JULY 2020 COUNTRY UPDATES

ROHINGYA - BURMA/BANGLADESH

US Congress has a busy week ahead on Rohingya issues. On August 3, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is organizing a hearing on the Rohingya crisis featuring Wai Wai Nu and speakers from Refugees International, Save the Children, and The Heritage Foundation. On August 5, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold nomination hearings, including for Thomas Vajda, the nominee to be the next US Ambassador to Burma. In other congressional news, a Burma-related amendment did not make it through the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act this year, but Congressman Andy Levin successfully submitted an amendment to the State/Foreign Operations appropriation bill that would block US funding for forced relocation to Bhashan Char.

Bangladesh: Planned relocations of Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char, the silt island off the coast of Bangladesh, were thought to be over after human rights advocates and the international community pushed against it but that all changed with the resurgence of refugees leaving the camps in hopes of better opportunities. Many of those boats are ending up back in Bangladeshi waters and the government has decided that all “new arrivals” will be sent to Bhasan Char. There are currently 308 Rohingya on the island. Many with family in the camps in Cox’s Bazar. Bangaldesh authorities are recruiting refugees for "go-and-see" visits to the island, with as many as 300 Rohingya applying to join such a visit after Eid (which just ended). Given increasing hopelessness in the camps, low prospects for repatriation any time soon, and growing security concerns, there is greater interest among Rohingya to relocate to Bhashan Char than a few months ago.

As of July 29, there were 71 confirmed cases among Rohingya in Cox's Bazar and more than 3,200 cases across the district. Despite an increase in cases and a decrease in testing, Cox's Bazar plans to reopen its tourism industry for business after Eid al-Adha in early August. And in this well-reported piece, social tensions are increasing between Rohingya and affected Bangladeshi communities as a result of COVID, with Bangladeshis blaming Rohingya for the spread of the virus and frustrated by a lack of support for the ways in which they have been impacted (such as loss of livelihoods and purchasing power and an increase in poverty).

Malaysia: Some two dozen Rohingya refugees feared dead off the coast of Malaysia were found alive on an islet and are now being detained by Malaysian authorities. And while Malaysia overturned the caning sentence of 27 Rohingya, it also arrested a Bangladeshi migrant and whistleblower who spoke out against Malaysia's treatment of irregular migrants, including Rohingya, in a recent Al Jazeera documentary.

Burma:  With Burma slated to hold elections in November, the election commission chair admitted in an interview that elections may be canceled in parts of Rakhine. While it is possible that elections will be canceled only in some village tracts, thus allowing elections of Rakhine State and Union-level MPs to go forward without some constituents being able to cast votes, it is likely that elections will need to be canceled across entire townships. Though cancellations are widely expected where fighting between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army (AA) has been most fierce, any cancellations are likely to create further Rakhine disillusionment with the political process and fuel support for the AA. Separately, the election chair all but confirmed that Rohingya will remain disenfranchised saying the vote will be given only to those over 18 and with citizenship.

Justice Mechanisms: The final article of a four part series on the ongoing Gambia v. Myanmar case at the International Court of Justice examines what all the recent international attention paid to Burma’s treatment of the Rohingya means for other ethnic minorities that have suffered atrocities at the hands of the Burmese military (Tatmadaw). He notes that, “justice for all is the only path forward, and until it is achieved, the Tatmadaw will continue its decades-long practice of scapegoating and targeting all of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities.” In other news, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar launched a website in both English and Burmese.

Sudan

Last year’s revolution has brought a slew of modernized legal reforms to Sudan. Female genital cutting has been outlawed. Women can no longer be arrested for wearing clothing deemed insufficiently modest, and flogging has been abolished for all lawbreakers. The apostasy laws have been scrapped, Christians are allowed to consume alcohol, and any citizen can leave Sudan without an exit visa. Gay sex is no longer punishable by the death penalty, though it is still subject to a seven-year jail sentence.

But in Darfur, the scene is very different where there has been a resurgence of violence. A lack of progress by the transitional government to appoint new local government or address security concerns has led to a number of sit-ins in cities and towns across Darfur. But the peaceful sit-ins have been met with extreme violence by armed groups. In just one event in Masteri village, West Darfur, 60 civilians massacred on July 25 in an assault by about 500 Arab militiamen, according to the United Nations. Prime Minister Hamdock has promised to send 6000 troops to protect citizens but civilians have great distrust for security forces when they include Rapid Support Forces, formerly knows as the Janjaweed.

On July 21, deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir, along with 27 of his most senior officials, were led into a courtroom in Khartoum to stand trial for their role in the 1989 coup that toppled the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. During Bashir’s 30 years of rule, Sudan faced a series of crippling wars, a collapsing economy, and humiliating international isolation. The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Bashir over a decade ago on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity over his role in the conflict in the western region of Darfur. The new Sudanese government  has appeared to shy away from a trial on Darfur, probably because its own leaders might also face accusations. Bashir was sentenced to two years imprisonment last year on separate corruption charges, but the current charges for his role in the 1989 coup carry the death penalty.

Recent investigations have led to the discovery of mass graves in two different locations. One site likely contains the remains of 28 officers, who were executed in 1990 for plotting a coup against Bashir, soon after he took power. Another site east of Khartoum contains the suspected remains of students who were killed in 1998 while trying to escape military service at a training camp. 

