansare, a communist leader and intellectual who had been critical of religious fundamentalism, was shot and killed. An activist for hard-line Hindu group Sanatan Sanstha was arrested in connection with the murder.
In August 2015, M. M. Kalburgi, himself a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award, was shot dead by an unidentified man, who along with an accomplice entered his house posing as his student.
It is not unheard of for literary scholars in India to receive death threats from fundamentalist groups, and Kalburgi previously had been a target. There were conflicting reports as to whether state authorities (with the centre-left coalition UPA government at the helm) had provided him with protection following the most recent threats. Most recently for speaking out against idol worship in 2014, he had angered some in the Hindu community.
Nearly 80% of India is Hindu, while a sizable minority adheres to Islam as well as other religions.
A few days after Kalburgi's murder, a 52-year-old man named Mohammed Ishlaq died and his 20-year-old son was injured after they were dragged out of their home and beaten by a mob over alleged rumours of committing cow slaughter and consuming beef in Bisada, Uttar Pradesh (cows are considered sacred in the Hindu religion). Uttar Pradesh is currently under the governance of the democratic socialist Samajwadi Party. Even before this government, the state had seen Hindu-Muslim clashes under the UPA government.
Several states in India have long had either partial or complete laws against cow slaughter or beef consumption. Meat bans have even been imposed under the UPA administration. But many of these laws haven't been completely enforced, and slaughter houses had been running unaware of the penalties that could have been imposed. With the current BJP majority, authorities across states have moved to impose the ban more aggressively.
In the state of Maharashtra, the law for banning beef dates back to 1976, but it was then amended in 1995 to increase its scope to prohibit the slaughter of cow, bull or bullock. That amendment only received approval from the President of India in 2015 under BJP.
Rationalists argue that a beef ban threatens the foundations of secular values in a democracy. The severity of the bans directly affects religious and tribal communities in India who do consume beef.
These reactions from the intelligentsia community were also fuelled by the silence of Prime Minister Modi and Sahitya Akademi on the matter. Communal violence isn't new to India; however, fundamentalist groups have a certain amount of leverage under the BJP administration.
Right-wing allied groups and fundamentalists have increasingly tried to posit rationalists and people of other faiths as anti-nationalists, thereby suggesting that only ardent Hindus can truly be Indian nationalists. Currently, the BJP government struggles to maintain its relations with right-wing parties groups like Shiv Sena and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, while simultaneously juggling its own bleak stance on religious intolerance. Amidst the raging controversies, Prime Minister Modi has reprimanded other BJP party leaders from making any statements that might ignite any form of violence.
In a solidarity march outside of the Sahitya Akademi, on 23 October 2015, writers and their supporters tied black bands around their mouths as a sign of rising intolerance in this country.
Conscience keepers at threat in democracy. conscience keepers: Poetry of Sahitya Akademi protesters http://t.co/1KqNqxQkyl via @scroll_in
— Sachin Singh (@sachinnalanda) October 18, 2015
Urdu poet Munnawar Rana returns #Sahitya Award. On #IndiaHangout, writers discuss their reason for protesting. http://t.co/RAfnafNeUZ
— Boom Live (@boomlive_in) October 18, 2015
Meanwhile, Sahitya Akademi President Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari said in a press release dated 10 October 2015 that he can't comment publicly until his remarks are approved by the institution's executive board. But, he added, Sahitya Akademi “condemns the attack on and murder of any writer or artist anywhere”. He further urged the writers to protect the dignity of this high standing autonomous institution and not return their awards.
On the other hand, some on social media have criticised those who returned their award, thus, questioning their credibility:
Whats d diff btn Nobel Prize n Sahitya Academy? Nobel Prize makes u famous when u get it. Sahitya Academy makes u famous when u return it…
— ।।गोटी वाले बाबा।। (@GotiWaleBaba) October 19, 2015
Giving Sahitya award back is the attack on Hindus ! Why didn't they gave back their award on Terrorist attacks ? #YoLiteraturesSoSecular
— Indian (@India_Brigade) October 19, 2015
They have encashed all they could from award and now discard it to wring even more “former Sahitya….” https://t.co/55SKhh4tle
— Veeresh K S (@veeresh1976) October 19, 2015
Filmmaker and poet Gulzar defended the Sahitya Akademi, saying that the outrage at the writers fraternity is wrongly placed as the flaw lies in the “system” or the “government”. He further said:
What’s happening in the country now is sad, but the uncertain fear it creates is also disturbing. We have never seen an atmosphere like this in India before. There never was any fear to freely voice one’s opinions. Never really thought a day would come that someone’s religion would be asked before his name.
A statement signed by more than 300 artists, curators and critics in India condemned the killings and protested against the “climate of rising intolerance in India”.
As in the past, we must challenge the divisive forces through varied forms of appeal and protest, articulation and refusal. Our demand can be nothing less than that the entire range of constitutional rights and freedoms of the citizens of this country – freedom of expression and speech, right to dissent and exert difference in life choices including culture and religion – be ensured.
As of October 29, almost 107 senior scientists have signed a separate statement online, protesting the attacks on rationalism and reason.

