Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Bangladesh

The Dangers of a Rohingya Insurgency

2025-06-20

[X]

NEW REPORT | The Dangers of a Rohingya Insurgency

Armed groups in Rohingya camps have joined forces to battle the Arakan Army which has taken over much of the refugees’ home state in Myanmar, but insurgency is more likely to hurt than help their cause.https://t.co/40HdQPFziS
— Crisis Group (@CrisisGroup) June 18, 2025

The Arakan Army (AA) is the military wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA), the organized ethnic Theravada Buddhists of Rakhine state since 2009. The military government of Myanmar designated them a terrorist organization.

Link

Government Corruption

DOGE: The United States Institute of Peace was anything but peaceful

2025-05-20

[X] DOGE:

DOGE: The United States Institute of Peace was anything but peaceful. When Trump's team arrived the agency fought tooth and nail to prevent entry. Once the DOGE team was inside they found crew served weapons, pallets of cash, and witnessed agency officials deleting terabytes of… pic.twitter.com/H83K2e0IGO
— @amuse (@amuse) May 19, 2025

…deleting terabytes of evidence. Trump-hating Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the president had no right to shutdown the CIA front agency operating in the heart of Washington DC.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

More than 5,000 Afghans have died on migration routes: IOM

2025-05-02

[KhaamaPress] The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported that more than 5,000 Afghan citizens have died on migration routes since 2014. The findings were published in a report released on Tuesday, April 29, highlighting the dangers faced by those fleeing crisis-affected countries.

According to the IOM, thousands of these deaths occurred following the political upheaval in Afghanistan in 2021, when many Afghans attempted to escape the country amid instability and fear under the Taliban
Taliban

...Arabic for students...
regime.

The report further notes that over 52,000 people worldwide have died while fleeing crisis-affected countries during the same period. These deaths underline the devastating toll of forced displacement globally.

IOM stated that 54 percent of these fatalities occurred within or near conflict-affected or disaster-hit countries, including Afghanistan and Myanmar. The dangers faced by ~~migrants~~ colonists are often highest near their places of origin, where formal escape routes and protection mechanisms are minimal.

Specifically, more than 3,100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar also bit the dust during attempts to flee persecution, reflecting the broader pattern of humanitarian catastrophes across the country.

Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has witnessed a surge in emigration. The regime’s suppression of civil liberties—particularly the rights of women—has intensified desperation, driving thousands to risk perilous journeys in search of safety and dignity.

Despite more than three years under Taliban control, the group has failed to stop the outflow of citizens. Many Afghans, seeing no future in their homeland, are willing to risk death for a chance at life elsewhere.

Link

Government Corruption

DOJ Explores Criminal Charges Against Ousted USIP Mutineers

2025-03-24

[DC] The Department of Justice is exploring potential criminal charges against former U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials who attempted to block the Trump administration’s leadership changes at the federally funded think tank Monday, a senior DOJ official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The official, who requested anonymity, told the DCNF the DOJ is examining whether certain USIP actions — such as the removal and destruction of internal and external door locks — created illegal fire hazards. The official also flagged the widespread distribution of internal flyers instructing USIP staff not to cooperate with incoming Trump administration officials as potentially obstructive conduct. The DCNF was the first to report on USIP’s internal flyer campaign and destruction of door locks.

"Eleven board members were lawfully removed, and remaining board members appointed Kenneth Jackson acting president," Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, previously told the DCNF. "Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage. The Trump administration will enforce the President’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people."

The inquiry — which remains in its early stages, the official emphasized — follows a contentious standoff Monday after former USIP leadership tried to block the installation of Kenneth Jackson, who President Donald Trump appointed as the institute’s new president on March 14. The Trump administration determined the institute had failed to comply with a Feb. 19 executive order requiring federally funded organizations like USIP to scale operations down to their bare statutory minimums, triggering a leadership shakeup the institute attempted to resist.

USIP leadership began preparing for a confrontation weeks before the executive order was issued. A Feb. 6 internal document exclusively obtained by the DCNF outlined plans to deny building access to outside officials and reasserted the institute’s discretion over security systems and facilities. Flyers with the names and photos of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) officials were posted throughout the building, instructing staff to report their presence and avoid conversation.

