Daily Archives: February 7, 2022

Olympic officials and the Chinese government have warned athletes at the Winter Olympics against staging any protests at competition venues or on the medal stand, saying they could violate Olympic rules as well as Chinese law. But if history is a guide, that message is likely to go unheeded.

The International Olympic Committee has long prohibited "demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda" at Olympic sites, although the rule was tweaked before last year's Tokyo Summer Games to allow for protests made "without disruption and with respect for competitors."

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But in the days leading up to the ongoing Winter Games in Beijing, China added an ominous new wrinkle. Yang Shu, deputy director general of Beijing 2022's International Relations Department, said any protesters that violate "the Olympic spirit" or Chinese law could be subject to unspecified punishment by the host country.

The warning -- which human rights groups have advised Olympians to take seriously -- comes during an era of rising demands for social justice that are echoed by activist athletes across the globe. China faces particular scrutiny for its human rights practices, including the detention of more than 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province as part of what the U.S. government and others have labeled a genocide.

Some U.S. officials worry that American athletes could face harsh sanctions if any protest upsets Chinese sensibilities. "Being an American citizen is in itself not protection from adverse treatment by the Chinese government," read a Jan. 28 letter to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee from a congressional commission that monitors human rights abuses in China. "As the Commission has documented, Chinese authorities have imposed exit bans on U.S. citizens, and even jailed foreign nationals, for political or specious reasons."

Concern about the limits of free speech in China burst into the international spotlight late last year when Chinese tennis star -- and three-time Olympian -- Peng Shuai took to social media to accuse China's former vice premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. Almost immediately, Peng's post was scrubbed from the internet, and she disappeared from public view, prompting concern for her safety. She resurfaced weeks later in videos where she withdrew her allegations and said she was safe -- a turnaround that some critics worry was coerced by the Chinese government.

Despite the warnings, protests tied to this year's Olympics have already begun, although it remains to be seen whether athletes will join in from Beijing. In December, the U.S. announced a diplomatic boycott of the event, meaning no top government officials are attending.

In October, as officials presided over the lighting of the Olympic torch that was ferried from Olympia, Greece, to Beijing's National Stadium, protesters with a Tibetan flag and a banner saying "no genocide games" found their way into the event.

In the weeks and months leading up to the Games, U.S. snowboarder Shaun White, a three-time gold medalist, posed on social media with a flag from Tibet, a region of China that activists say has long endured government oppression. Also, U.S. figure skaters Timothy LeDuc and Evan Bates have pointedly criticized China's human rights record in comments to reporters.

Researchers who study athlete activism say it is unclear what will happen if athletes speak up against China or stage protests that offend authorities in Beijing.

"I definitely think that athletes are going to be even more cautious headed into the Games when it comes to protest and using their voice, given the messaging from the IOC and China," said Yannick Kluch, director of outreach and inclusive excellence at Virginia Commonwealth University's Center for Sports Leadership. "But I also think if there are athletes who are outspoken, they are not going to be deterred."

Any action taken by China to punish protesting foreign athletes would quickly escalate beyond sports and become a diplomatic incident, he added. "I don't know if that pressure would be enough to protect these athletes," Kluch said. "I do think protest is very real possibility, but I also think the outcry globally would be very intense" if the Chinese were to exact any punishment.

Whatever protests do occur in Beijing would be in keeping with a long Olympic tradition. Irish track and field star Peter O'Connor staged perhaps the first act of political protest in Olympic history at the 1906 Games in Athens. He had entered the Games to represent Ireland, but newly enacted Olympic rules forced him to compete for Great Britain. To protest, he climbed a flagpole in the Olympic stadium and waved a green flag emblazoned with the words "Erin Go Bragh," or "Ireland Forever." Days later, O'Connor went on to win three gold medals.

Probably the best-known Olympic protest took place in 1968, when American sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their gloved fists in what they called a human rights salute from the medal stand in Mexico City.

Other athlete protests have followed. Among them: At the 2004 Games in Athens, Iranian judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili refused to fight Israeli athlete Ehud Vaks, to protest Israeli treatment of Palestinians. In Rio de Janeiro in 2016, as Ethiopia's Feyisa Lilesa crossed the finish line to win silver in the marathon, he crossed his arms in an X gesture made in support of the Oromo people. And just after the IOC revised its rules governing protests last year, numerous athletes in Tokyo protested, including all the players from the Japan and Great Britain women's soccer teams, who took a knee on the pitch to support Black Lives Matter.

The IOC has never stripped medals from protesting athletes, Olympic historians say, but it has sent some home and banned others from future competition for demonstrations the committee determined crossed the line.

