Hamas studying Gaza truce plan as Israeli hardliners threaten PM
Hamas has confirmed that it is studying a proposal for a truce in Gaza, while hardline members of the Israeli government have threatened to collapse the coalition if any deal is not to their liking. The Palestinian group’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh confirmed on Tuesday that he is studying the proposal, thrashed out in Paris over the weekend, to halt the war and enable the exchange of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners. Haniyeh said in a statement that the group is “open to discussing any serious and practical initiatives or ideas, provided that they lead to a comprehensive cessation of aggression”. Hamas also said that the plan must ensure the “complete withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip”. The group’s leadership, he said, had received an invitation to Cairo to reach an “integrated vision” on the framework agreement. He also expressed appreciation for the role played by Qatar and Egypt in mediating the deal. Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, said on Monday that “good progress” was made on a possible deal during meetings between intelligence officials from Egypt, Israel and the United States over the weekend. The sides discussed a proposal that would include a phased truce. The release of women and children would follow, with humanitarian aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip. The Qatari prime minister noted that Hamas has previously demanded a permanent ceasefire as a precondition to enter negotiations. However, he suggested that there is hope its stance may have shifted. “I believe we moved from that place to a place that potentially might lead to a ceasefire permanently in the future,” he said. Escalation The proposals were circulated to Hamas as fighting intensified in Gaza. Heavy Israeli strikes and urban combat across the besieged enclave killed 128 more people overnight, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. An Israeli ‘hit squad’ also killed three men that it labelled as “terrorists” in an undercover operation at a hospital in the occupied West Bank. “The world must put pressure on the occupation to stop these massacres and war crimes, including the policy of torture to which our people are exposed in the areas of the West Bank, executions and arrests,” said Haniyeh. Amidst the uptick in fighting, Israel has charged that around a dozen staff of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) took part in the October 7 attack, leading key donor countries including the United States and Germany to suspend funding. Haniyeh said that the decision of countries to suspend contributions was a “clear violation” of last week’s International Court of Justice interim ruling, which called for increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza. Countries cutting aid support Israel’s “occupation through starvation and siege”, the Hamas chief asserted. ‘Government split’ The truce proposal has stirred division in the Israeli government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under significant pressure from the families of the remaining captives held by Hamas to reach a deal to secure their release. Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and took about 240 captives on October 7. However, he is also being pushed to continue the war by hardline coalition partners and has pledged that the assault on Gaza will continue until Hamas is destroyed. Commenting on the reported truce deal on Tuesday, far-right Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir appeared to suggest that a deal with Hamas would trigger a government collapse. “Reckless deal = Government split,” Ben-Gvir wrote on X. עסקה מופקרת = פירוק הממשלה — איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) January 30, 2024 The national security minister is known for his inflammatory commentary on the conflict. However, his Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party is a major player in Israel’s ruling coalition. Adblock test (Why?)