Link

Bangladesh

Leaked USAID Docs: Helped Overthrow Bangladeshi Government With Military Coup

2025-02-08

[HotAir] And you thought that USAID was all about distributing rice, beans, and medicine, didn't you?

Well, not quite. There's also fomenting "color revolutions," funding Hamas, al Qaeda, ISIS, and the censorship complex.

Oh, and destabilizing Romania, and...how about a coup in Bangladesh? Nothing like a good coup to brighten your day.
I'm still waiting for anti-Bibi protests (and some Israeli parties) finances to be traced to USAID.

In 2015 the US State Department was open about funding and training the Arab List…

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) has been leading the charge to defend USAID. Here he is listed as the main “Hill Outreach” point of contact for a USAID-funded NED program to “destabilize Bangladesh’s politics” by funding transgender dance festivals and Bangladeshi rap groups. pic.twitter.com/yElFZUrstX
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) February 7, 2025

Leaked docs reveal that prior to the toppling of Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina, the US govt-funded International Republican Institute trained an army of activists including rappers and “LGBTQI people,” even hosting “transgender dance performances,” to achieve a national “power shift.” Institute staff said the activists “would cooperate with IRI to destabilize Bangladesh’s politics.”

On August 5, months of violent street protests finally toppled Bangladesh’s elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. When the military seized power and announced the imposition of a so-called “interim administration,” video footage showed Hasina fleeing to India aboard a helicopter. As vast swarms of student protesters overran the presidential palace, Western media outlets and many of their progressive-leaning consumers cheered the rebellion, framing it as a decisive defeat of fascism and the restoration of democratic rule.

Hasina’s replacement, Muhammad Yunus, is a longtime Clinton Global Initiative fellow granted a Nobel Prize for pioneering the dubious practice of micro-lending. While Yunus has hailed the “meticulously-designed” protest movement that thrust him into power, Hasina personally accused Washington of working to remove her from power over her alleged refusal to allow a US military base on Bangladeshi territory. The State Department has dismissed allegations of US meddling as “laughable,” with spokesman Vedant Patel telling reporters that “any implication that the United States was involved in Sheikh Hasina’s resignation is absolutely false.”

But now, leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone confirm the State Department was informed of efforts by the International Republican Institute (IRI) to advance an explicitly stated mission to “destabilize Bangladesh’s politics.” The documents are marked as “confidential and/or privileged.”

IRI is a Republican Party-run subsidiary of the National Endowment for Democracy, which has fueled an array of regime change operations across the globe since it was conceived in the office of CIA Director William Casey over forty years ago.

The newly-uncovered files reveal how IRI spent millions in the lead-up to Hasina’s overthrow covertly coaching opposition parties and establishing a regime change network concentrated among the country’s urban youth. Among the GOP-run Institute’s front line foot soldiers were rappers, ethnic minority leaders, LGBT activists hosting “transgender dance performances” in the presence of US embassy officials – all groomed to facilitate what the US intelligence cutout called a “power shift” in Bangladesh.

Link

Government Corruption

President Donald Trump's deputies have frozen an expanding federal bureaucracy used by elite-run groups to import migrant workers via a private door in the nation's borders.

2025-02-02

[Breitbart] President Donald Trump’s deputies have frozen an expanding federal bureaucracy used by elite-run groups to import migrant workers via a private door in the nation’s borders.

The shutdown comes just before the private migration groups were to be aided by a $5 billion migration fund created by Congress in 2024 for additional migration inflows in 2025.

Trump’s deputies froze the bureaucracy by delaying the approval of paperwork needed by migrants to get into the United States. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency announced it is “pausing acceptance of Form I-134A, Online Request to be a Supporter and Declaration of Financial Support until we review all categorical parole processes as required,” the agency announced on January 28.

The form is critical to get migrants through the border doorway operated by the elite-backed, private-sector migration group Welcome.US.

The group claims to have already welcomed “200,000+ newcomers.” since it was approved in 2023 by President Joe Biden’s pro-migration, pro-investor border chief Alejandro Mayorkas.