author: Sakshi Rai


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Iranian Student Held Without Charge, Pressured to Make False Confession · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

Amin Anvary's mother Farah Bakhshi in a protest for her son's release. Image from ICHRI.
Student activist Amin Anvari, 21, who received a suspended prison sentence earlier this year for Facebook postings promoting basic civil liberties, has been arrested and held without charge at Evin Prison’s Ward 2-A by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards since 4 October, 2015. According to a family member, he has been under intense pressure to make false confessions.
“They are threatening us and harassing us just to put pressure on Amin in prison. I’m sure of that. They want him to agree to confess to lies,” Amin Anvari’s mother, Farah Bakhshi, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Amin Anvari was first arrested on 30 December, 2014, because of his Facebook posts on basic civil rights. He was released the same day on a 300 million-rial (approximately USD $10,000) bond. In July 2015, he was tried at Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Ahmadzadeh and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for “propaganda against the state,” “insulting the Supreme Leader,” and “insulting Mohammad Taghi Mesbagh Yazdi”, who is a member of the Council of Experts. But his sentence was suspended for five years.
Ms. Bakhshi recalled that her son Amin was arrested again on 4 October by ten men who stormed into their home without showing identification or warrants and confiscated his personal computers. Since then she has only been able to have three brief phone conversations with him. She, her husband, and her younger son have been harassed and warned not to give interviews about Amin’s arrest.
“Anything that happens to my two children, myself and my husband will be the responsibility of the Revolutionary Guards. They are threatening us so that I don’t protest or give interviews. But I have no other choice. You want me not to give interviews? For God’s sake release my son and then I’ll be quiet,” Ms. Bakhshi said.
Ms. Bakhshi relayed to the Campaign how an official at Evin Prison tried to pressure her not to speak with media:
He told me he would let me see my son if I promised not to give interviews or join protests. I said I would agree, if he promised to release my son. He said no, and I said ‘well, then I will continue to do what I’m doing.’
Amin Anvari’s mother added that she was silent for two weeks after her son’s arrest. But on 19 October, she joined a protest gathering by a group of prisoners’ families. “That same day Amin phoned our home and spoke to his father and said he was well and said ‘Tell mother not to give interviews because it will cause problems [in the case]’.”
Ms. Bakhshi said during this summer’s annual family visit to Turkey they discovered that some of Amin’s friends had been arrested. She told him not to return to Iran if he thought there might be a problem. But he said he had done nothing wrong and wanted to return to his university studies, Ms. Bakhshi added.
“My plea to the judicial officials is that they should not arrest youths and pass heavy judgments against them every time they criticize. My son should be sitting in class and studying right now.”

author: Center for Human Rights in Iran


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Mainstream Media Comes Under Fire for ‘Biased’ Coverage of Shia Religious Event · Global Voices
Batool Al Musawi

