Category Archives: Government Oppression

SRINAGAR: Angry reactions are coming in to cabinet minister and Peoples Democratic Party leader Imran Reza Ansaris tweet that human life is more important than a masjid, which he said in reference to the prolonged closure of the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar. If we can save precious lives by not letting people go out in volatile times, it is as good as a prayer, the tweet added. Several Kashmiris have responded to the tweet. By this logic Amaranth Yatra should be banned till situation favourable, wrote Tariq Ahmad Sofi. Is this the logic to justify closure of Jamia Masjid for the past one month. Nothing can substitute a prayer. Iqbal Mir, referring to the PDP-BJP led government, wrote, You have brought the state to such a position that people are not safe even in Masjids, by your accountHave some shame. Imran Reza Ansari could not be reached for his comments as he is currently travelling to Syria. He is not in the country. He is in Syria to visit shrines, told his public relations officer. Ansari did not reply to WhatsApp messages as well. The government has locked down the Jamia Masjid for the past consecutive five Fridays, fearing pro-freedom protests. Reacting to Ansaris tweet, a Hurriyat (M) spokesman said that the governments position on the closure of Jamia Masjid was misleading and senseless. This remark is clearly an attempt to justify and cover up the oppression let loose on people of Kashmir by a shameless group of people who are solely driven by the lust of power, the spokesman said. It is not about saving life but it about saving Kursi (chair). The spokesman said the government was taking political vendetta against Kashmiris by closing Jamia Masjid. There was no killing on Fridays in Jamia Masjid even in 2016. Not 3ven this year, the spokesman said. Since the pulpit of Jamia Masjid loudly speaks about the freedom movement and state oppression in Kashmir, the government is unnerved. They are now resorting to lies to obfuscate the political realities of Kashmir.

Imran Raza Ansari, Jamia Masjid, Peoples Democratic Party, Restrictions

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Ansari's tweet on Jamia Masjid draws flak - Kashmir Reader

One of Nova Scotias new senators is throwing her support behind the Liberal governments controversial $10.5 million payout and apology to former child soldier Omar Khadr.

Independent senator Wanda Thomas Bernard released a joint statement with Ontario senator Kim Pate on Monday in the form of an open letter to Justin Trudeau.

In the letter, Pate and Bernard said Canada owes Khadr much more than an apology,

We commend you for challenging the use of the label terrorist to excuse the inexcusable: the unlawful detention and torture of a Canadian teen, as well as the complicity and the condonation of the torture and imprisonment, the statement said.

After far too many years, we are pleased to see our government finally acknowledge what the Supreme Court of Canada recognized in 2010, when it found Canada complicit in the unconstitutional violations of Mr. Khadrs rights in Guantanamo Bay.

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Khadr, now 30, is a Canadian citizen who was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay from age 16 to 26. In 2002 at age 15, he was captured by American soldiers in Afghanistan after a firefight left him severely injured, and later sent to Guantanamo Bay where he was accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American. Khadr pled guilty to the accusation but later said it was only because he believed that would help him get transferred out of Guantanamo. In 2013 he filed a $20 million civil suit against the Canadian government, and was released on bail in 2015.

In the statement, Bernard and Pate said they echoed the views of former senator and child solider advocate Romo Dallaire when he said, it is not Omar who was the threat, but those who recruit young girls and boys to fight their wars for them who are the greatest threat.

The decision by the Liberal government to settle out of court, offering a payout and apologize to Khadr rather than continue to fight the legal case, has been met with criticism from the general public.

But Pate and Bernard, a well known anti-oppression and social justice advocate in Nova Scotia, called the decision a step towards a more just society.

We reiterate our willingness to assist the government in any way we can as it carries out its constitutional duty to uphold the human rights of Mr. Khadr and of all Canadians, their release said,

Both Pate and Bernard are both unaffiliated Senators appointed in the last year under the Liberal government's new arms-length application process. Bernard, a Dalhousie social work professor, was officially sworn in to the Senate in November.

