Monthly Archives: April 2023

The influential Venezuelan legal organisation Foro Penal has been awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2023. Thanks to their tireless work, thousands of arbitrarily detained protesters, activists, and opposition politicians have been released from prison. Foro Penal and its human rights lawyers have become the hope for all those who want democracy in the country.

Foro Penal is a central part of the Venezuelan civil society, which continues to be the biggest hope for a democratic Venezuela. Because they courageously risk their own safety to defend the freedom of others and everyones access to justice, Foro Penal is awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2023, writes the board of Civil Rights Defenders in their motivation.

The human rights situation in Venezuela has deteriorated significantly since Hugo Chvez became president over 20 years ago and has further worsened under the leadership of Nicols Maduro, with arbitrary arrests, systematic torture, and attacks against opposition members. Fundamental rights such as freedom of the press, expression, assembly, and association are severely curtailed, and human rights defenders are relentlessly harassed. To date, over 250 political prisoners remain incarcerated in the country, and the government is currently preparing to enact even more repressive laws that will stifle any efforts to protect human rights.

Amidst this repressive environment, we find Foro Penal. They have become the first line of defence in the battle for human rights in Venezuela. More than 400 lawyers and 6,000 volunteers are spread across the country and work to help people who have been imprisoned on arbitrary or political grounds. The lawyers work entirely pro bono. Together they have helped more than 12,000 victims of political oppression. In many cases, the organisation has become the main obstacle against the governments repressive measures.

We are very proud and happy to receive this award. The recognition of our work means a lot for the whole organisation for me, our lawyers and our 6,000 volunteers. But, it also means international attention. For us, that means protection. Attention from the rest of the world does not make us safe from persecution, but it does make it more difficult for others to target us without anyone reacting, says Alfredo Romero, president of Foro Penal.

Foro Penal has been the leading defender of political prisoners and arbitrarily imprisoned democracy activists in Venezuela for over a decade. The organisation began their work in 2002 but gained substantial national influence during the 2014 protests when it defended more than 5,000 individuals at police stations and in courts.

Every week, Foro Penal compiles a report on the number of political prisoners in Venezuela. Their data is the most reliable in the country and is used by both governments, international media, and human rights organisations when they have to shed light on the ongoing human rights crisis.

They take on a regime that will stop at nothing to stay in power. And they do it one court case at a time. One human life at a time.

Thanks to their work, they have successfully drawn international attention to human rights violations in Venezuela. Currently, Venezuela is the only country in the world under open investigation by the International Criminal Court for serious crimes against humanity. Foro Penal has had a key role in that process.

Through the work we do internationally, we hope to achieve a change inside Venezuela. Right now, the government is in total control, and in the short term, it looks impossible to change. They will never give up power in democratic elections. But I am hopeful. Thats why were here. We see a light at the end of the tunnel, says Alfredo Romero.

As Foro Penal plays an increasingly important role in the work for democracy and human rights in Venezuela, the pressure on the organisation has increased. Due to criminalisation and intimidation, many of its leaders have been forced to leave the country. Others have been subjected to economic and political pressure or even imprisonment. One volunteer was sentenced to three years in prison and now lives in exile in Spain. He is one of the seven million people who have been forced to leave Venezuela because of the situation in the country. But, despite the risks, the organisation continues its work.

Raquel Snchez is one of Foro Penals many pro bono lawyers and leads the organisations operations in the Venezuelan region of Tchira. She has been the subject of several attacks because of her work.

Its a challenge; we work in a toxic environment, facing regular threats and lacking security. As human rights defenders, we are exposed to everything from physical assault to arbitrary arrests and criminalisation of our work. What motivates me to continue are my children, I was born in a country with democracy, and my wish is that they too will grow up and live in such circumstances, says Raquel.

On 30 May, representatives of Foro Penal will come to Stockholm to receive the award.

The Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award goes to all the thousands of people in Foro Penal who, despite the great risks, work for democracy and human rights in Venezuela. They take on a regime that will stop at nothing to stay in power. And they do it one court case at a time. One human life at a time. So far, they have helped over 12,000 people, and I am convinced that they will play a crucial role in the future democratisation of Venezuela, says Hanna Gerdes, Chairperson of the Board at Civil Rights Defenders.

Since 2013, the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award is awarded annually by Civil Rights Defenders to human rights defenders or an organisation who, despite the risk to their own safety, continue to fight for human rights to be recognised and respected.

