Legends League allows long deprived fans to enjoy cricket again in Kashmir
Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – When Wasif Ahmad, a 34-year-old shopkeeper from Srinagar, saw a billboard announcing the arrival of international cricket stars in his hometown, he promptly bought tickets and decided to shut his business on the day of the match. Ahmad, like thousands of cricket-mad Kashmiris, cared little for the lack of glitz and glamour in the Legends League Cricket (LLC) – a franchise-based T20 cricket league involving former international cricketers – he simply couldn’t miss an opportunity to watch a live cricket match. With the arrival of the LLC’s seven matches in Srinagar from October 9 to 16, cricket finally returned to Indian-administered Kashmir – one of the world’s most heavily militarised regions and synonymous with uprisings against the central Indian government’s control. Ahmad, an avid cricket fan, grew up playing the game and listening to his father’s tales about the two international cricket matches that Kashmir hosted in the 1980s – but had never been to one. “Seeing international cricketers play live [in Kashmir] felt like a distant dream to me,” Ahmad told Al Jazeera while watching the Gujarat Greats take on the Konark Suryas Odisha at Bakshi Stadium, the region’s oldest sports venue in the heart of Srinagar. Cricket fans of all age groups formed long snaking queues outside the stadium under the stern glare of security personnel. Families with young children and groups of women flocked to watch their first live cricket match. Inside the stadium, a vibrant crowd packed the stands ahead of the 7pm (13:30 GMT) game that stretched late into the night – a rarity in a city where nightlife has been non-existent amid decades of turmoil. Floodlights illuminated the ground and cast a glow over the nearby streets as loud music from the stadium’s public address system, coupled with the roaring chants of the crowd, filtered out of the 30,000-capacity venue. The presence of hundreds of armed security personnel in camouflaged uniforms and dozens of patrolling vehicles provided a stark reminder of everyday life in Kashmir – where peace and hostility often co-exist. Despite the challenges, the weeklong cricket extravaganza seemed to have brought a temporary escape from the region’s complex and often violent history. The Legends League Cricket tournament, which brought international cricketers back to Indian-administered Kashmir after 39 years, saw thousands of fans attend the matches at Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar [Shuaib Bashir/Al Jazeera] Cricket’s fractured history in Kashmir Kashmir hosted its first international cricket match in October 1983, when some of cricket’s biggest names arrived in the valley as newly crowned world champions India hosted the then mighty West Indies in a one-day international (ODI) match at the Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar. The game was rocked by protests and ugly scenes as the spectators cheered for the West Indians in a mark of dissent. Some protesters entered the ground during the innings break and damaged parts of the pitch but the match was completed as the visitors won by 28 runs. In 1986, India hosted Australia in an ODI. The visitors also found unexpected support in the Kashmiri capital and beat the hosts by three wickets. Three years later, an anti-India armed rebellion erupted in the valley. The central government deployed nearly 700,000 troops to suppress the movement, making the region as one of the world’s most heavily militarised conflict zones. The Muslim-majority Himalayan region is split between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, which rule over parts of the territory but claim it in its entirety and have fought three of their four wars over it. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the decades-old conflict, most of them civilians. Hundreds of security checkpoints are spread across the valley to monitor locals’ movements. In August 2019, India scrapped a law that granted special status to the region, stripping Kashmir of the significant autonomy it had enjoyed for seven decades. The move was followed by an indefinite lockdown and a significant troop deployment to suppress protests. International cricket’s decades-long absence from Kashmir, then, is as unremarkable as the presence of hundreds of gun-toting security personnel in the environs of Bakshi Stadium. Students walk towards Bakshi Stadium under the gaze of security personnel in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir [Shuaib Bashir/Al Jazeera] ‘A superficial attempt to showcase normalcy’ Bakshi Stadium, named after Jammu and Kashmir’s former prime minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, has been a politically significant venue since its inauguration in the 1950s. In addition to hosting high-profile sports events, the stadium has also served as a venue for political rallies, but the armed rebellion that began in 1989 rendered the stadium non-functional and all sport events were suspended. When India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kashmir in March, he addressed a large crowd at Bakshi Stadium and promised a slew of developmental projects in