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NS senator backs Khadr settlement - TheChronicleHerald.ca

byHermann Aubi, Aston University

Only a few weeks after being diagnosed with a late-stage liver cancer in late May 2017, the world learned that Chinas most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, died at 61 in a hospital in the north-east region of China, where he was born. As the poetess Tang Danhong wrote, he departed as an innocent prisoner into the eternal light (). What a tragedy for a man who fought most of his life for freedom to live out his last days in a hospital bed under lock and key.

Liu Xiaobo, 1955-2017. Photo: EPA/Liu Xia handout.

While I never had the chance to meet Liu in person, I feel like Ive lost someone very close to me, as if his death has torn away a part of myself. While he was behind bars in Jinzhou prison, I was trying my best to better understand what his human rights struggle was all about and to imagine his thoughts on what happened in China and around the world during the last eight years he spent in prison.

More recently, as I was anticipating his release in June 2020, aged 64, I even indulged in imagining his surprise at seeing a young Frenchman coming from nowhere brandishing a newly written book about him. There was so much I wanted to discuss with him, and I regret that I will never have the chance.

Words can hardly express the emotion and disgust I feel at this cruelty and injustice. I remain lucky to have known Liu through his writings and his friends I will struggle to come to terms with his departure, but I take comfort in imagining how many people are now mourning his loss around the world.

Living in truth

As a student who fell in love with China in the early 2000s and devoured hundreds of books and articles on China to quench my curiosity and satiate the hunger of my ignorance, reading Lius critical analyses of Chinese politics and society was hugely enlightening. His works compelled me to question my assumptions and unlearn many of the false narratives that I took for granted about Chinese culture and history.

It was thanks to him that I so enjoyed learning the Chinese language unlike the heavy, wooden register of Chinese officialdom, the language Liu used felt natural and his arguments more intuitive, especially when it came to our shared human condition and aspiration for universal values.

A pro-democracy protester holds a picture of Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia. Photo: EPA/Ym Yik

The moral maturity and dignity of his work also made me more aware of how we ought to live and act in everyday life, of the importance of listening to our conscience and rejecting lies. In particular, Liu highlighted the need to unlearn the enemy mentality () that the Chinese party-state relentlessly instils with its constant propaganda about hostile forces trying to split China or spread chaos a false worldview meant to justify the regimes oppression.

In talking to Lius friends, I also learned about his integrity and authenticity as a person and about all the solidarity initiatives that he organised to call for the release of persecuted fellow citizens despite the risks of retaliation from Chinas unpredictable party-state.

Liu Xiaobo in 2008. Photo: FactWire screenshot.

At his trial in December 2009, Liu reaffirmed with calm and eloquence what he stood for 20 years earlier during the democracy protests at Tiananmen Square: I have no enemy, no hatred (). And yet, the regime went on treating him like a top enemy of the state, sentencing him on a trumped-up charge to 11 years in prison and ruthlessly detaining his wife, Liu Xia, while also sentencing her brother, Liu Hui, to 11 years in prison on another trumped-up charge.

Not giving in

For three decades, Liu persistently fought for a freer China, throwing himself into a human rights struggle in which he and Liu Xia suffer and sacrifice their freedom for the freedom of others. Viewed from afar, it may be hard to comprehend how a frail human being like Liu who only used his pen to write articles and collect signatures for open letters could attract so much cruelty from the Chinese regime a regime on which the West now depends to lead the fight against global warming and promote global free trade.

The spectacle of Lius last days are testament to the cruelty of the Chinese regime. But although grief and anger at Lius fate might make us hate that government, I hope we will never forget his message about the importance of not giving in to hatred. An enemy mentality poisons hearts and minds. This is a universal message one that very much applies in a Western world increasingly blighted by xenophobia.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

The world has lost a precious mind, but we can still ensure through our words and actions that his enduring spirit of freedom wont die with him. Considering how much effort the Chinese regime still puts into erasing his legacy and silencing his wife, its now time to take urgent action to make sure that his wife and her brother can finally move around freely.

Photo: HKFP/Catherine Lai.

