Author: Bill Weinberg

Central America

Perverse ironies of Honduran political crisis

HondurasThe US "certifies" Honduras for continued military aid exactly as the government declares a state of emergency and unleashes the armed forces on protesters. The crisis was sparked by President Juan Orlando Hernández's apparently fraudulent election to a second term. Yet Hernández and his conservative National Party supported the 2009 coup d'etat that ousted Manuel Zelaya from the presidency for merely broaching a second term in supposed violation of the constitution.

Syria

US to demand arms back from Rojava Kurds

SDFThe Trump administration plans to ask Syrian Kurdish fighters to return weapons "loaned" for the fight against ISIS, an official told Al-Monitor. This was revealed the same day the White House made its first comment on claims by the Turkish foreign minister that US support for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces would be coming to an end. White House mouthpiece Sarah Huckabee Sanders said "the plan…is to…wind down support for certain groups."

South Asia

Hatred of Ahmadis behind Pakistan protests

PakistanThe protests that paralyzed Islamabad and other Pakistani cities were ostensibly sparked by changes to the oath of office, eliminating text recognizing Mohammed as God's final prophet. But behind this was orthodox Sunni fear of the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect, which holds that 19th century founder Mirza Gulam Ahmed was the last prophet. As the protests mounted, Ahmadi Muslims faced threats across Pakistan, the Islamic world and the diaspora.

Syria

Syria: ‘de-escalation’ zones become kill zones

SyriaThe so-called "de-escalation" zones declared under Russia's "peace plan" for Syria have actually become kill zones, as Moscow and the Assad regime continue their bombardment, citing the presence in the rebel enclaves of jihadist factions not covered by the deal. But the rebels and civil resistance forces have little ability to expel the jihadists—and sometimes the air-strikes continue even after they have.

THE REDACTION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS

TatarsA court in Russia sentenced another group of Crimean Tatars to lengthy prison terms on charges of belonging to a banned political organization. A military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Bilyal Adilov to 14 years, while Izzet Abdullaev, Tofik Abdulgaziev, Vladlen Abdulkadyrov and Mejit Abdurakhmanov each received 12-year sentences. The men are accused of being members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an organization that advocates for the peaceful restoration of an Islamic Caliphate. It operates freely in Ukraine but is banned in Russia as an "extremist" organization. The men, arrested in March 2019 in a sweep along with more than a dozen other Tatars, were also members of the group Crimean Solidarity, formed to oppose the illegal Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Since the annexation, over 30 Crimean Tatars have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, more than half this year alone. (Shirts read: "Truth cannot be imprisoned, killed, or hidden!" Photo via RFE/RL)

Continue ReadingTHE REDACTION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS 
Southeast Asia

Duterte drug war de-escalation: how real?

DutertePhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte won rare favorable international headlines when he said he would pull his National Police force out of his brutal "war on drugs," which has now reached the point of mass murder. The move came after public outrage over the police slaying of an unarmed youth. But Amnesty International notes that he made such promises after a similar outrage a few months back—and nothing changed. 

Southeast Asia

Indonesia unleashes ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy

IndonesiaIndonesian President Joko Widodo, following in the bloody footsteps of the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, has issued a "shoot-on-sight" policy for drug suspects. The hardline policy comes amid a sudden media blitz about the drug "state of emergency" in the archipelago nation.

Syria

Conviction in Syrian regime war crime —at last

SyriaFor the first time, after six years of war and escalating atrocities, a member of the Syrian regime's military has been convicted of a war crime—a low-level soldier now in Sweden as a refugee, and tried in that country's courts. Yet there have been several convictions of Syrian rebel and ISIS fighters in European courts. This gross imbalance in convictions persists despite the fact that Assad has killed far more Syrians than ISIS or any other "terrorist" outfit in the country.

Syria

Further internationalization of Syrian war

SyriaTurkey sends more troops into Syria to fight jihadist factions in Idlib province, while Russia delivers more missiles to its military base at Tartus, and the US steps up bombardment of Raqqa in support of Kurdish forces in their drive to take the city from ISIS. Can these multiple foreign forces avoid attacking each other, even if accidentally, and sparking a wider war beyond Syria's borders?

SYRIA’S KURDISH CONTRADICTION

FNLBurundi's President Évariste Ndayishimiye announced that he is prepared to negotiate with the country's two main rebel groups, should they reach out to his government. But it's unclear if the rebels will do that, given ongoing operations against them. The National Liberation Forces (FNL) and the Resistance Movement for Rule of Law in Burundi (RED-Tabara) both have bases in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. The latter, the stronger of the two, has conducted a string of attacks in Burundi since 2015—the year disputed elections triggered waves of political violence. Reports suggest significant numbers of Burundian troops have crossed into the DRC in recent months to track down RED-Tabara fighters. The group is one of a number of foreign rebel movements in DRC, where nearly three million people were displaced last year. Hundreds of thousands of Burundians, meanwhile, are still living in refugee camps, afraid to return to a country where the killing and torture of ruling party opponents is rife. (Image: Wikipedia)

Continue ReadingSYRIA’S KURDISH CONTRADICTION 
Southeast Asia

Philippines: Duterte threatens to kill his own son

DutertePhilippine President Rodirgo Duterte—whose "war on drugs" has now reached the point of mass murder—was put on the hot spot when his own son was called to testify before a Senate hearing on drug corruption. He thundered that he had ordered the National Police to kill his son like any other drug suspect. And amid the relentless police killings, he gutted the country's official human rights office, reducing its budget to an insulting $20 a year.

East Asia

China’s rise threatened by ‘de-globalization’?

ChinaWilliam C. Kirby, author of Can China Lead? Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth, argued in a presentation at New York's China Institute that China's rise is dependent on continued global integration, and that this is now threatened by the authoritarianism of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping alike.