the region. While the LLC’s seven matches have attracted thousands of entertainment-deprived cricket fans, many locals see the tournament’s presence in Kashmir through the prism of “enforced normalcy”. Kashmiris believe that Modi’s government has employed sport as a tool to project a peaceful image of the region, despite its fractious reality. Indian-administered Kashmir’s Chief Minister-designate Omar Abdullah, whose National Conference emerged as the single largest winning party in the recent elections, was also present at Bakshi Stadium and insisted he would encourage the upliftment of sport. For the thousands of cricket fans queueing at the stadium’s ticket booth, such as Seeban Farooq, the tournament’s popularity was a testament to the region’s “craze” for cricket but would do little to promote local cricketers. “These events have little to do with the upliftment of local talent,” he said. A young cricketer, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera that the LLC could “fuel the dreams” of aspiring Kashmiri cricketers – only to be crushed by the harsh reality. “Substandard infrastructure, lack of proper pitches and minimal facilities raise serious concerns about the future of cricket development in the region,” said the young player dressed in his all-white cricket attire. “It’s a superficial attempt to showcase normalcy while
Israel resumes Beirut strikes despite US ‘opposition’
Israeli air strikes have hit Beirut’s Dahiyeh area despite US assurances Israel would scale back its attacks. Israel has resumed air strikes on Beirut despite objections from the United States over the way it is conducting its campaign in Lebanon. Israeli military jets targeted the capital early on Wednesday for the first time since October 10. Three strikes were reported to have hit the southern suburbs of the city. The attack came despite Washington having expressed concern over the scope of Israeli attacks on Beirut. At the same time, the US continues to support Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza, in which it says it aims to destroy Hezbollah and Hamas. The Israeli military stated on social media that Wednesday’s strikes targeted “combat equipment that was stored inside an underground warehouse”. A warning had been issued earlier that an attack on the Dahiyeh suburb was imminent, with residents warned to flee the vicinity of a building marked on a map. According to Al Jazeera reporters in Beirut, three strikes were heard at about 6:50am in the Dahiyeh area. The number of casualties remains unclear. (Al Jazeera) Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Hasbaiyya to the south, suggested that the damage resulting from the strikes “doesn’t really suggest that it was an arms dump” that was hit. Amnesty International and others have said that warnings from the Israeli military are often issued too late to allow people to escape and do not exonerate Israel from responsibility for civilian casualties. ‘Opposed’ The resumption of strikes on Beirut came shortly after a spokesperson for the US government expressed concern over the conduct of Israel’s military campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza, using stronger language than he had previously. “When it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut over the past few weeks, it’s something that we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we were opposed to,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said late on Tuesday. The US had previously expressed open criticism of Israeli air strikes that struck residential buildings in central Beirut on October 10, killing 22 people. Al Jazeera’s Khan noted: “This has been a period of relative calm in the Lebanese capital … But after five days it’s now back to Beirut and a very serious attack against that southern suburb.” The same day, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that US officials had provided assurances that Israel would reduce its attacks on the capital city, and that Washington was “serious about pressuring Israel to reach a ceasefire”. It has also been reported that the US has threatened to withhold weapons deliveries unless more humanitarian aid reaches Gaza. However, the US continues to send weapons worth billions of dollars to Israel, including a missile system and troops to operate it. No ceasefire At least 1,350 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel escalated its attacks last month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the possibility of a ceasefire, insisting that would leave Iran-backed Hezbollah too close to Israel’s northern border and that a buffer zone is vital. Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said on Tuesday that a ceasefire is the only solution to the conflict, but also threatened to expand the scope of its missile strikes across Israel. Early on Wednesday Israel’s military said about 50 projectiles were fired from Lebanon. No casualties have been reported. Meanwhile, Israeli attacks continue across southern and eastern Lebanon. At least five people were killed as missiles struck the town of Nabatieh, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Another 15 at least were reported to have been killed in the town of Qana. Adblock test (Why?)
