Conditions, say the UN, are inhuman and degrading. There’s little water, food is scarce and disease is rampant.
This is the Zintan detention centre in Libya, where things have got so desperate the migrants from across Africa who are being held there are organising protests.
Now, Channel 4 News has obtained shocking pictures from inside the camp, showing just how perilous the situation there has become.
Warning: there are distressing images in this report.
Vedanta Resources appears to be in the news in recent time for all wrong reasons
by N.S.Venkataraman-7 Jun 2019
Vedanta Resources is a large conglomerate, operating in the field of copper, zinc, aluminium, iron ore, oil exploration etc. It’s activities spread across value chain of exploration, asset development, extraction, processing and value addition.
There is no doubt that the management of Vedanta Resources is dynamic, bold and has taken several strategic decisions to boost its business and in the process, has contributed considerably to the industrial and economic growth of several countries including India, South Africa, Australia, Zambia, Liberia and others. It is also a fact that the Vedanta Resources has got into number of controversies, particularly related to environmental issues
Vedanta Resources appears to be in the news in recent time for all wrong reasons.
It is suspected that there are vested interests of politicians, business rivals and motivated elements in the different countries who have been conducting systematic hate campaign against Vedanta Resources. Such forces are obviously, backed by money power. Due to such continuous anti Vedanata Resources campaign,Vedanta Resources is now emerging as suspected company amongst general public all over the world.More is talked about its negatives than against it’s positives. No other multinational company has been subjected to such level of vicious hate campaign.
Whether Vedanta Resources has sinned or sinned against is a question that the general public would never know
However, one is clear that the Vedanta Resources is not able to counter such hate campaign with facts and figures in effective way.For such state of affairs, the group has to search for reasons within itself.
Issue in Sterlite Copper Ltd, India
In India, Sterlite Copper in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu that belong to Vedanta Resources ,is a classic example. The copper smelter plant in Tuticorin now remain closed in India for several months due to huge mass protest by local residents and others demanding the closure of the unit due to what the protesters think as pollution caused and violation of environmental regulations. The protests resulted in violence and police firing killing 13 people. State government of Tamil Nadu has declared that it would never allow Sterlite Copper to re open again.
While Sterlite Copper approached judiciary and judges have largely ruled in favour of Sterlite Copper for its re opening, issue is still locked in legal battle and it is, as yet, not clear as to what would be the ultimate fate of Sterlite Copper.
While Sterlite Copper says that it has not violated any rules regarding environmental regulations, the environmental authorities and local residents disagree. The campaign by Sterlite Copper about its environmental friendly claims have not convinced most of the local population so far.
Thousands of crore of rupees invested in Sterlite Copper by Vedanta Resources over the last several years, now remains wasted. Due to the closure of Sterlite Copper India has now become net importer of copper, while India was exporting copper when the unit was in operation, it appears that no one is benefited by the closure of Sterlite Copper. Environmental issues if any can always be sorted out and the closure of the unit at great cost could be avoided.
Issue in Zambia
Vedanta Resources is now facing serious issues in its copper plant in Zambia
Recently, Zambian government seized control of KCM, one of Africa's biggest copper producers owned by Vedanta Resources, saying it had breached environmental and financial regulations.
KCM is Zambia's largest integrated copper producer with nearly 13,000 workers. It invested USD 500 million in a new copper smelter, which produced 135,000 tonne of refined copper in the first nine months of 2018.
Zambia's government has accused KCM of lying about expansion plans and paying too little tax.
State-controlled Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings (ZCCM-IH) is seeking liquidation of KCM, in which it owns 20.6 per cent. Vedanta owns 80 per cent of the company and has invested over USD 3 billion in KCM in adding processing capacity and extending the mine life since it acquiring the business in 2004.
Vedanta Resources has taken the government of Zambia to international arbitration, following the seizure of its Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), one of Africa's biggest copper producer, stunning investors.
Vedanta Resources has said that Zambia must withdraw an import duty on copper and give his company due VAT refunds to help restore investor confidence, that was shattered by the African nation's move to liquidate his copper-mining business.
