Credit: Zack Baddorf

By Zack Baddorf
BANGUI, Mar 14 2018 (IPS)

In the Central African Republic, 45-year-old “Theodore” was captured by an armed group in February 2017 during an attack on his village of Mingala in the country’s southeast. He was taken with 21 other men to a nearby ad hoc rebel military base and locked up in a house-turned-prison guarded by six armed men.

The guards attacked him and the others, beating them relentlessly.

“I was first abused and beaten and weakened,” recounted Theodore, who fishes and farms for subsistence. “After five days of detention, I no longer had strength to resist so they took advantage of my powerlessness and had sex with me like a woman.”

Theodore was anally raped more than four times over a week in detention. He said he wasn’t able to defend himself.

“When it was happening, when you are in that position, tied up and bent over with the person coming from behind, what control do you have?” he said.“I thought I was dead. Thanks to God, I survived.”

The impunity has permitted rampant sexual violence against women and girls to take place all over the country with the UN documenting hundreds of cases. In fieldwork I conducted for the non-profit organization All Survivors Project in late 2017, I discovered a discernible pattern of sexual violence against men and boys like Theodore as well.

Theodore was also forced to watch other detainees being raped by their captors.

“There were many cases that happened in the same room,” he said from the safety of the capital Bangui.“So, I cannot count how many people were victims. Since there were also dead bodies, there was blood on the floor.”

The attackers on that occasion were members of the mostly-Muslim armed group Unity and Peace in Central African Republic (UPC). In 2013, Muslim militias called the Seleka took power of Central African Republic in a bloody coup. Christian militias known as the anti-Balaka fought back. Sexual violence against men and women has been committed by all parties to the conflict in CAR. The conflict left thousands dead and more than a million displaced inside and outside the country.

Violence continues today with 14 armed groups controlling roughly 60-70 percent of the countryside, according to the non-profit advocacy organization Enough Project. The result is a continuing human rights and a humanitarian crisis throughout the country. The lack of government control has created a lawless environment with little justice.

The impunity has permitted rampant sexual violence against women and girls to take place all over the country with the UN documenting hundreds of cases. In fieldwork I conducted for the non-profit organization All Survivors Project in late 2017, I discovered a discernible pattern of sexual violence against men and boys like Theodore as well.

For my research, I spent about three weeks in the capital Bangui and another 10 days in the far southeast town of Obo, talking to more than 50 medical professionals, humanitarian workers, gender-based violence (GBV) experts, community leaders, and members of civil society organisations. I examined the extent and patterns of conflict-related sexual violence against men and boys in the country, while also assessing the medical, psychosocial, protection and legal humanitarian response for these male survivors.

The Gender Based Violence Information Management System (GBVIMS), run by the United Nations Population Fund, recorded 11,110 cases of gender based violence, which includes rape, sexual assault, physical assault, forced marriage, denial of resources, and psychological violence, for just 2016. About 14 percent, approximately 1,555 cases, involved men or boys.

Yet, I was able to find only four male survivors of sexual violence willing to tell me about sexual violence perpetrated against them. One humanitarian worker told me how people often “laugh like crazy” if they hear about such a case. “It’s funny for them. They can’t imagine that a man can be raped,” he said.

Indeed, Theodore had not told anyone else about his experience including his family.

“A man should not suffer this, so for me it’s taboo. So I personally did not want to share what happened,” he told me at a location in Bangui far from anyone who might recognize him.

After being released from detention in February 2017, Theodore had made his way to Bangui to seek medical care for his injuries. He went to the capital’s community hospital where he was tested for HIV, given tetanus and Hepatitis B vaccinations, and treated for an infection. However, he didn’t disclose his sexual violence to doctors, fearing being shamed.

Theodore still suffers pains throughout his body, including his chest and anus, as a result of the violence.

Medical and psychosocial care for all survivors of sexual violence is available for free, provided and funded by international non-governmental organizations like Doctors Without Borders.

However, men and women face significant challenges in accessing care and support due to lack of adequate public services, prohibitive costs, and insecurity. Additionally, care designed for male survivors is practically inexistent.

Many aid workers acknowledged to me that the lack of attention to men and boys in humanitarian programming is a weakness. Their focus is also almost exclusively on women and children.

In the small town of Obo in the country’s far southeast, with a population of about 10,000, I found some signs of steps taken to help the community address sexual violence against males.

An international provider of psychosocial support and other gender-based violence services working in Obo reported having received 121 male survivors of sexual violence in its facilities in the town between January and October 2017. Ninety-three (76 percent) were abused by members of non-state armed groups, predominantly the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Other males who have been sexually violated have managed to escape LRA capture and return home.

A neighborhood chiefin Obo told me how he had mediated the families of two men who had been sexually victimized by the LRA. He facilitated discussions between the two men and their wives, leading to increased understanding and acceptance by the women that what had happened was not the fault of their husbands and the men should not be rejected on account of it.

The neighborhood chief credited training from an NGO-run sensitization program on gender-based violence for helping him manage this mediation.

All Survivors Project is calling for more focus and attention for male survivors of sexual violence against males in the Central African Republic. In our report on the subject released on March 5, we call for a variety of actions by humanitarians, the UN, national authorities, and other stakeholders on how to better support male survivors of sexual violence and prevent sexual violence against women and men in CAR.

Survivors like Theodore deserve to receive the care and attention they desperately need.

Excerpt:

A pro-Russian protestor screams at Ukrainian riot police outside the regional administration building in downtown Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Credit: Zack Baddorf/IPS.

By Zack Baddorf
DONETSK, Ukraine, Mar 23 2014 (IPS)

In Donetsk’s Lenin Square, Yuroslav Korotenko keeps a constant vigil inside a tent erected just a few feet away from a massive statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.

“We stay here and save this monument and this place, because people in the West come [to] this place with war,” Korotenko told IPS. “People from Donetsk think about peace with Russian Federation and don’t want war in our town.”“People don’t accept the new government that is now in Kiev."

Korotenko describes himself as a protector of the square, where thousands of pro-Russian protestors have held daily demonstrations in support of a referendum to join Russia and in opposition to the government formed in Ukraine after former president Viktor Yanukovych absconded to Russia.

“People don’t accept the new government that is now in Kiev,” said Alex Yoktov, a Donetsk native who attends the rallies. “It’s like one oligarch switched to another oligarch in the government.”

Yoktov said the Euromaidan movement in the capital Kiev used violence and “extremists to get to power.” The Euromaidan protests in Kiev were held over the past several months to demand closer integration with the EU.

“I fear that Nazis like Svoboda [a Ukrainian political party] and stuff, and such parties will be the main power of the country,” he told IPS. “So they can do whatever they want. It will be almost the same situation … in Germany when fascists come to power.”

Home to about two million people, Donetsk is a major economic, industrial and scientific hub in the east located about 80 kilometres from Russia.

In early March, the city council of Donetsk called for a referendum on the future of the region to “protect the citizens from possible violent actions on the behalf of radicalised nationalistic forces.”

The council noted that it considers Russia a strategic partner.

Yoktov said he feels closer to Russia than Europe. “It’s like native relations. We are the same people as in Russia. They’re our brothers.” Many people in the region, including Yoktov, have relatives in Russia.

Nadiia Zima, a 24-year-old teacher in Donetsk, disputes Yoktov’s claim. She has protested on the streets of Donetsk in support of Euromaidan, and wasn’t paid.

Zima is convinced there will be a referendum in Donetsk, since Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the eastern part of Ukraine is historically Russian. “Any referendum is to my mind just an imperial desire of the Russian president,” Zima told IPS.

Zima worries about her country’s future. “I fear that war can start,” she told IPS. “The thing that I am afraid of more is that our Donetsk region is going to be the next after Crimea.”

Vitalik, standing guard at a Ukrainian police checkpoint about 20 kilometers outside Donetsk with about eight Ukrainians fears war, too. He didn’t want to give his last name because he fears being targeted by Ukrainian security forces.

The self-organised, unarmed volunteers huddle together near an orange and black St George flag that symbolises Russian military valour.

“We’re stopping buses that are moving around this country to check that there are no guns, weapons and stuff like that and some strange people,” Vitalik told IPS. “We are protecting Donetsk.”

The 30-year-old construction worker said he’s especially concerned about the new 60,000-strong Ukrainian National Guard, which would include members of the Right Sector paramilitary group who fought in the Euromaidan protests in Kiev.

“It’s not like we don’t trust the Ukrainian military. We don’t trust the heads of the Ukrainian military,” he said.

More than 700 kilometres away in Kiev, Vitalik Coida is also a volunteer guard, protecting the entrance of the Euromaidan protest area in central Kiev. He is a member of the Svoboda party, considered by many pro-Russians as one of the main “extremist” groups.

Cojda watches out for “provocateurs” who bring weapons and bombs. “But we patrol, we stop them, anyone who looks suspicious. All of these are people sent by Putin because you can hear their Russian accent,” he told IPS.

Cojda arrived at Euromaidan on Nov. 26, shortly after the protests began. He said his 19-year-old friend died in his arms after being shot during a battle with the Berkut, the elite riot police of Ukraine. “It was very difficult to look into his mother’s eyes because it was me that invited him to come here…to protect the country from bandits.”