The stakes are raised in Beijing, where the government has a record of imprisoning dissidents for political protests and even social media critiques. Most observers think it unlikely that foreign athletes would face similar sanction, but the Chinese have not publicly ruled that out.

"What the Chinese are saying is 'well, you have to respect the laws and rules of the host country,'" said David Wallechinsky, an Olympic historian. "But the thing is you're not going to know until you get to the airport to leave the country if you're being detained."

Continued here:

Olympics 2022 -- China has warned athletes not to protest in Beijing. What happens if they do? - ESPN

PESHAWAR: Like other parts of the country, rallies, seminars and other functions were held across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in connection with the Kashmir Solidarity Day on Saturday where the participants urged the international community and human rights organisations to take notice of the brutalities being carried out by the Indian government against innocent Kashmiri people in the India-held Kashmir.

Carrying banners and placards inscribed with demands for the UNs intervention to play its role for liberation of Kashmiris from the illegal occupation of India, the participants shouted slogans against the barbaric incidents of human rights violations.

They condemned the prolonged curfew and aggression by the Indian army and asked for an immediate end to the genocide of Kashmiri people.

Waving Kashmiri flags, the people urged the international community to take notice of the violence against the oppressed people, including women and children, in the occupied territory.

Rallies, functions held across KP to show solidarity with Kashmiris

In Peshawar, the main official rally was led by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Governor Shah Farman, which started from the CM Secretariat and culminated at the Governors House.

The rally was also attended by the provincial cabinet members, Chief Secretary Shehzad Bangash, civil society members and students.

Talking to mediapersons on this occasion, the governor and chief minister said that the government and public fully expressed solidarity with the innocent people of Kashmir and they stood by them in their struggle for freedom.

They urged upon the international community to come forward and play its role for peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue. They said that durable peace in the region was linked to the resolution of the Kashmir issue as per the UN resolutions.

They said that the right to self-determination and independence was the basic right of the people of Kashmir and the people and government of Pakistan would continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri brothers in their struggle for freedom.

Another rally was organised by Jamaat-i-Islami wherein its chief Sirajul Haq said that it was the time for UN to implement its resolutions on the occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He stated that India was being run by a savage and fascist regime, which was responsible for the genocide of Muslims in India.

He expressed unwavering support and solidarity with the Kashmiris, saying the Pakistani nation fully supported the Kashmiris struggle for their right of self-determination and asked the government to avoid double standards about the Kashmir issue.

The KP Directorate of Culture held a seminar and photo exhibition at Nishtar Hall, Peshawar, followed by a rally to show solidarity with the Kashmiri people.

Pakistan Study Centre of University of Peshawar, Pakistan Thinkers Forum and Press Information Department also arranged seminars and rallies, showing solidarity with the Kashmiris.

The traders community held separate rallies while PML-N held a gathering at its provincial secretariat which was addressed by its provincial president Amir Muqam.

Rallies and functions were also held in Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Kohat, Shangla, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Battagram, Mansehra, Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan, Bajaur and other district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to express solidarity with the oppressed people of India-held Kashmir.

Different government departments, educational institutions, political parties, business community and private organisations played active part in organising functions to draw the attention of international community to the plight of Kashmiri people.

The speakers vowed that the people and government of Pakistan would continue their political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiris till liberation of India-held Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2022

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World urged to take notice of Indian oppression in held Kashmir - DAWN.com

Justin Guerra| Guest columnist

Voting rights fails in Senate along with filibuster changes

Senate Democrats come up short on a last-ditch effort to change the filibuster rules in order to advance on voting rights.

Associated Press, USA TODAY

As Senate Democrats struggle to pass their legislative agenda with the midterms quickly approaching, they have considered the nuclear option abolishing the Senate filibuster. The death of the filibuster would leave them free to push their policy goals through Congress, setting them up to claim victories to their constituents as they seek reelection, but at what cost for the future of the national legislature?

Democrats efforts seem short-sighted they wont be in power forever, a reality that is becoming increasingly evident as Nov. 8 draws ever closer. In order to protect both the future of their party and the country, Senate Democrats would do better to abandon their fight to abolish the parliamentary procedure.

First, the filibuster embodies the republican principal of protecting the rights of the minority despite majoritarian rule. Although majoritarian governments areknown to be more productive and efficient, people like former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers argue that they are also equipped with the power to pass the flurry of legislation so commonly associated with authoritative regimes.