Issue in alumina mining in India
There have been issues facing alumina plant operated by Vedanta Resources in Odisha in India.There have been allegation of the air and water pollution by Vedanta alumina refinery in Lanjigarh.
Bauxite ore mining in Niyamgiri Hills have been stalled due to anti mining allegation launched by local tribals. Tribal leaders say that “let our blood flow like a river but we won’t allow mining” It appears that mining in Niyamgiri Hills can not operate in the near future.
Issue in iron ore mining in Goa, India
In India, iron ore mining unit operated by Vedanta Resources in Goa have suffered, as Supreme Court has cancelled the iron ore mining permit in Goa.
Unlisted companies also have been forced to close the mining operations in Goa. However, Vedanta Resources is the biggest loser.
Need to improve the image
While a few issues faced by Vedanta Resources due to environmental issues and alleged violation of law have been listed above, it is not all. There are allegations of violation of norms in some other units too.
While there is no doubt that Vedanta Resources have shown extraordinary initiatives and has gone ahead with various projects around the world with determination ,the fact is that its global image has remained distorted.
While viewing the overall performance of such organizations operating internationally and evaluating their performance, it is necessary to take holistic view and see the issues in proper perspectives carefully, without blowing them out.
There could be several hidden and unrevealed reasons, that have caused Vedanta Resources to be vilified, as Vedanta Resources operates in developing and third world countries ,where it is not uncommon to see politicians and vested interests trying to blackmail the industrial units and production centres and demanding bribes.In the absence of receiving gratis demanded, vested interests may campaign and whip up passion amongst the local people to tarnish the image and break morale of the unit. It is also possible that business rivals, particularly competing in the global scene, may indulge in such practices.
Considering the reasonably efficient level of operation in several units belonging to Vedanta Resources including Hindustan Zinc Limited in India, Cairn Energy in India, the overall conditions in the operating units of Vedanta Resources can not be as bad as it is portrayed by the adverse media reports.
In any case, Vedanta Resources has to take some extra measures to safe guard its image as respectable organization and responsible corporate body.
Perhaps, decisions with regard to choice of projects for investment and the location of the projects must be carried out with greater care and duly taking into consideration the ground realities. Vedanta Resources should avoid putting itself in vulnerable scenario, taking calculated risks, where adverse issues may potentially arise.
Vedanta Resources has several lessons to learn across the world.
Students chain up themselves as they protest to demand authorities to scrap a proposed extradition bill with China, in Hong Kong, China June 8, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
JUNE 8, 2019 /
HONG KONG (Reuters) - At least half a million people in Hong Kong are expected to brave sweltering heat on Sunday to press the government to scrap a proposed extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to China to face trial, organizers of the march said.
A committee of pro-democratic groups has raised turnout estimates and are now eyeing the biggest single-day rally since 2003, when a similar number of protesters forced the government to shelve tighter national security laws.
The march will end at the city’s Legislative Council, where debates start on Wednesday into sweeping amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. The extradition bill is due to be passed by the end of the month.
After weeks of growing local and international pressure, the protest is expected to reflect the broad range of opposition to the bill, with many saying they simply cannot trust China’s court system or its security apparatus.
The city’s independent legal system was guaranteed under laws governing Hong Kong’s return from British to Chinese rule 22 years ago, and is seen by the financial hub’s business and diplomatic communities as its strong remaining asset amid encroachments from Beijing.
Concerns have spread from the city’s democratic and human rights groups to secondary school students, church groups and media lobbies as well as corporate lawyers and pro-establishment business figures, some usually loathe to contradict the government.
(For the most recent stories on the extradition debate, click on. For a story explaining the issues, see)
Veteran Democratic Party lawmaker James To told Reuters that he believed a big turnout on Sunday could finally sway Hong Kong’s embattled government.
“It could really force a severe re-think by the government,” he said.
“There is everything to play for....People really sense this is a turning point for Hong Kong.”
That concern has mounted despite extensive efforts by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam and her senior officials, both in public and private, to insist that adequate safeguards are in place to ensure that anyone facing political and religious persecution or torture would not be extradited.
Similarly, anyone facing a death penalty would not be extradited, but legislative oversight of extradition arrangements has been removed under the bill.