The award highlights the situation of human rights defenders at risk. The award recipient is a person or organisation who carries out their work without the use of violence.

For more information, read our FAQ.

For more information, contact us at press@crd.org or +46 (0)76 576 27 62.

Do you want to support brave organisations like Foro Penal? Click the button below.

Excerpt from:

Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2023 Foro Penal - Civil Rights Defenders

WASHINGTON Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated three Nicaraguan judicial officials involved in human rights abuses conducted by the regime of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and the broader oppression of Nicaraguan citizens who oppose his government.

The three individuals designated today are judges or presiding magistrates in the Managua District Court of Appeals, the Second District Trial Court in Managua, and the First Criminal Appeals Court of Managua. These courts affirmed decisions that revoked the citizenship of more than 300 Nicaraguan citizens.

The Managua District Court of Appeals declared 222 Nicaraguan citizens traitors of the state and stripped them of their citizenship. An additional 94 individuals had their citizenship revoked and were declared fugitives of the law. One of the judges designated today issued a sentencing order imposing penalties on a prominent Nicaraguan Catholic bishop who was given the opportunity to depart Nicaragua along with the 222 departing individuals but refused to go into exile. The bishop was sentenced to over 26 years in prison, stripped of his citizenship, and declared a traitor for being critical of the regime. These actions reflect the regimes disregard for human rights in Nicaragua.

The Ortega regime continues to engage in anti-democratic actions that target the most vocal opposition figures in Nicaragua, including through its judicial system, said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. The United States will continue to support the Nicaraguan people as they strive to restore democratic institutions.

Ernesto Leonel Rodriguez Mejia (Rodriguez) was designated pursuant to E.O. 13851, as amended, for being an official of the Government of Nicaragua or for having served as an official of the Government of Nicaragua at any time on or after January 10, 2007. Rodriguez is a presiding magistrate of the Managua District Court of Appeals.

On February 15, 2023, Rodriguez announced the courts decision to strip 94 Nicaraguan citizens of their nationality, declaring them traitors. The denationalized individuals were outspoken critics of the Ortega regime and included notable journalists, human rights defenders, and clergy.

Nadia Camila Tardencilla Rodriguez (Tardencilla) was designated pursuant to E.O. 13851, as amended, for being an official of the Government of Nicaragua or for having served as an official of the Government of Nicaragua at any time on or after January 10, 2007. Tardencilla is a judge in the Second District Trial Court of Managua.

On February 10, 2023, Tardencilla issued a judicial order that stripped Catholic Bishop Rolando Jose Alvarez Lagos of his Nicaraguan citizenship and convicted him for treason, undermining national integrity and authority, aggravated obstruction, and spreading false news.

Octavio Ernesto Rothschuh Andino (Rothschuh) was designated pursuant to E.O. 13851, as amended, for being an official of the Government of Nicaragua or for having served as an official of the Government of Nicaragua at any time on or after January 10, 2007. Since 2021, Rothschuh has held the position of elected president magistrate of the Court of Appeals of Managua.

On February 10, 2023, the president magistrate announced the courts decision to deport 222 Nicaraguan individuals, declaring them traitors to the nation.

As a result of todays action, all property and interests in property of these persons that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFACs regulations generally prohibit all dealings by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.

The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from its ability to designate and add persons to the SDN List, but also from OFACs willingness to remove persons from the SDN List consistent with the law. The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior. For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an OFAC list, including the SDN List, please refer to OFACs Frequently Asked Question 897 here. For detailed information on the process to submit a request for removal from an OFAC sanctions list.

For more information on the individuals designated today, click here.

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Treasury Sanctions Three Nicaraguan Judicial Officials Involved in ... - Treasury

Across many African American communities in the US, depression and anxiety have been on the rise. Evidence has proven that racism has been a contributing factor to this, creating a ripple effect on mental health, which researchers now understand as racial trauma.

Researchers Jane M. Steele Ph.D. and Charmeka S. Newton, Ph.D., licensed mental health professionals looking at this mental health impact, explain that racial trauma is caused in several ways, including repeated experiences of racism and microaggressions and transgenerational trauma due to historical oppression.

While many people report trauma stemming from racist abuse, people can develop racial trauma even when they are not the target personally.

Trauma causes chronic stress, forcing the brain to stay hypervigilant and unable to relax

This is because trauma causes chronic stress, which lives in the body and can be felt like a rush of energy to the chest or stomach; these physical symptoms can be prompted by a range of external triggers such as race-based violence reported in the news or social media.