The Svoboda party, he said, is “really fighting for truth and for freedom.” He said he would remain at Euromaidan until Russian troops leave Ukraine.

The mistrust of the Euromaidan activists is the result of an “information war” led by Russia and Ukrainian elites, according to Donetsk Euromaidan activist Aleksandr Beznis.

“The people do not know the truth,” Beznis told IPS. “There are no extremists from my country from Maidan.” He said Ukraine’s biggest problem is now Russia.

Beznis came from Donetsk to Kiev this week to get weapons training.

“We like Russia, too, but we don’t want any war here,” Beznis said. “As we don’t want to be involved, we need to support our safety and democracy in Ukraine. We must protect our democracy and we must train for our power.”

His biggest fear is civil war. “I hope that it will not happen. I really hope. I try not to think about it,” he said.

Vitalik, the pro-Russian checkpoint guard just outside of Donetsk, says much the same. “Nobody wants a war, everyone wants to stay in peace.”

A Russian armoured personnel carrier in Simferopol, the provincial capital of Crimea. Credit: Zack Baddorf/IPS.

By Zack Baddorf
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine , Mar 19 2014 (IPS)

Crimean officials have reported that roughly 97 percent of Crimeans voted for independence from Ukraine on Sunday, with a turnout of about 80 percent. Yet the security situation in Crimea has led many to question how free the vote really was.

“Leaving the question of the referendum’s legality aside, the situation on the ground is hardly conducive to free expression of one’s will,” Dr. Anna Neistat, Human Rights Watch associate director who is now in Crimea, told IPS.“In the lead-up to the referendum the authorities spared no effort to control information and silence critics." -- Dr. Anna Neistat, Human Rights Watch associate director

“With unmarked armoured personnel carriers without licence plates in the streets, surrounded by fully armed men, and subjected to incessant pro-Russian propaganda, Crimeans [felt] that the choice has already been made for them,” she said.

Russian armed personnel carriers were parked on street corners throughout the Crimean capital Simferopol. The Russians have since surrounded and taken ground inside Ukrainian military bases throughout the peninsula.

Paramilitary groups of Cossacks, a Slavic people, brought from Russia roamed the streets on the day of the vote and leading up to it. Joined by members of local “self-defence” groups wearing distinctive red armbands, they attacked foreign and local journalists.

Slovak photojournalist Jan Husar was the victim of such an attack.

On Mar. 12, just a few days before the vote, Husar was taking photos at Simferopol airport of local militants barring flights coming from Kiev and Istanbul. They only let planes flying in from Moscow land.

Outside the airport terminal, he took a picture of a car passing by. “In the car were some guys,” he told IPS. “They jumped out. One had a handgun.” Husar speculates they may have been the Russian secret service.

They demanded to see his papers. A group of Cossacks started surrounding Husar. The two unidentified men from the car left after Husar deleted the picture of their vehicle but the Cossacks stayed.

They started to push him towards a nearby forest. Only after the intervention of a local resident did they let Husar go, but they kept his camera memory cards.

“In the lead-up to the referendum the authorities spared no effort to control information and silence critics,” Neistat told IPS. The units attacking journalists “acted completely outside of the law, with no clear chain of command and no accountability.”

“So imagine if you were a guy who was a [political] leader who wanted to speak out,” Husar said. “You could get in a really, really dangerous situation.”

Some activists in Crimea experienced just that. Viktor Neganov, leader of the Euromaidan movement in the Crimean city Sevastopol, led about 100 Ukrainians in his hometown to call for an end to corruption. At one protest, a pro-Russian crowd confronted the activists. They attacked Neganov, knocking him down.

“They started to punch me, I tried to protect myself but there were too many people – 10 or 20 from different sides,” Neganov told IPS.

Neganov said the protests were infiltrated and orchestrated by Russian spies and military officers pretending to be ordinary citizens. After facing threats later, he slipped away from Crimea.

Despite the crackdown, many voters also told IPS they had little concern about Russian troops occupying their homeland.

“I’m supporting the Russian troops. If there weren’t Russian troops, there would be something like what happened at Maidan in Kiev,” said Vladimir Ifirich, who said he voted for Crimea to join Russia.

The Maidan in Kiev has been the centre of pro-democracy protests over the past several months. Those protests have come to be known as the Euromaidan movement since the movement was started in opposition to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to not sign a European Union trade deal.

Voter Gunadi Blinsky, a 60-year-old emergency service worker in Simferopol, also doesn’t mind the Russian military presence.

“Actually we don’t experience any inconvenience with Russian troops here,” he told IPS. “The other day, we were at the theatre, today we’re going to a concert. So no problem at all.”

Construction plant worker Natasha Mamayeva echoed an indifference to the Russian occupation. “Everything is calm,” she said. “So far the Russian troops have done no harm to local people.”

On Tuesday, Russian troops stormed a Ukrainian military base in Crimea, killing a Ukrainian soldier and wounding another in the process of taking control. In the Crimean port city Yalta, Russian troops were reported to have kidnapped a Ukrainian military foreign intelligence service chief.

At a polling station in Simferopol with Soviet-style music being blasted out, local election official Ivana Lubov-Dutrianko told IPS that the vote was free and fair.

“Everything is quiet here,” she said. “Please tell the truth: Nobody forced anyone to vote. Everyone is free to vote how they want.”

But in Bakhchisarai town, just a half hour’s drive south of Simferopol, many boycotted the vote. It’s the heartland of the Turkic ethnic group, the Tatars, who make up about 12 percent of the Crimean population. The entire Tatar population was forcibly deported from Crimea in 1944 by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

“If the diplomatic efforts fail, obviously some Tatars will join the insurgency and run a guerrilla war,” according to Imiril Mirov, the Bakhchisarai district government chief.

But there is no sign of any Tatar resistance movement. “We have no armed units, no self-defence, nothing at all,” Mirov told IPS. The primary goal is to avoid bloodshed, he said.

A street in a Damascus suburb after a regime attack on Friday. Credit: Dr. Omar Hakeem/IPS.

By Zack Baddorf
ANTAKYA, Turkey , Aug 31 2013 (IPS)

As the United States prepares to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles on military targets inside Syria, Syrians are preparing for a new phase of the conflict that has already left more than 100,000 people dead.

“There is a state of panic in Damascus,” says ‘Sham Land’, who, like many activists uses a pseudonym for security reasons. “People are lining up to get bread. The exchange rate of the dollar is very high – about 75 pounds [65 cents] increase in just the past two days. Many people are preparing to leave the city, especially people who live near the government security buildings.”

Land, who documents civilian casualties for the Syrian Network for Human Rights in Damascus, said that in the evenings fewer people are walking around on the streets or driving through the city.

“Some people are preparing food and storing it. If they have a house in the countryside, they’re leaving to go there,” Land, a 31-year-old former dentist told IPS via Skype.

Elsewhere in the capital, activist Susan Ahmad confirmed these reports."Many people are preparing to leave the city, especially people who live near the government security buildings."

Ahmad, a 30-year-old Syrian who lives in a regime-held part of Damascus, told IPS that “many basics are not available and goods are very expensive,” with people stocking up on supplies like first aid kits, bread, and gas in anticipation of Western military attacks. To substitute for bread, she said, people are eating rice and bulgur cereal food.

High demand on bread has been problematic off and on for months, she said, but the news of a possible foreign military attack has exacerbated the problem.

“People are afraid,” she said.

In particular, Ahmad said talk of foreign military intervention has prompted “pro-Assad people” to start “running away and taking their families out of Damascus.”

Another activist, Abu Yasin, reports that families of military officers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are leaving Damascus and heading to Lebanon.

Yasin, 26, also said he’s seen “significant” movement of military vehicles around the city. More specifically, he saw armoured vehicles, which may be targeted by the U.S. military strikes, being driven out of the city.

Multiple IPS sources confirmed the Syrian military is dispersing its forces and equipment.

Ahmad noted that the regime is moving its weapon caches out of its security branches throughout the city. Syrian security branches are used to house military personnel, detain prisoners, and store heavy weapons.

Further, in advance of the impending attack, Ahmad claims the regime is now using schools and university campuses to house its soldiers and store its weapons.

Media activist Dani al-Qappani told IPS he has a source working for the regime who saw the military moving prisoners, including activists, into military locations to serve as human shields.

Ahmad also noticed that senior soldiers at checkpoints have been withdrawn and replaced with junior ones. She crosses the checkpoints every day and said there are now “new faces” – soldiers who all look about 18 years old. She said she thinks the regime is protecting the more seasoned fighters from attacks.

Nevertheless, Ahmad said the United States should still attack Syrian military targets.

“Nobody likes foreign intervention,” she said, “but if it’s going to finish Assad, let it happen. The most important thing is to stop the shelling and killing of innocent people.”

Land agrees, saying many Syrian people would welcome the attack on the regime.

“We want the United States to bomb the vital power centres of the government, including the soldiers and headquarters of the Syrian Presidential Guard,” Land said, “but we do not want any bombs to hit the country’s infrastructure, including anything that affects the power system.”

The White House said it is not considering options that are focused on “regime change.”