While the chief executive has to sign off on any extradition, court hearings and appeals must first be exhausted and the government has insisted judges will play a key “gatekeeper” role.
Some senior judges have expressed deep-set fears over the changes, however.
The march will cap an intense political week for the city, with an estimated 180,000 people holding a candle-lit vigil on Tuesday to mark 30 years since the Tiananmen Square crackdown and a rare rally by the city’s lawyers on Thursday.
It follows an earlier protest by more than 100,000 people in late May.
Commercial lawyer and commentator Kevin Yam said he expected many people who attended the recent rallies would turn out on Sunday.
He said it was the first time since the handover that the government had ignored both the concerns of the international community and the local business community at the same time.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his British and German counterparts have spoken against the bill, while 11 European Union envoys met Carrie Lam to formally protest.
On Saturday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department reiterated U.S. concerns.
“The United States is closely monitoring and concerned by the Hong Kong government’s proposed amendments to the law,” she said. “Continued erosion of the ‘One country, Two systems’ framework puts at risk Hong Kong’s long-established special status in international affairs.”
Influential U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio has expressed repeated concern about the bill and a spokeswoman for his office said he was expected to again reintroduce his bipartisan “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act”, which would update a 1992 law that has afforded Hong Kong trade and economic privileges not enjoyed by mainland China.
Slideshow (2 Images)
The act would require the U.S. secretary of state to certify annually that Hong Kong is sufficiently autonomous before enacting any new laws or agreements granting Hong Kong such different treatment. It would also allow the secretary to waive the certification on national security grounds.
Yam said the issue had moved beyond politics at this point. “It is about not doing something stupid,” he said.
As the civil war wanes, the government is blowing up properties in areas it claims were opposition heartlands A devastated street in Aleppo. Photograph: Omar Sanadiki/Reuters
Emma Graham-Harrison-
Amjad Farekh’s shops had survived Syria’s long civil war, but not the new, unsteady peace that has settled in some parts of the country.
The government recently blew up several properties in the industrial zone of Qaboun, a former opposition stronghold just outside the capital, the exiled businessman said.
The destruction and loss echoed dozens of other clearance operations around the country documented by activists and analysts, who say they see a worrying pattern.
They fear the government is taking advantage of the messy aftermath of war to tighten its grip on towns and cities, targeting neighbourhoods and communities that rose up against President Bashar al-Assad for demolition, under the guise of military clearance operations.
Between September and December of 2018, a report for the European Institute of Peace thinktank tracked government announcements of 344 explosions, ostensibly to clear the aftermath of war.
“Each gave reasons such as ‘conducting a bombing’ or ‘to detonate tunnels headquarters, explosive devices and ammunition of terrorist organisations’,” the unpublished report said. “However … these explosions are instead targeting and destroying housing stock.”
The analysis was based on satellite imagery, open source video and photo imagery, and the Syrian government’s own tweets.
In one cited for Qaboun, the Ministry of Defence gave notice last November that it would be clearing “explosive remnants of terrorists”. Residents filmed the demolition of an apartment block, the “Teachers Towers”, by military engineers.
These kinds of demolition are happening on a “near-daily” basis, the report said, “using a variety of rationales, including the extensive property damage [the government] wrought on properties with their indiscriminate bombing”.
The loss of homes and properties risks stranding millions of refugees in limbo abroad, including those who might have considered returning home as the eight-year civil war winds down.
More than 12 million Syrians fled their homes, 5.6 million leaving the country and 6.6 million others displaced internally, many going because they were opposition supporters or sympathisers.
Assad has urged refugees to come home and promised that those who are “honest” would be forgiven for opposing him, but hundreds have been arrested on return, many tortured, and others conscripted despite promises that they would not be, or harassed in the streets.
His government has also used housing laws, including 45 new pieces of legislation passed during the conflict, to seize the property of rebel supporters , fracturing communities that opposed him.
“Despite a limited amount of public rhetoric about Syrians being welcome to return home, Assad does not actually want the majority of the Syrian population currently displaced inside and outside the country to return,” said Emma Beals, an independent analyst researching refugee return in Syria.