Global corruption fight faltering as rule of law declines: Watchdog
Global efforts to fight corruption are faltering as the rule of law retreats, Transparency International (TI) said in its latest report. The watchdog reported on Tuesday, as it published the 2023 edition of its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), that 23 countries have fallen to their lowest-ever level in the global ranking index. “There has been a global decline in justice and the rule of law since 2016,” TI, which has issued the CPI annually for almost three decades, said. “Weakening justice systems that reduce the accountability of public officials is a key factor in allowing corruption to thrive globally.” “Corruption will continue to thrive until justice systems can punish wrongdoing and keep governments in check,” added the NGO’s Chair Francois Valerian in a statement. “Leaders should fully invest in and guarantee the independence of institutions that uphold the law and tackle corruption.” The organisation’s CEO Daniel Eriksson said corruption worsens social injustice and disproportionately affects the most vulnerable in society. “In many countries, obstacles to justice for victims of corruption persist,” he said. “It is time to break the barriers and ensure people can access justice effectively.” TI assesses the perception of corruption using 13 data sources, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and private risk and consulting firms. It assigns rankings on a scale from 0 (“highly corrupt”) to 100 (“very clean”) for 180 countries and territories. Notably, high-scoring democracies like Iceland, the Netherlands and Sweden experienced a decline in the 2023 index. Countries perceived as more authoritarian, such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela, also saw their scores drop. 🔵 OUT NOW! We analysed 180 countries to see how they scored in the fight against corruption. Check out your country’s score! #CPI2023 https://t.co/0ZNQZqjgrL — Transparency International (@anticorruption) January 30, 2024 Denmark led the index for the sixth consecutive year, with a score of 90. It was followed by Finland with 87 and New Zealand with 85. Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg rounded out the top 10. The United States’ rank was unchanged, scoring 69 points to remain in 24th place. At the other end of the scale, Somalia came in bottom with a score of 11 points. It was followed by South Sudan, Syria and Venezuela with 13 each. Yemen scored 16; Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, North Korea and Nicaragua were marked at 17. The global average for 2023 was unchanged at 43 for the 12th consecutive year. More than two-thirds of countries scored below 50. Only eight countries improved their ranking, including Ireland, South Korea, Maldives and Vietnam. In the Asia Pacific region, TI said there was “little to no meaningful progress” toward fighting corruption. It also expressed concerns about “opacity and undue influence” in justice systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. Arab countries’ average score on the index hit an all-time low of 34, while sub-Saharan Africa remained stagnant at 33. Even in Western Europe and the European Union, the best-performing region, TI found that “weak accountability and political corruption are diminishing public trust and enabling narrow interest groups to exert excessive control over political decision-making”. Ukraine, with a score of 36, continued an 11-year improvement despite Russia’s invasion, by focusing on reforms of the judicial system, which are an element of its bid to join the EU. However, the report said that “the existence of a significant number of high-level corruption cases remains a major concern”. Russia’s score dropped to 26. Transparency International said that the government’s “pervasive control of public institutions facilitates the widespread abuse of power without accountability” while judicial independence is eroding. Adblock test (Why?)
Could Trump lose his business empire in New York fraud case?
Former US President Donald Trump could be banned from the real estate business in New York, a potentially devastating blow to his real estate empire that catapulted him to fame long before winning the White House. Trump is accused of securing loans with false financial statements for several years. After a heated trial that lasted more than three months, a Manhattan court is set to announce its ruling this week. The New York fraud case is only one of several trials heating up against Trump even as he inched closer to securing the Republican presidential nomination following his decisive victory in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary earlier this month. Here’s what we know about this civil case and how it might affect Trump’s presidential campaign: What’s the case about? New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the civil lawsuit against the former president, The Trump Organization, and top officials at the business on September 21, 2023 – although an inquiry into the former president’s business dealings had been ongoing for about three years prior. In the filing, James accused Trump and officials at The Trump Organization – including his children, Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr – of “knowingly and intentionally” creating over 200 overly-inflated financial evaluations between 2011 and 2021 that helped the company secure favourable loans from banks and insurance companies to the tune of $250m. Those actions violated the antifraud New York Executive Law, James wrote in her suit, seeking a $250m penalty against Trump. Senior Trump Organization executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey Mcconney were also named as defendants, alongside companies and entities belonging to Trump such as 40 Wall Street, a skyscraper in Manhattan’s financial district. Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump are co-defendants in the case. What did the judge say about Trump? In a summary judgment on September 27, 2023, that essentially resolved the key claims in the suit, presiding Judge Arthur Engoron of the Manhattan Supreme Court ruled that Trump had committed years of fraud by massively inflating his real estate worth to lenders. His Mar-a-Lago estate, for example, was found to be inflated to about 2,300 percent of its actual price in one statement. Judge Engoron dissolved some companies belonging to the former president and also ordered to revoke the business licence of The Trump Organization, and appointed an independent monitor to oversee the company. Trump has denied wrongdoing and appealed the initial ruling. An appeal court in October temporarily halted the business dissolution part of the ruling. Trump’s lawyers argued some 1,000 employees could be affected. James’s team said it was willing to pause enforcement pending a final decision. In the charged follow-up trial to decide other claims in the attorney general’s lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers asked for the suit to be thrown out, arguing that it was politically motivated; that his accountants carried the blame for false financial statements; and that no particular individuals or entities had been hurt by said statements. Could this affect Trump’s political campaign? Trump’s presidential campaign has played on the civil suit – and the myriad of legal challenges that the Republican frontrunner faces, ahead of the presidential elections in November. The former president has appeared at court cases he is not legally required to attend, making impassioned speeches to rally his supporters behind opponents trying to block his re-election, targeting not just him but his supporters too. He has also used those court appearances to lash out at state officials. Trump accused James, the New York attorney general, of targeting him for political reasons, calling her a “political hack” who won her post because she promised to go after him. Despite the judge’s refusal, Trump spoke in court at the closing of the fraud trials on January 11, saying that the case was a “fraud on me”. “We have a situation where I’m an innocent man, I’ve been persecuted by someone running for office,” Trump said, referring to James, a Democrat who attempted to run for New York governor in the 2022 elections but later dropped out. “They want to make sure that I don’t win again,” he added. Throughout the three-month trial, Trump spoke insultingly of the judge to his supporters, saying Engoron was a biased “Trump hater.” He also attacked Allison Greenfield, Engoron’s law clerk, on his social media platform Truth Social, saying she was “politically biased and out of control”. Judge Engoron slapped a gag order on the former president and later fined him $15,000 for breaching it. Could Trump face criminal penalties? Civil cases like this usually result in monetary penalties and bans called injunctions, as opposed to criminal cases that often end up in jail time. James, in her suit against Trump, had recommended punishment: for the former president and his children to be stripped of their leadership roles at The Trump Organization, and for Trump and the business to be barred from any real estate buys in New York for the next five years. Additionally, the attorney general recommended that Trump and The Trump Organization be forbidden from accessing any loans for five years and that independent monitors and trustees be appointed for The Trump Organization. As Judge Engoron’s final ruling looms, it will likely complement his previous decisions that some of Trump’s companies have their licences revoked, some be dissolved and others be monitored independently. 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Witness of war: Through Motaz’s lens
Motaz Azaiza, photojournalist from Gaza, joins us for a personal conversation about his experiences during the war. For 107 days, the world saw the horrors of Israel’s war on Gaza unfold through the lens of photojournalist Motaz Azaiza. Millions followed his work on social media platforms and many of his followers saluted him as a hero. But where to go from here? How does one heal if their home and people remain under attack? Presenter: Anelise Borges Guest: Motaz Azaiza – photojournalist Adblock test (Why?)
Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan, top aide get 10-year jail in state secrets case
A Pakistan court has sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to 10 years jail in a case related to the leaking of state secrets. The special court in capital Islamabad on Tuesday announced the sentence in the so-called cypher case, which pertains to a diplomatic cable that Khan claims proves his allegation that his removal from power in 2022 was a conspiracy. More to come… Adblock test (Why?)
N Korea fires ‘several’ cruise missiles in third test in less than a week
Pyongyang is ramping up arms testing as it seeks to develop more sophisticated weaponry. North Korea has carried out a third test of its cruise missiles in less than a week, firing the weapons into the waters off its west coast. South Korea’s military “detected several unknown cruise missiles launched into the West Sea of North Korea around 07:00 [22:00 GMT]”, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The South Korean and US intelligence agencies were analysing the data, it added. North Korea is not banned from testing cruise missiles under longstanding United Nations sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme and has already carried out two tests over the past week. On Monday, state media said leader Kim Jong Un had “guided” the launch of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles, known as the Pulhwasal-3-31, over the weekend, a few days after South Korea detected several cruise missiles being launched from the country’s west coast. Pyongyang has forged ahead with weapons testing amid rising tensions on the peninsula as Kim modernises the country’s military and develops more sophisticated weaponry. Since the start of the year, it has also launched what it said was a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile as well as a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone. Japan, South Korea and the United States, meanwhile, have been expanding their combined military exercises – which Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals – and sharpening their deterrence strategies built around nuclear-capable US assets. In recent weeks, Kim has declared South Korea his country’s “principal enemy”, and shut down agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach. Adblock test (Why?)
