SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS

epubdos : Afghanistan

Prepared for the U.S. Department of State

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

By TechMIS
www.TechMIS.com

Mobile User Copy

TO:	SCA & Staff
DATE:	Friday, July 26, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan

Taliban start building road for huge Chinese copper mining project (Reuters)

Reuters [7/25/2024 8:51 AM, Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Charlotte Greenfield, 85570K, Neutral]
Afghanistan’s Taliban administration this week began construction of a road to the remote site of a huge copper mine that Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) confirmed it was planning to start operating though it did not know when.

The developments were among the clearest signals since the Taliban took over in 2021 that both sides planned to move ahead with the project after its launch has been mired by delays for over a decade.

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If it goes ahead, the project would be one of the biggest in Afghanistan’s history and the Taliban estimate it would create 3,000 direct jobs for Afghans and thousands more indirectly.

Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth has been trumpeted as a path to economic independence. But instability has repeatedly hampered past projects, even under the previous Western-backed government.

An MCC-led Chinese consortium took out a 30-year lease for the mine with the Afghan government in 2008.

Taliban acting deputy prime minister Mullah Baradar at a ceremony to launch the road’s construction on Wednesday said the project was of "vital significance", according to a statement.

He highlighted: "the urgency of initiating practical work without further delay, given the considerable time already lost."

China’s ambassador and a technical team for MCC also attended the ceremony in Mohammad Agha, the nearest town in eastern Logar province to the site, according to the statement.

A spokesperson for MCC’s investor relations told Reuters on Thursday that they were not sure when operations would begin but that they did plan to push for the mine to start operations.

An MCC source told Reuters in 2021 that it could take five to six years to build infrastructure for mining there but the project could not go anywhere while safety concerns lingered.

China has signalled interest in mining investment in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and has spoken with the Taliban about its plans to join Beijing’s Belt and Road Infrastructure plan.

Mired by banking restrictions, Afghanistan has plunged into economic crisis since the Taliban took over and no foreign government has formally recognised their government.

The Taliban say they have focused on restoring security after 20 years of war. However attacks, including on foreign targets and a hotel popular with Chinese businesspeople, have been carried out by militant groups including the Islamic State.

China Breaks Ground On Massive Afghan Copper Mine After 16 Years Of Delays (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [7/25/2024 8:00 AM, Staff, 1530K, Negative]
Chinese engineers and the Taliban government officially started work on a massive project in Afghanistan to mine the world’s second-largest deposit of copper.

At the July 24 event at Mes Aynak, some 40 kilometers southeast of the capital, Kabul, Taliban officials along with Chinese businessmen and diplomats carried out a ribbon-cutting ceremony as work began on the construction of a road to the mining site.

A $3 billion deal signed in 2008 gave the Chinese state-owned China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) a 30-year mining concession, but combat between NATO-led troops and Taliban insurgents at the time delayed the project from moving forward for 16 years.

With violence waning since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of power amid the withdrawal of foreign troops, the cash-strapped Taliban-installed government is eager to exploit the country’s vast and lucrative mineral deposits.

"The time wasted in the implementation of the project should be recuperated with speedy work," Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdul Ghani Baradar said at the ribbon-cutting event.

Taliban officials said it would likely be at least two years before the first copper was extracted by MCC while Chinese diplomats praised the progress as a sign of warming ties between Beijing and Kabul.

"The economic and trade relations between the two countries are becoming increasingly close," said China’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Xing.

Since it seized power, the Taliban has faced the task of undertaking the reconstruction and development of a country devastated by decades of war.

But officials have also found their economy suffocated by Western sanctions and dealing with international isolation that has cut them off from receiving financial support.

China has been an exception for the Taliban government, with Beijing vowing to pursue deeper cooperation shortly after the group took control of Kabul.

Beijing has been particularly focused on exploiting Afghanistan’s extensive resource wealth, from oil and gas to rare-earth metals.