“We are sure that the United States and the West have never had any intentions to help the Syrian people. They could have helped us 28 months ago, when the revolution started,” Land said.

For Land and many Syrians, their main concern is weakening the regime.

“Let me tell you something,” Ahmad said. “We have been subject to shelling for more than two years now. I can’t say that we’re now accustomed to being shelled, but I can say that we can live with [the Western attacks], if it’s going to finish Assad.”

For Abu Yasin, U.S. military strikes are a necessary evil.

Without outside assistance, he said, “there is no hope for the fall of Assad…as the rebels are making very slow progress.” Still, he is “afraid that there will be more victims in the population.”

Media activist Dani al-Qappani also worries about civilian casualties.

Al-Qappani lives in the Damascus suburb of Moaddamiet al-Sham, which was attacked by chemical weapons last week. He said his eyes still hurt from the chemical attack.

Syrians in his town have been “under siege” for a year, he said.

“One year under siege. One year under heavy shilling. One year and our blood is being shed,” al-Qappani said. “We don’t fear death anymore.”

Some Syrians in Moaddamiet al-Sham want to flee to safer areas but can’t, according to al-Qappani. There is no way for them to leave the area since the regime forces surround them.

In the suburbs of Aleppo, former medical student Radwan Kinase said some Syrians have managed to seek refuge in neighbouring Turkey in advance of the U.S. military strikes.

Kinase, who volunteers at local field hospitals in Free Syrian Army-held areas, downplayed the importance of the chemical attacks.

“There is no difference between killing us by shelling, bombing, Scud rockets or killing us by chemical agents,” he said.

Kinase said he expects the United States will hit some targets and then let the fighting continue as before.

By Zack Baddorf
BUJUMBURA, Oct 6 2010 (IPS)

Aid organisations say a small handheld computer will allow them to more rapidly assess where food aid is needed most urgently. As a result, fewer Burundians will suffer hunger this year.

PDAs like this one are speeding up data collection and processing to improve delivery of food aid. Credit: Zack Baddorf/IPS

Fifteen years of civil war, combined with extreme poverty, a fragile political process and recurrent natural disasters like floods and droughts, have caused a drastic increase in poverty and hunger in the central African nation.

Only 28 percent of Burundians have enough food to eat, and more than half of the population is chronically malnourished, according to the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP).

WFP plans to distribute 3.7 million tonnes of food to 90 million people in 73 countries in 2010, including Burundi. To determine how best to allocate the available resources, the international organisation conducts food surveys in each country.

“Usually, you’ll send out a monitor with lots of forms,” explains Marc Neilson, WFP public information officer in Burundi. “You simply jot down what residents say on paper, or you may have a questionnaire in paper form, and you check boxes as needed.”

But under a new WFP Burundi initiative, the answers to food assessments are now recorded directly on handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs), which are only a little larger than a cell phone. Since being introduced in March, they have held up against the strong Burundian heat and last for days before needing to be recharged.

WFP Burundi programme assistant Gerard Bisman now uses the new electronic device when he visits rural areas to conduct food assessment interviews. He asks residents questions like ‘How many meals a day are you eating?’ How do you cook?’ ‘What do you use to cook?’ ‘What kind of fuel do you have to cook?’ to determine need for aid.

Saving time

The data Bisman collects will be used to help keep tabs on the country’s food situation. Burundi is considered a “red zone” by WFP, identifying the country as likely to be most affected by food shortages. In past years, WFP has assisted more than 600,000 out of the seven million Burundians with food aid.

The logistics and speed of providing food aid are crucial: almost 40,000 children under the age of five are in danger of dying due to severe acute malnutrition in Burundi at any given moment, according to the International Medical Corps. That means food needs to get to the most needy as quickly as possible.

Each PDA costs about $200, says Neilson. With two devices for each of the country’s 15 provinces, the total cost is about $6,000, excluding staff training costs.

Neilson reckons the PDAs are a good investment because “the poor are getting assistance faster and more effectively”.

“WFP needs to be in the areas that are most at risk and that’s the bottom line. So anything that can help improve that process, reduce the time to get there, improve the data, [and] improve the validity of the data, is to me definitely worth the investment,” he further explains.

No paper trail

Since WFP staff began using handheld computers, more accurate data is collected, and faster, because there is less preparation time and no paper trail from which data needs to be inserted into a computer system later on.

“It used to take us about an hour and a half [per interview, including preparation and data processing], but now it takes only half an hour,” notes Bisman.

Residents who are being surveyed also prefer the new devices, he adds: “They used to get very tired. But with the 30-minute digital survey, they don’t get as tired, and so they provide more accurate data.”

In Bihogo, a village in the north of the country, Bisman asked the 20-plus questions of the digital food survey to Elisabeth Tembaidai, a 56-year-old primary school teacher who received food aid a few years ago and is now again suffering from hunger.

“It’s the dry season, and we are short of food, so we are asking for help,” she explains.

Farmers in Tembaidai’s village had a poor harvest this year, due to a drought combined with poor soil quality resulting from years of deforestation and erosion. According to past WFP assessments, food security in Bihogo has been declining since 2006.

Neilson says interviewing people like Tembaidai using PDAs provides a much more precise picture of the population’s needs: “You have the speed of gathering data, which means you can expand your survey area and interview more people.”

He added that no longer trying to decipher sloppy handwriting and re-typing collected information means a reduced margin of error in the evaluation of the data.

Speedy evaluation

WFP, which has been providing food aid in Burundi since 1968, is in the first phase of implementing the usage of PDAs. For now, information is saved on a memory card and sent to the main office in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura by car. But by the end of this year, fieldworkers will be able to transmit their findings wirelessly, using the country’s new hi-speed 3G wireless network, says Neilson.

A few months ago, Burundi’s telecommunication operators and regulator signed a $20 million project to install more than a thousand kilometres of fibre optic cable, which will bring broadband internet connectivity to the country. World Bank supports the project with a $10.5 million grant as part of its regional infrastructure programme.

If WFP sticks to its plans, Burundi’s poor and hungry will – indirectly – also benefit from the new wireless network, because they will receive food aid quicker than before.

Excerpt:

By Zack Baddorf
SOUTH SUDAN, Aug 13 2010 (IPS)

When Timothy was forced into the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) at age 11, the first thing they did was beat him. Then they took him to a military base where his tasks were to carry other soldiers’ bags, wash their clothes, collect firewood for them, and cook their food.

Children in Unity State: communities already struggling to find enough food need help if former child soldiers are to be reintegrated successfully. Credit: Zack Baddorf/IPS

“They didn’t give me enough food,” he told IPS. “We depended on the food that we collected from the community. We didn’t have special food from the SPLA. I suffered a lot.”

Timothy is one of 91 children demobilised from southern Sudan’s army at the end of April.

In 2005, a peace agreement was signed to end the two decade-long civil war between the mostly Arab Muslim north and the predominantly Christian Black African south. The accord required a demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration effort to allow the estimated 12,000 children then serving in the north’s and south’s armies to return home.

More than five years later, the United Nations named the SPLA in a May 2010 report as a “persistent violator” of rules against children in armed conflict. The U.N. found that 33 former child soldiers had been demobilised last year only to be re-recruited by the south’s army.

A report issued in June by the research organisation Small Arms Survey said that progress towards demobilisation has been “slow.” The report also claimed the communities receiving ex-combatants are struggling with the economic and social burden.

About 900 children are still serving in the south’s military, down from an estimated three thousand in 2005.

“Even now they [soldiers] give me a call and tell me I can come back to the army,” says one former child soldier in Unity State, who was demobilised two years ago at the age of 15. He told IPS he won’t go back, because he wants to stay with his family.

Hunger driving children back

George Gatloy Koang, the deputy head of the Southern Sudan Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration Commission (SSDDRC) in Unity State, said the SPLA doesn’t need to recruit children anymore.

However, he did tell IPS that his state’s commission found three children who returned to the barracks on their own last year because they didn’t have anything to eat at home.

“Getting food is very difficult,” said Koang. “So when a child moves from where he’s getting food easily and whatever [in the military], then he goes and he fails [to eat] for something like two days, a day without food, then he has to think of going back.”

Sometimes, military officials report the children who return to the barracks to the demobilisation commission but sometimes they don’t, according to Koang.

If a child is lacking food there’s no way to chase him out of the military, he explained. “So that’s why when the children try to move to the SPLA barracks, then they will be kept there… because they are getting food.”

“It isn’t because of recruitment,” Koang continued. “It is just helping them.”

When the commission does find out about children who have returned to their unit, officials go to the barracks to get them out of the military.  The SPLA signed an action plan last year with the U.N. to get all children out of its ranks before December 2010.

More support needed

However, the director of Unity State’s SSDDRC, Charles Machieng, said the demobilisation commission doesn’t have the resources to provide adequate material support to the demobilised children. The government relies on international organizations like the U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) to provide families with food for the returned children.

WFP reports that the number of people in southern Sudan needing food assistance more than quadrupled from about one million in 2009 to 4.3 million this year due to conflict and drought. A “volatile security situation,” according to the organisation’s website, “means that many people lack access to food and in farming areas many fields cannot be harvested.”

According to the U.N., an estimated 90 percent of people in southern Sudan live on less than a dollar a day; hunger is a reality for many.