No rest for Gaza’s dead with rushed burials, bodies desecrated
Even the dead are not spared by the war raging in the Gaza Strip, with bodies dug up by Israeli soldiers and hurried burials taking place in hospitals and even a school. In Gaza City’s Tuffah district, shrouded corpses of Palestinians removed from their graves lay atop muddied earth. The desecration is part of a pattern which the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs of Palestine in the Hamas-run strip said has seen more than 2,000 graves damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces across the territory. The Israeli military said it “in no way targets cemeteries as such, and has no policy of harming or desecrating cemeteries”. But it also said “cemeteries or specific gravesites, like other civilian sites or structures, can come to be damaged” during the war. Responding to allegations that soldiers have snatched bodies from graves, the military told the AFP news agency that it acts “in the specific locations where information indicates that the bodies of hostages may be located”. “Bodies determined not [to] be those of hostages are returned with dignity and respect,” it said in a statement. The current conflict broke out following Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel in which about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, were killed. Hamas also took some 250 people captive. Israel says 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 people. Israel’s relentless military offensive has killed at least 26,637 people in Gaza, most of them women and children. People walk at a makeshift cemetery, parts of which the Israeli army reportedly bulldozed to exhume bodies, in the eastern Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City. [AFP] ‘Their souls trembled’ At a school packed with displaced people in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, Saida Jaber recalled seeing footage on social media of the destroyed cemetery at the Jabalia refugee camp. “I felt that my heart would stop,” said Saida, adding that her father, grandparents and other relatives were buried at the site in northern Gaza. “I felt that their souls trembled … I can’t imagine how anyone dares to dig up graves and violate the sanctity of the dead,” Saida said. With no stop to the fighting, many Palestinians in Gaza have been unable to reach cemeteries and have instead turned to makeshift graveyards. At a school-turned-shelter in the central Maghazi refugee camp, a woman touched the sandy earth where her daughter had been buried in the yard. “My daughter died in my arms … we waited day and night and couldn’t send her to the emergency room,” said the woman, who did not give her name. She said missiles hit the school compound and ignited gas canisters, causing deadly explosions. A man tending to the site said more than 50 people are buried there, each grave containing three or four bodies, with their names written either on bricks or the adjacent wall. Young men sit by the shallow tomb of a person killed by Israeli air raids at a makeshift cemetery in a residential neighbourhood near Gaza City’s al-Shabiyah district. [AFP] ‘Die of grief’ The number of deaths is so high that victims of Israeli attacks have been buried in mass graves across Gaza. Rows of bodies have been buried in the grounds of al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, where people have separated graves with stones and plant branches. “If we went to the cemetery, they [Israeli forces] might bomb us and we’d die,” said Arfan Dadar, 46, living in a tent with his family in the hospital compound. Dadar said Israeli soldiers shot dead his 22-year-old son while he was returning to the hospital in Gaza City. “I marked his grave, [but] now the hospital park is crammed with mass graves. I barely recognise my son’s grave,” he said. Palestinians in Gaza have said they hope they can move their dead once the war ends. Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, said he had “no choice” but to bury his son in an overcrowded cemetery in southern Rafah after the young journalist was killed in an Israeli attack. “We will transfer him to the martyrs cemetery in Gaza after the end of the war. We want his grave to be near to us so that we can visit him and pray for him,” Dahdouh said. Jaber said she longed to return to Jabalia to check on the graves of her relatives. “I will die of grief if they were also swept away.” Adblock test (Why?)