Now more than ever, the international community must shout their indignation against the Orwellian brutality of Xi Jinpings government. It must show its full support with all Chinas innocent prisoners of conscience and their families and try to make sure they will one day be free to love and support each other without being driven into exile by fear and suffering.

This would be the most concrete way of ensuring that however cruel his final years, Lius efforts to build Chinas democratic future were not in vain.

Hermann Aubiis a Lecturer in Sociology and Policy atAston University.This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.

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Liu Xiaobo: A voice of conscience who fought oppression for decades - Hong Kong Free Press

Liu reaffirmed with calm, eloquence what he stood for during Tiananmen Square protests at his trial

Only a few weeks after being diagnosed with a late-stage liver cancer in late May 2017, the world learned that Chinas most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, died at 61 in a hospital in the north-east region of China, where he was born. As the poetess Tang Danhong wrote, he departed as an innocent prisoner into the eternal light. What a tragedy for a man who fought most of his life for freedom to live out his last days in a hospital bed under lock and key.

While I never had the chance to meet Liu in person, I feel like Ive lost someone very close to me, as if his death has torn away a part of myself. While he was behind bars in Jinzhou prison, I was trying my best to better understand what his human rights struggle was all about and to imagine his thoughts on what happened in China and around the world during the last eight years he spent in prison.

More recently, as I was anticipating his release in June 2020, aged 64, I even indulged in imagining his surprise at seeing a young Frenchman coming from nowhere brandishing a newly written book about him. There was so much I wanted to discuss with him, and I regret that I will never have the chance.

Words can hardly express the emotion and disgust I feel at this cruelty and injustice. I remain lucky to have known Liu through his writings and his friends I will struggle to come to terms with his departure, but I take comfort in imagining how many people are now mourning his loss around the world.

Living in truth

As a student who fell in love with China in the early 2000s and devoured hundreds of books and articles on China to quench my curiosity and satiate the hunger of my ignorance, reading Lius critical analyses of Chinese politics and society was hugely enlightening. His works compelled me to question my assumptions and unlearn many of the false narratives that I took for granted about Chinese culture and history.

It was thanks to him that I so enjoyed learning the Chinese language unlike the heavy, wooden register of Chinese officialdom, the language Liu used felt natural and his arguments more intuitive, especially when it came to our shared human condition and aspiration for universal values.

The moral maturity and dignity of his work also made me more aware of how we ought to live and act in everyday life, of the importance of listening to our conscience and rejecting lies. In particular, Liu highlighted the need to unlearn the enemy mentality that the Chinese party-state relentlessly instils with its constant propaganda about hostile forces trying to split China or spread chaos a false worldview meant to justify the regimes oppression.

In talking to Lius friends, I also learned about his integrity and authenticity as a person and about all the solidarity initiatives that he organised to call for the release of persecuted fellow citizens despite the risks of retaliation from Chinas unpredictable party-state.

At his trial in December 2009, Liu reaffirmed with calm and eloquence what he stood for 20 years earlier during the democracy protests at Tiananmen Square: I have no enemy, no hatred. And yet, the regime went on treating him like a top enemy of the state, sentencing him on a trumped-up charge to 11 years in prison and ruthlessly detaining his wife, Liu Xia, while also sentencing her brother, Liu Hui, to 11 years in prison on another trumped-up charge.

Not giving in

For three decades, Liu persistently fought for a freer China, throwing himself into a human rights struggle in which he and Liu Xia suffer and sacrifice their freedom for the freedom of others. Viewed from afar, it may be hard to comprehend how a frail human being like Liu who only used his pen to write articles and collect signatures for open letters could attract so much cruelty from the Chinese regime a regime on which the West now depends to lead the fight against global warming and promote global free trade.

The spectacle of Lius last days are testament to the cruelty of the Chinese regime. But although grief and anger at Lius fate might make us hate that government, I hope we will never forget his message about the importance of not giving in to hatred. An enemy mentality poisons hearts and minds. This is a universal message one that very much applies in a Western world increasingly blighted by xenophobia.