“This is demonstrated in many ways, such as the arrest and harassment of large numbers of returnees, as well as by using a framework for reconstruction that ensures the displaced cannot return to their properties.
“Syria’s displaced state a desire to return to their own houses, towns, and cities, and the government know that by depriving them of this right they decrease the chance that they will ever go home.”
One of those displaced is Amjad Farekh. Before the war his family owned land and several properties in Qaboun, but have been left with almost nothing. “Now even though we are property owners we can’t go back to our home areas because the regime will arrest us, so our properties have no value. Many people I know had to sell their properties at half price,” he said.
Authorities seized land and one building for use during the war as a military base. Like many refugees, the family don’t have the key papers they would need to seek compensation or reclaim surviving properties, but they can’t go back to Syria to replace them.
Nine out of 10 Syrian refugees are missing at least one key identification document, and fewer than one in five have property records, research by the Norwegian Refugee Council has found.
Syria already had serious housing issues before the civil war; they contributed to the build-up of tensions – along with drought, economic stagnation and political repression among other factors – that exploded into conflict in 2011.
For decades development had not kept pace with a flood of villagers moving to cities. Many settled into “informal” housing developments, often without documentation of their ownership. Marginalised in the pre-war economy, residents of these areas often supported the uprising against Assad.
That means many saw intense fighting in the earlier stages of the war, and were at least partly emptied of their original residents. It may also have contributed to a high rate of dispossession among Syrian refugees, with housing seized when opposition supporters left, or in the years that followed.
“When we left Aleppo, the pro-regime forces confiscated all my family’s properties and moved into our houses,” said Abdulkareem al-Halabi, an exiled reporter for the Baladi news website.
“Recently former neighbours told us that a building where we owned an apartment is being sold in an auction.”
The Carnegie Middle East centre found that half of the refugees in Jordan and two-thirds in Lebanon reported their property was damaged or destroyed.
There is no question that reconstruction is desperately needed after years of brutal conflict. Overall more than a third of the country’s housing stock had been affected, the World Bank estimated in 2017, and for even a fraction of displaced Syrians to come home more housing must be built or rebuilt.
But civil society groups fear Assad plans to use reconstruction to further dispossess his opponents, and break up their strongholds.
The government has a history of weaponised housing throughout the conflict. Human Rights Watch has documented demolitions of property starting in 2012, and as fighting raged the new laws covering property were passed.
Together they give the government sweeping powers to requisition land and property and re-zone it for new development, but perhaps the most controversial is known as law 10. It was alarming enough to cause international outrage.
Western countries have so far refused to provide funding for rebuilding, saying there will be no cash without political transition, but Syrian authorities are looking instead to private funding, which would allow them to sweep humanitarian concerns aside. The Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity, an organisation that represents the displaced, has called for greater pressure from the international community.
“Preservation of property rights and right of Syrians to safe and dignified voluntary return must be considered an urgent issue that needs firm action,” the group said.
The violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Khartoum, Sudan, this month has been carried out by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, a notorious paramilitary force that has committed mass atrocities in Darfur and other parts of Sudan.
In a bitter twist of irony, the Sudanese Transitional Military Council recently issued a decree demanding the United Nations-African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur, or UNAMID, which deployed thousands of peacekeepers in Darfur more than a decade ago to protect civilians, hand over its peacekeeping facilities to the paramilitary force as UNAMID carries out a dramatic drawdown of its mission there.
The U.N. is in the middle of an effort to shut down the troubled peacekeeping mission—which has long faced criticism of falling short in its mission to protect civilians—by next summer. Last year, facing pressure from the United States to cut peacekeeping costs, the U.N. Security Council ordered a phased reduction of a force that once numbered over 16,000 strong, citing a reduction in large scale armed clashes—though human rights abuses remain endemic. For our Document of the Week, Foreign Policy is publishing a copy of the May 13 decree in Arabic, along with an English translation.