Bilad Alqadeem, Bahrain. 11th November 2013 — Ashura ceremony in Bilad alqadeem 11. — Ashura is commemorated by Shi'a Muslims as a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on 10 Muharram in the year 61 AH. Photograph by bahrain14feb bilad. Copyright: Demotix. Used with permission.
Millions of people around the world gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain bin Ali, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. Participants took part in art galleries, blood donations and lectures, and as hundreds of thousands lined up in huge processions marking Ashura, as the day is called, the coverage of international media outlets like AFP, Yahoo, Daily Mail, RT and others, focused on a disputed bloody tradition called tatbir, which involves cutting slits in the scalps of participants.
On social media, they were criticized for portraying the story in “biased” news reports instead of showing the full picture of rituals that took place mainly in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Bahrain, which have large Shia communities.
#العراق | العراقيون يحييون مراسم عاشوراء في #كربلاء. pic.twitter.com/hPveNsDgf9
— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) October 25, 2015
Iraqis hold Ashura rituals in Karbala.
Ashura is an annual remembrance of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, marked on the 10th of the Islamic month of Muharram. Shia Muslims around the world mark this day by attending sermons on the lessons of Imam Hussain's sacrifice for justice and mourning the martyrs of the Karbala massacre that took place some 1,300 years ago.
Covering the event, AFP in particular came under fire after tweeting a picture of graphic content without prior warning. The picture showed Iraqi men who practiced self-flagellation (tatbir in Arabic) as their way of mourning.
@AFP a professional media shouldn't broadcast such sensitive pic without warnings…
— Anthony Samaha (@anthonysamaha) October 24, 2015
@AFP Disturbing. And why should these be released without an advisory? What's the point?
— Anshu Chhibber (@AnshuChhibber) October 24, 2015
@afp stupid Agence France-Presse you just ruined my day. Thank you!
— iDaveV2.9 (@DaveV2_9) October 24, 2015
Others, who said they related to the religious belief, described the coverage as “biased”.
@AFP I'm a shiite , this is my response to this very biased and coordinated coverage pic.twitter.com/RB3raVtX0u
— مراسل 14 فبراير (@Feb14Reporter) October 25, 2015
@AFP If you are going to do a report on something, educate yourself properly. It's a shame with what you are doing with your power.
— Fatema Jaffer (@Fatemaajaffer) October 24, 2015
The tweet seems to have sparked anger over a practice that has long been disputed among Shia Muslims themselves after prominent clergymen like Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenie said it was forbidden and against Islam.
#Tatbir is a fabricated tradition&a heresy;undoubtedly God is not pleased w/ such a practice https://t.co/hfNsRAilYN pic.twitter.com/YCrXY5of8t
— RT khamenei (@RT_Khamenei) October 24, 2015
Has the AFP not done its homework on the news story? Some replies couldn't help but to blame that this was intentional unfair coverage of a category of believers.
@AFP you showed pictures of 100 people who does this, why don't you show pictures for millions of shia who disagree with it! shame on you