The “Honorary Co-Chairs” of Welcome.US include Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush,

…clearly thrilled to get to sit with the kewl kids, no longer tarred as the Hitler of his time..

and Bill Clinton.

Three former presidents pushing this thing. Oy.

The group also boasts of a “Welcome Council” with many CEOs, Walmart’s PR chief, several journalists including NBC’s news chief, business lobbyists, many migration advocates, multiple Muslim leaders, and even former governor Jeb Bush.

Why Muslims? But Jeb Bush makes sense — he needs something to do, since he doesn’t get to be an ex-president like Papa and Bro Bush.

The Welcome.US group also served as the PR face of President Joe Biden’s Welcome Corps government program. The program merged government and private efforts to further inflate the U.S. economy and stock market with an enlarged inflow of foreign workers, renters, and consumers.

The group’s migrants flood Americans’ workplaces, communities, housing markets, schools, and civic support agencies. That inflow lowers wages, raises rents, crowds schools, and jams waiting rooms — but also spikes stock prices for Wall Street investors.

Under Biden, this merger of government and private advocacy helped support roughly 100,000 people via the formal refugee programs. It was also expected to import 125,000 more refugees in 2025 — plus hundreds of thousands of additional picked migrants in the next few years,

Saved by the bell. Whew!

But this expanded migration program damages the moral claim that justifies the refugee programs, said Nayla Rush, a migration expert at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Refugee programs are supposedly all about saving unfortunate people from poverty, crime, and war,

But the Welcome Corps program allows migrants to help pick the next wave of migrants, said Rush. For example, the program allows new migrants to provide refugee status — and then citizenship — to their siblings and cousins even when they face no dangers, or to grant that status to people eager to pay for green cards and U.S. citizenship, according to Rush.

“A program meant to ‘save [refugee] lives‘ had been turned into one that resettled people who [know]… somebody [who] made it to the United States and gotten a green card,” Rush wrote on January 24. She added:

By launching the “Welcome Corps”, a private sponsorship program within the [refugee program], the former administration chose not to resettle the most vulnerable, but rather to privilege those who happen to have friends or family who made it here before them. It opened the door to non-refugees to be picked for resettlement by non-citizens based in the United States.

Sponsored individuals did not need to actually be [endangered] refugees according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Refugee Status Determination, let alone in that subset of refugees determined by the UN to be in “need of resettlement”. And the sponsors could themselves be earlier refugees or other newcomers.

The “Welcome Corps” was further expanded to include the “Welcome Corps on Campus”, bringing “refugees” straight to U.S. campuses; the “Welcome Corps at Work”, bringing them straight to [employers and] U.S. jobs; and the “Welcome Corps for Afghans” allowing U.S.-based non-citizens to sponsor Afghan nationals through USRAP. Another branch, the “Welcome Corps for Refugees in Latin America”, offered individuals of any nationality who are in Latin America “a path to permanent legal status in the United States.”

The “Welcome Corps at Work” program recreates President George W. Bush’s “Any Willing Worker” program because it allows U.S. employers to hire cheap, subordinate, and government-funded migrants, regardless of the damage to Americans’ right to a fair labor market.

The Welcome Corps site said:

The Welcome Corps enables U.S. employers to recruit from a diverse, qualified pool of refugee candidates abroad. As an employer participant in Welcome Corps at Work, you will be able to review resumes from our pool of refugee candidates abroad, interview candidates, and offer employment to the refugee candidates directly. Welcome Corps at Work then helps those refugees navigate the process of being considered for resettlement in the United States through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) …

Federal spending to import more people multiplied fivefold under Biden, Rush wrote:

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the estimated “Funding for Refugee Processing and Resettlement” totaled $2.8 billion in FY 2024 and were set to amount to $5.1 in FY 2025. For comparison, the estimated cost was $2.2 billion in FY 2023, $1.4 billion in FY 2022, $967 million in FY 2021, $932 million in FY 2020, and $976 million in FY 2019.

