German firm escalates its war crimes against Palestinians

HeidelbergCement’s Nahal Raba quarry in the occupied West Bank plunders Palestinian resources in violation of international law. 

 Who Profits

Adri Nieuwhof -10 June 2019

German construction giant HeidelbergCement is expanding its plunder of Palestinian resources, a war crime punishable under German and international law.

HeidelbergCement operates a stone quarry in the occupied West Bank without permission of the Palestinians.

After exhausting the Nahal Raba quarry, the Israeli army has now given the firm permission to exploit another 25 acres of occupied West Bank land.

Most of the quarried products are used for the Israeli construction industry, including settlements in the occupied West Bank whose construction is also a war crime.

The Palestinian people’s right to self-determination includes permanent sovereignty over natural resources, even while under occupation.

Israel has no authority to grant HeidelbergCement permission to extract Palestinian natural resources for its own benefit or that of a foreign company.

Yet Israel not only permits HeidelbergCement to profit from illegal quarrying, but actively thwarts Palestinians from quarrying their own land, one of the myriad ways Israel prevents economic development.

Companies like HeidelbergCement that extract natural resources through Israeli licensing may be engaging in the war crime of pillage, according to Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group.

Nahal Raba quarry

HeidelbergCement took control of Nahal Raba quarry in 2007 when it acquired the UK firm Hanson, along with its Israeli subsidiary Hanson Israel.

The quarry is situated on land stolen from the village of al-Zawiya in the occupied West Bank.

For many years Israel declared the village and its surrounding area a firing zone, ostensibly meaning it would be closed to Palestinians as well as to Israeli citizens.

But in 2012, according to Israeli settlement monitoring organization Kerem Navot, the army transferred some 500 acres, including the Nahal Raba quarry, to the authority of the settlement of Elkana and the Samaria Regional Council, a settlement body.

Today, the quarry spans 145 acres, or about 10 acres more than it was allocated, Kerem Navot states.

But HeidelbergCement wasn’t satisfied. For more than 12 years the company tried to obtain permission to expand the quarry.

Israel finally granted planning permission to expand Nahal Raba by an additional 25 acres in February, according to a letter from the Civil Administration, the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military occupation, provided to The Electronic Intifada by Kerem Navot.

The permit includes land stolen from the Palestinian village of Rafat.

The letter is below.

Complicit in international crimes

HeidelbergCement, as the owner of Hanson Israel, is knowingly and willingly complicit in Israel’s international crimes.

Ten years ago, Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din filed a petition with the Israeli high court demanding a halt to illegal mining activity in the occupied West Bank, including HeidelbergCement’s Nahal Raba quarry.

Attorneys representing Yesh Din considered it a “clearly illegal activity, which constitutes blunt and ugly colonial exploitation of land we [Israel] had forcefully seized.”

HeidelbergCement has also ignored the UN General Assembly’s concerns about Israel’s exploitation of Palestinian natural resources.

The UN body has demanded that Israel, “the occupying Power, cease the exploitation, damage, cause of loss or depletion of, or endangerment of the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”

Moreover, it recognized the right of the Palestinian people to claim restitution for such illegal plunder and destruction of their resources.

Ten years in prison

HeidelbergCement is based in Germany, which has legislation making the international crime of pillage punishable under domestic law.

Germany’s 2002 Code of Crimes against International Law prescribes a prison sentence of up to 10 years for anyone who engages in pillage “in connection with an international armed conflict or with an armed conflict not of an international character,” or who “otherwise extensively destroys, appropriates or seizes property” contrary to international law.

Therefore, if Germany were applying its own laws, HeidelbergCement company officials could be looking at jail time.

Yet in the total absence of the rule of law when it comes to Israel and those who aid, abet and profit from its crimes, the BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – movement is an essential tool to hold governments, companies and institutions accountable.

The German government has failed to halt HeidelbergCement’s expanding plunder and war profiteering from Palestinian natural resources.

Instead, German elites have escalated their own unconditional support for Israel.