— م. ميثم العطار (@Maitham_Alattar) October 25, 2015
@AFP @ahmed6216 if you knew any better you'd know not all Shias comply to this ‘ritual’
— Yas (@yasmineali__) October 24, 2015
@AFP all Sunnis and most Shias agree this is not Islamic.
— تاتـولوژی. مرسی، اه. (@blackvvine) October 24, 2015
Other media outlets have not escaped the criticism, too.
@RT_com you people need to do some research because Shias do not believe in tatbir it is forbidden in our religion!!! Understand that!
— souha (@Souha0_o) October 25, 2015
Maybe mention its largest peaceful gathering in world, people of all faiths commemorate but no they focus on tatbir. https://t.co/u7ph5kN9Y2
— Hasan Hafidh (@HasHafidh) October 25, 2015
As the conversation went on and drifted in different directions, some thought doing AFP's homework might help in giving viewers a clearer picture of the Ashura processions.
This is also from karbala @AFP Or r u blinded by hate At the shrine of Abu Fadhil Al-Abbas (AS) today.. Ya Abbas 💚 pic.twitter.com/ydSXoEaDIc
— omairdo (@goodmmann) October 24, 2015
Hashtags like #Ashura and #HussainInspires also provide a better view into the cultural and religious sides of the anniversary.
The lessons of Imam #Hussain (as)'s sacrifice in Karbala. Imp to know; even more imp to embody. #muharram1437 pic.twitter.com/ugLViIZavY
— Mohammadia English (@MohammadiaEng) October 20, 2015
Pilgrims take part in blood donation drive on #Ashura in Kadhimiya district of Baghdad #Hussaininspires pic.twitter.com/8vXJluFlAt
— Ali Hadi Al-Musawi (@ahmusawi) October 25, 2015
المرسم الحسيني في المنامة #ويبقى_الحسين pic.twitter.com/xhPJ5GIWYG
— رحيق المنامة (@ra7eeq1) October 16, 2015
The [Imam] Hussain Art Gallery in Manama.
The Atelier of Imam Hussein Holy Shrine المرسم الحسيني في العتبة الحسينية المقدسة http://t.co/WTptI7rMcx #art pic.twitter.com/yKyUjKSXGO
— CESÎM ZEYDAN (@cesimzeydan) May 1, 2015
The art gallery in the Holy Shrine of Imam Hussain, [located in Karbala, Iraq].
“التوعية” تفتتح مركز “التوعية الحسيني” بالعاصمة مساء أمس السبت 3 محرم 1437هـ الموافق 17 أك… http://t.co/O2oyqw970N pic.twitter.com/ZMNbA6vlEy
— جمعية التوعية (@tawiya) October 18, 2015
The Enlightenment Society opens its infographic gallery in the capital Manama on Saturday evening [Bahrain].
Some shared pictures of non-Muslims who participated in activities marking Ashura.
فنان تايلندي في جمعية المرسم الحسيني في البحرين ليلة السابع من محرم يبدع في رسم صورة ترمز لسيدالشهداء عليه السلام 37 pic.twitter.com/k07nQW938u
— وُردُةعَمِـرهِہِ (@habooo72) October 22, 2015
A Thai artist in the Imam Hussain Art Gallery in Bahrain draws a marvelous symbolic picture of Imam Hussain in the 7th night of Muharram.
Christian and Sabian communities of Basra join #Ashura processions #Hussaininspires pic.twitter.com/Kod9sgfZ0I
— Ali Hadi Al-Musawi (@ahmusawi) October 25, 2015
Italian UN peacekeepers in South #Lebanon preparing Hreeseh (traditional #Ashura food) 😂 pic.twitter.com/f4yrg7zooi
— Rana Harbi (@RanaHarbi) October 18, 2015
The processions will be held again at the start of December to mark the passing of 40 days from the death of Imam Hussain, during which the holy city of Karbala, Iran, is expected to welcome over 20 million people from across the globe. Can we expect news agencies to do a better job by showing the whole picture of the event or does selective reporting make a better story?
You can see the reports below (Warning: Graphic content)

