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YNTR – March 2021: On Jammu and Kashmir, West Guinea, and Western Sahara

EditorChief — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:28:48 +0000

ASIA

Jammu and Kashmir crackdown

In the Jammu and Kashmir region––a region administered by India, as a state which consists of the larger part of Kashmir and has been the subject of dispute among India, Pakistan, and China since 1947––the methods of enforcing the revocation of the regions special status are still ongoing. The Indian government accompanied this revocation on 5 August 2019 by cutting off communication lines in the Kashmir Valley and deploying thousands of security forces to curb any uprising. Kashmiri politicians were taken into custody. The restrictions have been described as means for preempting violence and reactions in the Kashmir Valley was effectively reduced to silence because of cut-off communications, media-blackouts, and with imposition of Curfew (Section 144). So far, around 200 people have died, and more than 4,000 injured.

5 February 2021, Jammu and Kashmir’s Principal Secretary of Power and Information, Rohit Kansal, announced that 4G internet services would be restored in the entire union territory. The service had been suspended since 16 August 2020.

OCEANIA

Western New Guinea conflict

The Papua conflict between secessionist group Free Papua and the Indonesia government, has been ongoing since 1962. Papuans accuse the Indonesian government of indiscriminate violence and of suppressing their freedom of expression. Indonesia has also been accused of conducting a genocidal campaign against the indigenous inhabitants. Estimates of casualties of conflict range between 100,000–500,000.

In February 2021, conflict between the pro-independence West Papua Liberation Army and Indonesia’s security forces intensified in the Intan Jaya regency––a western regency of around 50,000 Papuans. Three West Papuan men were killed in mid-February by Indonesia’s military. Amnesty’s Indonesia office has called for an immediate, independent investigation into the killings.

It said such deadly attacks had become commonplace in Papua, inflicting suffering on civilians who flee to the bush or neighbouring districts to escape violence and raids by security forces.

Armed clashes have also caused the internal displacement of thousands of indigenous Papuans. About 8,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Intan Jaya have sought shelter in neighbouring Jayawijaya Regency, and, according to solidarity groups, 400 IDPs have died in Jayawijaya due to diseases and other strains.

AFRICA

Western Saharan clashes

Armed conflict between Morocco and the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), represented at the United Nations by the Polisario Front (PF), in the disputed region of Western Sahara; a conflict that has been more-or-less ongoing since Spain relinquished control in 1975. Tensions deepened between Morocco and the PF in mid-October 2020 when Sahrawi protestors blocked a road connection Morocco to sub-Saharan Africa. On 13 November, Morocco launched a military operation into the demilitarized buffer zone of Western Sahara to clear protestors. Claiming that Morocco broke the ceasefire agreements in place since the 1990’s, the PF urged the UN to intervene; also accusing the Moroccan military of shooting at unarmed protestors. The Moroccan government has denied any wrongdoings and claimed the truce to remain in place. On November 14, the SADR declared war on Morocco.

In February 2021, the Mauritanian government–a long-standing ally of PF and SADR–is reportedly planning to soon withdraw its recognition of Polisario’s self-proclaimed SADR. This is a major setback for the PF, which has angered a growing list of countries, including Mauritania following its recent maneuvers. Mauritania emphasized that the potential decision seeks to adjust their neutral position in the Western Sahara conflict in favor of a realistic solution to end the struggles of thousands of Sahrawis living in dire conditions in the Tindouf camps–a set of refugee camps in neighboring Algeria for Sahrawi refugees heavily reliant on international humanitarian assistance.

Photo credits:

The Sahrawi refugees – a forgotten crisis in the Algerian desert by EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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YNTR – December 2020: Bangladeshi government’s crackdown on Rohingya refugees, Germany’s lax restrictions on New Years celebrations, and wide-spread hunger in Venezuela

EditorChief — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 11:10:00 +0000

Out of sight, out of mind

…seems to be a popular attitude of states to handle the ugly reality of an ever-worsening international refugee movement. The strategy to keep refugees on islands has moved to the core of the EU asylum system, and has recently hit fertile soil in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government has begun transporting as many as 1,600 Rohingya refugees to the remote island of Bhasan Char.

Background

Overcrowding and severe weather conditions—as well as covid-19—are affecting the livelihoods of the over one million refugees that reside in the Cox’s Bazar region of Banlgladesh. The island of Bhasan Char is portrayed by Bangladeshi news outlet Daily Bangladesh as a welcomed alternative “environment where Rohingyas can stay safe”.

Critique

Humanitarian organizations, among them Human Rights Watch, have been outspokenly concerned with the relocation plans of the Bangladeshi government. There has been little transparency in the procedure, no independent international body has assessed the suitability of the island—formed only 20 years ago, far removed from the mainland, and prone to severe weather condition—for inhabitancy. Reports of relocations of Rohingya without consent are piling up.