Yet the German parliament’s recent resolution smearing the BDS movement as anti-Semitic will not stop activists’ efforts to hold HeidelbergCement and the German government accountable for their role in Israel’s crimes.

Jared Kushner's ‘deal of the century’ was designed to fail from the start

Never mind the critics, Kushner is playing a mean hand on the Israel-Palestine file

US presidential adviser Jared Kushner shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on 30 May (AFP)

Bill Law-6 June 2019 19

US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East peace negotiator, Jared Kushner, doesn’t give many interviews - so when he does, the media is not only riveted, but poised to pounce. And pounce certain segments of the US media did, after Kushner’s HBO Axios interview on 2 June. 

Slate published a piece under the headline: “The Most Cringeworthy Answers From Jared Kushner’s Axios Interview.” Vanity Fair opined: “In a comically disastrous interview, the first son-in-law botched answers on birtherism, refugees, Saudi Arabia, and his Middle East peace plan.” CNN was a trifle kinder, settling for a selective line-by-line evisceration of  the “29 most eyebrow-raising lines” from the interview.

The assumption from these and other esteemed publications in the liberal media establishment that Trump loves to hate is that Kushner is at best an idiot savant, blissfully wandering through a complex landscape with no idea of the dangers lurking - that he is a rich and privileged kid with a chequered history of wheeling and dealing in real estate and a wife who is the president’s favourite daughter, and that he is way out of his league.

Winning by losing

These assumptions are wrong. From the moment Kushner was assigned the Middle East brief, he has played a subtle, and thus far effective, hand on behalf of both the West Bank settler movement and family friend Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

Kushner, whose family foundation has given generously to settler projects, has carefully constructed a strategy designed to win by losing.  The “deal” was never intended to work. 

Rather, its modus operandi is to force Palestinians into a corner from which there is no escape, and where the only answer to the peace deal is “no”. Kushner learned this trick from his days of allegedly acquiring rent-controlled properties, forcing sitting tenants out, refurbishing the flats and then putting them back on the market as luxury properties. 

The deal that was never intended to be a deal is coming apart, and Kushner is going to have his work cut out holding it together

It is a squeeze play: a combination of withdrawal of services, together with an offer of some financial compensation, nicely wrapped in veiled and not-so-veiled threats, along the lines of “accept this or it only gets worse”. Kushner has neatly applied the lessons learned in Manhattan to the “deal of the century” in the Middle East.

He seized his opportunity when Trump surprised the world by winning the presidency in November 2016. In December of that year, Trump announced that bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman was his nominee as US ambassador to Israel.

In March 2017, Friedman, who has a long history of supporting the illegal settler movement in the West Bank, was duly confirmed by the Senate. Kushner was handed the Middle East portfolio, while another Trump lawyer and hardline settler advocate, Jason Greenblatt, joined him as an envoy.

Killing the two-state solution 

Kushner convinced the president that his first overseas trip should be to Saudi Arabia in May 2017. By that point, Kushner had already established a close working relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who subsequently became the crown prince. A crucial element of Kushner’s strategy was to wean the Saudis off the Arab Peace Initiative proposed in 2002 by former Saudi King Abdullah, who was then the crown prince. 

Integral to Abdullah’s plan was the recognition of a viable Palestinian state, side-by-side with Israel. Kushner appeared, at least in private, to have successfully killed off Abdullah’s two-state solution, as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, notably the United Arab Emirates, moved closer to Israel.

Israel’s separation wall is pictured on 17 January (AFP)

In December 2017, the president announced that the US embassy would move to Jerusalem. Experts were mystified, and Trump was attacked for giving something away and getting nothing in return. But Kushner wasn’t looking for anything: He simply wanted to make a big statement in the face of the Palestinians. He did, and the US got away with it: on 14 May 2018, the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel, the embassy opened in Jerusalem, while around 90 kilometres away, Palestinians were being gunned down on the Gaza border.