The demobilisation commission is asking the international community to provide more to keep the children from returning to the barracks.

Bismarck Swangin, a communications officer for UNICEF in Southern Sudan, said the southern Sudan government needs to devote more of its budget to social services like health and education to help the returning child soldiers.

The Government of Southern Sudan’s 2010 budget, which totals about $3.3 billion, allocates seven percent to education and four percent to health. This is an 11 percent and eight percent increase from 2009, which according to the government, “reflect[s] the focus this year on delivery of basic services.”

For UNICEF, it’s not enough. Security and military forces receive 37 percent of the budget.

“We are aware of the challenges,” Swangin told IPS. “But I think there is an opportunity to do more. I think the government needs to step up in terms of allocating more resources.”

“To alleviate the costs, UNICEF and the South’s government are now relying on a community support-based program, which provides educational, health, and legal services to communities to be able to strengthen their capacity to take in these children who are coming back,” Swangin explained.

They focus on the community because the needs of the children who are coming back from the army are the same as the needs of many other children, he added.

Overall, Swangin said he thinks the demobilisation process “is working but sometimes not up to expectations.”

Timothy is lucky. His family has the financial security to feed him on a regular basis. The ex-combatant has no desire to return to the military. As part of his demobilisation, WFP provided three months supply of food to help his family with the additional costs of feeding another child.

Timothy’s uncle, Francis, told IPS he’s sending Timothy and his other children to school, “because after they complete their education, they will [have to] feed themselves alone, really.”

Excerpt:

By Zack Baddorf
KIGALI, Aug 9 2010 (IPS)

As voting concluded in Rwanda’s presidential elections, with incumbent President Paul Kagame expected to win by a landslide, fears remain that not all citizens will accept the results amidst claims the elections were neither free nor fair.

The ballot for the Aug. 9 presidential election. Four candidates are running for the country's top leadership position. Credit: Zack Baddorf/IPS

Female opposition leader Victoire Ingabire believes people will rise up against the president in protest against this political repression. Ingabire, the chairperson of the United Democratic Forces (a coalition of Rwandan opposition parties with members in Rwanda, Europe, the United States and Canada) said if Kagame refuses to cede power, “people will use all possibility to push him to accept it.”

An estimated five million Rwanda’s voted in an almost incident-free election. But Ingabire believes Rwanda is going through a “crisis” and that the country is not in a mood of elections but in “a mood of war.” “[Kagame] would like to stay in power but people need change and he does not accept to lose the power,” she explained. “That is the problem and if there is no possibility to change the power peacefully, this means that the people, we won’t agree with him. You can use other ways to take the power.”

Rwanda’s 1994 genocide left more than 800,000 dead and saw countless women raped. Kagame has ruled the country since then, first in the transitional government and again in 2003 when he was elected president in Rwanda’s first democratic elections.

Ingabire, a Hutu, wanted to run for the presidency but was not able to get her party registered. She claims there is an environment of political repression in Rwanda. While millions of Rwandans headed to the polls for the presidential vote, the political head told IPS she would not vote. “We cannot have a free and fair election in Rwanda because there (is) no freedom,” she said. “All is under repression.”

Of the four presidential candidates, Alvera Mukabaramba from the Party of Progress and Concord, was the only female candidate. But Ingabire said Rwandans did not have a real choice at the polls, claiming the opposition candidates are “stooges” of the president.

The presidential candidate for the Liberal Party, Prosper Higiro, says “that’s ridiculous.” Higiro told IPS that his party, which was created more than 19 years ago, is “independent” and “autonomous.” At his party headquarters, he insisted his party has “no relationship” with the ruling party, yet his campaign manager refused to release details on where the party gets its funding.

Higiro described the political environment in Rwanda as “free.” “It’s alright. There’s no problem for me,” said the presidential hopeful. “There’s no problem. I don’t think the environment is tense.”

Preliminary results are expected as early as Aug. 10.

Excerpt:

By Zack Baddorf
BUJUMBURA, Jul 26 2010 (IPS)

The coalition of 11 major opposition parties which boycotted July 23 national assembly elections will also boycott elections to the senate on July 28. The Alliance of Democrats for Change, as the coalition is known, claims that two previous polls – to elect Burundi’s district administrators and the president – were characterised by “massive fraud”.

Polling station, Bujumbura: the opposition is unhappy with measures against electoral fraud. Credit: Olivier Boulot/IPS

Mutabazi told IPS the opposition parties wanted to discuss improving the process, but Burundi’s Independent National Election Commission (known by its French acronym, CENI) refused.

“Without CENI agreeing to sit down with us and change rules, we decided not to run because we basically expected to be humiliated. We didn’t want to take the chance to be humiliated by running in those elections,” said Mutabazi.

A new verification process put in place to confirm the ballots cast for the national assembly, did not satisfy the opposition coalition.

No fraud – electoral commission

Gabriel Sungura, the vice president of CENI who supervised the voting in Bujumbura, rejected the allegations of fraud – as have international observers of the polls.

“There hasn’t been any fraud that people could prove one way or the other. Sure, there have been some small irregularities, which is normal in any election whether you’re in the developed world or not,” he told IPS outside of a polling station in the capital Burundi on election day. “No fraud whatsoever.”

Sungara said political parties have an obligation to take part in the elections. “We are now a democratic country and we expect those political parties to actually come and participate in the electoral process.”

Ezéchiel Nibigira, the chair of the ruling party’s youth league, said the opposition parties know they can’t win. “For them to quit, you know, it’s normal. They know that they have been beaten.”

“In order to campaign, you need a lot of means, you need a lot of money, you spend a lot of strength,” Nibigira continued. “So they expired themselves in using a lot of strength and spending so much money.”

Some voters told IPS they didn’t vote because they don’t trust the political system.

Elias Vyamongo, a 35-year-old accountant, didn’t go to the polls Friday. “If you see the way the elections have been conducted, the results are known in advance. So it’s not necessary for me to go vote.”  

Claver Karakura, a 42-year-old engineer in Bujumbura, did cast his ballot.  

“I think (the opposition parties) have their reasons to boycott the vote, but for me as a citizen, I have accomplished my job. I know it’s my right to vote and I want[ed] to express my opinion,” said Karakura.

Yet Karakura said he already knew the results for the Friday vote. “I know that the ruling party will win, for sure,” he told IPS in downtown Bujumbura.

Opposition calls for dialogue

Despite boycotting the elections, the opposition parties hope to have a place in the government eventually announced by the leader of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy party (known by its French acronym, CNDD-FDD).

“I would expect the government to actually give to the opposition some representation with administrative responsibilities,” Mutabazi explained. “We won’t be getting any type of seats in the parliament, but it would make sense for us to have responsibility in the government.”

Mutabazi added that he expects the CNDD-FDD to guarantee the safety and freedom of speech of all political actors. He claimed the ruling party has been persecuting opposition politicians, further undermining the credibility of elections.

Mutabazi told IPS that the coalition spokesperson, Leonard Nyangoma, went into hiding before the July 23 vote after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

According to the official website of Nyangoma’s party, the opposition CNDD, he is being sought after signing a press release accusing the army of perpetrating a “massacre” of opposition supporters on July 10 in the Rubiza area just north of the capital Bujumbura, resulting in “several” deaths. The statement also alleges “mass” arrests and called for an independent international inquiry.

“Instead of voicing its disagreement, our Ministry of Defense decided to press charges,” Mutabazi told IPS.

“We would have expected [the government] to actually use proper channels and make a statement to the press. Instead they decided to use legal means to basically shut us up. And we have every reason to be afraid since they actually control the military, the police and the entire legal system.”

The army has called the allegations slanderous.

Nyangoma has been in hiding since Jul. 20; that one leading opposition candidate for president, Agathon Rwasa of the National Liberation Forces party, also went underground in June, indicates the extent of opposition fears for their safety.

The series of elections now under way are considered an important test of the country’s stability following a 13-year civil war which ended in 2006. The war killed as many as 300,000 people, and the last armed group only formally laid down its weapons in April 2009.

Security remains tight in Burundi. The Somali militant group al-Shabaab – which claimed responsibility for the Jul. 11 bombings that killed 76 people in Uganda – also threatened to attack Burundi because the country has several thousand troops in Somalia as part of the African Union mission there.

“The population will never, will never, allow anybody to destroy this peace we are having today,” said Nibigira. “We need peace. We know the past period of war. We know how people have suffered so much. As far as we are concerned we don’t want to go back in that war.”

On Jul. 28, Burundi will vote candidates into the Senate; the series of elections will end with voting for village-level representatives on Sep. 7.

Excerpt:

By Zack Baddorf
LONDON, Feb 18 2010 (IPS)

A new documentary ‘Diary of a Disgraced Soldier’ follows the dismissal from the British army of an Iraq war veteran and his battle with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) linked to his videographing the brutalising of Iraqi youth by fellow servicemen.

Disgraced Soldier. Credit: Martin Webster

On a rooftop during the riots, Webster was shooting video -not bullets.