Repeated exposure to these stressors can impact the brain, where more stress chemicals that affect memory and fight or flight responses are generated, forcing the brain to stay hypervigilant and unable to relax.

The impact of internalised racism on Black people is a huge factor in racial trauma, and internalised racism commonly leads to self-hatred and a low sense of self-worth.

However, these messages of anti-Black rhetoric are not uncommon as the experts explain that messages of inferiority include television shows that depict Black people as unintelligent, criminal, prone to violence, and sexually promiscuous; the underrepresentation of Black people in positions of leadership and power; and the lack of justice received by Black people in our judicial systems.

Drs. Steele and Newton explain: In Western culture, white cultural standards are still upheld as the gold standard and the beauty and cultural norms of other racial groups are portrayed as inferior.

Internalized racism sounds like it might be easy to identify in yourself, but it could look like simply choosing a different pair of shoes to fit in with others it is about altering your appearance or behavior to fit into white cultural norms.

The authors a licensed professional counsellor and a psychologist collated a trauma checklist to help identify racial trauma, including feeling guarded around white people, having witnessed Black people being mistreated, and feelings of helplessness when hearing about racism in the news.

Helping Black people to identify racial trauma, Black Lives Are Beautiful offers tools for healing, helping to acknowledge the trauma, the experts provide a list of tools for coping, including mindfulness, physical relaxation techniques, and mental exercises including compassion meditations, positive affirmations, a self-esteem plan, and visualization tools.

Recognizing how social media can be triggering, they also offer tips to navigate the online world with wellbeing in mind such as following uplifting content creators and taking regular breaks.

We want to give people the tools to identify their trauma, and move forward with their healing.

Jane M. Steele Ph.D. and Charmeka S. Newton, Ph.D. are licensed mental health professionals and scholars who specialise in culturally responsive therapy, they said: Because of racism, many people of color lead lives full of worry, with a constant sense of being on guard. We might suppress or deny feelings about racism, or feel conflicted about talking about it.

Dealing with these thoughts and feelings repeatedly and over a prolonged period of time can eventually result in damage to mental and physical health. We want to give people the tools to identify their trauma and move forward with their healing.

In the Black community, there can be a real resistance to our own trauma for example, if I wasnt exposed to physical abuse, is it really that bad? But this kind of systemic, permeating racism that exists all around us has a real and physical impact on our minds and bodies. This is trauma.

This could present itself as hypervigilance around threats to safety, anxiety about the way one is perceived choosing certain clothes and avoiding certain places.

Because racialized trauma is a result of accumulated effects over time, you may not even be aware that your reactions are in response to your encounters with race.

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What does racial trauma look like, and how is it affecting communities? - Open Access Government

Left-wing populism could emerge as a potential game changer in next years federal election, political analyst Thomas Hofer told EURACTIV, referring to the Communist Partys success in the Salzburg state elections this weekend.

On Sunday, the Austrian communist party KP staged a major comeback in Salzburgs state elections, coming in fourth place with 11.7%, securing its return to the state parliament for the first time since 1949.

The party perfectly exploited the current mood, the Austrian political analyst, Thomas Hofer, said about KPs triumph. Particularly since the established centre-left SP party recently announced a leadership race, KP had space to score big at the federal level.

But the combination of a left-wing populist approach to issues and a communicatively talented leader at the top is the real recipe for success, Hofer told EURACTIV on Monday.

He also referred to KPs successes in Styria, where it has been in parliament for 18 years and carried out very professional issue management over many years, especially in the area of housing. KP member Elke Kahr has also been the mayor of Austrias second-largest city Graz since November 2021.

Growing anti-establishment sentiment and growing economic pressure among a growing number of households in Austria would have also boosted the Communists chances, Hofer stressed.

Chances in the 2024 elections?

Given the federal elections of autumn next year, Hofer sees sufficient left-wing populist potential to make it into parliament.

One must certainly expect that there will now be increased considerations in the direction of a left party, he said, believing this could lead to a more fragmented parliament, making it even more challenging to form a government.

This weekends elections also had another big winner: the far-right FP, which made significant gains and ended up in second place after the VP with 25.7%.

Indeed, if elections were held today, current polls point to an FP lead.

According to Hofer, the far-right party has managed to revive its brand essence and has set what Hofer called a freedom frame against its perceived oppression on all issues including migration pressure, corona dictatorship or climate oppression.