The world has lost a precious mind, but we can still ensure through our words and actions that his enduring spirit of freedom wont die with him. Considering how much effort the Chinese regime still puts into erasing his legacy and silencing his wife, its now time to take urgent action to make sure that his wife and her brother can finally move around freely.

Now more than ever, the international community must shout their indignation against the Orwellian brutality of Xi Jinpings government. It must show its full support with all Chinas innocent prisoners of conscience and their families and try to make sure they will one day be free to love and support each other without being driven into exile by fear and suffering.

This would be the most concrete way of ensuring that however cruel his final years, Lius efforts to build Chinas democratic future were not in vain.

Hermann Aubi, Lecturer in Sociology and Policy, Aston University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Liu Xiaobo: A voice of conscience who fought oppression for decades - Business Standard

A top Iranian military commander is the latest official to speak out against U.S. chatter of pursuing a policy of regime changeagainstthe government in Tehran, something Washington has successfully done once before.

Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff for the Iranian military, attacked remarks made recently by high-ranking U.S. officials such as Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggesting they may seek to topple the Iranian government, which they accuseof sponsoring terrorism and political oppression.The military leader'swords echoed long-held suspicions by Iran that the U.S. is plotting to forcefully oust the nation's political and religious leaders in favor of ones more sympathetic to the West, as it did by sponsoring a coup in 1953. More than half a century later, Jazayeri said Iran was unphased by such comments from the administration of President Donald Trump, but vowed to respond with action.

Related:U.S. has no proof ISIS leader Baghdadi is alive, Russia thinks it killed him and Iran is sure he's dead

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"The ridiculous dreams of the Americans about the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran is nothing more than disturbeddelusionsand we are not worried that they have preoccupied themselves in such a way," Jazayeri said, according to Press TV, an English-language affiliate of the semi-official Islamic Republic Broadcasting Agency.

"We will respondto the nonsensical talksof the American authorities in the theaters of action," he added.

A man holds burning flags during the annual pro-Palestinian rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, in Tehran, Iran, June 23, 2017. Since deposing a U.S.-backed ruler in 1979, Iran's leadership has been deeply suspicious that Washington will once again try to overthrow its government in order to install leaders more friendly to Western interests. Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi/TIMA via REUTERS

Prior to 1953, Iran's government was headed by a democratically elected prime minister named Mohammad Mosaddegh whose popularity ultimately allowed him to supersede the authority of the country's monarch,Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, known as the Shah. Mosaddegh nationalized Iran's oil industry in 1951, infuriating the U.K., which heavily invested in Iranian oil. The U.K. ultimately appealed to the CIA to sponsor a coup d'etat againstMosaddegh, which U.S. intelligence did in 1953, arresting Mosaddegh and replacing him with Iranian General Fazlollah Zahedi. The Shah regained his former authority and implemented an authoritarianrule backed by the West for over 25 years until he himself was deposed in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 that saw Shiite Muslim cleric Ayatollah Khomeinitake power and pursue anti-West policies that persist to this day.

The U.S. only publicly admitted its role in the 1953 coup in 2013, and last month the CIA released a trove of previously top-secret documents publicly revealing new details of the affair, known as Operation AJAX. Relations between the U.S. and Iran somewhatwarmed during the administration of President Barack Obama, who signed a deal that lifted U.S. sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. Trump, however, has taken a more hardline stance toward the majority-Shiite Muslim power and some of his most senior officials have suggested that a second regime change may be in order.

"Until the Iranian people can get rid of this theocracy, these guys who think they can tell the people even which candidates they get a choice of. Its going to be very, very difficult," Mattis said Monday in an interview he granted to a high school journalism student, according to the Middle East Institute. Mattis went on to target the Iranian government, linking it to groups abroad considered by the U.S. to be terrorist organizations, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Ansar Allah, commonly referred to as the Houthi movement.

Comments by Mattis, who has long advocated for tougher U.S. action against Iran, followed Tillerson's response to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month in which the statesman explained U.S. policy toward Iran as being "to push back on [its regional] hegemony, contain their ability to develop, obviously, nuclear weapons and to work towards support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government."