What he captured on film sparked an international scandal. A group of his fellow British soldiers chased down four young Iraqis. The youths were then beaten, punched and kicked. A soldier kicked one of the prisoners between the legs. While filming the incident, Webster can be overheard laughing and saying, “Oh, yes. Oh, yes. You’re going to get it. Yes. Naughty little boys.”

In 2006, the video was leaked to the British tabloid press and broadcast around the world. Webster was arrested by military police, but all charges against him were dropped. He left the army soon after the event.

In ‘Diary of a Disgraced Soldier,’ that premiered in November, Webster talks about how that two-minute video “destroyed” his life. But he told IPS he does not regret filming his Iraq tour.

“I thought at times it was ruining my life,” Webster, a Cornwall native, said. “But actually it was making me wake up and realise who I was, what I was and basically made me realise the horrors of war and what people turn into in war, including myself. … I’m a better person for the process that I’ve gone through.”

Further, Webster said the video woke people up to the reality of war, which he describes as “madness.”

“I’m a soldier and I was designed to kill,” Webster, who also served two tours in Northern Ireland and another in Sierra Leone, told IPS. “The British government spent 12 years turning me into an angry killer and when I acted like an angry killer and when it was portrayed on TV, nobody liked it or could handle it. That’s what a soldier is designed to do.”

Webster said the mainstream media today hide the reality of war on another front.

“I believe that with the media blackout that we‘ve got now in Afghanistan, it means the general public can’t see what’s actually going on. Anything that does get out is scripted and vetted,” he explained.

Webster wanted to share his side of what happened in Iraq. In 2007, he approached filmmakers Richard Atkinson and Chris Rowe to make ‘Diary of a Disgraced Soldier.’ Neil Cole later joined the filmmaking team.

The documentary started off as an explanation and exploration of the beating incident and its aftermath, Atkinson told IPS, but they soon realised that “the most compelling story” was how Webster coped with his PTSD.

The filmmakers wanted to present a soldier’s perspective and, after following Webster for 18 months, Atkinson said the film gets “to the essence of what going through PTSD does to a person.” The documentary includes video diaries filmed by Webster himself.

“The emotional and mental impact of war seems to be something that is seldom discussed,” said Atkinson. “In addition to this, there seems to be an awful lot of opinion from media commentators but not so much from the soldiers themselves who are after all the ones in the firing line.”

A 2008 RAND Corporation study found that about one in five U.S. military members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from PTSD or major depression.

In one scene in the documentary, Webster says he feels like he has two personalities. “It’s like I’m constantly controlling a demon,” he says. Later, he wonders aloud, “Perhaps I am an evil person.”

In an interview with IPS, Webster says he is not an evil person. “Nobody’s truly evil,” he clarified.

Part of Webster’s recovery process has involved art. In the documentary, Webster and fellow veteran Lee Kamara are shown holding a music concert ‘Voices of War’ to raise money for homeless veterans, the Royal British Legion and the charitable organisation Combat Stress.

But Webster realised that few people were interested. “They don’t want to hear about war and depression,” he said in the documentary. “Nobody wants to know.” In the film, Webster also contemplates suicide and is himself homeless for a period.

Webster has since formed an organisation with Kamara by the same name, ‘Voices of War’. Webster paints, writes poetry and makes music about his time in Iraq. His website states that they want “the whole world to hear [their] music and be inspired by the songs.”

Kamara, who served in Basrah, Iraq, said he dealt with PTSD through music.

“Music takes me to a different place and helps me relieve stress,” Kamara told IPS. “I find that being with the piano on my own helps me have happiness and peace.”

A new father, Kamara recommends that other soldiers use art to channel their military experiences. “Anything that relaxes [soldiers],” Kamara said, “is a great way of forgetting.”

Lovella Calica, an American multimedia artist, also encourages veterans with post traumatic stress to use art as part of their healing process. She is the founder and director of the Warrior Writers Project, a creative community for veterans articulating their experiences.

“Whether or not a veteran identifies as an artist or a writer, I think it’s worth a try,” said Calica. “It’s not going to hurt anything. There are points in the process where it might be hard and it might be difficult. But I think you have to really push through that stuff to get further.”

Bob Paxman agrees that art can be helpful. The founder and chief executive of the non-profit charity Talking 2 Minds, Paxman has helped about 200 active-duty soldiers and veterans who suffer from PTSD.

“For somebody that’s very visual, painting would be fantastic,” said Paxman, a master practitioner synergy trainer who also had PTSD. He served in the British military’s Special Air Services in “many hostile environments around the world” for 10 years.

Like Webster, Paxman looked outside of the traditional treatment services for soldiers with PTSD. Paxman eventually found a unique process that uses therapeutic neural linguistic programming, hypnosis and timeline therapy.

Paxman said his organisation “desperately needs financial support” but has been ignored by the British government. He said the British government is not providing adequate care to active-duty soldiers and veterans returning from war. “It’s a systematic problem,” he told IPS.

Webster also criticised Britain’s medical treatment of soldiers with PTSD. “It’s just neglect, pure neglect,” Webster told IPS. “It’s pure criminal negligence the way [the government] treats soldiers suffering from PTSD. We’re almost treated like second-class citizens.”

While Webster says he feels in control of his own life and has now “totally left Iraq behind,” he will “always have memories.”

“For the rest of my life, I’ll never forget it,” Webster said.

(*Zack Baddorf is a U.S. military veteran who served in Iraq.)

Excerpt:

By Zack Baddorf
BI'LIN, The West Bank, May 7 2008 (IPS)

Some 1,700 Palestinians in the West Bank village of Bi&#39lin have been promised land, but so far it has not been delivered.

A Palestinian boy shows his anger. Credit: Zack Baddorf

But the Israeli Defence Force has not yet acted on these orders. The defence ministry announced in a statement last year it would "study the ruling and respect it." Israel&#39s high court said a mile-long portion of the Bi&#39lin wall must be altered in a "reasonable period of time."

"If they want to destroy my home, they give us only 24 hours," Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall told IPS. "But about the wall, they take months and years, maybe."

Until they do deliver, about a hundred Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists will continue to protest every Friday in Bi&#39lin against the wall that cuts through what even Israel&#39s highest court calls Palestinian land. The demonstrators have been protesting weekly since January 2005 when bulldozers arrived to construct the barrier in the farming community located near Ramallah.

Israel started building the 425-mile wall in 2002. The mostly chain-linked fence is purportedly designed to prevent Palestinian suicide attackers from entering Israel.

The court victory for Bi&#39lin last year means the villagers should get back at least 250 acres, about half of the seized land. But the Israeli supreme court ruled a day later on Sep. 5 to legalise the Israeli settlement of Mattiyahu East, located on former Bi&#39lin land and home to about 700-1,000 Israelis. The back-to-back rulings mean the contentious settlement will remain in place but won&#39t be expanded as planned.

Rahma told IPS the protests will continue until the "Annexation Wall" and the settlement are torn down.

So every Friday, the activists come to a portion of the fence and demand justice. Rahma described the struggle as "non-violent" even though the demonstrations typically lead to confrontation with Israeli soldiers.

"We need this land without blood, without shooting, without killing, but soldiers use violence and have injured many people," said the activist. In turn, protesters often throw stones at Israeli soldiers over the barbed wire section of the fence. Others try to tear down the fence or gate.

A 19-year-old resident of Bil&#39in, who protests against the wall every week and wanted his name withheld, described the tactics of the Israeli military in an IPS report filed Aug. 13 last year by Nora Barrows-Friedman. "When we come, the soldiers stop us and they use the gas, sound bombs and the rubber bullets. They use many kinds of weapons to stop the people, and the gas makes the people here very sick. There are many health problems now. And the (Israeli) settlers have shot us and beat us when we try to go to our land on the other side of the wall."

Elan Shalif, who has been to nearly all of the weekly protests too, told IPS the Israeli military does not use live ammunition because Israelis like him join in the protests.

"The Jew is regarded as a holy creature," said the 71-year-old anarchist from Jerusalem. "So they can&#39t shoot Palestinians when we are among them, because it may endanger some holy Jew."

Just because the bullets are rubber coated, doesn&#39t mean they can&#39t do damage.

Ten protesters and seven journalists were injured by Israeli troops Mar. 28. Documentary journalist Emad Bornot was shot and his camera destroyed by Israeli rubber-coated bullets Mar. 21. He claims he has been injured more than 15 times and has had five cameras destroyed documenting the struggle each week since its inception.

While working for the Reuters news agency as a freelance photographer, he was arrested by the Israeli military because, they said, he was filming with one hand and throwing rocks with the other. The military court agreed and sent him to jail for 20 days. He spent another 40 days under house arrest.

"They don&#39t want the media, the cameras, the journalists to be here," Bornot told IPS. "Without cameras, they can do anything. They can shoot. They can arrest. But with cameras, there is a big problem for them."

Activist Rahma, a teacher, lives in Bi&#39lin. "When I sit in my home and I look from my window to the wall, I feel very bad about the future of my children, because I don&#39t have land to build a home for them," Rahma told IPS in the front lawn of the house nicknamed International House because of the foreign supporters who rally there before the weekly protest. "I dream to achieve peace for my daughters to go everywhere without a problem, without a checkpoint, without a wall."

Shalif called the Israeli wall a "waste of material", and said it would eventually be torn down.