By that time, the president had announced the US was abandoning the two-state solution. Pouring salt into the wound, Washington cut more than half of its planned funding ($65m out of a $125m aid package) to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees that supports more than five million registered refugees. Slowly and inexorably, the screws were  being tightened.

Hammer blows fall

In August 2018, the US cut more than $200m in economic aid, then followed that up by withdrawing the rest of the UNRWA funding. In September, one of the few remaining aid programmes, $25m for Palestinians in East Jerusalem hospitals, was ended. Then, the Palestine Liberation Organisation office in Washington, the formal diplomatic link with the Palestinians, was shut down. 

As the hammer blows fell and fell, Western governments said nothing. Kushner knew, beyond a doubt, that he was winning.

The 'deal of the century': US blessing for Israel's land theft and ghettoisation of the Palestinians

Read More »

Next up was the Golan Heights, annexed by Israel with the full backing and approval of the Trump administration in March. A win by Netanyahu in the Israeli election in April was to be the cherry on the cake to then drive through the incorporation of the West Bank settlements into a greater Israel.  

Alas for Netanyahu and Kushner, fate, in the form of Avigdor Lieberman, intervened. The ex-defence minister and Netanyahu’s arch-rival refused to enter a coalition, upending the applecart and forcing a new election in September.

Trump was not happy. His plan, looking ahead to 2020 and a re-election bid, was to impress his base by rewarding Israel and putting Palestinians in their place. “Israel’s all messed up with their election,” he said. “Bibi got elected, now all of the sudden they’re going to have to go through the process again, until September? That’s ridiculous. So we’re not happy about that.”

Unshakeable confidence

Meanwhile, the Gulf Arab states have been cooling in their ardour for the Kushner deal. Bin Salman’s father, King Salman, has rebuked his son’s support for Israel, while publicly rehabilitating the two-state solution. The deal that was never intended to be a deal is coming apart, and Kushner is going to have his work cut out holding it together.

Kushner does not have a good poker face. His arrogance and the assurance that he is winning shines through in everything he says and does. But his critics are wrong to underestimate him. 

Kushner has played a mean hand thus far. His confidence that he will win it all for the settler movement and a greater Israel, for Netanyahu or whoever his successor is, and for his father-in-law, the president, remains utterly unshaken.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

 

Six men convicted in the rape and murder of 8-year-old girl that shocked India

The brutal killing of Asifa Bano triggered protests across India in 2018. (Ajit Solanki/AP)

By Niha Masih andJoanna Slater-June 10 at 1:03 PM

 

NEW DELHI — An Indian court sentenced three men to life in prison Monday for the abduction, rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in a case that sparked a nationwide furor and inflamed tensions between Hindus and Muslims. Three others were convicted of destroying evidence and punished with a five-year jail term and a fine.

Calling the crime a “barbaric act,” state prosecutor J.K. Chopra said authorities had asked for the death penalty for three of those convicted. A defense lawyer said Monday that the verdict would be appealed.

India has struggled with horrifying cases of rape and murder involving children in recent years, and authorities are taking increasingly harsh measures against the culprits. 

In the wake of the 8-year-old Asifa Bano’s killing last year, India passed legislation making the rape of girls under the age of 12 punishable by death. 

Official statistics show that incidents of rape are increasing in India, although it is unclear how much of the rise is due to more reporting of such cases. Advocates say the majority of rape cases remain unreported.

Asifa’s case, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, gained national attention both for the gruesome nature of the crime and the response it elicited from local members of India’s ruling party, some of whom protested the charges against the accused.

Mubeen Farooqui, a lawyer representing Asifa’s family, called Monday’s verdict a “victory for truth.” Former state chief minister Mehbooba Mufti hailed the investigative and legal team for ensuring “facts came to light despite hindrances.”

Early last year, Asifa, who belonged to a nomadic Muslim community, went missing from a village in the district of Kathua, which is in the Hindu-dominated area of Jammu. By contrast, the Kashmir valley portion of the state has a Muslim majority.