Mes Aynak remains one of the most attractive offerings for Chinese firms. The deposit is estimated to contain 11.5 million tons of copper ore, which is vital for electronics components and is surging in value due to its use in growing markets related to electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

According to a Brookings Institute report, Afghanistan sits on some 2.3 billion metric tons of iron ore and 1.4 million metric tons of rare-earth minerals, and the U.S. Geological Survey has calculated that the country is sitting on $1 trillion in untapped minerals, such as iron, gold, and lithium -- an essential but scarce component in rechargeable batteries and other technologies.

Amir Mohammad Musazai, a retired professor from the Department of Geology and Mines at Kabul Polytechnic University, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that mining Mes Aynak is likely to yield amounts of copper ore worth more than the $3 billion that was signed for the mining rights, given that nearby areas also hold large copper reserves that weren’t factored into the original plans.

While the groundbreaking event at Mes Aynak is a sign that Chinese resource ventures are moving forward in the country after decades of delays due to war, security concerns are still a major hurdle holding back more expansive projects, which often rely on Chinese engineers and other staff.

The July 24 ceremony was closely guarded by dozens of armed men and Taliban officials made assurances that they would protect staff at the mining project.

Chinese workers have increasingly become a target of attacks in the region, including a suicide attack that killed five Chinese enginners in Pakistan in March and a 2021 bombing that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, at a dam project in the South Asian country.

In Afghanistan, at least five Chinese nationals were wounded when gunmen stormed a Kabul hotel popular with Beijing businessmen in 2022.

Pakistan

Pakistan’s finance minister in Beijing to seek debt relief, say sources (Reuters)

Reuters [7/25/2024 12:23 PM, Asif Shahzad, 42991K, Neutral]
Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb arrived in Beijing on Thursday for talks on power sector debt relief alongside structural reforms suggested by the International Monetary Fund, two government sources said.

He held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing, they said, and is leading a delegation, along with Power Minister Awais Leghari, that will discuss several proposals, including reprofiling nearly $15 billion in energy sector debt.

As the meeting progressed, Pakistan’s bonds slid lower, with the 2036 maturity down 1.73 cents to bid at 73.05 cents on the dollar by 1415 GMT, according to Tradeweb data, its lowest since April.

The countries, which share a border, have been longtime allies, and rollovers or disbursements on loans from China have helped Pakistan meet its external financing needs in the past.

The IMF this month agreed on a $7 billion bailout for the heavily indebted South Asian economy, while raising concerns over high rates of power theft and distribution losses that result in debt accumulating across the production chain.

The government is implementing structural reforms to reduce "circular debt" - public liabilities that build up in the power sector due to subsidies and unpaid bills - by 100 billion Pakistani rupees ($360 million) a year, Leghari has said.

On Thursday he said on X that he and the finance minister had briefed Chinese Minister of Finance Lan Fo’an on Pakistan’s "efforts to introduce tax and energy reforms in the system".

A statement from Pakistan’s finance ministry said that Aurangzeb informed the Chinese side about the economic reform agenda, efforts to strengthen tax revenue generation, and energy and state-owned enterprise reform. He described the deal between the IMF and Pakistan as an important enabler to execute the reform agenda, it added.

The Chinese finance ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Both the finance and power ministers told Reuters in interviews last week that they would be discussing the power sector reforms in their Beijing visit, though they did not specify the timing.

Poor and middle-class households have been affected by a previous IMF bailout reached last year, which included raising power tariffs as part of the funding programme that ended in April.

China has set up over $20 billion worth of planned energy projects in Pakistan.

New Extremist Groups -- At Least In Name -- Enter Pakistan’s Militant Scene (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [7/25/2024 9:01 AM, Daud Khattak, 1530K, Negative]
Suicide bombers and gunmen penetrated a military base in northwestern Pakistan last week, killing eight soldiers.

It was just the latest in a string of deadly attacks to hit the South Asian country, where militant violence has surged in recent years.

But what was significant about the July 15 attack in the city of Bannu was the group that claimed responsibility -- Jaish Fursan-e Muhammad (JFM) -- a previously unknown militant outfit.

JFM is among several new militant groups that have announced their arrival on the crowded militant scene in Pakistan in recent months.

But experts believe the new actors are in fact fronts for existing groups, including the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the most lethal militant organization waging war against Islamabad.