Persian soldiers chase rioters during civil unrest in Tehran, August 1953. CIA-sponsored Operation Ajax saw the overthrow of democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who angered the U.S. and U.K. by nationalizing the country's oil industry. Nearly 300 were killed in the unrest that ultimately saw West-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi regain absolute authority. AFP/Getty Images

Jazayeri is not the first Iranian official to respond to the Trump administration's comments. Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General HosseinDehghan told reporters Wednesday that, before the U.S. goes after Iran's internal political affairs, it should address its own scandals and potential shortcomings.

"Whenever the Americans have intended to make any type action against us or hire proxies to this end, our nation has proved that it makes them regret their deeds," Dehghan said, according to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency.

"The U.S. secretary of defense and the ruling system had better think of resolving their internal issues and study the root causes that will most possibly cause the current U.S. administration to collapse in a not so far future and will make the country's political system face a lot of serious challenges," he added.

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Iran to US: Don't Even Think About Overthrowing Our Government Again - Newsweek

NEW YORK/BEIJING: The death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democracy icon Liu Xiaobo demonstrates the Chinese government's "arrogance, cruelty and callousness", a global rights group said today while others vowed to continue the struggle for human rights in the Communist nation.

Liu, 61, died of liver cancer today at a hospital in Shenyang in northeastern China. He was granted medical parole in June after receiving his diagnosis in prison, but Beijing would not let him seek treatment abroad despite Liu's wishes and international pressure.

Responding to Liu's death, Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International commented that he was a man of fierce intellect, principle, wit and above all humanity.

"Today we grieve the loss of a giant of human rights," Shetty said.

Despite enduring years of "persecution, suppression and imprisonment," Liu continued to fight for his convictions, he said.

"Although he has passed, everything he stood for still endures. The greatest tribute we can now pay him is to continue the struggle for human rights in China and recognize the powerful legacy he leaves behind," Shetty said.

Thanks to Liu, millions of people in China and across the world have been "inspired" to stand up for freedom and justice in the face of "oppression", he said.

The death of Liu lays bare the Chinese government's ruthlessness toward peaceful proponents of human rights and democracy, Human Rights Watch said.

The last time a Nobel Peace laureate died in state custody was in 1938, when pacifist Carl von Ossietzky died of tuberculosis under guard in a hospital in Nazi Germany, it noted.

"Even as Liu Xiaobo's illness worsened, the Chinese government continued to isolate him and his family, and denied him freely choosing his medical treatment," said Sophie Richardson, China director of HRW.

"The Chinese government's arrogance, cruelty, and callousness are shocking - but Liu's struggle for a rights- respecting, democratic China will live on," she said in a statement.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang rejected all appeals to the Chinese government to allow the dissident to go overseas for medical treatment.

He said that the Chinese governemnt is guided by its own laws and other countries should not interfere in the China's internal affairs in the name of human rights.

Even after it was announced that Liu suffered from liver cancer, close friends and relatives were barred from visiting Liu during his treatment.

He and his family were kept in isolation, watched around the clock by state security agents, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported.

Liu's wife, Liu Xia, who herself was under house detention as well as friends and members of the international community appealed repeatedly and unsuccessfully to the Chinese government to allow the dissident to go overseas for medical treatment.

Liu had been transferred from prison last month, where he was serving an 11-year term for "subversion".

Many of his friends and supporters said at the time of his release that they feared the dissident was close to death -- made a martyr by the Communist authorities.

"Whether it was gross negligence or political murder, they have committed an unprecedented crime as no other government of the world has ever seen a Nobel Peace Prize laureate die in its custody," said Hu Jia, a leading Chinese human rights activist, when Liu first left jail.

A university professor turned rights campaigner, Liu was branded a criminal by the authorities. He had played a major role in the Tiananmen protests of June 1989 which ended in bloodshed when they were quashed by the People's Liberation Army soldiers.