The Rapid Support Forces—which was formed in 2013 by the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service to put down rebellions in the states of Darfur, Blue Nile, and South Kordofan—has drawn its forces from the ranks of Darfur’s janjaweed, fighters who were implicated along with Sudan’s armed forces in the killing by violence and conflict-induced starvation, dehydration and disease of over 300,000 Darfurian villagers between 2003 and 2005. The paramilitary group led a pair of counterinsurgency campaigns in Darfur in 2014 and 2015, during which its forces “repeatedly attacked villages, burned and looted homes, beating, raping and executing villagers,” according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch.
The paramilitary is led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, a former janjaweed leader who goes by the nickname “Hemeti.” The leader, who has emerged as the second-highest-ranking official on the Transitional Military Council, has also reportedly forged close ties to key Arab powerhouses including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. His forces have participated in the Saudi-led military coalition fighting alongside Sudanese soldiers against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Once loyal to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in April following months of public protests, Hemeti claimed he broke ranks with the fallen Sudanese leader that month, refusing an order from the military to open fire on the protesters. But with Bashir out of the way, Hemeti’s forces launched a bloody raid on the protesters, allegedly killing more than 100 civilians, and dimming hopes of a democratic transition.
Back in Darfur, the U.N. has already evacuated 10 peacekeeping team sites. An internal UNAMID review obtained by Foreign Policy shows that the Rapid Support Forces have occupied nine of those sites, including U.N. outposts in Buram, South Darfur, where the paramilitary has been accused of subjecting civilians to physical abuse, including sexual violence, and Labado, East Darfur, where Rapid Support Forces fighters and Arab nomads have allegedly engaged “in acts of criminality, harassment, and attacks against farmers,” according to an internal document reviewed by Foreign Policy.
For now, the U.N. still has about 4,000 peacekeepers, down from about 6,000 a year ago, and some 2,300 police. Since the decree, the United States has put on hold plans to evacuate 13 additional U.N. peacekeeping outposts, including one of its largest installations, in the town of Nyala. It has informed the Sudanese military that it will not proceed with the evacuation until the transitional government rescinds the decree and pledges to use the sites exclusively for civilian purposes.
In this picture taken on June 5, 2019, Future Forward Party MP Tanwarin Sukkhapisit poses before the parliamentary vote for Thailand’s new prime minister in Bangkok. Tanwarin, a lawmaker for the progressive anti-junta Future Forward Party, is one of four transgender MPs in the house -- pioneers in a society where discrimination in education, employment and at home persists. Source: Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
SMILING broadly, Tanwarin triumphantly cast her vote for prime minister as the first transgender MPs enter parliament in Thailand, where tolerance for the LGBT community is not matched by understanding or opportunity in public life.
In a sign of that enduring gap, the elderly speaker called for “Mr Tanwarin” to come forward in a vote late Wednesday that saw former junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha elected as premier with the help of a bank of 250 appointed senators.
Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, a lawmaker for the progressive anti-junta Future Forward Party (FFP), is one of four transgender MPs in the house — pioneers in a society where discrimination in education, employment and at home persists.
“I am not here for decoration,” she told AFP. “I want to write a new political history for Thailand.”
Thailand’s transgender community enjoys a high profile, but still faces major hurdles in the conservative Buddhist-majority kingdom.
Transgender people in Thailand appear in commercials, movies, on the front pages of fashion magazines and even have their own beauty contest, Miss Tiffany, watched annually by more than ten million viewers.
But the media leans heavily on caricatures of the community as catty, bawdy figures — while transgender people are often passed over for jobs as teachers and civil servants and confined to entertainment gigs and sex work.
“Thai people accept the community but don’t see them as equal or entitled to equal rights,” Tanwarin said.
‘Offending good morals’
Tanwarin’s political ambitions came after a successful career as a film director.
One of her movies, “Insects in the Backyard”, was released in 2010 and shown abroad.
But it was censored by Thai courts for “offending good morals”.
It was only after a five-year legal battle and the removal of a three-second nudity scene that the feature film was broadcast in the kingdom.
But Tanwarin — who is now directing a play called “Trans, I Am” — said an artistic career was not enough to push for changes to the legal framework governing life for the LGBT community.
“We had to go into politics,” Tanwarin says.