This would have made people forget about scandals like the Ibiza-gate affair in 2019, ultimately leading to the coalitions break-up with the conservative VP.

(Chiara Swaton | EURACTIV.de)

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Left-wing populism could upset next year's Austrian elections, says ... - EURACTIV

Last week, the federal government took another troubling step towards criminalizing dissent with the indictment of four left-wing black nationalists and three Russians for, allegedly, sowing discord and spreading Russian propaganda. The Russians supposedly recruited the Americans to act as illegal agents of the Kremlin. That's a charge meant to draw on the Russkies-under-the-bed panic of recent years, and one that echoes similar prosecutions by authoritarian regimes of overseas activists who receive American money. The move is hypocritical and dangerous to our liberty.

"A federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, returned a superseding indictment charging four U.S. citizens and three Russian nationals with working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to conduct a multi-year foreign malign influence campaign in the United States," the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last week. "Among other conduct, the superseding indictment alleges that the Russian defendants recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda; the indicted intelligence officers, in particular, participated in covertly funding and directing candidates for local office within the United States."

The Rattler is a weekly newsletter from J.D. Tuccille. If you care about government overreach and tangible threats to everyday liberty, this is for you.

The arrested Americans are activists with "the African People's Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement (collectively, the APSP) in Florida, Black Hammer in Georgia and a political group in California (referred to in the superseding indictment as U.S. Political Group 3)" which are organizations with exactly the politics you'd expect from their names. The APSP touts its efforts "to lead the struggle of the African working class and oppressed masses against U.S. capitalist-colonialist domination and all the manifestations of oppression and exploitation that result from this relationship." Which is to say that, like the message or not, the organization and its members engage in harsh criticism of the United States government and its policies, including of American support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia, that is strictly protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

"The Supreme Court has long considered political and ideological speech to be at the core of the First Amendment, including speech concerning 'politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion,'" the Congressional Research Service emphasized in 2019. "A government regulation that implicates political or ideological speech generally receives strict scrutiny in the courts, whereby the government must show that the law is narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest."

Nevertheless, much reporting on the indictments focuses on what the APSP and allied organizations say.

"A federal grand jury has charged three St. Louis residents with illegally pushing pro-Russian propaganda and misinformation about Ukraine and sowing discord across Missouri, Georgia and Florida through the African People's Socialist Party," St. Louis Public Radio reported.

Pro-Russian propaganda? Misinformation about Ukraine? That's protected speech (and open to debate). According to the DOJ, the illegality occurred when the indicted AmericansOmali Yeshitela, Penny Joanne Hess, Jesse Nevel, and Augustus C. Romain Jr.were given funding by Russians Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov, and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov. Natalia Burlinova (who is being separately charged) identified Americans who "had expressed positive attitudes towards Russia and were prepared to continue to collaborate" and so were candidates for support.

"Ionov, Sukhodolov, Popov, Yeshitela, Hess, Nevel and Romain are charged with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government within the United States without providing prior notification to the Attorney General, as required by law," huffs the DOJ.

But the U.S. government supports sympathetic overseas activists all the time, and people rightly complain when they're targeted for punishment for receiving dollars to further their efforts.

"The Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal represents a significant, targeted expansion of U.S. Government efforts to defend, sustain, and grow democratic resilience with likeminded governmental and non-governmental partners," the Biden administration announced on December 9, 2021. The initiative included $424.4 million for support of independent media in other countries, "anti-corruption change agents," "historically marginalized groups," and "activists, workers, and reform-minded leaders." The program just received another $690 million.

That's on top of the 40-year-old National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which "is dedicated to fostering the growth of a wide range of democratic institutions abroad, including political parties, trade unions, free markets and business organizations, as well as the many elements of a vibrant civil society that ensure human rights, an independent media, and the rule of law." Nominally non-governmental, the NED boasts it is "funded largely by the U.S. Congress."

Sometimes, the U.S. (and Russia) directly interfere in other countries' politics, such as the Italian elections of 1948. As you might expect, supporting organizations and activists abroad does breed resentment even when it's for the best reasons.

"Two courts in Russia ruled against that country's leading human rights organization," NPR noted in 2021 of the closure of 30-year-old Memorial. "Russia's High Court issued a decision to force the liquidation of the group for so-called violations of foreign agents laws."