Global conflicts driving up to 21,000 deaths daily from hunger: Report
Oxfam finds most food crises are ‘largely manufactured’ in new report published on World Food Day. Hunger caused by conflicts around the world has reached record high levels, a new report by Oxfam has found, which accuses warring parties of weaponising food and blocking aid. Between 7,000 to as many as 21,000 people are likely dying each day from hunger in countries affected by conflict, according to the report, published by the United Kingdom-based charity on World Food Day on Wednesday. Titled Food Wars, it examined 54 countries experiencing conflict, revealing that they account for nearly all of the 281.6 million people facing acute hunger today. Conflict has also been a major driver of forced displacement in these countries, which has now reached a record 117 million people. Oxfam emphasised that conflict not only fuels hunger, but that warring parties are actively using food as a weapon by targeting food, water and energy infrastructure, as well as blocking food aid. Palestinians receive food donated by a charity, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip [File: Haitham Imdad/EPA-EFE] In September, three humanitarian agencies warned of “a starvation crisis of historic proportions” amid Sudan’s civil war, while the proportion of households affected by high levels of acute food insecurity in Gaza has been the largest ever recorded globally since the end of last year. “As conflict rages around the world, starvation has become a lethal weapon wielded by warring parties against international laws,” said Oxfam’s Emily Farr, who works in the area of food and economic security. “Today’s food crises are largely manufactured. Nearly half a million people in Gaza – where 83 percent of needed food aid is currently not reaching them – and over three-quarters of a million in Sudan are starving as the devastating effects of wars on food are likely to persist for generations.” The analysis revealed that the crises of war, displacement and hunger occur in countries heavily reliant on primary product exports. For instance, 95 percent of Sudan’s export earnings come from gold and livestock. Mining operations have led to violent conflicts, forcing people from their homes as the degraded and polluted environments become unliveable. According to Oxfam, this underscores the failures of peace-building efforts that rely on an economic liberalisation model focused on attracting foreign investment and promoting export-driven economies, which often exacerbates inequality instead. “Large-scale private investment – both foreign and domestic – has often exacerbated political and economic instability, as investors seize control over land and water, displacing local populations,” Farr said. Conflict frequently intensifies other crises like climate shocks, economic instability and inequality. Climate-related disasters such as droughts and floods, combined with rising global food prices due to pandemic shutdowns and disruptions from the Russia-Ukraine war, have escalated hunger crises in East and Southern Africa, it said. Oxfam warned that the global commitment to “zero hunger” by 2030 is becoming increasingly unattainable. It called on the international community, including the United Nations Security Council, to hold accountable those responsible for “starvation crimes” under international law. “To break the vicious cycle of food insecurity and conflict, global leaders must confront the root causes of conflict: colonial legacies, injustices, human rights abuses and inequalities – rather than offering superficial solutions,” Farr said. Adblock test (Why?)
Palestinian man burned alive after Israeli strike on hospital courtyard
NewsFeed A 20-year-old Palestinian man who was confined to a hospital bed and connected to an IV drip burned to death after an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital courtyard where displaced people had been seeking shelter. Here’s what we know about Shaaban al-Dalou. Published On 15 Oct 202415 Oct 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Shaban al-Dalou: The Palestinian teen burned to death in Israeli bombing
He was 19-years-old, a software engineering student, and displaced from his home, trying to survive in central Gaza. He was a few days away from his 20th birthday. Shaban al-Dalou wouldn’t make it. He had struggled for months to get help for his family, recording videos describing his family’s plight and their life under Israel’s bombs. But he wasn’t able to get enough money to get his family out of Gaza. The world finally paid attention to Shaban when his last moments were filmed this week. Connected to an IV drip, he was burned alive along with his mother after Israeli forces bombed the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital complex in Deir el-Balah in the early hours of Monday. In the videos Shaban recorded in the weeks and months before his death, he talks about the reality of living in Gaza, a premonition of the horror he faced at the end of his short life. “There is no safe place here in Gaza,” Shaban says in one video, speaking into a phone camera from the makeshift tent where he had been living since fleeing his home. In another video, Shaban talks about the difficulties of finding food “because the Israeli occupation managed to separate the middle area from the rest of Gaza and the people here are struggling to [meet] their basic needs”. He also filmed himself donating blood at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which Israel had already bombed several times in the last year before the bombing that killed him. “We saw so many injuries, many children are in dire need of blood”, Shaban said. “All we demand is a ceasefire and for this tragedy to end”. In some videos, Shaban asked for donations to help his family evacuate to Egypt. “165 days of the continuous genocide against us”, he said in one. “Five months we have lived in a tent.” “I’m taking care of my family, as I’m the oldest,” he said in another, adding