Days later, her body was found in a forest where she would often go to tend to her family’s horses. 

[An 8-year-old girl’s gang rape and murder trigger new outrage over India’s rape culture]

The investigation revealed the girl had been sedated, gang-raped and strangled with her own scarf. Her head had been bashed with a rock. The brutality took place over four days in a small Hindu shrine. 

In April 2018, The Post’s Annie Gowen explained how the rape and murder of 8-year-old Asifa Bano in Kathua, India, has set off a firestorm across the country. (Annie Gowen, Joyce Lee/The Washington Post)

Eight men were arrested for the crime, including one juvenile whose trial will be held separately. The police charged Sanji Ram, a retired government clerk, with plotting the crime as part of a plan to rid the area of the Muslim nomads. 

On Monday, three men — including Ram and one police officer — were convicted of the rape and murder while a fourth was acquitted. Three other police officers were found guilty of helping to destroy evidence of the crime.

“We wanted to see them hanged till death,” said Sudam Hussain, a family member of the girl, adding that they had not received “complete justice.” 

Outrage over the slaying was soon overshadowed by controversial rallies that took place in support of the suspects.

Two local members of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, participated in the protests. In one instance, lawyers physically tried to block police officers from filing the charges, claiming Hindus were being unfairly targeted. 

The girl’s family had approached India’s Supreme Court for protection, saying they had received threats to their lives. The court moved the trial to the neighboring state of Punjab. The proceeding began in May and was closed to the media. 

No media were allowed into the courtroom for the verdict, and Asifa’s immediate family members were not in attendance. Outside, there was a heavy security presence, including armored vehicles and teams of police officers. 

Tania Dutta in Pathankot, India, contributed to this report.

Two deaths and one big lie

Israeli police raid Umm al-Hiran, a village slated for demolition, 18 January 2017. A resident of the village and police officer were killed during the raid.

 Keren ManorActiveStills)

Maureen Clare Murphy -10 June 2019

The killing of math teacher Yaqoub Abu al-Qiyan during an early 2017 raid on a Palestinian village was in many respects a typical act of violence by Israel’s colonization project. A Palestinian was left dead, others injured and homes were destroyed – starting with those belonging to Abu al-Qiyan’s family – to make way for a Jewish settlement.

There are unique aspects to his case – he was killed in Israel, not in the occupied West Bank, for one. And thanks to the UK-based research group Forensic Architecture, a moment-by-moment breakdown of the events leading up to Abu al-Qiyan’s death and the state cover-up that followed has been made publicly available.

When Yaqoub Abu al-Qiyan was killed in a Bedouin village slated for demolition on 18 January 2017, Benjamin Netanyahu immediately alleged he had carried out a “terror attack.”

The narrative pushed by Israel’s prime minister, as well as interior minister Gilad Erdan and police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld, was that Abu al-Qiyan was attempting to attack officers with his car, killing officer Erez Levi. Rosenfeld and police chief Roni Alsheikh even claimed that Abu al-Qiyan had links to the Islamic State group.

But residents of Umm al-Hiran, the Naqab desert village in southern Israel stormed by hundreds of officers that day, as well as activists present, swiftly challenged the government’s narrative of events. They said that Abu al-Qiyan was killed without provocation.

Video recorded by Keren Manor, a member of the Activestills collective whose work has previously appeared on The Electronic Intifada, proved critical to unraveling Israel’s narrative.

Analysis from Forensic Architecture indicated that Abu al-Qiyan, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was driving slowly and his vehicle only accelerated after he was shot at by police, suggesting he had lost control of his car.

Leaked details from Abu al-Qiyan’s autopsy report “suggested that the bullet had crushed al-Qiyan’s right leg, which controlled the accelerator and brake pedals, suggesting our theory that the acceleration of his vehicle was the result of gunfire,” according to Forensic Architecture. A second bullet hit Abu al-Qiyan in the chest, and “led to his death from loss of blood.”

Israel’s official narrative soon fell apart, but Forensic Architecture “wanted to understand better what had happened in the moments leading to Abu al-Qiyan’s death.”