"For the past four years, the Kremlin has sought to stigmatize criticism or alternative views of government policy as disloyal, foreign-sponsored, or even traitorous," Human Rights Watch cautioned in 2018. "An enduring, central feature has been the 2012 law requiring independent groups to register as 'foreign agents' if they receive any foreign funding and engage in broadly defined 'political activity.'"

The United States Department of Justice is prosecuting critics of government policy in 2023 using the exact same "foreign agent" excuse brandished by the Russian government against its critics. It's a sketchy way of criminalizing dissent by penalizing activists for having advocates and allies overseas.

Presumably, the DOJ would argue that it's going after bad pro-Russian propaganda spread by the APSP, while the Russians were going after good pro-human rights messaging.

"Russia's foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rightsfreedoms Russia denies its own citizensto divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States," Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in a sniffy statement. "The department will not hesitate to expose and prosecute those who sow discord and corrupt U.S. elections in service of hostile foreign interests, regardless of whether the culprits are U.S. citizens or foreign individuals abroad."

The whole idea behind protections for free speech, let's emphasize, is that governments can't be trusted to distinguish good speech from bad speech. Officials don't like criticism, so protecting our rights requires that we not let them restrict our ability to say unkind things about them.

But now, we have the United States Department of Justice emulating the Kremlin in smearing government critics as foreign agents. What interesting times these are.

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U.S. Government Borrows Russian Tactic To Muzzle Pro-Russian ... - Reason

For nearly two decades, Chaman Lal, a professor of Hindi literature, has been gathering information and photographs relating to freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, who was executed by the British when he was just 23. His identity and politics as [a] socialist was very appealing to me, said Lal.

Now, the researchers expansive collection has been put together in Life & Legend of Bhagat Singh (A Pictorial Volume). Lal said that most biographies focus on Bhagat Singhs bravery and patriotism, but in the writings he found there were different reflections of the young revolutionarys ideological moorings and perception of India as a socialist country.

Contemporary India and its young people, Lal says, must recognise Singh as a symbol of resistance against oppression, imperialism, and capitalism, and fight for a more just and equitable world.

The victory of the recent farmers movement in such trying circumstances is a testament to the power of a mass radical struggle that Singh was a supporter of, Lal said. In fact, the main force of the movement, which came from Punjab, was definitely inspired by Bhagat Singhs perception of India. Lal spoke to Scroll about Bhagat Singh, resistance, and injustice. Excerpts from the interview:

Life and Legend of Bhagat Singh is exhaustive in its detail about Bhagat Singhs life and his revolutionary activities. How did it come about?I started collecting documents and pictures related to Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries out of my passion for the towering figures of Indias freedom struggle as early as 2005, when I joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University as a professor, but I continued even after retirement. My sources were various research institutions like the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the National Archives of India, the West Bengal state archives, and even the British library through some friends.

I was mostly writing articles on Bhagat Singh, but when I got the offer to write a pictorial volume, it struck me that I could use the documents and images I have amassed over the years.

The British Communist Partys letter extending support to Bhagat Singh and the documents related to their campaign against Singhs death sentence was shared by Punjabi poet Amarjit Chandan, who is based in London. Incidentally, he was the first to put together around 28 essays written by Bhagat Singh in a book in Punjabi in 1974. But the book did not include the famous essay Why I am an Atheist, which was translated into Hindi and Punjabi much later.

Why I am an Atheist was first translated into Tamil in 1934 by comrade P Jivanandam at the behest of social activist and politician [formally known as EV Ramasamy] Periyar, who published it in Kudai Arasu, a Tamil weekly edited by him.

In your research, which part of Bhagat Singhs life has been the most difficult to reconstructActually, most biographies of Bhagat Singh focus on his bravery, fearlessness, radical nationalism and patriotism. But I was collecting his writings which reflect his ideological moorings and perception of free India as a socialist country. His identity and politics as a socialist was very appealing to me.

I consulted a lot of interviews of his comrades preserved in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, which surprisingly were ignored by most Indian scholars. Interestingly, scholars from foreign universities have consulted these interviews more than Indian scholars. I will not say it was the difficult part, rather, it was interesting but largely unexplored.