that his parents, two sisters and two brothers were displaced five times before finding refuge on the hospital’s grounds. “The only thing between us and the freezing temperatures is this tent that we constructed by ourselves.” Shaban al-Dalou with his parents and siblings. [Courtesy of the al-Dalou family] ‘The fire just engulfed everything’ Tents used for shelter in the hospital effectively became coffins on Monday, when it was set ablaze by Israeli bombs, trapping Shaban and his relatives in the flames. His father, Ahmad al-Dalou, who was severely burned, told Al Jazeera that the impact of the strike pushed him out of the tent, where he quickly realised that the fire had engulfed his children. He was able to save two of them. “After that, the fire just engulfed everything. I couldn’t rescue anyone”, he said. “I did what I could”. Ahmad said that Shaban had hoped to study abroad to become a doctor, but that he had wanted to keep his son closer to home. “Now, I wish I had sent him”, he said. Shaban was a studious boy who had memorised the entire Quran. Even during the war he would often take out his laptop to study, his father added. “He loved his mother the most”, Ahmad said. “Now, he’s been martyred in her arms. We buried them in each other’s embrace”. The attack that killed Shaban and his relatives tore through a makeshift camp set up by displaced people in the hospital’s courtyard, injuring at least 40. “I looked out and saw flames devouring the tents next to ours”, Madi, a 37-year-old mother of six, told Al Jazeera from the charred remains of her tent. “My husband and I carried the kids and ran towards the emergency building”. “People – women, men and children – were running away from the spreading fire, screaming,” she added. “Some of them were still burning, their bodies on fire as they ran.” ‘Where are we supposed to go?’ Like the al-Dalou family, many of those seeking refuge by the hospital have been displaced many times over. “Where are we supposed to go?” said Madi. “It’s nearly winter. Is there no one to stop this holocaust against us?” The hospital bombing came as Israel continues to escalate its attacks on Gaza. Just days earlier, another strike on a school turned shelter, in Jabalia, killed at least 28 people. Horrific images of the fire at the Al-Aqsa Hospital that killed Shaban earned a rare rebuke from US officials. “The images and video of what appear to be displaced civilians burning alive following an Israeli air strike are deeply disturbing and we have made our concerns clear to the Israeli government,” a spokesperson for the Biden administration said in a statement on Monday. “Israel has a responsibility to do more to avoid civilian casualties — and what happened here is horrifying, even if Hamas was operating near the hospital in an attempt to use civilians as human shields.” Israel has regularly made that accusation with little evidence. The end result of the Israeli bombing was the fire that devastated the al-Dalou family. “We are people that only ask for peace and freedom,” Ahmad told Al Jazeera, mourning his son and wife. “We want basic rights, nothing else. May God take care of our oppressors”. Adblock test (Why?)
US threatens Israel but deploys troops, revealing policy inconsistency
The deployment of an advanced United States anti-missile system to Israel, along with 100 troops to operate it, marks a significant escalation in US entanglement with a widening Israeli war that Washington has already heavily subsidised. But the deployment – in anticipation of an Iranian response to an expected Israeli attack on Iran – also raises questions about the legality of US involvement at a time when the administration of US President Joe Biden is facing growing backlash over its unwavering support for Israel. It also comes as US officials are seeking to project authority and threatening to at last enforce US law prohibiting military aid to countries that block humanitarian aid, as Israel has regularly done in Gaza. Two recent developments — the Sunday announcement that the US would deploy troops to Israel and a letter sent by US officials the same day calling on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face unspecified consequences — underscore the inconsistent approach of an administration that has effectively done little of substance to rein in Israel’s ever-widening war. At a press briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to say what the consequences of Israel failing to comply with US requests would be, or how this differs from an earlier, unfulfilled threat by the Biden administration to withhold military aid to Israel. “I’m not gonna speak to that today,” Miller told reporters when pressed for details of how the US would respond to Israel’s failure to comply. Empty threats In the private letter, which was leaked on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called on Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer to implement a series of “concrete measures”, with a 30-day deadline, to reverse the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. The US briefly paused the delivery of thousands of bombs to Israel earlier this year as Israeli officials planned to expand their operations in southern Gaza, but it quickly resumed and continued supplying Israel with weapons even as it escalated its assault in Gaza and later in Lebanon. “A letter jointly signed by both the secretary of state and secretary of defence indicates a heightened level of concern, and the not-so-subtle threat here, whether the administration carries through with it or not, is that they will actually impose consequences under these various legal and policy standards,” Brian Finucane, a former legal adviser to the US State Department and senior adviser with the US programme at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. Whether the administration would carry through with it remained very much in question. “It’s important to note that there were legal standards during the entire course of this conflict, and the Biden