In October 2010, while serving his sentence at Jinzhou Prison, near Shenyang, Liu was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."

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Human rights groups say Liu's death shows China's 'arrogance' - Economic Times

Sitting outside his grocery shop in the Nyabugogo slum in Kigali, Rwanda, in June, Francis Nduwimana described his longing for a change in leadership in the presidential election on August 4. We are tired of Kagame, but we cannot express our views openly, said Nduwimana, an ethnic Hutu, in his vernacular language of Kinyarwanda. If you criticize him, you will be accused by the government agencies of dividing the country, and you will either be imprisoned or killed.

As Rwandan President Paul Kagame an ethnic Tutsi who has been in power since 2000 runs for another seven-year term, many Rwandans, particularly ethnic Hutus, share Nduwimanas fear. They see a government that is crushing dissent ahead of the election. And they worry that their country is turning into a one-party state: Following a 2015 referendum to extend term limits, Kagame can now legally remain in power until 2034.

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Seventeen years is a long time for one leader to run a country, but not everyone in Rwanda is ready for change. Many would like to see Kagame in power as long as possible.

During a recent campaign stop, business almost came to a standstill in Kigali after thousands of Kagames supporters turned up, waving placards and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with his face. Party supporters cheered and danced to the tune of the newly released songs by the local artists praising Kagame for his achievements during his term in office.

Kagame is our savior, and we love him so much. He is a man who has sacrificed himself for his nation and his people, said Charles Bakanibona, an ethnic Tutsi, during the rally. I need him to rule this country forever, because he is a man of peace.

Barely a generation after the 100 days of violence during which extremist Hutus murdered more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus often by hacking them to death with machetes political opposition in Rwanda still breaks down largely along ethnic lines. Many Rwandans, particularly Tutsis, are grateful for the vital role they believe Kagame played in ending the massacre in 1994, when he led the Tutsi troops of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which defeated the Hutu government responsible for the killing.

Others, regardless of their ethnicity, think Kagames success in transforming Rwandas society and economy is reason enough to support him. Since taking power, he has introduced free basic education, brought high-speed internet to 95 percent of the population, slashed maternal and child mortality by more than 50 percent, boosted trade, reduced poverty and fought corruption earning Rwanda the rank of third least corrupt African nation in the latest ranking by Transparency International. Though Rwanda still has challenges per capita annual income is only $700, and between 30 and 40 percent of the national budget is foreign aid the country is making progress: The projected growth rate for 2017 is an impressive 7 percent.

For some Rwandans, that stability is worth the lack of freedom that comes with one-party rule. For others, like Nduwimana, the good that has come with Kagames tenure is not worth the oppression they feel. Human Rights Watch has accused Kagames government of cracking down on dissent before the vote in August, documenting a series of arrests and detentions of individuals with suspected links to government opponents. Rwandan authorities have forcibly disappeared opposition leaders and activists by denying that they are keeping them in custody or refusing to disclose their whereabouts there is still no news, for example, about activist Illumine Iragena who went missing last year. Human Rights Watch has also accused the government-appointed media council of shutting down independent newspapers and radio stations for publishing and broadcasting critical views.

Read more:France and Rwanda head for showdown over genocide investigation

And despite Rwandas efforts to keep ethnic division out of politics it is illegal to ask a citizen his or her ethnicity, and the constitution prohibits forming political parties based on tribal affiliation critics say Kagame has exploited the countrys painful history, under the guise of genocide prevention, as a strategy to limit competitive politics in the country.

Unsurprisingly, voters ethnicity seems to play a huge role in how they see this tactic. I dont like Kagame because he is a tribalist. He has really sidelined Hutus, and when you talk about it you are accused of creating ethnic divisions or propagating genocide ideology, Allan Muhoza, a 40year-old restaurant owner in Kigali and ethnic Hutu, tells Newsweek. We only vote for Kagame because of fear. They tell us during campaigns that when we do not vote for Kagame, then we will have another genocide. So we fear a lot because we experienced what happened in 1994. Most people who cannot vote Kagame dont turn out to vote, due to fear of being identified at polling stations.