Mishandling of evidence

The research group has published a new video report that includes more documentation contradicting Israel’s claims. That documentation includes newly available footage from body and handheld cameras operated by police officers at the scene, a “partial and incomplete” police evidence file, the full recording of the thermal aerial video, and recordings of police radio channels.

The body cam footage recorded by one of the officers indicated that Forensic Architecture’s earlier suspicion that Abu al-Qiyan was killed by a single bullet fired at close range while his car had come to a stop – to “confirm the kill” – was unlikely.

The research group also used reenactment at the scene of Abu al-Qiyan’s killing, as well as synchronization of audio and video documentation, 3D modeling and other methodologies, to reach its conclusions.

A reenactment using the same model of vehicle as the one driven by Abu al-Qiyan indicated that the slope of the terrain on which he was driving, rather than the gas pedal, caused the acceleration of his car.

Ruins of demolished homes in Umm al-Hiran on 18 January 2017. Israel plans to completely demolish the village in order to build a Jewish-only town on that land.

 Faiz Abu RmelehActiveStills

It also studied the injury of Ayman Odeh, then the senior Palestinian lawmaker in Israel’s parliament, during the same incident. The group’s conclusions support Odeh’s claim that he was hit in the head by a sponge bullet fired by Israeli police.

The research group notes that police prevented medics from accessing Abu al-Qiyan while he bled to death in his vehicle. “Abu al-Qiyan’s life could have been saved,” the report states.

Regarding the cover-up of the truth about the killing of Abu al-Qiyan and Levi, as well as the wounding of Odeh, Forensic Architecture states: “Our work pitted us directly against Israeli politicians and police chiefs, and exposed inconsistencies in the official account of the event, as well as mishandling of evidence after the fact.”

As the video report shows, Israeli police accused Forensic Architecture of using a “manipulative edit” of leaked thermal footage recorded from a police helicopter “that distorts evidence.”

Yet it was the Israeli police that manipulated evidence and doctored video to support its narrative.

Redactions in the police report in the evidence file given to lawyers suggested that additional footage was recorded but missing from the evidence file.

Gaps at critical moments

A year and a half after the incident, footage was leaked by a police officer to an Israeli TV channel and sent to a prosecutor “who was considering whether to press charges against the policeman involved,” Forensic Architecture states.

The edited video broadcast by Israel’s Channel 10 purports to show that Odeh was injured by a fragment of a stun grenade. Police accused Odeh of giving false testimony by saying he was hit with a sponge bullet.

Forensic Architecture analyzed the video and found that it was “made up of multiple clips and that gaps in the footage occurred at critical moments.”

A whole page is missing from the transcript in the evidence file of the interrogation of the police cameraman. The missing page contains the conversation between the cameraman and interrogator as they watch the original, uncut footage that was leaked to Channel 10.

“The incident that began with a dead-of-night raid on the village of Umm al-Hiran became host to many more violations. It led to the killing of Abu al-Qiyan, to assaults against residents, activists and politicians, and the subsequent manipulation of evidence,” Forensic Architecture states.

“To date, no policeman has been charged for the violence in Umm al-Hiran. The shooting of Abu al-Qiyan was justified as a split-second decision taken legitimately by the policeman involved,” the group concludes.

“But instinct is culturally and politically produced and the victims of police violence in Israel are disproportionately Palestinian. In this way, a long history of separation and marginalization is condensed in a split-second.”

Accused of Inaction, Trump Team Set to Appoint Sudan Advisor

Former U.S. diplomat Donald Booth expected to address the bloody impasse between military and protesters as U.N. officials warn of spiraling violence.

A flag is waved over protests in Khartoum, Sudan, on May 3. DAVID DEGNER/GETTY IMAGES

BY ROBBIE GRAMER, JUSTIN LYNCH| JUNE 10, 2019

With Sudan teetering on the brink of potential war, the Trump administration is preparing to bring an ex-diplomat out of retirement to help craft U.S. policy on a country fast unraveling since its longtime ruler was ousted two months ago.