Is this the Ode to the Healthcare Workers?

In the spring they regularly received applause from people’s balconies for continuing to risk their lives, but risking ones lives has long become a normality for nurses, doctors, and other healthcare personnel.

Despite harsh criticism from the EU and record numbers of covid-19 cases, Germany has decided to ease its restrictions for Christmas, putting an avoidable strain onto a healthcare system that is already reaching its limits.

Background

In the face of the “hardest Christmas of the postwar period”, as conservative politician Armin Laschet put it, the German government has decided to temporarily lift coronavirus restrictions.

Critique

The 3 bn euros of “Corona aid”, invested by the German government into the healthcare sector, won’t pay for the virus to take a break over the holidays. The government’s failure to ban fireworks on New Year’s Eve—the day that produces more emergency admissions to hospitals than any other day of the year—makes Germany’s failure to support healthcare workers ever more explicit.

Hunger in Venezuela

Once the largest producer of Latin America with an annual income of US$ 90 billion, Venezuela has seen a rapid economic decline since President Nicolás Maduro came to power. Today, 96% of the country’s population live in poverty and the coronavirus pandemic has left countless Venezuelans, especially children, without enough food, approaching the limits of an existential minimum.

Background

The economic crisis which has affected Venezuela long before the pandemic broke out, has produced a lack of essential medication and initiated a “brain drain” of medical staff, leaving the healthcare sector vulnerable and underequipped. Many Venezuelan families rely on payments from abroad, which have witnessed a decline in over 50% due to the corona pandemic. A request by the Maduro government to the International Monetary Fond (IMF) over a US$ 5 billion corona-aid-package has been denied on the grounds of Maduro’s government not being internationally recognized.

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YNTR – November 2020: Mória 2.0, Polio in Africa, and Australian bush fires

EditorChief — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 11:16:24 +0000

Introducing Mória 2.0.

After a fire in Europe’s biggest refugee camp left thousands of people homeless, much pressure has been directed towards governments for showing solidarity and accommodating larger numbers of refugees. And although some countries responded, over 8,000 asylum seekers, mostly families, remain on the Greek Island of Lesbos, in a provisional camp dubbed Mória 2.0. Oxfam, together with the Greek Refugee Council, has visited the new camp, reporting on “conditions … worse than they were at the original site that burned down.” Vulnerability to harsh weather conditions, poor healthcare, little access to running water, no sewage, and no access to legal aid are among the highly concerning findings of the visit.

Background

The European Commission provided a swift response to the near total destruction of the Móris, with a new Pact on Migration and Asylum, paving the way for a common European approach to migration. The EU has vowed to rebuild reception facilities that “will be of a European standard, durable infrastructure and will provide access to healthcare and adequate sanitation.” Other priorities include ending overcrowded conditions in reception centres, establish fast and effective procedures for determining asylum, increasing voluntary returns, and improving safety and security of asylum seekers.

Critique

The search for a common European solution to asylum has been increasingly scrutinized by politicians and civil society alike. German news magazine Der Spiegel writes: “Those who insist on a European solution don’t really want a solution at all, because it has long been clear that the 27 EU states will never agree on a common asylum policy.”

The end of Polio in Africa

… isn’t actually the end. Only shortly after the WHO announced the eradication of wild polio on the African continent, reports of a spread of vaccine-derived polio in Chad and the Sudan mark a significant setback. Adding to that, the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic has caused a temporary halt of 46 vaccine campaigns in 38 countries, making the newly acquired achievement a very fragile one.

Background

In many polio vaccination campaigns oral vaccinations are preferred due to easier distribution and no required equipment, such as sterile syringes. After an oral vaccination, a mild form of the virus replicates in the intestines and thereby forms antibodies. What this means, however, is that the virus can also be found in feces, which poses a risk in areas with lacking sanitation systems and not high enough levels of immunity. Due to corona, an estimated 80 million children under the age of one have missed their polio vaccine, seriously impacting these levels of immunity, making the spread of vaccine-derived polio somewhat of a vicious cycle.

Australia: After the flames

Scientists are beginning to take stock after the Australian bushfires 2019/2020. On average 1% of Australia’s forests burn every fire season, but the most recent one. Here an estimated 21% of forests stood in flames. 832 vertebrate animal species are considered affected by the recent fires, “196 of them had 10 to 30 percent of their Australian habitat scorched; 51 species lost 30 to 50 percent of their habitat; 16 species lost 50 to 80 percent; and three species had over 80 percent of their land incinerated.”

Background: The harm caused in the 2019/2020 fire season in Australia is unprecedented. Never before have the fires been so widespread and so destructive. Although the Australian flora and fauna is highly adapted to bushfires, and in parts even depend on them, hotter, earlier and more frequent fires interfere with these natural mechanisms.

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