Ethnic Tutsis see it differently. We cannot do guesswork with the leadership of this country. We have tried Kagame and proved that he can work for this nation, says Etienne Uwineza, a 42-year-old teacher in Kigali who lost her husband and two children in the 1994 massacre because they were Tutsis. She fled to Uganda with her three remaining children but returned after Kagame ascended to power. For Uwineza, the idea of an untested leader is scary. We dont want to elect another new person who can create genocide again by dividing us.

Observers say Kagame is likely headed toward re-election. I think you would not lose any money if you bet on Mr. Paul Kagame, said Michael Ryan, European Union ambassador and head of the EU delegation to Rwanda, during a press conference in Kigali. We have a leader who has evidence of his work in front of everybody. And you have candidates who have to prove [themselves].

Nine out of the 11 registered political parties have said they would back Kagame instead of fielding their own candidates. The two most prominent opponents are Frank Habineza, leader of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, launched in 2009, which advocates for a democratic Rwanda, and Diane Rwigara, an independent also running on a platform of democratic reforms.

That may be because others are afraid. Kagame and his ruling party has remained ruthless to political opponents over the years, curtailing their freedom, with consistent reports of killings, disappearance and imprisonment, says Peter Wafula Wekesa, a political scientist at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.

Rwigar, 35, a Tutsi women's rights activist, businesswoman and daughter of deceased Kigali tycoon Assinapol Rwigara, agrees. Everybody is scared to express themselves because they are too scared of the ruling party, she said at a press conference in May. Even so, she has been brave enough to publicly criticize Kagames party. The fact shes still running shows there may yet be hope for Rwandas democracy.

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Savior or Dictator? Government Critics Challenge Rwanda's One-Party State and President Ahead of Election - Newsweek

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UK banks 'complicit' in Palestinian oppression, rights group claims Middle East Eye "The deadly trade of arms is facilitated not only by the UK government," it claims. "UK banks and financial institutions participate in Israel's militarised repression by holding shares in companies that sell military technology and weapons to Israel ... Gaza Ten Years Later - UNSCOUNSCO all 174 news articles »

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UK banks 'complicit' in Palestinian oppression, rights group claims - Middle East Eye

People listen to Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu delivering a speech during a rally in Istanbuls Maltepe district. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Hundreds of thousands of Turks took to the streets of Istanbul on Sunday in the largest opposition rally in years, in a serious rebuke to the governments large-scale crackdown on opponents since last years attempted coup.

The rally in the Maltepe parade ground was the final stop in a 280-mile (450km) march from the capital, Ankara, led by Kemal Kldarolu, leader of the Republican Peoples party the main opposition party and appeared to draw citizens from across the political spectrum to protest against what they see as widespread injustice and oppression by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoan.

We demand justice, Kldarolu said in a speech minutes after reaching the end of his march. We demand justice not only for those who gathered here, not only those who support us, but for everyone.

Justice is the foundation of the state, he added. In present-day Turkey the foundation of the state is at risk.

The rally is by far the biggest by the opposition seen in Istanbul since the mass May-June 2013 demonstrations against Erdoans rule, sparked by the planned redevelopment of Gezi Park in the city. Istanbul governor Vasip ahin said 15,000 police officers were providing security at the post-march rally on Sunday.

The justice march drew widespread support for its calls for an end to arbitrary arrests and dismissals in the aftermath of the coup. Tens of thousands of people have been detained or fired from jobs in the civil service, academia and media over alleged connections to Fethullah Glen, an exiled preacher whose movement is widely believed to have orchestrated last years putsch.

But the crackdown has gone beyond the alleged perpetrators to target dissidents of all stripes including senior opposition lawmakers. Rights activists have also been arrested, including two top officials at Amnesty International, and Ankara has become the worlds largest jailer of journalists.

Nearly a quarter of the Turkish judiciary has been dismissed or detained in what legal experts say is a systematic effort to reshape the countrys justice system. The presidents victory in a recent referendum that vastly expanded his power will allow him and a parliament controlled by his party to appoint most of the countrys top judges.