Tanwarin, a lawmaker for the progressive anti-junta Future Forward Party, is one of four transgender MPs in the house — pioneers in a society where discrimination in education, employment and at home persists. Source: Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP
Tanwarin’s first push in parliament is to change the legal definition of a married couple to “person to person” instead of “man to woman”, which could lead to Thailand becoming the second place in Asia after Taiwan to allow gay marriage.
A same sex marriage bill has been floated in Thailand but it has drifted with the political turmoil and it does not give same sex couples rights to have children or adopt.
Political action is needed as the laissez-faire attitude of Thailand towards its LGBT community hides a more nuanced reality, rights groups say.
Transgender people “are regularly discriminated against in their jobs, forcing many of them into low-paid jobs,” says Kyle Knight, LGBT specialist for Human Rights Watch.
Many face rejection by their families and end up in the sex industry where they are exploited.
And the term “katoey” (a Thai word covering transgender) is still thrown around contemptuously in Thai society.
Pauline Ngarmpring, who campaigned vigorously but failed to win a seat in the March election, called political inclusion a “first step” for the LGBT community and human rights in general.
The father-of-two who used to be called Pinit and made a name in the football world said there had been flickers of progress in recent years.
“Transgender people are now working as doctors, businessmen or teachers, but they are still too few.”
Tanwarin’s public presence alone has already sparked important debate and sometimes “virulent” comments on social media.
She relishes the challenge.
“I’m not afraid,” she said. I’m here to raise awareness for those who don’t understand.”
The ultimate limit of human endurance has been worked out by scientists analysing a 3,000 mile run, the Tour de France and other elite events.
They showed the cap was 2.5 times the body's resting metabolic rate, or 4,000 calories a day for an average person.
Anything higher than that was not sustainable in the long term.
The research, by Duke University, also showed pregnant women were endurance specialists, living at nearly the limit of what the human body can cope with.
The study started with the Race Across the USA in which athletes ran 3,080 miles from California to Washington DC in 140 days.
Competitors were running six marathons a week for months, and scientists were investigating the effect on their bodies.
A Race Across the USA runner has his resting energy expenditure measured
Resting metabolic rate - the calories the body burns through when it is relaxing - was recorded before and during the race.
And calories burned in the extreme endurance event were recorded.
The study, in Science Advances, showed energy use started off high but eventually levelled off at 2.5 times the resting metabolic rate.
The study found a pattern between the length of a sporting event and energy expenditure - the longer the event, the harder it is to burn through the calories.
So people can go far beyond their base metabolic rate while doing a short bout of exercise, it becomes unsustainable in the long term.
The study also shows that while running a marathon may be beyond many, it is nowhere near the limit of human endurance.
Marathon (just the one) runners used 15.6 times their resting metabolic rate
Cyclists during the 23 days of the Tour de France used 4.9 times their resting metabolic rate
A 95-day Antarctic trekker used 3.5 times the resting metabolic rate
"You can do really intense stuff for a couple of days, but if you want to last longer then you have to dial it back," Dr Herman Pontzer, from Duke University, told BBC News.
He added: "Every data point, for every event, is all mapped onto this beautifully crisp barrier of human endurance.
During pregnancy, women's energy use peaks at 2.2 times their resting metabolic rate, the study showed.
Runners on the 3,080 mile Race Across the USA in 2015.
The researchers argue the 2.5 figure may be down to the human digestive system, rather than anything to do with the heart, lungs or muscles.
They found the body cannot digest, absorb and process enough calories and nutrients to sustain a higher level of energy use.
The body can use up its own resources burning through fat or muscle mass - which can be recovered afterwards - in shorter events.
But in extreme events - at the limits of human exhaustion - the body has to balance its energy use, the researchers argue.
Dr Pontzer said the findings could eventually help athletes.
"In the Tour de France, knowing where your ceiling is allows you to pace yourself smartly.
"Secondly, we're talking about endurance over days and weeks and months, so it is most applicable to training regimens and thinking whether they fit with the long-term metabolic limits of the body."
For many years, Aung San Suu Kyi was a hero in the West. Through a long period of house arrest, her lonely battle for freedom and democracy in Myanmar made her almost as great an icon as Nelson Mandela. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize outright; Mandela shared it two years later.