The chapter on Singhs childhood is filled with photographs of his family, his ancestral homes, the house he was born in and more. Has there been enough effort on part of the state and Union governments to conserve these places?Bhagat Singh was born and also died in what is now Pakistan. Only his ancestral village, Khatkar Kalan, and his cremation site near the Ferozepur border are located on the Indian side. The cremation site near Ferozepur was the one where the British cremated Bhagat Singh, [Singhs comrades and freedom fighters] [Shivram] Rajguru and Sukhdev [Thapar] in a hurried and undignified manner. The bodies were left half burnt.

The proper cremation of the three martyrs was done in Lahore on the banks of the Ravi river. After the bodies of the three martyrs were taken from the back gate of Lahore jail by the British police on the night of March 23, the people of Lahore followed them.

The half-burnt bodies were brought back to Lahore where they made three biers, and, with a massive procession of people, they cremated the martyrs on the banks of the Ravi where [freedom fighter from Punjab] Lala Lajpat Rai was also cremated in 1928. The Tribune, in its issue of March 26, carried a front-page story on the Lahore cremation of the martyrs.

The cremation site near Ferozepur was part of Pakistan until 1965, when it was exchanged with an equal part of land on a different border. India exchanged the area with Pakistan to build a memorial as a token of remembrance for the martyrs. The memorial at Hussainiwala, near Ferozepur, was built after 1965.

Bhagat Singhs ancestral haveli was gifted by his family to the Punjab government, which has built an impressive museum on the site. Over time, all political parties and their leaders have paid homage on Bhagat Singhs birth or martyrdom days September 28 and March 23.

When did you first become intrigued by Bhagat Singh?Like many other Indian adolescents, I developed a fascination for Bhagat Singh in my childhood owing to the gallant stories I had heard at home or in school. However, it was not part of my formal education.

Later on, when I was around 20 years old, I translated several sketches of revolutionaries written by Manmathnath Gupta into Punjabi. Gupta was also a freedom fighter and a revolutionary. Although I was a student of literature, my interest in Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries continued alongside my studies and research in literature.

Sometimes I even combined the two. In fact, my PhD thesis was on the novels of Yashpal, who was Bhagat Singhs classmate and fellow revolutionary in Lahore. Yashpal refers to Bhagat Singh in great detail in his memoirs.

As a boy, Bhagat Singh wanted to become a farmer who sows guns. If you would elaborate a little about this incident.Yes, its a beautiful story that captures the thoughts of a child growing up at a time of political turmoil and oppression. In 1909, when Bhagat Singh was just two years old, his uncle Ajit Singh was exiled to South America. Bhagat was very attached to his uncle. The Singh family were farmers and they had shifted from Jalandhar to the newly developed district of Lyallpur to farm their allotted fertile lands.

When Bhagat was four, he accompanied his father and his fathers friend Mehta Anand Kishore one day for a stroll in their farms. Incidentally, Mehta Anand Kishore was the accused number one in the First Lahore conspiracy case relating to the Ghadar Party, which ended with the execution of so many revolutionaries including Kartar Singh Sarabha who was Bhagats idol.

Anyway, while the adults were talking, little Bhagat was playing in the ground pretending to sow something. When Mehta Anand Kishore asked the child what he was sowing, he responded that he was sowing guns to have a fulsome crop, so that he could get his uncle back from the Britishers. Thats it, it was the innocent fantasy of a child who felt wronged that the British had taken his uncle away from him. There is no fascination for guns here, just a boy determined to get his uncle back.

Bhagat Singh came from a family with a long history of freedom fighters. Who were some of his idols growing up?Yes, his family had a long and continuous tradition of freedom fighters, as mentioned above. He idolised his uncle Ajit Singh for example.

Before his death at the age of 23, Bhagat Singh had become an accomplished essayist. His Why I am An Atheist is still widely read. As a professor of literature, what would you say about Singhs writing?Bhagat Singh has been praised for his writing by a more important figure than a professor of literature like me. When the poet and senior leader of the Ghadar Party, Lala Ram Saran Das, was about to publish his poetry collection Dreamland, he requested Singh to write the introduction. Singh obliged with some reluctance, writing that he was no master of literature but was merely honouring the wish of a senior revolutionary.

Yet, that introduction remains a significant essay in Singhs oeuvre, which makes some important political observations regarding literature. Singh was very objective in his approach and was a highly talented essayist and writer.

He advised fellow revolutionary Yashpal, who was involved in the 1929 Viceroy train bomb blast, to abandon such attempts and write stories instead, telling him he was more talented in that field. His advice proved true later as Yashpal grew to be a major fiction writer of Hindi.

