Category Archives: South and Central Asia

For Sri Lankan reporters, the ghosts of violence and intimidation loom again

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The terror of earlier crackdowns taught me to write between the lines as a journalist – now I see repressive tactics returning

Terror tore through me when I heard that my friend and editor of the Nation newspaper, Keith Noyahr, had been abducted. It was May 2008; the civil war was raging and Sri Lankan troops were chalking up victories against Tamil Tiger separatists in the north. In the fog of war, government critics were being terrorised all over the country. We had learned to expect the worst when a journalist went missing.

Outside Noyahr’s home that night, through his six-year-old daughter’s screams, I heard phone calls pleading with diplomats and politicians to save Keith’s life. The journalist was released by his abductors shortly before dawn and staggered home, his head matted with blood, legs unsteady from continuous beatings.

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TikTok urged to take action over Myanmar death threat videos

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Videos posted to Chinese-owned site show men in military gear threatening to kill protesters

TikTok has been urged to take action over a flood of videos shared in Myanmar that feature men in military uniform threatening to kill anti-coup protesters, at times while brandishing weapons.

Myanmar’s police and army have been widely condemned for using lethal force against peaceful protesters who have held mass rallies over recent weeks calling for the return of democracy. More than 20 people have been killed since the military seized power on 1 February.

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Civilian deaths in conflict plummeted during pandemic, report finds

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The number of civilians reported killed in explosions nearly halved in 2020 to the lowest level in a decade

The number of civilian casualties in conflicts around the world plummeted during the Covid-19 pandemic, a new report shows.

Last year, an average of 10 civilians a day were reported killed by explosive weapons, compared with 18 in 2019, according to analysis by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), a London-based charity.

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Anti-coup protesters in Myanmar critically injured by live rounds

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Rally in Kale turns violent and stun grenades deployed in Yangon

Three people have been critically injured after security forces fired live rounds at anti-coup protesters in north-western Myanmar, medics said, as a regional meeting of south-east Asian countries failed to find a breakthrough to the political crisis.

Police also fired stun grenades and rubber bullets on Tuesday to disperse protesters in the city of Yangon, according to witnesses, as demonstrations continued over the military’s removal of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government a month ago.

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Three female media workers shot dead in Afghanistan

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Broadcaster Enikass TV confirms deaths of three workers in two separate attacks in Jalalabad

Three women who worked for an Afghan television station have been shot dead in the eastern city of Jalalabad, the latest in a string of targeted assassinations that are increasingly overshadowing US-brokered attempts to negotiate an end to the country’s civil war.

Zalmai Latifi, the director at Enikass TV, said the women worked in the station’s dubbing department and were killed in two separate attacks. “They are all dead. They were going home from the office on foot when they were shot,” he told Agence France-Presse.

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‘I’d like to join Pixar one day’: meet Afghanistan’s first female animator

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Born under Taliban rule, Sara Barackzay studied abroad and now hopes to start her own school

A woman in traditional dress breaks open the bars of a prison. A young child dances, oblivious to a backdrop of tanks and explosions. The drawings by Afghanistan’s first professional female animation artist, Sara Barackzay, reflect the struggles of her young life.

Barackzay, who lost her hearing as a child, left Afghanistan to study in Turkey, but has returned with the hope of starting a specialist school for animation arts.

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‘Falling off a cliff’: pandemic crippling world’s most fragile states, finds report

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The world’s poorest are becoming poorer as the impact of Covid compounds existing crises, says Disaster Emergency Comittee

Thousands could starve in the world’s most fragile states as the pandemic comes on top of existing crises, warns a new report today which found aid workers are deeply pessimistic about the coming year.

The survey of aid workers by the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) found that they believed humanitarian conditions were at their worst in a decade.

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Aung San Suu Kyi faces four charges as Myanmar junta cracks down on dissent

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Ousted leader, not seen in public since last month’s military coup, appears in court via video link

Two new charges have been announced against Aung San Suu Kyi, according to her lawyer, as Myanmar’s ousted leader appeared before court via video link.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who has not been seen in public since she was detained by the military one month ago, now faces a total of four legal charges. If convicted, she may be prevented from running in future elections.

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Myanmar coup: police fire on protesters in deadliest day of clashes – video

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At least 18 people have been killed, according to the UN, after security forces in Myanmar used lethal violence against anti-coup protesters in the most deadly crackdown since the military seized power at the start of February

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‘We have to win’: Myanmar protesters persevere as forces ramp up violence

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Violent scenes play out across country as police crack down against peaceful protesters

Ye Swan Htet, 23, had joined a sit-down protest on a bridge in west Yangon when he saw police approaching. Officers were carrying guns, he remembered, but he didn’t expect them to actually shoot. The protest was peaceful; crowds were singing and clapping.

Then, gun fire rang out all around him. Bricks burst open and a branch snapped from a tree. “There was a guy who got hit in his thigh by a rubber bullet, so I carried him to an ambulance,” he said.