But times have changed. Since becoming the state counsellor of Myanmar, she has become the most visible political apologist for the ethnic cleansing – I would say genocide – of an estimated 25,000 Rohingya Muslims in the violence that swept across the country in 2017.
A further 700,000 were driven from their homes. Security forces have been accused by human rights groups of the systematic rape of Rohingya women and girls.
Yet, Aung San Suu Kyi believes Myanmar has done nothing wrong. This became plain after her gruesome meeting on Wednesday with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest.
‘Climate of fear’
A statement released after the meeting noted that the two leaders had a great deal in common. In particular, they agreed on “the emergence of the issue of coexistence with continuously growing Muslim populations”.
Both Orban and Aung San Suu Kyi subscribe to versions of the noxious 'clash of civilisations' thesis expressed by American academic Samuel Huntington in the 1990s. For Orban, Christianity is Europe’s last hope in the face of Islamic expansion, and Hungary is the final line of defence. This has led to Orban targeting Muslim migrants, repeatedly referring to them as terrorists.
The Buddhist Aung San Suu Kyi and the Christian Orban are an integral part of a cross-continental political movement that views Islam as a mortal threat
For Aung San Suu Kyi, Islam represents an existential threat to the Buddhist culture of Myanmar. As early as 2013, she was criticised for denying the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the region, blaming the violence on a “climate of fear”.
The West was so eager to support Aung San Suu Kyi in her battle against the generals of Myanmar’s military dictatorship that it ignored the signs of her subscription to the Buddhist nationalism that has manifested itself so brutally in the last few years.
Nationalist rhetoric
The Buddhist Aung San Suu Kyi and the Christian Orban are an integral part of a cross-continental political movement that views Islam as a mortal threat to the countries they lead. It’s a sentiment embraced by Xi Jinping’s China, which is currently carrying out a cultural genocide against the Uighurs of East Turkestan.
The situation is worryingly similar in Narendra Modi’s India, where more and more Muslims are facing a level of persecution not seen since independence.
Orban (R) told Aung San Suu Kyi that the Hungarian people respected all she had done for her country’s "democratic transformation" (Hungarian government)
This coming-together of Orban and Aung San Suu Kyi raises significant questions for the rest of us. It’s become the default language of right wing and nationalist regimes to attack their Muslim minorities. Imprisonment, killing and torture has been justified by the idea that all Muslims are an enemy within, embodying the existential threat of Islam.
The same anti-Muslim language can be heard within Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, as well as the right wing Brexit Party and the remains of UKIP. It’s common parlance among far-right parties on the European continent, and it is a horrible perversion of the truth.
A mythical threat
Then, of course, there is US President Donald Trump. His calls for a ban on Muslims entering the US, and his general anti-immigration agenda, are almost identical to the views of Orban.
And the two were full of praise and admiration for each other when Orban visitedthe White House last month. The support for Trump among Myanmar’s vehemently anti-Muslim monks is also well documented.
Why is the world sitting idly by as China persecutes Uighur Muslims?
The supposed threat of Islam to the West is a myth.
Millions of Muslims have settled in the West to enjoy the benefits of Western life, and to contribute as workers, entrepreneurs and citizens.
Millions more are campaigning for the best of Western values: freedom of thought and expression, the rule of law, and equality of opportunity, in the face of obscurantism.
Yet, the latest spectacle of the meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and Orban should act as an important reminder of the monstrous threat posed to Muslims around the world. If anyone is under threat it’s the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Muslim migrants in Hungary, and the hundreds of thousands of Uighurs still being held in detention camps.
Challenging falsehoods
Less than 25 years ago, more than 8,000 Muslim Bosnians were killed in the Srebrenica massacre. The Bosnian Serb perpetrators of this travesty saw their actions as a defence of their national and ethnic identity. Others continue to deny the genocide even took place.
The army commander who carried out the genocide at Srebrenica was Ratko Mladic, otherwise known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”. He was finally convicted of the genocide and sentenced to life imprisonment two years ago. But when he was first brought to court in 2011, these were his words: “I defended my people and my country.”
How much longer must we listen to world leaders use this same chilling language against Muslims, before we begin to challenge their falsehoods and myths?
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