Singh devised ingenious ways to convey his messages to a larger audience. How did these fit into his political vision for Indias freedom movement?Yes, Singh understood the potential of mass mobilisation in a vast country like India. This insight is probably a result of his experience of earlier revolutionary activities, and the unsuccessful violent actions of their own groups.

Radical mass movements were an important way forward for Indian freedom, and Singh realised this. Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to put it into practice, but his comrades who outlived him did so by joining communist and socialist parties.

How do you think todays youth view Bhagat Singh?While many young people today may only view Bhagat Singh as an iconic figure known for his bravery and fearless actions, there is a significant section of youth in India, South Asia, and other parts of the world who consider him an emblem of liberation from various forms of exploitation and oppression, similar to the way [Cuban revolutionary and Marxist thinker] Che Guevara is seen as a symbol of liberation.

For these individuals, Bhagat Singh was a champion of social justice and a symbol of resistance against imperialism, capitalism, and other oppressive structures. Despite Bhagat Singhs ideas and legacy being lesser known among the youth today, his contributions to Indias struggle for independence and his ongoing influence as a symbol of liberation and resistance should be recognised and understood by young people who seek to fight for a more equitable and just world.

If you had to recommend three books on Bhagat Singh for further reading, what would they beThe first book to mention would be Jitendranath Sanyals Sardar Bhagat Singh. The British banned the biography soon after it was published in May 1931. Coming from a fellow jailed revolutionary, it is an authentic account and has quite a few historic references. The book was republished 15 years later in 1946, when the provisional Indian government was formed and the remaining jailed comrades of Bhagat Singh were released.

Other than that, it is actually very difficult to shortlist three. A number of authors, including Singhs own niece Virender Sindhu, have written excellent books on the subject.

I can also mention A G Noorani, Bipin Chandras introduction to Why I am an Atheist, S Irfan Habib, Kama Maclean, Chris Moffat, and Neeti Nair who just published an important research paper on Singhs hunger strikes.

Originally posted here:

Interview: Bhagat Singh is an important symbol of resistance against injustice and oppression - Scroll.in

Sudan

Rival forces say Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the international criminal court, has either been released or taken to a different location after attack

Guardian staff and agencies

Tue 25 Apr 2023 19.01 EDT

An attack on the prison holding deposed Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has raised questions about his whereabouts, with one of the warring sides saying he is being held in a secure location and the other alleging he has been released.

Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for three decades was overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) for genocide and other crimes committed during the conflict in Sudans western Darfur region in the 2000s.

The Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which together had removed al-Bashir from power during mass protests, are now battling one another across the capital. The fighting reached the prison over the weekend, with conflicting reports about what transpired.

Military officials told The Associated Press that Bashir, as well as Abdel-Rahim Muhammad Hussein and Ahmed Haroun who both held senior security positions during the Darfur crisis had been moved to a military-run medical facility in Khartoum under tight security for their own safety.

The army later accused the RSF of donning military uniforms and attacking the prison, saying they released inmates and looted the facility. The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, denied the allegations and claimed that the military forcibly evacuated the facility as part of a plan to restore al-Bashir to power.

Former official Haroun, who is also wanted by the (ICC), said that he and other former officials of Bashirs government had been allowed to walk free, in a statement aired on Sudan television. He said they left the prison for their own safety because of the fighting and a lack of food or water.

Haroun also said he was ready to appear in front of the judiciary whenever it was functioning and would take responsibility for his own protection. It was not immediately clear if Bashir, who has spent extended periods in a military hospital, with him.

Both the military and the RSF have sought to portray themselves as allies of the countrys pro-democracy movement who are trying to restore its transition to civilian rule. But both joined forces to remove civilian leaders from power in a coup less than two years ago.

Kober prison held a number of activists detained after the coup. One of them who walked free, Ahmed al-Fatih, said he was willing to surrender at a police station but could not find any that were functioning amid the unrest, according to a statement released by his defence lawyers. Both activists said their lives were in danger at the prison as food and water ran low.

Videos circulating online appear to show a long line of prisoners leaving the facility with bags of belongings slung over their shoulders.

The ICC indicted Bashir, Hussein and Haroun on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur.

The Darfur conflict erupted when rebels from an ethnic African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. Al-Bashir launched a scorched-earth campaign that included air raids and attacks by notorious Janjaweed militias tribal fighters who stormed into villages on horses and camels.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

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Sudan former president Bashir accused of genocide may be free after prison attack - The Guardian