JFM is a believed to be a front for Hafiz Gul Bahadar (HGB), a separate extremist group. The group is named after its leader, a former TTP commander.

Tehrik-e Jihad Pakistan (TJP), another militant group that announced its emergence last year, is considered by experts to be a front for the TTP. It marked its arrival with a spectacular attack on a key air base in the eastern province of Punjab in November.

Experts say the fronts have allowed the TTP and HGB -- which are coming under military pressure from Islamabad -- to maintain a position of plausible deniability.

"All these groups are either part of the TTP or Hafiz Gul Bahadar," said Mansur Mehsud, director of the FATA Research Center, an Islamabad-based nonprofit organization. "This is part of the TTP and HGB’s strategy to create confusion."

‘Using Different Names’

The TTP and HGB are both believed to be based in Afghanistan, where the Afghan Taliban seized power in 2021.

Experts say the Taliban takeover has emboldened and strengthened Pakistani militants. The withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan has significantly reduced U.S. air strikes in the region, allowing militants to operate more freely.

TTP and HGB fighters have also obtained sophisticated weaponry, including U.S.-made firearms, left behind by international forces.

Pakistan has accused the Afghan Taliban of sheltering the TTP, with which it has close ideological and organizational ties.

Pakistan has used pressure tactics, observers say, to force the Afghan Taliban to sever ties with the TTP, including by expelling hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, shutting key border crossings, and blocking Afghan transit goods in recent years.

Islamabad has also conducted deadly cross-border attacks targeting alleged TTP hideouts in eastern Afghanistan.

The Afghan Taliban has tried to appease Pakistan by relocating TTP fighters away from the border with Pakistan to other areas of Afghanistan and brokering a year of peace talks between the Pakistani militants and Islamabad that broke down. But the Afghan militants have refused to expel the TTP from Afghanistan.

Each major TTP attack inside Pakistan has been followed by Islamabad issuing condemnations and summoning the Afghan Taliban’s ambassador in protest.

"The [Pakistani] Taliban are strong, but also under pressure," said Muhammad Amir Rana, an Islamabad-based security and political analyst. "They are using different names as part of their strategy and also to avoid pressure."

Mehsud of the FATA Research Center said the "TTP sometimes deliberately avoids large-scale attacks just to avoid pressure" from the Afghan Taliban, which he said has tried to convince its Pakistani ally to rein in its attacks.

‘Security Situation Is Very Bad’

The TTP and HGB as well as their affiliates have concentrated most of their attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the northwestern province along the border with Afghanistan that has long been a hotbed of militancy.

Several other militant groups that have attracted less headlines have also recently emerged in the region. They include Lashkar-e Khorasan, a militant group believed to be a front for the TTP. The other is the Shaheen Group, which is considered a front for the HGB. Both groups have claimed attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent months.

Pakistan earlier this year said the military would launch a new offensive to root out militants in the northwest, without offering details.

The planned military operation has been fiercely opposed by locals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the scene of numerous offensives that have killed thousands and uprooted millions of civilians in the past.

Thousands of people rallied in Bannu on July 19 to call for an end to military operations in the region. The demonstration turned violent and security forces fired on protesters, killing one person. Since then, thousands of people have been participating in a sit-in protest in Bannu.

Rana, the Islamabad-based analyst, says Pakistan faces no good choices in its battle to curb the soaring number of militant attacks in the country.

If it launches a deadly military assault, it will attract the wrath of the public. If it targets alleged TTP strongholds inside Afghanistan, it will further escalate tensions with the Afghan Taliban, he says.

"The security situation is very bad," Rana said. "This is the peak of it now."

Pashtuns in Pakistan oppose military offensive in borderlands (VOA)

VOA [7/25/2024 9:04 PM, Nafees Takar, 4032K, Negative]
Militant attacks in Pakistan’s northwest have plagued the region for years, leading to tensions between some of the region’s civilian leaders and the Pakistani military.

Last month, the military announced the Azm-e-Istehkam or “Resolve for Stability” offensive would be an operation that cracks down on militants, but after a decade of similar interventions, many residents in the region are wary.

This week, a man recorded a video while standing next to debris from a girls school that militants blew up Monday night in a small village in the North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He lamented how violent the province has become, especially compared with other, more peaceful parts of Pakistan.