Much of the funding was intended to accelerate the inflow of migrants through the Department of State’s refugee programs and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). In 2024, Biden’s deputies described their plan to spend the 2025 funds on the parole programs that were pulling many Haitians and Cubans into the United States:

In addition to refugee arrivals through the USRAP, ORR is projecting to serve 531,500 other arrivals in FY 2025, the majority of whom are expected to arrive as Cuban and Haitian Entrants through [supposedly] lawful pathways.

The ORR program has long been used by government agencies and cartels as a convenient waystation for delivering left-behind foreign children to their illegal migrant parents in the United States.

Congress also expanded the ORR rules to allow funding for job-seeking migrants from Cuba and Haiti, including the Haitian migrants who crowded into Springfield, Ohio.

The 2025 money would also have supported the “Labor Neighbors” program that was intended to import cheap workers from South America for jobs that otherwise would have gone to better-paid Americans.

The 2025 spending plan statement also described plans to import more diverse and expensive groups of people into Americans’ society:

Innovations and efficiencies made over the last three years have provided new hope and opportunities to refugee applicants in the USRAP, including longstanding refugee populations from Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Syria, as well as Rohingya refugees who are facing increased threats and dwindling assistance, among many others. In FY 2025, the United States will remain focused on these populations while continuing to expand the resettlement of other key populations of concern, including vulnerable people from Latin America and the Caribbean; Afghan allies; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) individuals; and individuals persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Biden’s deputies were “changing the meaning of resettlement, which was to save lives… [to allow] somebody, a friend or a neighbor or something, say ‘Hey, we want that person,'” Rush told Breitbart News. “It’s a good thing that [Trump is] just shutting down the whole system,” she added.

Link

Bangladesh

58 Rohingyas detained while attempting to enter Bangladesh

2025-01-12

[DHAKATRIBUNE] Members of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have detained 58 Rohingyas, including women, children, and elderly individuals, during an illegal entry attempt through the Buchitong border in Alikadam Upazila's Nayapara Union, Bandarban.

The operation was conducted by the Alikadam Battalion in the early hours of Saturday.

According to police and local sources, the detentions were made following a tip-off about Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar with assistance from several Bangladeshi nationals.

Acting on the information, BGB personnel launched a raid in the border area and held the group at around 4am.

They were intercepted while being transported on a truck, a private car, and several cycle of violences.

Besides, five people accused of facilitating the illegal crossing were also detained during the operation.

Legal proceedings against them are underway, and cases are being prepared at Alikadam Police Station.

The Rohingyas, meanwhile, are expected to be pushed back to Myanmar as part of the authorities' ongoing efforts to prevent illegal crossings.

Alikadam Police Station's officer-in-charge, Mirza Zahid Uddin, confirmed receiving information about the detainees but said that no case had yet been filed. ''Appropriate measures will be taken once the case is lodged,'' he added.

The attempted crossings come amidst a protracted conflict in Myanmar, where disputes between the government and rebel groups have intensified, forcing many Rohingyas to flee the region in search of safety.

Bangladeshi authorities have been vigilant in monitoring the border checking the influx of refugees and maintaining security.

Link

Southeast Asia

Rohingya return to Myanmar uncertain, despite rebel control of Bangladesh border

2025-01-07

[BenarNews] The dream of returning home to Myanmar remains uncertain for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh despite rebel control of the border, members of the ethnic group said Friday.

About 800,000 Rohingya fled from western Myanmar’s Rakhine state following a bloody crackdown against members of their stateless Moslem minority group in August 2017.

They joined other Rohingya who had settled in camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, bringing the total number of refugees in southeastern Bangladesh at the time to over 1 million.

Years of negotiations to repatriate Rohingyas to Rakhine state have yielded little progress, in part because members of the community say their safety cannot be guaranteed back home after the military that targeted them seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat.

On Dec. 8, rebels known as the Arakan Army (AA),

…the military wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA), the organized ethnic Theravada Buddhists of Rakhine state since 2009. The military government of Myanmar has of course designated them a terrorist organization…

which is battling the junta for self-determination in Rakhine state, captured Maungdaw township and took control of the region’s border with Bangladesh.

The takeover rekindled hope that the Rohingya might be offered safe transport across the border and feel comfortable enough with AA governance to resettle their communities in Rakhine.