administration has just not enforced them. It may be the situation is so dire in northern Gaza that the political calculations have changed, and that they may actually finally decide to implement US law. But it’s really long past the point at which they should have done so,” Finucane said. Finucane also noted that the 30-day deadline would expire after the US presidential election next month. “So they may feel that whatever political constraints the administration may have felt it was operating under, they may feel less constrained by,” he said. Miller, the State Department spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday that the election was “not a factor at all” — but Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who resigned earlier this year in protest of the administration’s Israel policy, disagrees. “I interpret it as being intended to try to win over Uncommitted [National Movement] voters and others in swing states who have made clear that they are opposed to this administration’s unconditional support for Israel,” Sheline told Al Jazeera. “I do not expect to see consequences.” Deeper entanglement Whether the US would carry through with its threats, the deployment of troops to Israel sent a much more concrete message of ongoing US support no matter how dire the humanitarian situation. The US-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, an advanced missile defence system that uses a combination of radar and interceptors to thwart short, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, adds to Israel’s already extraordinary anti-missile defences as it weighs its response to an Iranian missile attack earlier this month. Biden said its deployment is meant “to defend Israel”. The announcement of the deployment came just as Iranian officials warned that the US was putting the lives of its troops “at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel”. “While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi wrote in a statement on Sunday. In practice, the deployment further drives the US into war at a time when US officials continue to pay lip service to diplomacy. “Rather than force de-escalation or act to rein in Israeli officials, President Biden is redoubling efforts to reassure Israeli leaders that he is in lockstep with them as they deliberately barrel towards regional war and escalate a genocidal campaign against Palestinians,” Brad Parker, a lawyer and associate director of policy at the Center for Constitutional Rights, told Al Jazeera. Parker and other lawyers argue that the Biden administration is relying on narrow and stretched legal arguments in an attempt to justify a seemingly unilateral move under US law. The US is also already implicated under international humanitarian law for the support it has given Israel as it violated the laws of war. “So far, the Biden administration has tried to characterise the fortification of existing deployments and authorisation of new deployments as fragmented or individual incidents. However, what emerges is a comprehensive and robust introduction of US forces into situations where involvement in hostilities is imminent without any congressional authorisation as required by the law,” Parker said. “All
Taiwan reports surrounded by 153 Chinese military aircraft during drills
Exercises raise regional tension warns Taipei; US slams war games as it launches drills with Philippines. Taiwan detected 153 aircraft surrounding its territory as China carried out massive military exercises, according to the self-ruled island’s defence ministry. The “surge in warplane activity” saw a record number of aircraft spotted in the 25 hours to 6am on Tuesday (22:00 GMT, Monday), the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement. China’s war games have once more raised tensions with the island and across the region, it noted. Beijing deployed fighter jets, drones, warships and coastguard ships to encircle Taiwan on Monday. Taipei said it responded by dispatching “appropriate forces” and placing its outlying islands on heightened alert. The defence ministry said 90 of the Chinese aircraft were spotted within Taiwan’s air defence identification zone. ‘Nonsense’ Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and has said it would never rule out using force to take it. China said the one-day drill, designated “Joint Sword-2024B”, was a warning against “separatist acts”. The war games followed a National Day speech last week by Taiwan President William Lai Ching-te that Beijing had denounced. Lai said in the speech that China has no right to represent Taiwan and declared his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment”. “This is a resolute punishment for Lai Ching-te’s continuous fabrication of ‘Taiwan independence’ nonsense,” China’s Taiwan affairs office said in a statement. Attracting attention Taiwan’s Premier Cho Jung-tai stated that the manoeuvres were not only a concern for Taipei, but for the entire region. “Any drills without prior warning will cause great disturbance to peace and stability in the entire region,” he told reporters. “China’s drills not only affect Taiwan’s neighbourhood, but also seriously affect the entire international navigational rights and air and sea space, so attracted the attention of other countries.” Taiwan’s Office of the President called on China to “cease military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability and stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom”. The United States, an ally to the self-ruled island, noted its concern, even as it launched its own war games in the disputed South China Sea. The Pentagon slammed China’s drills as “irresponsible, disproportionate, and destabilising”. However, thousands of US and Philippine marines launched 10 days of joint exercises in the Philippines, which is also locked in dispute with China, on Tuesday. The exercises are focused on defending the north coast of the main Philippine island of Luzon, which lies about 800km (500 miles) from Taiwan. Adblock test (Why?)