“We never heard that a school was blown up in Punjab,” Pakistan’s most populous province and home to the majority of the country’s armed forces, he said.

Mohsin Dawar, the former chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Pakistan’s lower house, posted video of the destroyed school on the X platform with a comment, “The state stands by, complicit in the destruction.”

Monday’s destruction of the girls school was not unusual. Last week there were attacks on police stations, a hospital and an army base, all in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province about the same size as Iceland or South Korea.

After years of violence, the local Pashtun population is questioning why peace has not returned to the border region despite the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from neighboring Afghanistan.

The ongoing militant attacks have boosted support for a local rights movement, the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, which is leading a series of mass peace rallies aimed at holding Pakistan’s military accountable for its track record in combating terrorism.

The group is the major voice opposing the government’s plan to launch another military operation in the region to try to drive out militants and end the attacks.

The prospect of another military offensive has drawn opposition from residents, who remember the large-scale displacements that happened when the military launched offensives twice before in the last decade.

Army spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmad Sharif on Monday blamed groups who oppose the new offensive for allegedly trying to sabotage the operation with a disinformation campaign.

He insisted the proposed Azm-e-Istehkam is aimed at destroying militant groups operating in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, two provinces that border Afghanistan, Iran and the strategic Arabian Sea, and also host several major Chinese-backed development projects.

Murad Ali, an academic at Malakand University in the nearby Swat Valley, says the region’s history of military offensives has left many skeptical of the army’s plans.

“It is a fact that [the] military also suffered in terms of sweat and blood in [the] fight against militants," Ali said, but many in the Pashtun population doubt the capability of the military to eradicate militancy or suspect it is an "accomplice in perpetrating this hide and seek with ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban.”

The army spokesman said security forces have lost 137 soldiers so far, including officers, in 2024 in the fight against militants.

Ahmad Kundi, an elected member of Pakhtunkhwa’s regional assembly, says over the years, the national government has sent a mixed message about how to combat militancy.

“One prime minister said negotiations with militants was a way forward and another prime minister opts for military operations, though it didn’t deliver in the past,” Kundi said.

UN-backed independent experts urge Pakistan to end discrimination, violence against minority Ahmadis (AP)

AP [7/25/2024 6:41 AM, Staff, 31180K, Negative]
A panel of U.N.-backed independent experts expressed grave concern on Thursday about increased discrimination and violence against the minority Ahmadi community in Pakistan and urged authorities to ensure their protection.

The experts, who work under a Human Rights Council mandate but do not speak for the United Nations, said in a statement that they were alarmed by reports of violence and discrimination against Ahmadis. Ahmadis are adherents of Ahmadiyya, an Islamic messianic movement that originated in the late 19th century.

“We urge Pakistani authorities to take immediate action to address this situation,” they said.

The experts highlighted two incidents earlier this month in which two Ahmadis were killed. Police at the time said they arrested the attackers.

In their statement, the experts also expressed concern over allegations of arbitrary arrests and detentions of Ahmadi worshippers to prevent or obstruct their participation in religious holidays.

“Ahmadis’ right to peacefully manifest their beliefs must be respected,” they said.

Pakistan’s Parliament declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. Since then, they have been repeatedly targeted by Islamic extremists, drawing condemnation from domestic and international human right groups.

Pakistan under pressure to renegotiate hefty Chinese power deals (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia [7/25/2024 4:14 PM, Adnan Aamir, 2M, Neutral]
Pressure is growing on the Pakistani government to iron out agreements with power producers, especially Chinese companies, to bring down its energy bill which forms one of the biggest items in its budget and is an overwhelming burden for the population.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Energy Minister Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Laghari are in Beijing until Friday for talks with Chinese authorities. Local media reported that their aim is to delay Pakistan’s debt payments -- worth more than $15 billion -- by five years.

This will save Pakistan roughly $2 billion in debt-servicing costs over the next three years, which would marginally help bring down energy costs and alleviate its foreign exchange crisis.