On Wednesday, the AA — which controls about 80% of Rakhine state — announced that it would begin allowing people displaced by fighting to return home, after having fully secured the border.

However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
Radio Free Asia Burmese, a news service affiliated with BenarNews, spoke with Rohingya in Bangladesh who said they remain uncertain about their return — in part because it’s unclear whether the AA might accommodate such a move and because ongoing fighting in Rakhine would leave them susceptible to military ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
s.

"It is a time of war, so it is impossible for us to return home," said Mohammed, a Rohingya from Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. "Even if the AA takes over the entirety Rakhine state, our repatriation program remains far off because they are not a legitimate government."

Rohingya who earlier fled violence and persecution in Myanmar said they had been kidnapped and forced to fight in the country’s ongoing civil war for the Arakan Army as well as the junta.

Nearly 65,000 Rohingya have crossed into southeastern Bangladesh since late 2023 amid unrest and violence in Rakhine, according to Bangladeshi officials.

Even if the refugees are allowed to return home, they remain fearful of junta airstrikes, said Europe-based Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin.

"The repatriation program is directly related to the AA because they currently control the area [where the Rohingya communities are]," he said. "Even if the AA gives firm guarantees, the Rohingya people might suffer great losses if the junta carry out airstrikes when they return home. Their repatriation is largely concerned with their security."

DEMANDS FOR RECOGNITION
Rohingya have also demanded recognition of their identity as an ethnic minority of Myanmar, acknowledgment of their Myanmar citizenship and the opportunity to return home "with dignity."

On Dec. 25, more than 100,000 Rohingya in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps protested and called for assistance from the international community, including the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
, in meeting their demands ahead of a return to Myanmar.

"When people in the camps return home, they hope to go back to their original homes," said Mohammed of the Kutupalong refugee camp. "Moreover, we have also asked both Myanmar and international representatives to ensure our rights to freedom of movement, access to education, and all other basic rights. We will not change these demands."

The AA’s seizure of the border has, in some ways, complicated the issue even further.

On Dec. 22, during a meeting on the situation in Myanmar, held in Thailand last month, Bangladesh Foreign Ministry front man Mohammad Rafi Alam told news hounds that the Bangladesh government had urged Myanmar’s junta to "find a way" to settle the border dispute as it would "not engage" with the AA.

A week later, however, Bangladesh security analysts, former diplomats and scholars advised the Bangladesh government to engage with the AA directly and diplomatically. The status of the relationship remains uncertain.

A former district law officer who asked not to be named because of security concerns told RFA that the repatriation of the Rohingya will depend on the ruling administration in Rakhine state.

"Since there is currently no legal framework for the repatriation of the Rohingya, a bilateral agreement is essential for implementing this program," he said.

On Dec. 23, nearly 30 Rohingya organizations worldwide called on the AA to guarantee the rights and security of all communities in Rakhine state, including the Rohingya; establish an interim consultative committee; recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic minority of Myanmar; and adopt and enforce a public code of conduct for AA fighters.

Attempts by RFA to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha for comment on the Rohingya return went unanswered by the time of publishing.

Link

Bangladesh

Myanmar rebel group invades Bangladesh, taking territory in the Teknaf area in the southern-most part of Bangladesh

2024-12-17

[X]

BREAKING:

Myanmar rebel group invades Bangladesh, taking territory in the Teknaf area in the southern-most part of Bangladesh

If the new regime in Dhaka spent less time on persecuting its Hindu minority, maybe they would be able to protect their country’s territorial integrity pic.twitter.com/5sX6yDVpSu
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 15, 2024

Link

International-UN-NGOs

ICC top judge pans ‘appalling’ US threat to penalize court over Israel arrest warrants

2024-12-03

[IsraelTimes] Tomoko Akane references threat by US Senator Graham, who said Washington would sanction allies who cooperate over warrants targeting Netanyahu and Gallant

The president of the International Criminal Court lashed out at the United States and Russia for interfering with its investigations, calling attacks on the court "appalling."

"The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council as if it was a terrorist organization," Judge Tomoko Akane said in her address to the institution’s annual meeting, which opened on Monday.