author: Batool Al Musawi


text:
‘Tajikistan’s Aylan’: A Migrant Child Dies in the Arms of the Russian Authorities · Global Voices
Censored Voice

Tajiks in New York demand justice for Umar outside the Russian embassy. Capture from YouTube video uploaded by Bolk Bolkev.
The death of a five-month-old baby, the youngest member of a family of Tajik economic migrants living in St.Petersburg, has struck a chord in both Russia and Tajikistan. Although the exact circumstances of five-month-old Umarali Nazarov's death are unknown, plenty in both countries are holding the Russian state responsible.
On October 13, 2015, as part of a hunt for undocumented migrants, officers of the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) of the Admiralty district of St. Petersburg detained two citizens of Tajikistan and their five-month-old son. The pair were taken to the police station on suspicion of violating immigration law. The police separated the child from his parents and they never saw him alive again.
Every year, thousands of desperate Tajik citizens leave the world's most remittance-dependent country for a better life, mostly in Russia. With tough migration practices and rising nationalism awaiting them at their main destination, routine discrimination is the price they pay for access to better economic opportunities.
Mehriniso Nazarova — Umarali's grandmother — says she attempted to take the baby back from the police, chiefly to feed him with formula milk. The attempt proved unsuccessful, with Nazarova telling Russian media outlet Dozhd that officers mocked her accent.
Umarali's parents were informed of his death, which police suggested was the result of a respiratory illness, the following morning.
Baby Umar. Widely shared.
Online, Tajik internet users have drawn comparisons with the death of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, who drowned attempting to reach Greece. Aylan's family was uprooted from his homeland by a vicious war, Umarali's family by relentless unemployment in Central Asia's most hopeless economy.
In an October 27 blog Human Rights Watch Russia director Tanya Lokshina noted why the case had generated so much attention:
Even if every last detail emerges…what will forever be etched in the public mind is that Russian authorities unjustifiably separated a baby from his mother, gave her no information for almost a full day, and then told her family to retrieve the body.
In Tajikistan, Umarali's tragic story caused a huge public outcry. Poems have been composed in the child's memory, Tajik language newspapers devoted their front page to him and Tajik Facebookers changed their profile pictures in solidarity.
An online petition addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been signed by hundreds of people. The Tajik community in New York organised a picket near the Russian consulate, demanding a thorough investigation into the case.
#WeAreUmar All we want is justice for a 5 months old kid who's name is Umar who was killed in Russia!!! pic.twitter.com/YzWNNEFXcd
— Komron Solikhov (@KSolikhov) October 28, 2015
Readers of local news websites meanwhile likened Russian government policies towards Tajik migrants to “fascism”.
Writing on Asia-Plus, Amin exclaimed:
Россия это страна фашизма 21 века. Жаль, что история свела нас таджиков с этим народом. Урок в том, что нужно строить свою сильную страну гда нам всем захочется жить и не зависеть от фашиствуюцших народов…
Russia is the country of fascism in the 21st century. It is a pity that history has brought Tajiks together with this nation. The lesson learned is that we need to build a strong country where we all want to live and be free from fascist nations …
Umarali's family may have more suffering waiting for them.
The Interior Ministry has stated that the police did not take any action that could have caused the death of the baby.
Moreover, according to Boris Vishnevsky, a member of the St Petersburg regional council,  authorities are also mulling charging the family with the crime “improper upbringing of a minor.”
Vishnevsky, who belongs to the moderate liberal opposition party Yabloko, left flowers at the Tajik consulate and called on Russians to consider the reaction if a Russian baby had died in such a way in Tajikistan:
…формально можно говорить, что дело не в его национальности. Но я абсолютно уверен, что вряд ли бы в такой ситуации так бы обращались с другим ребенком, если бы это не были мигранты, которые, к сожалению, у нас в городе полицией и другими органами власти часто считаются людьми, не имеющими никаких прав, по сути дела, людьми второго сорта, с которыми можно делать все, за которых никто не заступится, которые не посмеют защитить себя и возмущаться. Я думаю, что эти факторы, без сомнения, здесь сыграли свою, к сожалению, ужасающую роль.
Formally we can say that it is not about his nationality. However, I am absolutely sure they would not treat another child in this way, had they not been migrants, who, unfortunately, are often considered by our city police and other authorities as people who do not have any rights, a second-rate people with whom you can do what you wish, for whom no one stands up,  who do not dare to defend themselves and be indignant. I think that all of these factors undoubtedly played here — unfortunately — an appalling role.
This was a second bereavement for the Nazarov family in Saint Petersburg. A decade ago Mehriniso's son and Umarali's uncle was murdered. The killer was never found.
According to the Russian Federal Migrations Service 984,323 migrants from Tajikistan are registered as working in the country as of 2015, with an unknown number working undocumented in addition. From October 20, more than 1,500 Tajik citizens have been reportedly deported from Moscow and its surrounding region.
While Putin's press-secretary commented October 28 that the Russian president was “aware” if not “in control” of the investigation into Umarali's death, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon has not mentioned the issue at all, perhaps at risk of angering patron Russia or inflaming hostility towards the country's tiny Russian minority.
In the absence of any strong official reaction, Zafari Sufi, a Tajik poet, dedicated these lines to baby Umarali:
Маро бахшо, Умар, ки дасткутоҳам дар ин ғурбат
Наметонам кунам коре барои ту, барои худ…
Умар! Марги ту рамзи нотавониҳову бенангист,
Бишав қосиди поки қавми ман назди Худои худ.
Бирав аз ман ва аз мо бар Худои худ шикоят кун,
Ва аз беғайративу аҷзи қавми мо ҳикоят кун,
Умар, эй ту фаришта, эй ту мазлум, эй шаҳиди пок,
Зи бедоди, зи ғурбат, аз ситамгорон ривоят кун.
..Forgive me, Umar, I am powerless in this adversity,
I am unable to do anything for you, for myself …
Umar! Your death is the symbol of feebleness and dishonesty,
Be my nation's pure herald before God.
Leave me, and complain of us to your God,
And tell of the cowardice and weakness of our people,
Umar, you are an angel, downtrodden, pure shahid [a Muslim who dies young in this context],
Tell of the injustice and oppressors…
Mufiza Kenjaeva also provided reporting for this story.