Voices of the occupied West Bank: ‘I’ll keep speaking with love’
Occupied West Bank – In a continuation of Al Jazeera’s conversations with people in the occupied West Bank about how they view the endless tragic news from the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip and the realities of trying to make a life as a Palestinian under occupation, here are four Palestinians’ stories: A young Christian man bewildered at how the message of peace and forgiveness that was born with Christ in Palestine could be forgotten so cruelly. A human rights defender whose life’s work has been to protect the people of Palestine from the usurpation of their rights. A father who wakes every day with dread because he is terrified that one of his children in Gaza has been killed overnight. And a mother whose son made the ultimate sacrifice of his young life because he took the only path he thought he could to fight against injustice. Note: Interviews have been edited for length and clarity. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 705
As the war enters its 705th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Tuesday, January 30, 2024. Fighting Russia claimed to have taken control of Tabaivka, a tiny village on the front line in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. Ukraine denied the claim and said fighting continued. Alexei Kulemzin, the Russian-installed mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Donetsk, blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that killed at least three people and injured three more. Politics and diplomacy Hungary signalled its readiness to compromise on a proposed 50 billion euro ($54bn) European Union aid package for Ukraine. Balazs Orban, a top aide to Prime Minister Victor Orban, said Budapest had sent a proposal to Brussels on Saturday showing it was open to using the EU budget for the aid package and issuing common EU debt to finance it, provided other “caveats” were added. The EU is due to hold an emergency summit on the budget on Thursday. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said they prepared the ground for a meeting of their leaders during talks in western Ukraine, and also agreed to work together on the divisive issue of Hungarian minority rights in Ukraine. United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that all advances in Ukraine would be “in jeopardy” if Congress failed to approve new aid for Kyiv. Republicans are blocking a $61bn assistance package and want it linked to tougher immigration policies. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg met top officials in the US, including Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Stoltenberg is in Washington, DC to rally support for a Ukraine deal and is due to meet members of Congress involved in the aid debate on Tuesday. United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Cameron called on Moscow to reveal the whereabouts of Vladimir Kara-Murza, after his wife said he had been moved from a Siberian penal colony to an unknown location. Kara-Murza, who has Russian and UK citizenship, was jailed for 25 years last April for treason and spreading “false information” about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (left) held talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (right) and presidential aide Andriy Yermak in western Ukraine [Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary/Handout via Reuters] Members of the Russian rock group Bi-2, who have condemned the war in Ukraine, face deportation to Russia after they were arrested in Thailand for working without a permit. Russian authorities labelled the band’s lead singer, Igor Bortnick, a “foreign agent” after he criticised President Vladimir Putin online. A Russian court jailed a 72-year-old woman to five and half years in prison after she shared two posts online about Russian military casualties in Ukraine. Rights groups said Yevgeniya Maiboroda from the southern Rostov region was charged with spreading “false information” about the armed forces. Weapons Sales of US military equipment to foreign governments rose 16 percent in 2023 to a record $238bn, according to the US State Department, as countries sought to replenish arsenals sent to Ukraine and prepare for major conflicts. Sales during the year included National Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) to Ukraine, as well as weapons for Poland and Germany. Adblock test (Why?)