Even James Madison noted this potential defect in Federalist Papers No. 9 and 51, arguing that majoritarian rule, although an expression of the majority of interests involved, may also concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression against minorities. This threat, Madison observes, is particularly evident in cases of competitive political factions. He argues that when the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may … truly be said to reign.

Although not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, the Senate filibuster nonetheless embodies the constitutional theme of restrained power. In this case, the filibuster offers an additional check on the majority party in the Senate, protecting the interests of the minority.

As a majority party unchecked by the filibuster, Democrats can force any bill on their legislative agenda to a vote, omitting participation from Republican senators in the legislative process. Therefore, without the filibuster, the rights of the minority will be insecure.

While Senate Republicans stand to suffer from the abolishment of the filibuster today, Democrats efforts are short-sighted given that they are the victims of tomorrow. Midterms rarely benefit the office-holding party. In fact, the presidents party has gained seats in Congress during a midterm election just three times in the last century, as the American public checks the presidents power.

In 2022, with majorities already razor-thin (with just a nine-seat advantage in the House, and a single tie-breaking vote in the Senate), Republicans are poised to retake the majority in one or both chambers. And even if Democrats do manage to keep the majority this year, they wont have it forever. Sooner or later, the Senate will return to Republican hands the United States could see a united Republican government as early as 2024.

Democrats, as they indeed have done in the past, will once again be praising the filibuster as a shield protecting the country from the unitary will of a united Republican majority. In the past, party leaders have often praised or cursed the filibuster depending on their partys majority or minority status in the Senate, only to flip their position in a few years when that status changes.

We all recognize the threat that failing to pass necessary and overdue legislation on voting rights, womens reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ equality will have on our democracy. However, I write in support of the filibuster to ensure that when those changes are made, that they endure, and are built from deliberation. Otherwise, those very bills, which we profess will save our democracy, will doom it once congressional majorities change every two years.

While these issues without a doubt deserve attention, any future Congress might repeal those legislative efforts and replace them with an agenda focused on reversing those policy goals. The only sure way to guarantee lasting legislative change is to guarantee that legislation passes the criticism of robust debate and hard-won consensus.

In summary, we must heed Madisons warnings, lest the Senate succumb to the whim of an interested and overbearing majority. The filibuster must be preserved.

Justin Guerra is a political science student at the University of Florida.

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Democrats should abandon their fight to abolish the filibuster - Gainesville Sun

KHARTOUM, Sudan In a bare, dusty field in a neighborhood north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, about a hundred people gray-haired men in white robes and turbans, young women in jeans and T-shirts, mothers with their children in tow gathered on a recent evening to discuss what they see as their nations most pressing need: democracy.

For more than six hours, over sweet milky tea and doughnuts, they debated how to dislodge the military from its grip on power, cemented on Oct. 25 when a military coup suddenly put an end to Sudans two-year-old transition to democratic rule.

Across this vast nation of more than 43 million in northeast Africa, hundreds of similar groups, known as resistance committees, are convening regularly to plan protests, draw up political manifestoes and discuss issues like economic policy and even trash pickup.

They are committed to nonviolence, though they have paid a high price. On a makeshift stage in the dusty field, in the Kafouri neighborhood, 16 photographs were on display one woman and 15 men, martyrs from the neighborhood. They are among 79 people who have been killed in the protests since Oct. 25, according to a doctors group.

People have been killed, injured and detained so that we stop organizing and protesting, said Reem Sinada, 34, a veterinary medicine lecturer at the University of Khartoum, one of the local organizers. But we wont.

The neighborhood resistance committees are led mostly by young organizers, and they make a point of meeting in the open in tea shops and under trees rejecting the closed-room negotiations and top-down, male-centered leadership that have defined Sudanese politics for decades.

The movement does not have a single leader, relying instead on a decentralized structure in which individuals and communities organize their own events. They announce protest dates and demands on social media, in pamphlets and through graffiti and murals scrawled on walls. A media committee shares plans through a unified Twitter handle, but individual committees also manage their own social media accounts.

The military wish they were dealing with a few political parties and elites, and not this large network of people all over the country, said Muzan Alneel, a nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington.

The Sovereignty Council, Sudans ruling body, led by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, did not respond to multiple interview requests.

The standoff between the people and the generals has largely unfolded in the streets. The resistance committees have organized at least 16 major demonstrations since the military takeover, and plan to hold four more in February.

On a recent afternoon in Khartoum, protesters thronged bus stations, parks and squares before marching toward the countrys seat of power the presidential palace. Retail businesses and banks had closed at noon. And demonstrators, waving the Sudanese flag, blocked roads, beat drums and waved banners with anti-coup slogans.

