CounterVortex

Syria

Russia blocks UN statement against Idlib bombing

Russia blocked a UN Security Council statement of alarm about the killing of civilians in northwest Syria and the possibility of a humanitarian disaster. The bombing has accompanied a Russia-backed offensive by the Assad regime to recapture Idlib and neighboring Hama province. This last major opposition-held area is home to over 4 million people—about 20% of Syria’s surviving population. Over the past month, some 300 civilians have been killed in the bombardment, with hundreds more wounded. The number displaced in Idlib and Hama now totals more than 300,000. Almost 30 medical facilities have been destroyed or damaged in the bombing. Throughout the eight-year Syrian conflict, Russia has vetoed 12 Security Council resolutions to criticize or censure its ally, the Assad regime. (Photo: EA Worldview)

Africa

Sudan transition deal suspended after massacre

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and other troops under the command of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council unleashed the deadliest attack yet against protestors at the sit-in site in Khartoum, leaving at least 35 dead and hundreds injured. The sit-in had been called to demand a swift transition to civilian rule, and followed a two-day general strike. In the wake of the massacre, TMC leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan cancelled the recent power-sharing agreement with the opposition coalition and called for elections within nine months. Opposition leaders reject any elections that take place under military rule, and are calling for protests to continue despite the state of siege. (Photo: 3ayin)

Syria

Syria: Idlib displaced march on Turkish border

Thousands of displaced residents of Syria’s northwest Idlib province—under Russian-backed bombardment by the Assad regime, which has killed some 300 over the past month and displaced more than 300,000—marched on the Turkish border, demanding entry or international action to stop the bombing. With more than 3.6 million refugees already in Turkey, Ankara has blocked any further entry. But the regime bombing campaign and ground offensive, that has shattered a so-called “demilitarized zone,” now threatens a “humanitarian catastrophe,” in the words of the United Nations. Protesters at the border wall assailed the international community for its inaction. One said, “If you cannot save us, we will break the border and come to Europe to find a safer place to live.” (Photo via EA Worldview)

East Asia

Podcast: Memories of Tiananmen Square

In Episode 34 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg interviews Rose Tang, veteran journalist, activist, artist, and survivor of the Tiananmen Square massacre. In an in-depth oral history, Tang recounts her experiences as a student leader in Beijing in the spring of 1989, her witness to the June 4 repression, and her work as a public voice for Tiananmen Square survivors. Listen on SoundCloud, and support our podcast via Patreon. (Photo via Rose Tang)

Southeast Asia

Burma: soldiers freed in Rohingya massacre

Seven soldiers imprisoned in Burma for killing 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys have received an early release—serving less time than the reporters who uncovered the massacre they were convicted of. The soldiers were sentenced in 2018 to 10 years in prison for the killings at the village of Inn Din, but they “are no longer detained,” prison officials told Reuters. The news agency said the men were freed in November. This means they served less than one year of their 10-year terms. They are the only people to have been convicted for atrocities committed during the 2017 military campaign against the Rohingya in the western Rakhine state, in which more than 700,000 were displaced. Meanwhile, the two Reuters reporters who were imprisoned on charges of revealing “state secrets” for reporting the massacre were also just released—after serving 16 months. (Photo via Reuters)

South Asia

Nepal blasts: bid to reboot Maoist insurgency

Four people were killed and three others injured in three explosions in Kathmandu, a grim reminder of the Maoist insurgency the shook Nepal for a decade before a 2006 peace agreement. A dissident faction that has remained in arms since the peace agreement claimed credit for the blasts. The Netra Bikram Chand-led “Communist Party of Nepal” had declared a nationwide general strike for the following day. And in fact many businesses and transportation services were shut down, seemingly more due to fear of attack than support for the strike. The Netra Bikram Chand faction broke from the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) when it laid down arms and joined the government. (Photo: Libcom)

North America

Judge blocks emergency funding for Trump’s wall

A federal judge blocked construction of Donald Trump’s border wall, ruling that Trump cannot use a “national emergency” to take money from government agencies for the barrier. Judge Haywood Gilliam of the US District Court for Northern California ruled that the diversion of the money likely oversteps a president’s statutory authority. The injunction specifically limits wall construction projects in El Paso, Tex., and Yuma, Ariz. (Photo via Jurist)

Africa

General Assembly: UK must return Chagos Islands

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution demanding the United Kingdom return control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius within six months. The non-binding resolution follows an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in February, finding that the UK is “under an obligation” to end its administration of the islands “as rapidly as possible.” The UK retained control over the islands after Mauritius gained its independence from Britain in 1968, following a supposed compensation deal between the two states. Mauritius now rejects the deal as having been imposed unilaterally. The entire Chagossian population was forcibly removed from the territory between 1967 and 1973 to make way for a joint US-UK military base, which is still in place on the island of Diego Garcia. Before the UN vote, Mauritian Prime Minister Pravid Kumar Jug-Nauth told the General Assembly the forcible eviction of Chagossians was akin to a crime against humanity. (Photo: WILPF)

Iraq

Turkey bombs Iraqi territory —again

Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish rebel positions across the Iraqi border—part of a new offensive against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), apparently undertaken with the implicit consent of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government. Ankara’s Defense Ministry said warplanes struck arms depots and shelters used by the rebels in the Avashin area of Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish ground forces are also reported to have crossed the border, and engaged PKK fighters at the village of Sidekan, Erbil province. The PKK issued a statement saying its fighters had clashed with the “Turkish invading army.” (Photo: Kurdistan 24)

South Asia

Sri Lanka dissidents reject Buddhist fascism

As Sri Lanka marks the 10-year anniversary of the end of its long internal war, a new wave of communal violence has erupted following the Easter Sunday terror attacks. In days of anti-Muslim riots, mobs have ransacked mosques and attacked shops with petrol bombs. The Buddhist militant group Bodu Bala Sena, which has been repeatedly linked to such pogroms since its founding in 2012, is named as having instigated much of the violence. But just as many Sri Lankan Muslims have held peace vigils to repudiate the Easter attacks and declare their solidarity with Christians, some Sinhalese Buddhists have repudiated the pogroms and declared their solidarity with Muslims. (Photo via SriLankaTweet)

The Andes

Bolivia: did opposition call for US ‘intervention’?

Bolivian President Evo Morales launched his campaign for a fourth term with a massive rally in the Chapare region where he began his career as a peasant leader a generation ago. But the country’s political opposition charges that Morales is defying a 2016 referendum, in which voters rejected a fourth consecutive term. The referendum results were later overturned by the Plurinational Constitutional Court—sparking a wave of protest. The campaign begins amid controversy surrounding accusations that opposition lawmakers have sent a letter to Donald Trump jointly calling for his “intervention” against Morales’ re-election. (Photo: Apporea)

Syria

Amnesty International: ‘crimes against humanity’ in Idlib

The Assad regime, supported by Russia, is carrying out a “deliberate and systematic assault” on hospitals and medical facilities in Syria’s northwestern provinces of Idlib and Hama, Amnesty International charges. With the UN Security Council set to discuss northwest Syria, Amnesty urged action, calling for Russia to be pressured over the deliberate targeting of 15 hospitals in Idlib and Hama over the past three weeks. “Bombing hospitals carrying out their medical functions is a war crime. These latest attacks have eliminated vital lifelines for civilians in desperate need of medical care. This is part of a well-established pattern targeting medical facilities to systematically attack the civilian population and it constitutes crimes against humanity,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty’s Middle East director. (Photo: EA Worldview)