Donald Booth, a seasoned former ambassador with extensive experience in Africa, is expected to rejoin the State Department, current and former officials said, to serve as senior advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump’s top diplomat on Africa, Tibor Nagy.

The appointment comes as the Trump administration faces growing calls to step up its efforts to stabilize Sudan. Critics accuse Washington of being missing in action while powerful Persian Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have taken on a larger behind-the-scenes role in the East African country’s transitional government.

“Anybody who’s been paying attention to this country recognized this protest movement was fundamentally different,” said Cameron Hudson, a former State Department and CIA official who worked on Sudan. “We should’ve expected this, we should’ve anticipated this. The fact is we didn’t have a strategy in place, we didn’t have personnel in place … is really worrying.”

“There’s no leadership on this issue in State or the White House,” said one U.S. official involved in deliberations, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

United Nations officials and experts warn that the country could face mass atrocities without a strong U.S. voice and international support for a peaceful transition to civilian rule.

One senior U.N. official warned of “the risk of increased atrocities and the risk of a complete breakdown which could lead to civil war in the streets of Khartoum.” If the security situation in Sudan unravels, it could “become even more complicated” and has the potential to spiral into “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world,” said the official.

Following months of widespread protests, longtime Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir was ousted in a military coup in April. The Transitional Military Council that took over has refused to meet calls from protesters and members of the international community for a handover to civilian rule, sparking deadly crackdowns and growing rifts between different factions in the country’s powerful security forces—the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces—that could destabilize the country further.

Critics of the Trump administration’s policy are distressed that the State Department post of special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan has sat empty since 2017, when Trump took office and Booth stepped down from the position. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a Democratic presidential contender and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter on June 7 to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to fill the position “as soon as possible.”

In his letter, obtained by Foreign Policy, Booker also pushed Pompeo to temporarily appoint a retired ambassador to lead the embassy in Khartoum “until the political crisis is resolved.” Steven Koutsis, a lower-level career diplomat, is currently the chargé d’affaires at the embassy.

“It is time for a fresh face at the United States embassy in Khartoum, and a retired ambassador could play a vital role,” Booker wrote.

Booth is a veteran diplomat who served as ambassador to Liberia, Zambia, and Ethiopia. He served as the special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan from 2013 to early 2017. He is expected to be a senior advisor to Nagy, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, according to four current and former officials. Nagy is traveling to Sudan during a longer tour of Africa from June 12 to 23, where he will meet with members of the Transitional Military Council and opposition.

Hudson, the former official, who is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, worries that new appointments aren’t enough to make up for an absence of U.S. strategy on Sudan. “We are essentially doing the same thing the Sudanese are doing, which is reacting very tactically to day-to-day events on the ground, and we’re not being guided by a strategy,” he said. “That makes it hard to expect a lot of success out of an envoy or senior advisor.”

The State Department declined to comment for this story but has repeatedly stressed the need for Sudan to transition to a democratic, civilian-led government and condemned violence against protestors.

Violence erupted on the streets of Khartoum last week when soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces—a group accused of brutal war crimes, including genocide in Darfur—attacked protesters conducting a peaceful sit-in in Khartoum to demand civilian rule in Sudan. At least 100 people died, but because of a near-countrywide internet blackout and attacks on hospitals, the true number of casualties is still unknown.

Sudan’s military has pledged to investigate the violence and said the sit-in site contained drugs and other illegal activities.

On the international stage, the African Union suspended Sudan as a member until the military hands over power to a civilian government. However, Russia and China have blocked efforts at the U.N. Security Council to reprimand the Sudanese government in the wake of the violence.

On Monday night, civilian groups involved in the protests signaled they would accept a proposal from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to have a joint interim government between the civilian and military, with leadership rotating between the two, which might ease tensions but also secure the military’s control in any new permanent government.