Akane was referring to remarks made by US Sen. Lindsey Graham
...soft-spoken senator from South Carolina, former best buddy of John Maverick McCain. Since McCain's demise, Graham has become more outspoken, more Republican and more of a supporter of President Trump. The speech he gave in support of Brett Kavanaugh was downright manly and really cheesed off the Dems...
, whose Republican party will control both branches of Congress in January, and who called the court a "dangerous joke" and urged Congress to sanction its prosecutor. "To any ally, Canada, Britannia, Germany, La Belle France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you," Graham said on Fox News.

Graham was angered by an announcement last month that judges had granted a request from the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister along with Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
’s military chief Mohammed Deif — who Israel has said it killed in an ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
this summer — for crimes against humanity in connection with the nearly 14-month war against Hamas in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...

ICC FACES CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING ARREST WARRANTS
Graham’s threat isn’t seen as just empty words. US President-elect Trump'>Donald Trump
...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down...
sanctioned the court’s previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, with a travel ban and asset freeze for investigating American troops and intelligence officials in Afghanistan.

Akane on Monday also had harsh words for Russia. "Several elected officials are being subjected to arrest warrants from a permanent member of the Security Council," she said. Moscow issued warrants for Khan and others in response to an investigation into President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
The Assembly of States Parties, which represents the ICC’s 124 member countries, will convene its 23rd conference to elect committee members and approve the court’s budget against a backdrop of unfavorable headlines.

The ICC was established in 2002 as the world’s permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. The court only becomes involved when "nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute those crimes on their territory. To date, 124 countries have signed on to the Rome Statute, which created the institution. Those who have not include Israel, Russia, China and the US.

The ICC has no police force and relies on member states to execute arrest warrants.

The decision to warrant issues for Netanyahu and ex-defense minister Yoav Gallant has been denounced by critics of the court and given only milquetoast approval by many of its supporters, a stark contrast to the robust backing of an arrest warrant for Putin last year over war crimes in Ukraine.

The two wars also have starkly different backgrounds. Leading up to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Putin expressed increasingly belligerent views toward its smaller neighbor, challenging Ukraine’s legitimacy as a state, and arguing that it was a historic part of Russia. Moscow then annexed parts of the country under its occupation in September 2022.

Global security expert Janina Dill worried that such responses could undermine global justice efforts. "It really has the potential to damage not just the court, but international law," she told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

Milena Sterio, an expert in international law at Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone,
...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ...
State University, told the AP that sanctions against the court could affect a number of people who contribute to the court’s work, such as international human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
lawyer Amal Clooney. Clooney advised the current prosecutor on his request for the warrants for Netanyahu and others.

"Sanctions are a huge burden," Sterio said.

ACCUSATIONS AGAINST KHAN
Also hanging heavy over the meeting in The Hague are the internal pressures that Khan faces. In October, the AP reported the 54-year-old British lawyer is facing allegations he tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her.

Two co-workers in whom the woman confided reported the alleged misconduct in May to the court’s independent watchdog, which says it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan was never questioned. He has denied the claims.

The Assembly of States Parties has announced it will launch an external probe into the allegations. It’s not clear if the investigation will be addressed during the meeting.

Khan took the floor after Akane. He didn’t address the accusations against him or the threats against the court directly, other than to say the institution was facing "unprecedented challenges."

Instead, he highlighted his office’s recent request for an arrest warrant against the head of Myanmar’s military government and said he planned to request warrants related to Afghanistan and Sudan
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
in the coming months.

Late last week, six countries including La Belle France, Luxembourg, and Mexico asked Khan’s office to look into possible crimes in Afghanistan since the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
took control in 2021. While Khan isn’t obligated to open an investigation in response to such a request, historically court prosecutors have done so.

The court, which has long faced accusations of ineffectiveness, will have no trials pending after two conclude in December. While it has issued a number of arrest warrants in recent months, many high-profile suspects remain on the lam.