South SUDAN

Prominent South Sudanese economist Peter Biar Ajak fled to the US on July 23, accusing the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir of ordering a hit squad to kill or kidnap him in Kenya, an allegation immediately denied by the Juba government. Ajak landed at Dulles Airport outside Washington with his wife and three small children after traveling from Nairobi, Kenya. Fearing for his safety after being released from prison in February, Ajak had been living in Nairobi for the past five weeks. South Sudanese officials whom he declined to identify had warned him that Kiir had ordered a team to abduct or murder him in the Kenyan capital. Ajak's story is compelling. Twenty years ago, he arrived in the US, one of  4,000 “Lost Boys” who came to the United States seeking peace and education after Sudan was ravaged by a brutal civil war. After completing undergrad, he earned a master’s in international relations at Harvard. Ajak was a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge when he was arrested and put in detention at Blue House in South Sudan. The Never Again Coalition has followed Ajak's story for years, and recently advocated for his release from the notorious Blue House. Mr. Ajak spoke out following his safe arrival in the US, accusing  Kiir of "cruelty"and said Kiir had "exploited the chaos to delay elections, first from 2015 to 2018, and then to 2021. They must not be delayed again." He also called for more targeted sanctions against South Sudanese officials who, he said, had committed atrocities.

Recurring violence in Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area in the eastern part of South Sudan has already displaced more than 60,000 people and is crippling the food security and livelihoods of growing numbers of people, according to The World Food Program. In an attempt to curtail the violence in these areas, South Sudan’s Vice President, (South Sudan has 5 vice-presidents) Dr. James Wani Igga arrived in the town of Bor on July 19. While meeting with local chiefs, Igga knelt down in humility to appeal to elders to persuade their young people, who are involved in inter-communal clashes with neighboring communities, to stop the fighting. The Vice President was appointed by President Salva Kiir to head an investigation committee into the conflict, and identify the root causes of inter-communal violence in the Greater Jonglei area.

South Sudan and Sudan share a common border but they also share a mutual problem.  Refugees from each country have fled violence and are now refugees in another country. People from the Nuba region of Sudan have fled into South Sudan to escape violence in their home country. In mid-July, a group of Nuba women in the Yida refugee camp in South Sudan, carried out a protest in front of the UN offices in the camp, denouncing the suspension of humanitarian aid and holding up banners calling for the resumption of food rations and medicines, as well as blankets, plastic sheets, and mosquito nets that have been suspended since September 14 last year. Sudanese refugees in Yida, Ajuong Thok, and Pamir refugee camps have also expressed their concerns regarding the lack of COVID19 preparedness taken by humanitarian aid organizations in the camps in addition to severe and prolonged shortage of water in the camps.

Between July 16 and 17,  UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, moved hundreds of South Sudanese refugees to safety after deadly violence forced South Sudanese communities out of their homes in Uganda's Palorinya settlement early this week, folling clashes between rival youth groups. UNHCR and local authorities have been engaging refugee leaders and community structures to promote dialogue and peaceful coexistence.

Thousands more South Sudanese are displaced from their homes within their own country. In Bentiu, site of a massacre six years ago, a joint police force has been deployed outside the UN Protection of Civilians site to improve security in the wake of violence against displaced people traveling outside the camp. The protection perimeter provides sanctuary to approximately 111,000 displaced people. The new police presence has been particularly reassuring to women living within the camp.

Authorities with UNMISS, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, are working to inform and help South Sudanese in UN protection sites to adopt good health practices, in an attempt to ameliorate cases of COVID19.   They have distributed face masks and are reaching out with education and best practices. In the Upper Equatoria region, UNMISS officials have used "tricycles” to travel to often difficult to reach areas to spread the word about the pandemic.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

In December 2017, controversial mining magnate Dan Gertler was sanctioned by the US for his corrupt mining deals in DRC. An investigative report released on July 1st by Global Witness and Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) suggests that Gertler may have been able to evade US sanctions and continue to operate freely in DRC’s mining sector. The report’s findings suggest that Gertler relocated his business interests from secretive offshore tax havens to DRC with the help of proxies. Gertler and his network of proxies then set up bank accounts at the Congolese branches of Cameroon-based Afriland First Bank. New names started to appear on both companies and bank accounts connected to Gertler in a variety of subtle ways. The connections drawn by the report expose cracks in the US strategy to curb corruption through the means of targeted sanctions.

Tesla is also setting itself up to make Gertler richer. Tesla struck a deal in June with Glencore to buy as much as 6,000 tons of cobalt annually for use in the rechargeable batteries that power its electric vehicles. Glencore, in turn, is obligated to pay Gertler about 2.5% of sales from its mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo – royalty rights he acquired from state-owned miner Gecamines. Glencore is the world's biggest producer of cobalt which has seem in a surge in demand with the popularity of electric cars. US companies are barred from doing business with sanctioned entities so the question now is, what will the US Treasury do about Tesla’s deal?

Commodity giant Glencore continues to pay Gertler millions of euros even since sanctions were imposed.

Benoit Lwamba, the head of the country’s constitutional court, has resigned. Lwamba was appointed as the first president of the court in 2015 by then-President Joseph Kabila. His term was set to be up in 2021. He says that he resigned for personal reasons. Lwamba has been under US-imposed sanctions since 2018 for alleged obstruction of democracy and corruption during the 2018 election process that involved a court decision to declare Felix Tshisekedi the new President of the DRC over his opponent Martin Fayulu.

Although the Ebola outbreak in Ituri and North Kivu provinces of eastern DRC was declared over in June, cases continue to rise in Western DRC’s Equateur Province. There have been 56 confirmed and 4 probable cases since the outbreak began last month. The World Health Organization is concerned that the greatest concern for the spread of the disease currently is during funerals due to traditional burial practices. The WHO notes that the disease is now spreading from the urban center into more remote villages that can only be accessed by ATV’s or canoes.

Authorities at Virunga National Park are warning of a sharp increase in the poaching of endangered mountain gorillas. It is believed that the increase has been driven by the economic impact of COVID-19, as jobs have been harder to find and food prices have risen. It’s further complicated by the decrease in tourism revenue that has previously helped fund conservation efforts.