author: Censored Voice


text:
Ukrainian Official Dismissed for Using Russian Email Service for Official Correspondence · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Ukrainian authorities believe that using Russian email services could potentially “jeopardize the country's information security.” Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
A government official in Lviv region in western Ukraine has reportedly been sacked for using a Russian email service to conduct official correspondence related to his government work.
Ukraine Today reports that Oleksandr Krevskiy, an employee at the department of international cooperation and tourism in Lviv, had been using Russia's Mail.Ru electronic mail service for his professional correspondence.
Halyna Hrechyn, a spokesperson for the Head of Lviv Regional State Administration, told Ukraine Today:
We received orders from the Prime Minister to limit the use of (Russian email servers) because this is official work and especially since this employee worked for the Department of International Cooperation. This isn't his first year on this job, he knows all the restrictions.
The Lviv region governor, Oleh Synyutka, said he believes that using Russian email services could potentially “jeopardize the country's information security,” echoing the official state line on beefing up the state's information and communication safety measures.
In May 2015, Ukrainian activists and journalists had drawn attention to the fact that over 20% of Ukrainian government servants and state institutions were still using free email accounts provided by Russian companies and hosted on Russian servers.
Ukrainian media are reporting that the country's security services are now investigating any possible “information leaks” as a result of Krevskiy's use of a Russian email server, in view of the ongoing information war between Ukraine and Russia.
As RuNet Echo has previously reported, Russian Federal Security Service currently has simplified access to data transported by Russian ISPs and Russian Internet companies working with user content. On April 8, 2015 similar powers were granted to Russia's Internet regulator Roscomnadzor, giving its employees power to track the personal messages of Russian social media and email users. This includes email services in the .ru domain, Odnoklassniki, Vkontakte (both popular Russian social network websites), instant messengers such as ICQ and Agent.Mail.Ru, and many Russian blog platforms.
Although Roskomnadzor can track received, sent, and delivered messages, and access the logs of users’ private actions online, the Internet watchdog has emphasized that Russian “anti-terrorist” legislation only grants them access to the metadata, but does not allow them to read the content of e-mails and online messages without an official law enforcement warrant.

author: Tanya Lokot


text:
Want to Research the Russian Internet But Don’t Speak Russian? We Can Help. · Global Voices
Aric Toler

