Day: May 26, 2014

Syria
Syria

Syria: transitional elections in former SDF zone

Polling stations opened in Syria’s northeast as the region held its first elections for the national People’s Assembly in areas formerly controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The vote marks a significant step in the country’s transitional process, and integrating the previously autonomous region into national institutions. The area was excluded from the broader parliamentary process held last October due to political and security conditions. Candidates are being chosen by electoral councils made up of vetted local members under the process established by Syria’s transitional framework. The vote begins implementation of the January agreement between the SDF and Damascus as negotiations continue over long-term governance arrangements and the future of SDF-linked military and security structures. (Map: PCL)

Europe
Ruslan Sidiki

Russia: anti-war saboteurs face military trials

A Russian military court in Yekaterinburg sentenced 27-year-old anarchist Alexey Rozhkov to 16 years in prison for what prosecutors classified as a “terrorist act”—throwing Molotov cocktails at a military recruitment office in March 2022, causing minor damage. The incident, which occurred shortly after the start Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was one of the earliest in a brief string of such actions across Russia in protest against the war. Meanwhile, another young anarchist, Ruslan Sidiki, took the stand in his trial at a military court in Ryazan, accused of destroying railway tracks, leading to the derailment of 19 carriages of fertilizer. Sidiki is also accused of the attempted destruction of military aircraft, on both occasions using GPS-guided drones. He said he undertook the actions to halt the movement of munitions toward the border with Ukraine, and that he took measures to avoid harming humans. He said he rejected the “terrorism” charge, since his “goal was sabotage, not the intimidation of the population.” (Image of Ruslan Sidiki: Mediazona via Meduza)

Planet Watch
drc displaced

UN: record 100 million people displaced worldwide

According to the UN Refugee Agency, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide rose to 90 million by the end of 2021, propelled by new waves of violence or protracted conflict in countries including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burma, Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2022, the war in Ukraine has displaced 8 million within the country and forced some 6 million to flee the country as refugees. This has pushed the total displaced to over 100 million for the first time. (Photo: Eskinder Debebe/UN News)

Mexico
torreon

Mexico: apology for 1911 massacre of Chinese

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador officiated over a ceremony in Torreón, Coahuila, where he issued an apology for the 1911 massacre of more than 300 members of the city’s Chinese community at the hands of revolutionary troops. The president said the objective of the apology was to ensure “that this never, ever happens again.” Also on hand was Coahuila Gov. Miguel Ángel Riquelme, who said racist ideas fueled “genocidal killings” during a “convulsive” period of Mexico’s history. Also attending the ceremony was Chinese Ambassador Zhu Qingqiao. (Photo of 1911 taking of Torreón via Wikipedia)

The Amazon
Madre de Dios

Podcast: indigenous survival and the crisis in Peru

In Episode 73 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg interviews Thomas Moore, anthropologist, advocate for indigenous cultural survival, and author of the newly released book, Madre de Dios: Refugio de Pueblos Originarios. The remote rainforest region of Madre de Dios in Peru’s southern Amazon is a last refuge for isolated indigenous peoples, but is now massively threatened by mining, timber and other resource interests that operate in a semi-legal gray zone in a nexus with criminal networks. Peru has made some progress in complying with international norms on protection of isolated peoples, but these advances stand to be dramatically reversed if far-right candidate Keiko Fujimori comes to power in the pending run-off election. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: Amarakaeri)

Central America

Guatemala: ex-officers convicted in disappearance

Four retired senior members of the Guatemalan military—including two high-ranking officers previously thought to be untouchable, former Army Chief of Staff Benedicto Lucas García and former chief of military intelligence Manuel Callejas y Callejas—were convicted of involvement in crimes against humanity. Three  received a sentence of 58 years in prison, while one was sentenced to 33 years. The former officials faced charges arising from the detention, torture and sexual violation of Emma Molina Theissen, and the enforced disappearance of Emma’s 14-year-old brother Marco Antonio, in 1981. (Photo: Waging Nonviolence)

North Africa

Egypt bombs Libya after new attack on Copts

Egyptian warplanes carried out air-strikes on what President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi called six "terrorist training camps" in Libya after a new massacre of Coptic Christians.

Palestine

Palestinians burn effigies of Trump in Gaza

Palestinians erupted in anger over President Trump naming the Hamas movement—Gaza's de facto ruling party—in a list of terrorist organizations during his speech in Riyadh.

Greater Middle East

Aleppo and Cizre: fearful symmetry

Supposed antagonists Assad and Erdogan are both in the process of reducing cities to rubble: Aleppo and Cizre, both with the connivance of the Great Powers.

DID NARENDRA MODI ABET MASS MURDER?

by Subuhi Jiwani, World War 4 Report

On May 16, 2014, vote counting day of India’s lower-house Lok Sabha elections, I received a text with the title “Aaj ki ABCD” or the “ABCD of the day.” All the letters of the alphabet were the starting points of phrases in praise of Narendra Modi. For instance, N was “Nationalist Hindu Modi”; R was “Rishwaton ka Lokayukt, Modi” or Ombudsman for Corruption, Modi; Y was “Youth ka bharosa, Modi” or Hope for the youth, Modi; and Z, unsurprisingly, was “Zindagi ka madksad, Modi” or The goal of life, Modi.

This is only a small indication of how convinced many Indians are that Modi, a Hindu nationalist, represents true Indianness and patriotism, a no-holds-barred approach to corruption (clearly a jibe at the rival Indian National Congress), and the promise of development and the availability of jobs, among other things that helped him and his Bharatiya Janata Party win a majority in these elections. This, despite the fact that Modi and 59 others have been accused of a criminal conspiracy in connection with the 2002 Gujarat pogrom—three days of anti-Muslim rioting that left more than 1,000 dead.

Continue ReadingDID NARENDRA MODI ABET MASS MURDER? 
Europe

Europe’s fascist resurgence: East and West

The rise of far-right "anti-Europe" parties in the Europarliament elections echoes escalating ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist rhetoric on both sides in the Russo-Ukraine conflict.