To boost Ukraine’s army, feared patrols hunt for potential conscripts
A stone’s throw from advancing Russian troops, Volodymyr refuses to leave his eastern Ukrainian town. The daily Russian pummelling has killed some of his neighbours and destroyed buildings around his house, but the 34-year-old does not want to move to a safer area because he would be forcibly conscripted. “I’ll be herded back home but with a gun in my hands,” he told Al Jazeera as fighting raged just 10km (6 miles) away. He has no qualms about what Ukrainian generals might call unpatriotic behaviour. “Way too many guys” he knows have been killed, wounded and incapacitated since 2014 when Russia-backed separatists sparked a conflict in eastern Ukraine that killed more than 13,000 people, about a quarter of them civilians, and displaced millions. A local resident rides a bike near a recruitment advert for the Ukrainian army, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the village of Hrushivka, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region [File: Alina Smutko/Reuters] Casualties soared after Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. Russian army chiefs have no misgivings about the loss of tens of thousands of their servicemen for each Ukrainian town they take, mostly in the Donetsk region, where Volodymyr lives. But he accused Ukraine’s top brass and front-line officers of adopting a somewhat similar approach. “The commanders care about their bosses’ opinion, not about the men serving under them,” he said, citing conversations with his enlisted friends. He and other men interviewed for this story asked for their last names and personal details to be withheld because they fear reprisals. Feared patrols search for conscripts About 1.3 million Ukrainians serve in the military. At least 80,000 soldiers of eligible age, 25 to 60, have died since 2022, according to Western estimates. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government does not divulge the official death toll. He has said the army needs to enlist 500,000 out of about 3.7 million men of fighting age who are eligible for service. These days, many potential recruits all over Ukraine think twice before leaving their homes. If they do, they look over their shoulder for “man-hunting” patrols. Each patrol consists of police and conscription officers, groups of four to six officials that comb public areas such as subway stations, bus stops, shopping malls, city and town centres. They have also operated at rock concerts, nightclubs and pricey restaurants. Al Jazeera has witnessed the work of several such patrols. Each time, the officers refused to comment and be photographed. They approach any man in sight to check his ID and conscription document, a printout or a scan in a mobile phone that has a QR code. The code gives access to the man’s “conscription status” in a central database. That status had to be updated by mid-July when a conscription law took effect after months of deliberations and thousands of amendments. Every potential conscript had to provide details on his address, contacts, health, prior military service, and ability to handle weaponry, military equipment and vehicles. At the time, hours-long lines formed in front of conscription offices where staff were often interrupted by air raid sirens and blackouts caused by Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. In May, the government launched Reserv+, an app allowing Ukrainians to update their conscription status from their mobile phones. Those who did not now face punishment – their driving licences could be revoked or bank accounts frozen. If potential conscripts live abroad, consular services could be denied. ‘They round people up randomly’ Vitaly, a 23-year-old Kyiv native who studies engineering at a German university, was denied services at a Ukrainian consulate, his mother told Al Jazeera. He was told to ignore the app and return to Kyiv to “personally” update his status, she said. “Of course, he didn’t because they wouldn’t let him go back” to Germany, she said. “That’s how Ukraine lost one more national” because her son now plans to apply for German citizenship after graduation, she said. Back in Ukraine, the patrols are feared by some. “They round people up randomly, pack them into minibuses,” Boris, a 31-year-old man from the northeastern city of Kharkiv, told Al Jazeera. He said the patrols are able to detain men without checking their papers. “Five or six [officers] twist one’s arms and, oops, tomorrow you’re at the Desna boot [camp]” in the northern region of Chernihiv, he said. Boris could be immune to conscription if he becomes a legal carer for his disabled father, who had a heart attack this year. But he is afraid to even set foot in a conscription office with the paperwork. “People walk in there and end up in Desna a day later,” he said, referring to the camp Russian forces struck in May 2022 with two missiles, killing at least 87 conscripts. In late August, an official on patrol detained Andriy, a 27-year-old resident of Kyiv, as he was entering a subway station. A doctoral student who cannot be drafted, Andriy showed his QR-coded card. But he was forcibly taken to the nearest conscription office, where officers told him he would be on his way to a boot camp “within an hour”, he told Al Jazeera. “They pressured me skillfully,” he said. “It’s an assembly line of coercion.” But then a medical doctor refused to sign Andriy off because of myopia and astigmatism, and he was let go to get “additional paperwork”, he said. “It was a miracle,” he said. Violence and corruption There have also been multiple reports of violence towards potential conscripts. In late May, Serhiy Kovalchuk, a 32-year-old man, was beaten in a conscription office in the central city of Zhitomir and died in hospital six days later, his family told the Suspilne television network. Officials said Kovalchuk suffered a head trauma during an epileptic fit after several days of heavy drinking. Frequent violent detentions and the denial of access to the lawyers of potential conscripts constitute human rights abuses, according to Roman Likhachyov, a lawyer and member of the Center for Support for Veterans and Their Families, a group in