Their chants echoed the graffiti on the walls: Our revolution is peaceful, and, Even a tank cannot stop the breaking dawn.

But security forces blocked roads and lobbed tear gas to stop the demonstrators from reaching the palace on Al Qasr Avenue. As some protesters coughed and retreated, a young man in blue swimming goggles screamed out to them, Retreat is impossible!

More than 2,000 people have been injured during these protests, according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors. Of those who were killed, the majority were shot in the head, chest and neck, the group said. Security forces have also raided hospitals, intimidated health care workers and arrested patients, according to interviews with doctors and eyewitnesses.

The crackdown has not deterred protesters like Akram Elwathig, a 29-year-old hospital worker with an Afro and a toothy grin, who composes catchy chants and poetry to lead processions.

Democracy is life, Mr. Elwathig said. Right now, we are like the dead. So we have to go to the streets so that we can get our lives back.

In one recent poem that turned into a protest chant, he beseeched his mother not to worry that he might be killed for demonstrating: I need your tears to turn into prayers, he said. I refuse military rule. I refuse the rule of someone ignorant.

Sudan erupted in celebration three years ago after popular protests ousted the countrys longtime ruler, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Then a civilian-military power-sharing deal ushered in hopes for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democratic governance.

But those yearnings were cut short at dawn on Oct. 25, when the military seized power and detained the civilian prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok holding him at the home of the countrys military chief, General al-Burhan. A month later, Mr. Hamdok cut a deal with the military that was widely rejected by people on the streets, and he finally resigned in early January.

With billions of dollars in foreign aid suspended after the coup, rising fuel and food prices and increasing violence in the restive Darfur region, Mr. Hamdoks departure scrapped hopes that one of Africas largest countries would quickly emerge from decades of repression, international isolation and American sanctions.

Some of the participants in the resistance committees said that their involvement was giving them a ray of hope in a bleak time. Ms. Sinada, the university lecturer, said that for four days after the coup, she was so depressed that she could not get out of bed. But the meetings have afforded her rare moments of connection and purpose.

The resistance committees are writing a new chapter in Sudans political history, she said.

The committees have grown to become a loosely networked, grass-roots movement, transcending class, age and ethnicity and spreading in both rural and urban areas.

They first surfaced in 2013, said Ms. Alneel at the Tahrir Institute, with students and opposition activists mobilizing to protest rising gas prices. Then in 2018, after the popular uprising against Mr. al-Bashir, the Sudanese Professionals Association, a pro-democracy coalition of trade unions, helped raise their profile through a public call in order to spread the demonstrations countrywide.

Catering to the needs of their neighborhoods, they provided cleanups and garbage collection, tutored students and organized health checkups. They grew politically vocal: demanding justice for those killed during the anti-Bashir uprising, challenging the transitional civilian government on its new economic policies and holding mass rallies against the military days before they carried out the coup.

In the months since the Oct. 25 coup, they have rejected any compromise with the military establishment that has dominated Sudan for most of its independent history, and insisted on civilian rule. Resistance committees have also been blocking the road north to Egypt for several weeks over rising electricity prices.

As their numbers and influence grow, observers say, the resistance committees face numerous challenges.

Political parties or the security forces could co-opt them. And their geographic spread, also an asset, makes it hard for them to unite, Ms. Alneel said.

Women in the movement report discrimination, too.

Sara Mouawia, 23, from the Almulazmeen area in Omdurman city, said some men thought she was less knowledgeable about revolutionary politics or Sudans history, even though she grew up actively discussing such things.

In one protest in December, she said, several young men went so far as to beat her for being on the front lines as they faced security forces.

Ms. Mouawia was hit in the forehead by a tear-gas canister during the protests on Jan. 30, but she insisted that nothing the men do will stop me from marching to the palace.

For now, the resistance committees continue to draw more young people across Sudan.

Bassam Mohamed, 22, grew up in Saudi Arabia but moved back home to Sudan to attend university. He is from the Jabra area in southern Khartoum and said one person was killed from his neighborhood and dozens were injured during the anti-coup protests. Mr. Mohamed said he was determined to not only organize and fund-raise for the cause, but also to die in order to realize a Sudan where there was equitable distribution of power and wealth.

Somewhere beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see? he asked in a roadside tea shop on a recent afternoon, quoting a line from Les Misrables, the musical about injustice and oppression in revolutionary France.

Taking a sip of black tea, he answered: Yes, there is. And we are going to march there.

Read more:

Sudan's 'Resistance Committees' Take On the Generals - The New York Times