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Myanmar police fire teargas and rubber bullets in violent crackdown on protesters – video

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A woman has reportedly been shot and killed as police in Myanmar escalated a violent crackdown on anti-coup protesters, firing teargas and rubber bullets and detaining dozens of people. Protesters who attempted to gather for peaceful rallies on Saturday were met with an aggressive response by security forces in the two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, and in the central town of Monywa, where a woman was shot dead, according to local media reports.

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Rooster fitted with blade for cockfight kills its owner in India

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Bird with knife attached to leg ready to take on opponent inflicts fatal injuries to man’s groin

A rooster fitted with a knife for an illegal cockfight in southern India has killed its owner, sparking a manhunt for the organisers of the event, police said.

The bird had a knife attached to its leg ready to take on an opponent when it inflicted serious injuries to the man’s groin as it tried to escape, officers said. The man died from loss of blood before he could reach a hospital in the Karimnagar district of Telangana state earlier this week, local police officer B Jeevan told AFP.

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Myanmar police try to crush protests as envoy pleads with UN for action

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One woman reportedly shot dead as Kyaw Moe Tun says strongest possible action needed to end military coup

Police have cracked down on protesters in Myanmar to prevent opponents of military rule gathering and one woman has been killed, media reported, hours after the country’s ambassador to the United Nations pleaded for international action to restore democracy.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership, alleging fraud in a November election her party won in a landslide.

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With VPNs and fancy dress, Myanmar youth fight ‘turning back of the clock’

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For a generation used to freedoms that have come with democracy, going back to military rule is unthinkable

In the searing afternoon sun, Myo, 21, stood in front of a police barricade near Yangon’s Sule Pagoda – one of just a handful of protesters to gather at the rallying point on Wednesday. He stood alone, a towel wrapped around his neck to soak up the sweat, and held a sign that read “humanity” in front of the officers.

“The military took away my future,” said the digital artist. “My work can no longer pay me. This country had barely started trying to develop and now it’s 2021. I don’t know what made them think they should stage a coup.”

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Pro-choice protests in Warsaw and Myanmar coup: 20 photos on human rights this week

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A roundup of the best photography on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Algeria to Uganda

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Pakistan passes ‘historic’ bill banning corporal punishment of children

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Ban on violence against children will only apply in Islamabad, but campaigners hope rest of the country will follow suit

Pakistan has passed a bill banning corporal punishment for children in a move described as “historic” by rights activists.

It comes amid a number of high-profile cases of schoolchildren being badly beaten and even killed in schools, religious institutions and workplaces.

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Myanmar military supporters attack anti-coup protesters

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At least two people stabbed after pro-junta demonstrators march through central Yangon

Supporters of Myanmar’s military armed with iron rods, catapults and knives have attacked anti-coup protesters in Yangon after weeks of rallies calling for the return of democracy in the country.

At least two people were stabbed in the attacks, which occurred after hundreds of pro-military demonstrators marched through central Yangon towards the main railway station. Pro-democracy supporters met them with crossed wrists, banging pots and pans.

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‘Shot at by both sides’: Families flee as Taliban battles for territory in Kandahar

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Villages in southern Afghanistan have become frontline of conflict as peace talks stall and uncertainty surrounds US withdrawal

The people who lived in Spairwan village spent two days huddled in their homes, besieged by fighting, before the Taliban came and told them all to leave the area. Qayoom and his family were among 10,000 families pushed out of their homes as government and Taliban forces battled for territory in southern Afghanistan last month.

Qayoom found his new home was to be a couple of large sheets propped up over cold, bare earth, a shelter among many others in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) on the outskirts of Kandahar city. But the shelter barely checks the icy blasts of bitter winter winds.

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Sri Lanka at ‘tipping point’ with risk of return to past atrocities, activists warn

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Civil rights groups say situation ‘getting worse on a daily basis’ as UN human rights chief expresses alarm over deepening impunity

Sri Lanka could descend swiftly back into violence and human rights abuses unless decisive international action is taken, the UN high commissioner for human rights and civil rights groups warned.

In a speech to the human rights council on Wednesday, Michelle Bachelet is expected to issue a stark warning that the Sri Lankan government has “closed the door” on ending impunity for past abuses and is facing a return to state repression of civil society and a militarisation of public institutions.

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Aung San Suu Kyi tattoos flourish among Myanmar’s resistance

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Studios report surge in requests for tattoos of the deposed civilian leader – and some are using their profits to support protesters

In the last three weeks, Ye, 37, has inked more images of Aung San Suu Kyi than throughout his 19 years of tattooing.

“We love and respect her because she has sacrificed so much for us,” he says, showing a photo of his latest artwork – a lifelike rendering of the deposed Myanmar leader, complete with jasmine flowers, on a woman’s back.

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