Others fear the factions in the security forces will spark further violence. “So far there are no visible tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF,” the senior U.N. official said. “But the moment that [the armed forces] and RSF shoot at each other, they [could] go around and loot and shoot and kill anyone.”

Some activists in Khartoum believe the security forces are trying to bait protesters into starting more clashes. The Sudanese Professionals Association, a group helping organize the protests that began in December 2018, has been warning civilians not to pick up guns or weapons left in the streets. U.N. officials and activists tell Foreign Policy they fear it is a ruse by security forces to provoke protesters into taking the weapons, thus justifying further crackdowns.

A countrywide general strike announced by the Sudanese Professionals Association has brought Khartoum to a near-standstill. Most shops and businesses are closed due to the strike, and the usually congested roads have minimal traffic across the city. A key indicator of whether the general strike will be successful is whether it is carried out beyond Khartoum, but the near-total internet shutdown across the country has made communication and coordination difficult for the association and other opposition groups organizing the protests.

Two people in Sudan who had managed to access the internet during the previous outage told Foreign Policy their connections had also been cut, a sign the security forces are tightening the internet blackout.

The Rapid Support Forces, headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as “Hemeti,” and made up of soldiers primarily from Darfur and neighboring tribal regions, has effectively laid siege of Khartoum. At night, civilians create roadblocks made of burning tires, downed trees, and bricks to prevent the movement of security forces.

One source in eastern Sudan said the Rapid Support Forces was boosting its recruiting efforts in his hometown. There were also reports of tribal clashes in eastern Sudan, which experts fear could increase Sudan’s instability.

It’s a “very scary” situation, said Alex de Waal, a Sudan expert and the director of the World Peace Foundation.

Both experts and U.S. and U.N. officials are unsure how to pull Sudan back from the edge of collapse. At the center of those debates is how to deal with Hemeti, whom some experts compared to a warlord.

Hemeti, who has close ties to Saudi Arabia, is a member of the Transitional Military Council, the interim governmental body that says it is leading the country toward civilian rule but has yet to cede any power. The Rapid Support Forces appears to operate independently of the country’s professional military.

“I fear Hemeti has crossed the Rubicon. The kind of violence his forces are inflicting is unlike anything that has been experienced in Khartoum before,” said de Waal. “I can’t see an obvious formula for bringing him under control.”

Some believe that even if Hemeti is removed from the military junta leading Sudan, he will retain significant power. “His whole rank and file will not disappear even if he’s pushed out of the [Transitional Military Council],” said Susan Stigant, the head of the Africa program at the United States Institute of Peace. “It’s not clear people are thinking about that.”

Tory leadership candidates launch campaigns

Gary Gibbon-10 Jun 2019Political Editor

And then there were ten: the Tory MPs left in the running to become the next Prime Minister. Five of them held campaign launches today, although not Boris Johnson, whose team have kept him away from the media so far.

Of course that hasn’t stopped his rivals from weighing in with subtle, and not so subtle, jibes at his fitness for office, compared to their own.

Conservative MPs have their first vote this Thursday and will continue to vote next week until the whole party membership gets to choose between the final two.

United by fear of China, Hong Kongers stage record march

Protesters attend a rally against a controversial extradition law proposal in Hong Kong on June 9, 2019. Hong Kong witnessed its largest street protest in at least 15 years on June 9 as crowds massed against plans to allow extraditions to China, a proposal that has sparked a major backlash against the city's pro-Beijing leadership. Source: DALE DE LA REY / AFP

@AsCorrespondent-June 9 at 11:26 PM

THEY came from all walks of life, a sea of white-clad Hong Kongers, braving hours in the tropical heat and galvanised by fear that their unique city is being subsumed by China.

The international financial hub has seen plenty of political turbulence over the last decade as concern mounts that its freedoms and culture are being undermined by a resurgent Beijing.

But even by Hong Kong’s track record for eye-catching protests, Sunday’s demonstration against the city government’s plans to allow extraditions to the mainland was historic.