“Help.” Photograph by Ali Moradi, April 20, 2010. Halifax, Nova Scotia. CC 2.0. Edited by Kevin Rothrock.
This article is part of a larger guidebook by RuNet Echo to help people learn how to conduct open-source research on the Russian Internet. Explore the complete guidebook at the special project page.
Conducting open-source research can be difficult, and it’s even more challenging when you cannot read or write in the language of your research topic. Thanks to the Internet, however, even these obstacles don't make it impossible for people who don't speak Russian to conduct such research in Russian. To do so, you need to have equal parts patience and technical knowhow in navigating search algorithms and translation tools. This guide identifies and explains free resources that allow you to conduct Russian-language open-source research without knowing the language. Here you'll also learn how to navigate search algorithms on Google and Twitter to retrieve usable information.
Contents
If you have little or no Russian language skills, then translation software is an absolute necessity for conducting research on Russian open-source information. Google Translate is the most versatile tool for translation, offering many features you likely know about already, along with some others that might be less familiar.
The normal translation function of Google Translate is certainly already obvious to you—copy and paste in Russian (or type in English) text, and receive a translation. You can also enter a website’s URL into the translation box and see the entire page translated into any given language.
If you have trouble reading the Russian alphabet, Google Translate's “drawing” function, which allows you to outline letters using your mouse or trackpad, converts the sketches into editable, translatable text. See below for an example with a Магнит (“Magnit,” meaning “magnet”) supermarket storefront:
As you draw your text, Google automatically suggests editable text to match your sketch. Sometimes the first suggestion isn't always correct, so be sure to review the options.
In an especially useful feature, Google's tool can also recognize cursive handwriting, which can greatly differ from printed Russian text. Below, the phrase до свидания (“do svidaniya,” or “goodbye”) is successfully rendered into type by Google’s handwriting tool:
As with English, there are a seemingly endless number of bureaucratic acronyms in Russian, and the website Sokr.ru helps navigate many of these puzzles. For decoding location-specific language, especially useful is this Russian Wikipedia entry, which lists the common abbreviations for various localities in Russia (cities, towns, villages, and so on).
For example, the following text is found in the title of a video on VK, put out by a pro-separatist video channel. Using the two tools outlined above, it's possible to decipher the information, even without speaking Russian.
г.Донецк Ленинский р-н обстрел РСЗО “Ураган”
There are three abbreviations here, all of which are very common among videos related to the Ukrainian conflict:
A search on Sokr.ru for the abbreviation “г.”
Therefore, the title of the video is “City of Donetsk Leninskiy district shelling MLRS ‘Uragan’”
In English, words rarely change based on their role in a sentence, but they occasionally will add a letter to indicate count or possession (soldier, soldiers, soldier’s, soldiers’), or in the case of some pronouns to indicate subject or object (who or whom, he or him, she or her, and so on).
Things are not so simple in Russian, as there are about a dozen forms for each word (indicating singularity or plurality and case), and several different conjugations of verbs. Depending on its role in the sentence (subject, direct object, indirect object, plural, plural direct object, and so on), the word “cat” can have the following nine declined (changed) forms: кошка, кошки, кошке, кошку, кошкой, кошек, кошкам, кошками, кошках. Making things more complicated, each of these spellings returns different results in a Twitter search—for example, the simple “cat” or “cats” forms of the noun will bring back far more results than advanced searched for “with a cat” or “with cats.”
Wiktionary provides the declined forms for most words in its Declension section, along with verb conjugations. For example, the Wiktionary entry for кошка (cat) shows the singular and plural forms for each of the six Russian cases. When carrying out searches, be sure to remove the accent mark (the small mark on the о́, as seen in ко́шка) from the letters by pressing backspace in front of the accented letter.
When searching on Google, this is not much of a problem, as the search algorithms are able to include many of the forms of a word in its searches. (When you enter the Russian word for cat (кошка) in a search, relevant results that include the declined forms—cats, to a cat, of a cat, on a cat, etc.—will also come up.) Therefore, unless you put the word in quotation marks to specify the results, there is no need to worry about noun and verb forms when searching on Google in Russian.
On Twitter, however, it’s a different story. Twitter can only return results for the exact letters given, and is not able to detect changes in verbs (such as “run,” “ran,” “runs”) or nouns.
If you were trying to find out information about the evacuation of a building in the city of Kazan, you can get drastically different search results, depending on the word forms you enter in your search. For example, try two searches with forms of the verb “эвакуировать” (to evacuate) with the search strings of Казань (normal form of “Kazan”) and в Казани (“in Kazan”).
Searching Google News, the results include various forms of both Kazan and Evacuate, but it will also bring back the noun “evacuation” (эвакуация) and adjectival form of Kazan in various declensions:
On Twitter, you receive far fewer results, as this form of the “evacuate” verb is rarely used in tweets and news articles. As you see in the results below, there is a 4-month gap between three tweets, indicating that there is either hardly any information about this topic, or the search phrase needs to be revised.
Using the past tense plural form of “evacuate” (common in passive constructions) yields far more useful results than the first search terms. (If you look back to the results from Google News, the second result uses these forms of the words evacuate and Kazan.) The tweets below are quite varied, but are all relevant for the search results, such as the evacuation of a church after a fire, a bus evacuation, and a school evacuation:
If you are not familiar with Russian, it is difficult to know what phrases and search parameters to use to maximize results. So, it’s a good idea to enter general Russian terms and phrases into Google—such as “evacuation” and “Kazan”—and then copy the terms used most often. After we did this with the news results from Google, we found many more relevant results in our Twitter search, which—it's important to recall—is not very accommodating to the malleable nature of Russian nouns and verbs.
***
As you can see from these guides, researching in Russian—without knowing Russian—can be frustrating and time-consuming, but it is ultimately possible. You do not have to know how to read Russian, or even know the Cyrillic alphabet, to conduct Russian-language open-source research, but it certainly helps to have a basic familiarity with the language. After a while, you will start to recognize the letters and figure out how to read the alphabet, especially as certain names and cities begin to reappear in your searches. In the meantime, this guide will help you leverage opaque acronyms, Twitter searches, and Google to assist your research efforts.