"They (the Zionists) are losing power. They are losing and losing and losing. At the end, they&#39ll have to give in," he said. "By coming every week, every week, it&#39s to persist in the struggle. We are not giving away."

Rahma told IPS he wants to tell the world that Palestinians love peace.

"We don&#39t love blood. We are not terrorists. We are not against the Israelis. We are not against the Jewish. We are against the occupation. We need our land to live and to live in peace. We are thinking about our children about to have a country about to have a good life."

Israel plans to construct nearly 2,000 new apartments in Jewish settlements this year in the West Bank.

Excerpt:

By Zack Baddorf
SARAJEVO, May 6 2008 (IPS)

It started with a murder.

Three teenage gang members beat up and stabbed to death 17-year-old high school student Denis Mrnjavac, unknown to them, on a packed Sarajevo tram Feb. 5. Four days later, more than 10,000 citizens took to the streets in protest against increasing teen crime, demanding immediate action by the government. They held signs that read “We are all Denis Mrnjavac”.

The events prompted the formation of the Citizens of Sarajevo group, which is holding satirical political actions this week in the lead-up to a planned large-scale protest May 9, Victory Day for most of Eastern Europe, in the country’s capital. Soviet forces announced the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 9, 1945.

“We are trying to change the state of consciousness of Sarajevo people,” Plamenko Muratovic, a member of the newly founded organization told IPS. “Right now, what we’re doing (is what) French people did 200 years ago, the Americans did 230 years ago. People here don’t believe in this idea that they can change anything.”

Founded and based on the Internet, the self-proclaimed “informal” group has gathered about 3,000 people at “spontaneous” protests in the last three months. They have demanded the resignation of Sarajevo Canton’s prime minister and the city’s mayor. They also want a transparent and functional government, and increased safety on the streets.

The death of Mrnjavac at the hands of teens was preceded by the murder of a 72-year-old woman by three boys aged 15 or 16. They doused her head with gasoline and lit her on fire.

Muratovic, who described himself as a “very ordinary citizen”, said there is no system in Bosnia and Herzegovina to deal with juvenile delinquents.

“The problem is they don’t know how to deal with them. They cannot put them in jail because they don’t have jail facilities for juveniles. They cannot put them with mature criminals, and right now they are planning to release them from prison and put them under ‘strong observation’,” said the 46-year-old administrative worker.

After Mrnjavac’s murder, the Sarajevo Canton government imposed curfew from 11 pm for teenagers. Muratovic dismissed it as a “joke of a law.”

The citizens-run group has called the cantonal and city government incompetent and irresponsible, and also started public campaigns to inform people about alleged public funds mismanagement.

In an open letter to local officials, they submitted a Law on Free Access to Information request about the 20,000 KM (about 16,000 dollars) monthly allowance for 14 top officials, including the cantonal president and prime minister. The total amounts to about 2.7 million dollars annually.

“In their fight to preserve the lucrative public offices, politicians elected by the people have obviously lost all sense of shame and reality,” the organisation wrote in the letter.

No politicians have resigned as a result of their demands, and they have not responded to the information request.

“We can now see the true faces of the people that were elected by the citizens and yet feel no responsibility towards those very same citizens whatsoever,” concluded the letter by the Citizens of Sarajevo.

Elvina Ganic has been a citizen of Sarajevo all her life. She serves up fresh burek pastry every day inside a burekdzinica. She said she’s not satisfied with life in her country but has never been to a demonstration before and doesn’t plan to protest in the future.

“I’m not interested (in protesting),” she told IPS, “because they don’t matter and the politicians don’t listen. I care but I think I can’t make a difference, and not just me but all young people (believe this).”

Design student Irma Vatric is an exception.

When she saw a Citizens of Sarajevo protest downtown in March, the Sarajevo native joined in and asked how she could help.

“I’m 23, at the end of my education and, yeah, there’s no future for young people here because of (the politicians’) little games,” Vatric, who attends the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, told IPS.

She admits not enough people are “waking up” and realising they can work together to bring about change. But this young political enthusiast said she’s “optimistic about people” in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“I’m really, really hoping that people would understand that they can…be in control of their lives.”

The inaction by people like Ganic makes Demir Mahmutcehajic scared.

“The majority of people are saying, ‘No, I don’t want to get involved,’ but they are not happy,” the Sarajevo-based organiser of the DOSTA! (Enough) movement told IPS. “That apathy in one moment can turn into uncontrolled rage.”

In a separate demonstration against juvenile crime Apr. 13, seven people, including four police officers, were injured after the protest turned violent. The crowd threw eggs, stones and bottles at a Sarajevo government building, breaking several windows.

Mahmutcehajic, who advises the Citizens of Sarajevo group, said the politicians do “hear” the protesters but doubts they’ll do anything. He expects a “mass rebellion” in as soon as half a year.

“The pressure in this little country is building up slowly, especially because the politicians are ignoring these voices of ordinary people. It’s building up and it’s mounting and…it will explode,” said the 31-year-old activist. “I think it will happen in a violent way.”

Unless, of course, the nation’s leaders make a “drastic U-turn,” Mahmutcehaji asserted.

“Having a violent revolution will not change anything in this country. The real changes will come when we as citizens come out on the streets in hundreds of thousands, and protest in a peaceful way.”

Muratovic dismissed the idea of a mass movement.

“We don’t need some big gathering,” he said. “We are changing directions. We are trying to be more creative and use more media, less street gatherings, because it’s not productive.”

One of their satirical actions scheduled for this week is for the group to visit, in their bathing suits, the site of the city’s first Olympic-size public swimming public, which is still under construction despite the mayor promising it would open last spring.

“We’ll visit the place and call on the mayor to open up the pool and teach us how to swim,” said Muratovic, noting that 70 percent of Sarajevo residents can’t swim.

“It starts with small battles,” said Citizens of Sarajevo member Semsudin Maljevic, 29. Democracy, he told IPS, is “constant war between the politicians and the people. The more victories of the people you have, the more democracy you have.”

But some political activists in the nation of 4.5 million are skeptical about the Citizens of Sarajevo.

Alisa Karovic, a Sarajevo activist who is helping the group with logistics and planning, said the organisation lacks structure and members argue a lot.

“They are really suspicious towards each other and there is a lot of miscommunication,” Karovic told IPS. “Right now they don’t have (a goal) for what they want to achieve.”

Muratovic admits as much, saying they don’t have a “straightforward direction”.

“But the positive thing is that they’re on the street and that they’re doing their best and talking with common people,” said Karovic. “It’s one kind of awakening of the common citizen. And in the end, we all want the same (thing): not to be afraid to go out on the streets, to go on the tram, and to have the freedom to walk through the city.”

Excerpt:

By Zack Baddorf
DAMASCUS, May 2 2008 (IPS)

"I&#39ll go to any country," says Zirgon Tomas al-Aya, a 60-year-old Iraqi standing outside the UN Refugee Agency headquarters in Damascus.

Refugees at prayer in a Damascus mosque. Credit: Zack Baddorf

And he&#39s not alone.

A United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees poll released Tuesday found that only four percent of Iraqi refugees in Syria plan to return home. Conducted in March by the market research company IPSOS, the report found that 90 percent of the 1,000 Iraqis questioned in the Syrian capital have no plans to cross the border to their homeland.

The UNHCR has warned the European Union that Iraqis like Aya may head to Europe if support from the international community does not arrive.

"I think they will move north if things don&#39t get better," Laurens Jolles, the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees head of operations in Syria has said. In 2007, nearly 40,000 Iraqis sought asylum in the EU, twice as many as in 2006.

UNHCR appealed in January for 261 million dollars in humanitarian aid for Iraqi refugees in the region and for internally displaced persons in Iraq but, according to the UN website, have received just under half that amount.

"We have funding now for our food assistance programme, but that&#39s running out and by June we&#39ll be facing significant problems," Sybella Wilkes, UNHCR&#39s regional public information officer, told IPS.

Wilkes said about 40 percent of Iraqis are living off their savings, and for many, the situation has become desperate.

"The fact is for many refugees, as they run out of savings, the natural instinct is: if they can&#39t continue to live here, they try to go back to Iraq (and many say they can&#39t do that) or they go and try to find another place to live where they can make ends meet," said Wilkes. "Now we think it&#39s extremely important to meet their needs here."

Unknown thousands of Iraqis live in the Damascus neighbourhood of Set Zeinab. Inside one of the shops selling Iraqi flags and other souvenirs on the main road aptly named Iraqi Street, 20-year-old Mohammad Abderaza watches an al-Jazeera television report on Iraq with some friends. He fled to Syria in late January after his brother was killed by Shia militants. In Syria, he said, Sunnis and Shias are like brothers.

But he still wants to leave.

He said it&#39s his dream to go to Europe, maybe Denmark or Sweden, which last year admitted about 20,000 Iraqis, turning down just 10 percent of applicants. By comparison the United Kingdom, with troops in the occupation force, rejected 780 of 1,100 Iraqi asylum seekers last year.

"I want to move to Europe so I can get a good job to support my family," Abderaza told IPS. "It&#39s tough here in Syria and even worse in Iraq, so I want to make a new life in Europe."