I came from Urfa for justice, said one attendee at the rally. For all the oppressed, for workers, for my village, for my neighbourhood.

Kldarolu used his speech to unveil what his aides described as a justice manifesto that called for an end to the state of emergency that has been in place since July 2016, protecting the independence of the judiciary, reinstating dissidents who have been unfairly fired from their jobs, and ending the practice of imprisoning journalists.

We will bring down the wall of fear, he said. This last day of our walk for justice is a new beginning, a new first step.

The rally comes less than a week before the anniversary of the coup attempt, in which 249 people died and 1,400 were wounded, and which was defeated after widespread popular resistance.

The government has planned a series of week-long events including a late-night address by the president to the Grand National Assembly to mark the moment when the parliament was bombed by the coup plotters.

Ordinary citizens, sacked public employees and high-profile figures have joined Kldarolu on his march. Novelist Asl Erdoan and leading Kurdish politician Ahmet Trk, both released from jail pending trial on various terror-related charges, as well as Yonca ik, the wife of a prominent journalist currently in prison, were just a few.

The march has drawn the ire of government officials and proxies, who have accused the protesters of supporting terrorism and the coup plotters. The atmosphere at the rally was celebratory and diverse, including leftists, secularists and even religious conservatives.

This is not about religion for us, but about justice for all of us and for our grandchildren, for progress, for journalists, for our headscarves, said Bediha, a veiled woman in her 60s who only gave her first name. There is cruelty in this country and God willing, with this march, it will end.

Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report

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Turks stage largest show of opposition against Erdoan government in years - The Guardian

A youth organization in Kwara State, Kwara Youths Stakeholders Forum (KYSF), has threatened to initiate a process to recall Mr. Bukola Saraki, the Senate President. The group made the threat in a statement jointly signed by its leaders, including Mr. Charles Olufemi Folayan, President; Ahmed Alanamu, Deputy President; and Abolarin Olusola, Secretary.

The organization said the long-running face-off between the Senate and the Executive arm of government is hindering the operations of the government and affecting the masses. It blamed the situation on Mr. Saraki's lust for power.

"We are cognizant of the separation of powers in a democratic government, but it is shocking to see the Legislative and Executive arms of Government formed by the same political party playing opposition between themselves in the name of separation of powers," said KYSF.

The group noted with regret that the Senate recently suspended confirmation of nominees sent to it by the Executive. KYSF said it is particularly disappointed by the conduct of the Senate President, an indigene of Kwara State, for refusing to work with the Executive to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians.

It accused the Senate under Mr. Saraki of elevating personal interests above public interest.

"Sadly, bills of public interest such as Local Government Autonomy Bill and other bills that will make direct impact on the people have not yet received adequate attention from the Senate.

"We are disappointed that despite the economic recession, which demands urgent attention, the Senate leadership has been paying more attention to swarming court rooms for Code of Conduct Tribunal trial, Customs boss' uniform and debates on the recalling of an individual senator," stated KYSF.

Rather than antagonize, KYSF said the Senate should support Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, who is standing in for President Muhammadu Buhari, to lead the country out of its current economic hardship and keep the it united.

KYSF maintained that Kwara State has not felt the impact of producing the Senate President. Rather, it said, the people of the state are constantly embarrassed by Mr. Saraki's obscene display of affluence through multi-billion naira convoys before unemployed youths in the state and oppression of civil servants, whose salaries have not been paid for months.

KYSF said it has resolved that if having a Senate President from Kwara State is of no value to the youths in the state and Nigerians in general, it will have no option other than initiate the process to recall Mr. Saraki from the Senate, where he represents Kwara Central Senatorial District.

"We hereby advise him to realize that he is there to serve the good people of Nigeria, adjust his ways and prioritize the interest of Nigerians above ego and personal political ambition," said KYSF.

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Kwara Youths Threaten To Recall Saraki, Accuse Him Of Pursuing Personal Interest - SaharaReporters.com