author: Aric Toler


text:
Women Survivors Speak Out About Indonesia’s 1965 Mass Killings · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Vena Taka. Her brother and father were arrested in 1966. “I didn’t know that my dad and younger brother were detained, or where they were killed. Even where they were buried, I didn’t know.” Photo from Asia Justice and Rights.
The Asia Justice and Rights group has conducted a series of interviews with 26 women who survived the mass killings and other forms of violence in Indonesia during the anti-communist purge conducted by the military in 1965.
Fifty years have passed since the army arrested hundreds of thousands of communists and their suspected sympathizers as part of a campaign to save the country from the scourge of communism. An estimated half a million people were killed during the anti-communist hysteria and even more Indonesians suffered “torture, enforced disappearances, rape, sexual slavery, and other crimes of sexual violence, slavery, arbitrary arrest, and detention, forced displacement, and forced labor” after 1965. The army claimed it only retaliated, accusing the communists of attacking government forces first.
General Suharto rose to power during this period and remained Indonesia’s leader until 1998, when a popular uprising forced him to resign. While in power, Suharto didn’t allow the media, academia, or the the public to discuss or probe what really happened in 1965. This occurred only after his ouster, when victims and witnesses came forward to share their stories.
In 2012, Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights declared that the army committed gross human rights violations in 1965.
Last August, President Jokowi proposed the formation of a reconciliation commission to address unresolved issues related to the 1965 massacre. The enduring importance of Suharto's legacy was evident, however, when Indonesia's biggest political parties and its military rejected Jokowi’s proposal.
This month, a literary festival aimed at sharing stories of what transpired in 1965 was cancelled due to pressure from the government.
But if the government is hesitant to look back and reflect on the lessons of the 1965 massacre, many people and groups in Indonesia are ready to dig deeper into the past and seek justice on behalf of the victims of violence and other crimes against humanity.
An International People's Tribunal is being organized in The Hague next month to probe the accountability of the Indonesian government in the 1965 violence.
Meanwhile, the research conducted by Asia Justice and Rights is a disturbingly poignant way to learn about the ordinary people who endured decades of violence and discrimination during the Suharto regime. Many of the female survivors are wives or daughters of political prisoners and suspected communist sympathizers. Their stories remind us that the quest for truth and justice continues to be an essential yet unfulfilled political demand in Indonesia.
Frangkina Boboy. Her father was suspected of being involved with the Communist Party, and was arrested and detained in 1965. “My father had land in Lasiana—a house and rice fields—but because he was accused of being a communist, his family took it. We had nothing, and had to squat on land that was actually owned by my parents.” Photo from Asia Justice and Rights.
Migelina A. Markus, detained in 1965 along with both of her parents and her siblings. “The ‘65 tragedy made us lose our parents, my older brother, and there were a lot of disappearances without any trial or evidence [showing] they had betrayed the state or nation. I want to testify so that people know the truth about the events we experienced.” Photo from Asia Justice and Rights.
Lasinem's husband was arrested and tortured in 1969, and eventually sent to Buru Island. “[My husband] was picked up by soldiers, his own friends, and taken to the village office (Kelurahan). He was beaten, sat upright in a chair and beaten. His back was trampled on until he was wounded all over. At first I was confused and scared, terrified, and I realized I had lost my protector, and my source of financial support. What about my young children? They need to eat!…I’m still wounded because I remember things that happened in the past… There is still a wound in my heart.” Photo from Asia Justice and Rights.
Kadmiyati was studying at a teacher’s college in Yogyakarta in 1965 when she was arrested. “When will there be justice? Who is sadistic and cruel? The communists? Or the perpetrators of the killings? [We must] find out the truth.” Photo from Asia Justice and Rights.
Hartiti. Arrested in 1966, one of her children passed away from an illness while she was detained. “My first child was old enough to understand her mother’s suffering. She thought about it until she died. She also often heard news about me. She died because she heard people saying things that hurt her.” Photo from Asia Justice and Rights.
Oni Ponirah. She was 17 when she was arrested in 1965. “I was told I was only being taken in for questioning. It turns out I would be held for 14 years. From 1965 until end of December 1979… We never got justice. I hope the government will apologize to the victims.” Photo from Asia Justice and Rights.

author: Mong Palatino