It began with crowds of peaceful marchers stretching out for miles — families with flag waving toddlers, grandparents in wheelchairs, expats and business types, musicians banging drums, artists, activists and more.

Most chose the colour white to represent justice.

SEE ALSO: Hong Kong: Veteran pro-democracy activists facing seven years jail

But it ended with angry masked youths fighting running battles through the night with riot police.

In many ways, it was a cross-section of what Hong Kong now is.

Throughout the day protesters delivered the same message: they do not trust assurances that the city’s freedoms, guaranteed by the 1997 handover deal with Britain, will remain intact if China’s courts are allowed to extradite people.

“If it (the bill) is passed, it would blur the line between Hong Kong and the mainland,” protester Ryan Leung told AFP.

“It would totally destroy the freedoms we’ve always had, and the rule of law that we are so proud of.”

Disappearances and reprisals

Recent moves by China have rattled nerves.

Many demonstrators cited the disappearance of a group of booksellers from the city who later turned up in Chinese custody confessing to crimes on state television.

The men had published lurid tomes about China’s leaders and one of them has since fled to Taiwan, saying the risk of extradition is too high.

“Even before the law we have seen the bookseller cases,” fumed Fiona Lau, 15, one of the many young faces in the crowd. “After the bill is passed, our situation will become even more severe. We cannot let this happen.”

Protesters attend a rally against a controversial extradition law proposal in Hong Kong on June 9, 2019. The city’s pro-Beijing government is pushing a bill through the legislature that would allow extraditions to any jurisdiction with which it doesn’t already have a treaty — including mainland China for the first time. Source: DALE DE LA REY / AFP

“The Hong Kong government and the Chinese government are not on an equal footing,” added Chan Sze-chai, a member of Hong Kong University Students’ Union Council.

He believed that if China’s leaders wanted to extradite a dissident or use other charges to muzzle activists “there’s nothing the Hong Kong government can do.”

“So there’s no way that Hong Kong citizens should trust Chinese government and the Hong Kong government,” he concluded.

Shaun Martin, a Briton who has lived in the city for more than five years, said the detention in China of two Canadians immediately after a senior Huawei executive was arrested in Vancouver prompted him to hit the streets.

He feared reprisal arrests could one day come to Hong Kong as a new chill sets in between China’s leaders and western powers.

“People like myself, expats, are really, really cautious about this type of thing, thinking that China could actually come and impose those types of tit-for-tat kind of arrests without a warrant,” he said.

From cheers to clashes

As the sun set over the harbour there was a festive atmosphere. Crowds listed to speeches and chanted slogans outside the city’s legislature where the march ended.

When organisers read out the estimated crowd figure of 1,030,000 there was a roar of approval.

“Hong Kong has made history,” Jimmy Shum, one of the organisers told the crowd.

“If the government do not respond to that, and we give them a deadline of tomorrow, we believe we must escalate our action,” added Bonnie Leung, another organiser.

Protesters march during a rally against a controversial extradition law proposal in Hong Kong on June 9, 2019. Huge protest crowds thronged Hong Kong on June 9 as anger swells over plans to allow extraditions to China, a proposal that has sparked the biggest public backlash against the city’s pro-Beijing leadership in years. Source: Philip Fong

Within hours action had already been escalated.

Police used batons and pepper spray to clear out a group that had vowed to stay overnight outside the parliament.

The protesters, many young and wearing masks, fought back, hurling bottles and building improvised barricades.

After pro-democracy demonstrations failed to win concessions four years ago, many of Hong Kong’s youth have become more hardline, arguing that peaceful protests have failed.

Some have even begun advocating for full independence — a red line for Beijing.

“I’m on an emotional roller coaster tonight,” said Philip Leung, 23, who saw police and the hardline protesters clash.

“We have simple aims, we want what is good for Hong Kong. But if the government keeps ignoring the opinion of more than one million people, how can Hong Kong still be free?

“That is why so many young people are still out right now,” he said.

Jerome TAYLOR / Elaine YU © Agence France-Presse