Abderaza lives in Damascus with his wife, son, parents, and brother. The Baghdad native said the UN gives his family food each month but it&#39s not enough. He&#39s not employed in Syria, and is looking for work.

Officially, Iraqi refugees cannot work, but many do.

Peter Harling, a Damascus-based analyst with the International Crisis Group, said job opportunities for refugees here are few.

"That&#39s the key challenge," Harling told IPS in his Damascus office. "Obviously many hesitate at the idea of going back to Iraq, not being quite sure that the situation there is sustainable. And also they worry at the fact that it might be far more difficult for them to come back to Syria now that Syria has closed its border with Iraq."

Syria hasn&#39t completely closed its borders.

The Arab nation still lets in about 1,000 Iraqis every day, as long as they get a visa. Before October, when Iraqis could enter without a visa, more than 4,000 entered the country daily. The Damascus government says it won&#39t force Iraqis to return home.

Europe, however, is "backing off" from Iraqi refugees while "playing up this relative calm in Iraq to say there is no crisis," according to Harling. He told IPS the "big ambition" of many Iraqis remains to move to Europe.

"I think Europe has closed it doors. You have some channels, illegal channels, but that&#39s extremely costly. I think it can go up to 15,000 dollars per person with absolutely no guarantee that their status as refugees in Europe will be recognised."

Wilkes said there are people looking to take advantage of Iraqi refugees&#39 desperation.

"In many cases, there are also scams going on in which people promise to help refugees smuggle themselves into Europe," she said, "and all that happens is they lose tens of thousands of dollars and never go anywhere."

A UN poll of Iraqis returning to their motherland from Syria found that about half were leaving because they couldn&#39t afford to stay.

Abderaza said he wants the international community to help Syria provide aid to refugees like him. An estimated 2.5 million Iraqis have fled their country since the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The support extended to Syria has not been "generous" so far, Harling told IPS. He said political and bureaucratic issues make the legal channels for refugee resettlement in Europe or the U.S. "painfully slow."

In 2006, the U.S. admitted 202 Iraqi refugees. Last year, 1,608 Iraqi refugees were resettled to the United States.

"The problem here is that Syria doesn&#39t have very good relations with the U.S. – in fact, it has very bad relations with the U.S. – and there&#39s been a tendency on both the U.S. and the host country to blur the lines between the political crisis and the humanitarian one," said Harling, who lived and worked in Iraq from 1998-2003.

Harling says the United States has made a commitment to "progressively" increase its efforts. U.S. officials plan to accept 12,000 Iraqis in the United States by the end of 2008.

"This is a tall order, but it remains attainable," James Foley, the U.S. State Department&#39s senior adviser on Iraqi refugee issues told reporters in February.

Foley urged the European Union on Apr. 9 to "find a way to contribute substantially more" to UNHCR&#39s appeal for humanitarian aid. He said his European counterparts questioned the refugee agency&#39s accuracy in its portrayal of "dramatically increasing" needs.

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By Zack Baddorf
SARAJEVO, May 1 2008 (IPS)

"Parliamentarians, shame on you!" read a sign in Bosnian carried by four union workers in downtown Sarajevo.

May Day demonstration in Sarajevo. Credit: Zack Baddorf

"It was a message for our government and Parliament that finally they have to start to think about workers rights, because in this country we don&#39t have worker rights," Ismet Bajramovic, president of the Trade Union of Metal Workers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one of the protest organisers, told IPS.

"We don&#39t have salaries, we don&#39t have a pension system, we don&#39t have insurance – and these we want."

International Workers Day, also known as May Day or Labour Day, celebrates the working class. Workers take to the streets each year to demonstrate their solidarity and to commemorate the struggle of workers worldwide.

May 1, 1886 marked the day labour unions in North America declared that eight hours is a "legal day&#39s work" and started a general strike.

"The first of May is, in fact, our day," said Bajramovic, who is also executive committee member of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia Herzegovina. "Today we use this day, our day, just to send a message that we will do whatever we have to do. If it is necessary, all of us will spend day after day after day in the street, asking for our rights. We will not give up."

Demir Mahmutcehajic, Sarajevo-based organizer of the DOSTA! (Enough) movement, told IPS that the May Day street action in Sarajevo was "very special" because the unions spoke in "strong, direct language."

"What happened today was the first time that any union in Bosnia and Herzegovina raised a proper voice, raising proper demands, and taking a stand," said Mahmutcehajic, who described himself as a "grassroots street activist".

Mahmutcehajic, 31, is not usually so upbeat about the nation&#39s trade unions.

The unions, he said, were "really weakened" and "divided along nationalist lines" after the wars of the 1990s that broke former Yugoslavia into several countries, among them Bosnia. Today, he said, the unions are "ineffective, controlled by politicians, and have lots of criminal elements."

Bosnia is now a deeply divided society, said Mahmutcehajic. "The unions are always careful to not do anything that would inflame division, or they would be seen like traitors attacking their own nation, people. And in that way they are very passive."

Furthermore, he said many union leaders take cuts from companies in the awarding of contracts. Labour organisers have accumulated a "huge amount of money" by joining corporations&#39 board of directors. "These people are paid huge amounts of money for work that they are not doing," Mahmutcehajic said. "I consider that like stealing money from the people."

And people here do need every Bosnian mark they can get.

Government statistics say about 45 percent of the country&#39s one million-strong labour force is unemployed. But with many people working unofficially, the real figure could be around 25-30 percent.

Much of this is a hangover of the past. Inter-ethnic warfare in the 1990s brought an 80 percent drop in production. Today, about 18 percent of the nation&#39s 4.5 million citizens live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

But still, Mahmutcehajic is optimistic.

"Today&#39s protest is a first step in the awakening of the unions," he told IPS. "The process of liberating all workers in the country…is the responsibility of the unions and their leadership…they should be leading the workers and the oppressed people in this country to open rebellion against the politicians who are basically mafia, criminals, who say all sorts of things to get elected and then do nothing once they are in office because there is no one to make them responsible."

Union leaders have started a campaign to demand that the parliament reject proposed legislation to increase parliamentarians&#39 salaries to 8,000 Bosnian Marks (about 6,500 dollars) a month. An average family earns that much in a year.

Fatima Fazlic from the unions confederation pointed out that the minimum monthly wage in the mostly Muslim nation is 343 KM (about 280 dollars) and the minimum monthly pension is 282 KM (about 230 dollars).

"They want 8,000 KM!" said Fazlic. "Our message is: You (the Parliament members) will not do that. We ask first (for) our salary. We ask for the worker&#39s rights."

Some union members held up banners saying they would not vote in the October elections for any parliamentarian who supports the legislation.

But Bajramovic, who worked for 15 years as an engineer in a metal factory before joining unions, isn&#39t overly confident. "We don&#39t have any expectations because they don&#39t want to listen to us. They don&#39t want to solve the problems."

The trade union confederation, which represents 267,000 workers in 24 branches, is planning bigger protests this month and in June.

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By Zack Baddorf
HEBRON, The West Bank, Apr 28 2008 (IPS)

Nibaal Shriteh may soon be homeless. The 17-year-old Palestinian lives in a Hebron orphanage but, if the Israeli military has its way, she and 240 fellow orphans like her will be out on the streets.

A Palestinian makes a point. Credit: Zack Baddorf

The Israel Defence Forces issued orders Feb. 25 for the closure and confiscation by Apr. 7 of orphanages, schools and other facilities owned by the Islamic Charitable Society (ICS), claiming the foundation "masquerades as a charity organisation in order to cover its activities of increasing support of the Hamas terror network."

"The foundation in Hebron not only raises money for terrorism, it also recruits new terror operatives and disseminates the creed of anti-Zionism and jihad among the population," an IDF spokesman told IPS.

The Israeli army told IPS that "all of the foundation&#39s resources are devoted to funding Hamas and Hamas&#39s grip on the region…and to strengthening the terrorist network in order to target Israel." One of the oldest non-governmental organisations in the occupied territories, the charitable association is also accused of training youths in jihad and Hamas principles.

The Feb. 25 military decree, signed by the Israeli military commander of the West Bank Gen. Gadi Shamni, states that the buildings must be closed to maintain "security of the area" and "general order" in the southern West Bank city.

"The allegations being levelled against us are totally and completely and absolutely baseless," said Abd al-Kareem Farah, the ICS legal representative, through an interpreter. "We challenge the Israeli government and the Israeli army to produce a single tangible evidence to corroborate their concocted allegations. So far they haven&#39t done that."

The 46-year-old charity filed an appeal with the Israeli High Court of Justice, which temporarily froze the order indefinitely Apr. 1 and required the Israeli army to present evidence proving ICS&#39s link with the militant organisation Hamas, which holds power in the Gaza Strip following elections two years ago.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, said Jewish tradition requires witnesses and evidence be brought forward before the court. Since no proof has yet been submitted, the military order is "incompatible with the Jewish concept of justice," he said.

"Our Jewish tradition also teaches us that you cannot have collective punishment and you cannot harm innocent people," Ascherman added. "Therefore, from a Jewish point of view, it&#39s simply wrong to create a situation where so many people are going to suffer."

Israeli soldiers returned to charity facilities Apr. 11 and told teachers they had until Apr. 13 to evacuate the buildings. But no move has yet been made by the IDF to force a closure.