Families want justice, ‘blood money’ for AU peacekeeper killings in Somalia
Omar Hassan Warsame was a larger-than-life figure in the Somali town of Golweyn, where his sizeable farm provided maize, bananas and jobs that helped sustain the community. The 65-year-old and a contingent of up to a dozen of his employees would tend to crops on the plot in the Lower Shebelle region, some 110km (68 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu – which helped spare locals from the effects of the region’s recurring droughts. On August 10, 2021, African Union (AU) peacekeepers from Uganda converged on the farm. Renowned as a community representative, it was not uncommon for businessmen or officials to approach Omar. But, for reasons that remain unclear, the soldiers opened fire on him and four of his employees. “They killed them in cold blood,” Mohamed Abdi, a nephew of Omar’s, told Al Jazeera. “He was a community leader. A kind, charitable man who provided for the poor and cared for all his neighbours. The whole city mourned with us.” Seven civilians were killed in the Golweyn massacre, which prompted outrage across Somalia. Demonstrators took to the streets in Mogadishu and towns in Lower Shebelle demanding the withdrawal of foreign peacekeepers from the country. Eventually, a Ugandan court martial sentenced two soldiers to death and three others to lengthy prison terms, before a Ugandan court threw out the death sentences. The peacekeepers belonged to the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM. They were first deployed in 2007 to prevent a takeover of the country by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab, which seeks to overthrow Somalia’s government. While al-Shabab frequently engages in battles with peacekeepers and government forces, civilians have borne the brunt of its attacks. The armed group is estimated to have killed around 4,000 civilians in shootings, suicide bombings and other forms of violence between 2008 and 2020. AMISOM peacekeepers – composed of troops from countries in the region – were primarily tasked with countering al-Shabab’s influence, providing security in government-held areas and coordinating with fledgling Somali security forces. Backed by the United Nations, United States and other donor states, the AU peacekeepers have played a critical role in countering threats posed by the armed group. Ugandan peacekeepers with the African Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) in Mogadishu, in May 2022 [File: Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP] But reports about their involvement in abuses against civilians can be traced back to their initial years in the country. Rebranded as ATMIS (African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) in 2022, and now planning an end-of-the-year withdrawal from the country, families of victims say the AU owes them justice and “blood money” – financial compensation for their suffering. “They’re supposed to be peacekeepers, but they murder civilians,” Omar’s nephew Mohamed told Al Jazeera. “What makes them different from al-Shabab then?” Compensation for victims Since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has been plagued by internal fighting between rival strongmen, with a weak central government. Following the rise of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a political and military entity established by local Islamic law courts to govern the country, troops from neighbouring Ethiopia entered Somalia and drove the ICU from power in late 2006. The splintering of the ICU and the presence of Ethiopian troops, widely unpopular among Somalis for war crimes committed during fighting, fomented resistance. Eventually, hardliner elements of the former ICU went on to establish al-Shabab. International efforts to stabilise the country led to the establishment of the AU’s peacekeeping mandate in 2007. Ethiopian troops withdrew the bulk of their forces by early 2009 but always maintained a troop presence in Somalia, before merging them with the AMISOM force by 2014. Somalia’s international partners have invested billions into upgrading the country’s security apparatus. The national army’s ability to independently take on al-Shabab has increased over time, and the once-looming threat of an al-Shabab takeover of the capital Mogadishu has diminished considerably. But despite the nearly two-decade-long presence of African peacekeepers whose numbers have previously reached 20,000, swaths of the country remain under al-Shabab control, and government security forces struggle to expand their reach. The group’s capacity to carry out deadly attacks on civilian and military targets has hardly waned. In August, a suicide bombing and gun attack targeted beachgoers at the popular Lido Beach in Mogadishu, killing at least 32 people. With little in terms of concrete results on the ground, donor fatigue has led to cutbacks, including a reduction of $60m last year by the European Union. Funding shortages are reportedly among the reasons ATMIS plans to depart Somalia by the end of this year. Despite the financial woes, the EU successfully delivered $200m in funds meant to compensate the families of the estimated 3,500 AU peacekeepers who have died in Somalia since 2007. Mohamed El-Amine Souef, the current head of ATMIS [File: Fethi Belaid/Pool/AFP] But there is nothing earmarked for victims of peacekeeper violence, something ATMIS officials have tried to explain to the families. “Out of courtesy, I met with [family members] and explained that the consensus is that ATMIS is struggling financially to the point where we had to consider terminating the mission,” Comorian diplomat and current ATMIS political head Mohamed El-Amine Souef explained in a voice message sent to Al Jazeera. “As such, the matter of compensation is being jointly dealt with by Addis Ababa and Mogadishu and a technical team that deals with judicial and compensation-related matters.” Souef did not respond to follow-up questions on how a joint initiative between two governments whose bilateral ties are currently at their lowest in decades – over Ethiopia’s controversial plans to recognise the breakaway republic of Somaliland – was made possible. Last year, Souef told Voice of America that ATMIS needed at least $2m from donors to cover compensation requests in almost 80 cases of peacekeeper violence against civilians. These cases include killings, as well as critical and minor injuries, but the AU has not specified how many of each. Who can be held accountable? On August 12, 2017, following a battle with al-Shabab in the
An Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities could backfire
Since Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, there has been much speculation about how Tel Aviv will retaliate. Some observers have suggested that it could hit Iranian oil installations, and others, its nuclear facilities. US President Joe Biden’s administration seems to oppose both options, but it has approved the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system and United States troops to Israel, possibly in anticipation of an Iranian response to an Israeli strike. Meanwhile, Biden’s political adversary, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has egged on Israel to “hit the nuclear first”. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has also suggested the same. While Trump, Kushner and other staunch Israel supporters are happy to cheer on an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, they likely know very little about the consequences of another such Israeli attack that targeted an Iraqi nuclear site. Israel’s destruction of Iraq’s French-built Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981 actually pushed what was largely a peaceful nuclear programme underground and motivated Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to invest in the pursuit of a nuclear weapon. An aggressive act against Iran’s nuclear programme will likely have a similar effect. A ‘pre-emptive’ strike Iraq’s nuclear programme started in the 1960s with the USSR building a small nuclear research reactor and providing it with some know-how. In the 1970s, Iraq purchased a bigger reactor from France – called Osiraq – and expanded its civilian nuclear programme with significant French and Italian assistance. The French government had made sure that technical measures were in place to prevent any possible dual use of the reactor and it shared this information with the US, Israel’s closest ally. Iraq, which was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and had its nuclear sites inspected regularly by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was not “on the brink of” developing a nuclear weapon, as Israel falsely asserted. Nevertheless, the Israeli government, which was facing growing discontent domestically and a potential loss at the approaching legislative elections, decided to proceed with the “pre-emptive” strike. On June 7, 1981, US-made F-15 and F-16 fighter jets flew from Israel, refuelled mid-air, and carried out a strike on the Osiraq reactor, completely destroying it and killing three Iraqi civilians and one French engineer. The attack provoked nationalist fervour among Israelis that helped Prime Minister Menachem Begin pinch a narrow victory in the elections three weeks later. A trove of declassified US documents released in 2021 demonstrates that Israel’s strike did not eliminate Iraq’s programme, but rather made Saddam more determined to acquire a nuclear weapon. It also motivated more Iraqi scientists to sign up to work on their nation’s nuclear programme. As Iraqi nuclear scientist Jafar Dhia Jafar wrote in his memoir: “the Israeli bombing of Tammuz I [i.e. Osiraq] had infuriated many, and they were practically forming a line to participate in ending the Jewish state’s monopoly of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.” They proved to be more valuable to Saddam than the hardware – the reactor – that he lost in the attack. In the following years, Saddam’s regime made nuclear activities clandestine and started reaching out to nuclear powers like Pakistan to seek assistance in developing capabilities that could be used to produce a nuclear weapon. It also tried to rebuild the destroyed reactor. These efforts slowed down only in the early 1990s due to the first Gulf War, which decimated Iraqi infrastructure, and the subsequent sanctions, which drained state coffers. The consequences of a strike on Iran Over the past few years, a number of Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated. Most recently, in November 2020, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a nuclear physicist and high-ranking member of the nuclear programme, was shot dead in an ambush near Tehran. Iran has accused Israel of carrying out this assassination and others in the past. While these assassinations may have killed key cadres, they have inspired a new generation of Iranians to pursue nuclear science, part of an Iranian “nuclear nationalism” emerging as a result of the constant attacks on Iran’s nuclear programme. The events since October 7, 2023 have further fuelled this sentiment. A poll conducted between February and May this year showed that not only has public support in Iran for a peaceful nuclear programme remained incredibly high, but that now there is a growing public consensus the country should acquire a nuclear weapon. Some 69 percent of the respondents in the survey said they would support it. Clearly, Israel’s actions so far are only increasing Iranian determination to continue its nuclear programme. A strike on any of its nuclear facilities would make that determination even stronger. And if we are to go by the Iraqi example, it may drive the Iranian nuclear programme underground and accelerate it towards the development of a nuclear weapon. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself in his predecessor Begin’s shoes. He is also leading a government widely criticised for various failures, including the one on October 7, 2023. He is also desperate to show the Israeli public a “victory”. But what Netanyahu is doing in Gaza and Lebanon now and will do in Iran will not bring victory to Israel. His strategy produces resentment in these countries and across the Middle East, which will help Iran and its allies rebuild swiftly whatever capabilities they lose to reckless Israeli strikes. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)