In Myanmar’s Kayah, medics treat war wounded in hidden hospitals
Kayah State, Myanmar – When the military seized power in February 2021, Dr Ye was living a life many young people in Myanmar only dream of – working as a doctor in London. Hailing from a military-supporting family, he had given little thought to politics before then. “Before the coup, I was brainwashed by them,” the 32-year-old told Al Jazeera during an interview in southern Shan State in December. “The coup enlightened me.” But it also left him reeling with survivors’ guilt. He watched from afar as hundreds of people his age and younger were gunned down in the streets during peaceful pro-democracy protests. Soon, those protests morphed into an armed uprising, with the military deploying mass reprisals against the civilian population. “For a while, I was donating money, but I wasn’t happy with that. Every morning when I woke up, I was depressed seeing news about the killings, the bombings, the burned down villages,” he said. At his lowest point, Dr Ye even attempted suicide. “I decided I had to come back and participate in the revolution physically,” he said. In April 2022, he travelled to Kayah State, which shares a mountainous border with Thailand. A coalition of anti-coup armed groups has carved out significant territory there and in neighbouring southern Shan. Dr Ye’s decision to move to this “liberated area” caused a rift in his family because his father is an official in the regime’s prison department in the nation’s capital of Naypyidaw. “We totally split up, we don’t talk at all any more,” he said, adding that his father had even threatened him with arrest. “I don’t think he’ll ever change his mind.” A PDF fighter in Demoso shows off the tattoo he had inked to mark the date he was injured by a military RPG [Andrew Nachemson/Al Jazeera] His background as a paediatrician made Dr Ye valuable in treating the many children displaced by the conflict, but like all healthcare professionals in Kayah, he is also a temporary war medic. “I have to stabilise the vital signs, check the blood pressure and heart rate,” he said, of patients brought in after being injured in the conflict. Raining down bombs When a resistance fighter was rushed into her clinic in east Demoso with a serious injury to his right leg from an air attack, Dr May got to work despite the buzz of warplanes overhead. “We could hear the sound of a fighter jet flying over us, but we couldn’t run anywhere because we had to resuscitate the soldier. So, we just had to stay there and accept whatever might come,” said the 33-year-old, who worked as a general practitioner at a private hospital in Mawlamyine before the coup. “I could work in a private hospital again or go abroad, but if I did that I’d feel like I wasn’t doing my duty for my country, for my people,” she said. In the first half of 2023, east Demoso was one of the worst conflict zones in the country, and Dr May took to sleeping in a bomb shelter. “Every day when I woke up, I heard the sound of artillery, and sometimes at 2 or 3am, we’d hear a fighter jet flying over our heads,” she said. “We literally lived beneath the soil in the bunker. We had to sleep there, we had to eat there because we didn’t feel safe on the surface any more.” Kayah has been hit by multiple air attacks by the military, which is fighting forces opposed to its February 2021 coup [Andrew Nachemson/Al Jazeera] When Al Jazeera visited east Demoso on January 4, it was eerily quiet. Fighting had since shifted to Loikaw, the state capital, but few civilians had returned home, leaving the area largely devoid of people. Dr May said the military targets healthcare facilities because it knows resistance fighters receive treatment there, even though common civilians also rely on them for life-saving care. “Because we’ve been taking care of our comrades, including war injuries, and that’s not good for these …,” she pauses thinking of the right word. “These dogs.” Since the coup, people in Myanmar have taken to referring to regime soldiers as sit-kway, or “military dogs”. The Geneva Convention says that health facilities and mobile health units “may in no circumstances be attacked”. A resistance fighter injured by a landmine gets treatment at a clandestine hospital in Kayah [Andrew Nachemson/Al Jazeera] After months of near-misses, Dr May’s hospital was hit by an air raid in May 2023. “It felt like I’m suddenly on a battlefield, I’m inside my own coffin, everything flashed before my eyes,” she said. Luckily, nobody was killed, but the inpatient buildings were destroyed. Dr May’s hospital has since moved to a more stable area in the state and Dr Ye said his facility has also relocated three or four times. Dr Oak, who did autopsies of the victims of the Christmas Eve massacre, said he has had to move twice as well. Once, a missile landed next to his hospital in Nanmekhon in Demoso township. The second time, an air raid hit his facility in northern Loikaw township. Dr Oak was taking a break, using the internet in town, but four of his medics were killed. For this reason, most hospitals in Kayah are not only hidden but also come equipped with bomb shelters. On the front lines When Al Jazeera visited one of these clandestine hospitals in late December, a member of the Demoso People’s Defence Force (PDF) was groaning in his bed. “It hurts so much I can’t sleep,” he said. The PDF is a pro-democracy armed group with units spread out across the country. The fighter’s legs had been badly injured by an air attack in Loikaw; doctors had already amputated one of his feet. Half of the 12 patients in the hospital had been injured by landmines in Moebye, a town in southern Shan that is mostly controlled by the resistance. The military seemingly rigged it with