"For right now, no news is good news," Joanne Lingle, spokesperson for the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) told IPS, describing the situation as a state of "limbo."

CPT works to "support violence reduction efforts around the world." Members of Lingle&#39s team in Hebron sleep in the orphanage once every few days to document and report any potential actions by the Israeli armed forces. The military order states anyone entering or using the buildings may be imprisoned for five years and have his property confiscated or demolished.

Rasheed Rasheed, an English teacher at the charity&#39s school for boys, told IPS he has not seen "any action" by Hamas in ICS facilities in the 12 years he&#39s worked there.

"I am not Hamas. I am not Fatah. I smoke. I am not a fanatic. I am a normal person! I have no hatred for Israel or for anybody else. I am just a teacher," 37-year-old Rasheed told IPS. "I have never been told to tell my students to hate Israelis or Jews or to kill or to teach them violence. Never ever."

Rasheed admits that about 20-25 of the total 550 employees working for the ICS do have ties with the Hamas political party, but maintains the organisation has no formal connection with the militant group.

"The Israeli government has some fanatic members," said Rasheed. "Can I say that the Israeli government is all a terrorist government? I cannot say this!"

The Israeli military claims the ICS has "delivered money to Hamas terrorist operatives" and "supported the families of suicide bombers and incarcerated terrorists." But Farah said the association has its financial records and accounts "meticulously" scrutinised by Israeli and Palestinian authorities.

"Every penny that comes in and every penny that is spent, we have records," said the ICS lawyer. "It&#39s completely transparent…We are functioning in broad daylight. We have nothing to conceal. We have nothing to hide. All our papers are available for anyone who wishes to know the truth."

About 15-20 percent of the charity&#39s funding is raised from local sources, Farah noted, while the rest comes from abroad, mostly from North America, Europe and the Middle East.

The Israeli armed forces raided the organisation&#39s warehouse, bakeries and storefronts Mar. 6, and confiscated food, clothing, school supplies, refrigerators and two buses.

Farah says the Israeli authorities have no right to confiscate the property. The charity&#39s location in Hebron puts it under Palestinian authority, and this means the Israeli authorities cannot confiscate property there, according to the Oslo Accords, an agreement signed in 1993 by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

It&#39s not just a legal fight anymore.

Mohammad Jamal Salhab, deputy head of the Islamic Student Association, said Israeli troops have "terrorised" the youths with fear and uncertainty. Some children have been having nightmares and are showing signs of stress, he said, while their academic performance has been "undermined".

"Right now there is an overwhelming state of tension and stress among the kids and, frankly, we don&#39t know what to do," Salhab told IPS. "The harm to the children cannot be underestimated."

Orphan Shriteh said she is worried what will happen if the court rules against ICS, which the IDF terms an illegal organisation.

"Who will put the happiness in our hearts? Who will protect us from being lost? Who will be our shelter in the days of winter?" asked Shriteh at the Apr. 7 press conference, representing the orphans. "We hope the echo of our voice will reach your hearts to show you our grief and misery."

The Israeli military told IPS it "reserves the right for future action" against the ICS schools and orphanages. Rasheed is still unsure why the IDF wants the orphanage closed.

"The Israelis should give me an answer," Rasheed told IPS. "These are orphans. They have no hand in this issue between Hamas and the Israeli government. If the order takes place, they will end up on the street. They have no place to go."

The ICS, which was founded 26 years before Hamas, educates more than 1,700 students, aids 4,000 additional students and 5,000 poor families, and shelters 240 orphans.

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By Zack Baddorf
TEL AVIV, Apr 15 2008 (IPS)

The young man who agreed to be called Hamed has come a long way to do nothing. The Ivoirian would prefer to work but, after sneaking into Israel from Egypt about a month ago, he&#39s got nothing better to do than sit in a park everyday in central Tel Aviv, wait, and hope for a government decision on his refugee application.

African asylum seekers on a Tel Aviv street. Credit: Zack Baddorf

Hamed said he fled Cote d&#39Ivoire because his father was murdered and he feared the killers would come after him. His family spent about 3,000 dollars to get him to Egypt and then paid another 800 dollars in late February for a Bedouin smuggler to sneak him into Israel&#39s southern Negev region. After travelling for three days by jeep and on foot through the Sinai desert, he heard a gunshot along the border.

"I was thinking at that (moment), maybe that&#39s an Egyptian. They are going to kill me or not?"

His fears are not without reason. Since the start of the year, Egyptian border guards have killed 10 African asylum-seekers trying to enter Israel, including two Ivoirians.

Amnesty International has called on Cairo to investigate the killings. The human rights organisation claims the Israeli government has pressured Egypt to reduce the number of Africans entering Israel illegally. Ilan Lonai, director of Activism and Campaigns for Amnesty&#39s Tel Aviv office, told IPS the result has been the disproportionate use of force by Egyptian border guards.

"When somebody is asked to stop and he&#39s not threatening you, there&#39s no reason in the world to shoot him, especially people who are running away from you," Lonai said. "There are different ways of stopping them."

Most of the asylum seekers are from Eritrea and Sudan. Human Rights Watch reports that thousands of young men have fled Eritrea to avoid "endless military conscription." The U.S.-based group has documented torture against military deserters there.

In Sudan, 2.5 million people have died in the country&#39s 22-year-long civil war, and another 2.5 million have been displaced in the western region of Darfur alone since 2003, according to HRW. Sudanese who visit the Jewish state risk execution if they return home.

Lonai says Israel should not be using Egypt to stop people that need protection from entering the country.

"This is a very sad issue in a country that has built itself on this notion of protecting refugees to so easily forget all of our history and push it all away," said Lonai, referring to the creation of the Zionist state after the Nazi Holocaust nearly 60 years ago. "This is a very, very sad issue."

The "main problem", according to Shevy Korzen, executive director of the Tel Aviv-based Hotline for Migrant Workers, is Israel doesn&#39t have an established system in place to manage incoming refugees. Korzen told IPS that Israel needs to set clear guidelines and provide appropriate protection to refugees.

"If someone reaches the border and asks for asylum, then according to international law their claim has to be assessed," she said. "Israel cannot say, &#39Oh, we&#39re ok. We&#39re not shooting. We&#39re just asking the Egyptians to do this.&#39 This is wrong."

When it comes to deciding who can stay and who will be sent south, back to Africa, Korzen said, Tel Aviv&#39s decisions are made "ad hoc". Korzen cited the example of Israel&#39s August 2007 return of 48 Sudanese asylum seekers to Egypt, which then sent 20 back to Sudan.

When the refugees first started arriving in Israel a few years ago, the State granted temporary residence to 600 Sudanese from Darfur, and gave work permits to 2,000 Eritreans.

About 5,500 African asylum-seekers crossed the 160-mile wide Israel-Egypt border last year alone, according to UNHCR. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the refugee influx at a Feb. 24 Cabinet meeting as a "tsunami that could grow." Olmert ordered his ministers to immediately deport about 4,500 "illegal infiltrators", according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release.

But this hasn&#39t happened. Instead, Tel Aviv decided in March to take over the evaluation of claims of Sudanese and Eritrean refugees from UNHCR. Wolfson said the Israeli Ministry of Interior is registering but not yet assessing the claims "due primarily to the volume of them." Africans from elsewhere, like the Cote d&#39Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, are still evaluated by the UN, which submits its recommendation to an Israeli committee. While Israel has no quotas, typically the committee grants asylum to about 10-20 Africans a year, Wolfson said.

"In the long run, obviously this can&#39t work," said Korzen. "In the long run, Israel has to accept the fact that it has become, like other countries, a country that accepts asylum seekers. It&#39s not the only one – it seems to think so but it&#39s not – and it needs to be able to handle this in accordance to its obligations, to international law, to the Refugee Convention, which Israel was the first country to sign and promote."

As for Hamed, he made it across the border, and was found by Israel Defence Force troops. They detained him in a military camp for two days and then released him into Israel. Like thousands before him, Hamed registered with UNHCR in Tel Aviv.

He now lives on the support of a non-governmental organisation that feeds and houses him in a shelter near the Tel Aviv central bus station. Neither the UN nor the State of Israel provides food, water or shelter. Without a work visa, he can&#39t work, legally, to support himself.

"Well, don&#39t forget that Israel is a developed country," Wolfson told IPS at the UNHCR&#39s downtown office in Tel Aviv, explaining why the refugee agency doesn&#39t provide aid here. "We understand the worry that providing assistance to new arrivals will create a pull factor, but, at the same time, I think basic humanity requires a more comprehensive response from the various authorities, and at least cooperation among the various actors."

Wolfson said there are "excellent" NGOs doing a "very, very good job against tremendous odds. But they are sometimes working in isolation, and some government coordination at the very least if not actual government support would go a long way to making the job of everyone easier."

Until a definitive policy is established, Hamed will remain in limbo. He said he will continue to come to Levinsky Park each morning, like he has for the past month, to sit and talk with about 40 other African refugees who, like him, don&#39t know their status in Israel or their future.

"What I have to do?" asked Hamed. "I have to be patient (and) wait for that. I can&#39t do anything."

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