Member states don’t always act. Mongolia refused to arrest Putin when he visited in September. Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. He was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...
is wanted by the ICC over accusations related to the conflict in Darfur, but his country has refused to hand him over. Last week, Khan requested a warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, for attacks against the country’s Rohingya Moslem minority. Judges have yet to decide on that request.

"It becomes very difficult to justify the court’s existence," Sterio said.

One imagines so.

Link

Bangladesh

Talibanization of Bangladesh: Biden-Harris Administration, ''Human Rights'' Groups Silent :: Gatestone Institute

2024-10-05

[GATESTONEINSTITUTE.ORG] Islamist and jihadist student protesters under [Muhamad] Yunus's leadership have established an alternative government in the country, reminiscent of Iran's private militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Dozens of individuals, including Hindus, are falling victim to mob justice, while the perpetrators of these gruesome crimes enjoy impunity.
Notably, Muhammad Yunus is one of the major donors to the Clinton Foundation. According to a cable leaked by Wikileaks, in 2007, Hillary Clinton made frantic efforts and exerted pressure on the Bangladesh Army to appoint her friend Yunus as head of the then military-backed interim government.
Since Yunus enjoys the full support of the Biden-Harris administration, as well as Democratic Party leaders such as Barack Obama, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, not one of the rights groups, including Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, has issued a statement condemning the attacks, rapes and murders in Bangladesh.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an anti-democratic Islamist organization that advocates for the establishment of a caliphate. It is banned in Bangladesh and several other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States.
[W]ill Bangladesh's descent into radicalism continue unchecked, or will the international community finally confront the growing Talibanization threatening the stability of the region?

Link

Bangladesh

Women assaults in Cox's Bazar: What do we know so far?

2024-09-16

[Dhaka Tribune] A disturbing series of videos that surfaced on social media has revealed harassment and assault against women in Cox’s Bazar.

Alternate spelling is Cox’s Bazaar.

The footage, posted on September 11, captures multiple incidents in which a group of men, led by one Mohammad Farokul Islam, are seen targeting women at popular tourist spots, including the beach and Lal Dighi areas.

The boldness of the attackers, who even bragged about their actions on Facebook, has shocked the public and shown the slow response from law enforcement.

WHAT HAPPENED?
The incidents came to attention after at least seven different videos surfaced on social media.

In each video, a group of men, led by Farokul, harass and physically abuse women in various parts of Cox’s Bazar.

In one of the videos, Farokul, armed with a stick, forces a woman to do sit-ups on the beach while holding her ears, verbally abusing her throughout the ordeal.

In another video, a woman sitting on a beach chair late at night was approached by the group.

The men aggressively questioned her reasons for being on the beach at that hour, ignoring her pleas that she was merely a tourist and had done nothing wrong. Despite her explanations, she was forced to leave.

Another woman was seen pleading with coppers near Sugandha Beach, asking them to help her retrieve her mobile phone, which the group had stolen.

In a separate instance, a woman is seen being repeatedly beaten with a stick by Farokul as she begs him to stop.

The group also intercepted a rickshaw carrying two women, dragging them out of the vehicle.

When the women attempted to escape, Farokul and his associates chased them with sticks, further escalating the violence.

VIRAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The perpetrators themselves posted these videos on Facebook, bragging about their actions.

Farokul and his group used social media to justify their assaults, labeling the women as hookers and claiming that those criticizing their actions were complicit in immoral activities.

Farokul further suggested in his posts that the local administration was supporting their actions, although no official confirmation of this has been made.

At one point, Farokul deactivated his Facebook account, but it was soon reactivated, and most of the incriminating videos were deleted.

Despite this, several posts remain where he attempted to provide justifications for his group’s behavior.

POLICE ACTION
Despite clear evidence circulating on social media, local law enforcement did not immediately take action against Farokul and his group.

Abul Kalam, assistant superintendent of the Cox’s Bazar Tourist Police, initially said that no formal complaint had been lodged regarding the incidents, though he confirmed that they were aware of reports involving "third-gender individuals" being harassed on the beach.

Only after significant public outcry did Cox’s Bazar District Police launch an operation to apprehend Farokul.

He was arrested on Friday, and a case was subsequently filed against him at the Cox’s Bazar Sadar Model cop shoppe.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More