Under plans for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), 21 power plants -- some of them are still under construction -- with a total power generation capacity of more than 9,000 megawatts were to be completed. But electricity theft and distribution problems caused by line losses left the government short of revenue, hindering its ability to repay Chinese power producers. This in turn led its debt to balloon by $1.8 billion, which is a result of additional operational and capacity costs.

However, two government officials who are familiar with the situation, told Nikkei Asia on condition of anonymity that it was unlikely that China would concede to Pakistan’s request.

Analysts agreed that there was little incentive for Chinese authorities to renegotiate. Stella Hong Zhang, a China public policy postdoctoral fellow at the Ash Center of Harvard Kennedy School, said that the Chinese companies would be reluctant to restructure their loans to Pakistan because of their own bottom lines.

"It would also not be easy for the Chinese government to press the companies to accept the losses unless the government can provide subsidies to cover them in some way," she said.

Ammar A. Malik, a senior research scientist at AidData, a research institute at William and Mary University in the U.S. told Nikkei, "[China] would be reluctant to set a precedent and certainly don’t want to be seen as taking haircuts on any BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) projects. ... Whatever deal or solution they offer Pakistan could then be used by other host countries as a precedent to demand similar concessions."

Moreover, relations between the two countries have worsened lately. China in June rebuffed Pakistan’s proposal for new investments under CPEC. Security threats to Chinese personnel in Pakistan, on top of the unpaid energy debts, resulted in Beijing’s frostiness, some said.

"There has been a growing distrust between Pakistan and China relating to economic engagements, which can complicate the power negotiations," said Khalid Rahman, chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies, an Islamabad think tank.

While Pakistani ministers are focusing on Chinese power producers, pressure is building on the government to renegotiate agreements with all local and foreign independent power producers (IPPs) in Pakistan.

Over fiscal 2023-2024, the government paid IPPs $7 billion in so-called capacity payments, which are guaranteed returns in U.S. dollars even if the power plants do not produce any electricity. Capacity payments were introduced to entice investment into the power sector by offering a definite rate of return in an otherwise uncertain business environment. To put this in perspective, Pakistan is only getting a $7 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund for three years as economic aid.

Gohar Ejaz, a former caretaker minister and an industrialist, is leading the campaign. He wrote on X that the government should only make "payments for electricity purchases from the cheapest electricity suppliers."

Data provided by Ejaz showed that there are 106 IPPs in Pakistan that incurred total power generation costs of $11 billion over fiscal 2024, of which $7 billion was billed as capacity payments.

Experts agree that the IPPs are taking their toll on Pakistan’s economy.

"There is no doubt that capacity payments, due to IPP deals, are one of the contributing factors to inflated power bills in Pakistan and are also propelling social unrest," said Rahman from the Institute of Policy Studies.

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry announced that it would challenge IPP agreements in the Supreme Court.

Experts say that renegotiating IPP agreements would be complicated.

"Renegotiate terms in entirety is a bad idea because that erodes investor confidence and credibility of the sovereign," said Ammar Habib Khan, an assistant professor at the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi. "Even adjusting for the [returns] in these deals, the net benefit to consumers would be minimal at best."

Rahman suggested that the government must first make transparent all its deals with IPPs. "IPPs should be categorized into local and foreign ones and the government should negotiate them with separate frameworks," he said.

In its battle against PTI, Pakistan’s new government exposes its own weakness (Brookings Institution – opinion)

Brookings Institution [7/25/2024 4:14 PM, Madiha Afzal, 1.8M, Neutral]
On July 15, Pakistan’s government announced plans to ban the country’s main opposition party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and begin proceedings of high treason against its leaders, including former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The announcement received immediate and widespread pushback, and it is unclear whether the government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, will move forward with the ban, which is unlikely to hold up in the country’s courts. Regardless, the announcement has plainly revealed the new government’s own weakness and deep political insecurity, and that its path forward is uncertain.

The judiciary pushes back on the military establishment

In recent weeks, Pakistan’s courts, which had convicted Khan in a number of cases in the days leading up to the country’s February election, have overturned those convictions. Khan had been sentenced in three cases: on charges of selling state gifts, leaking state secrets, and illegally marrying his wife. The last of those convictions, the illegal marriage case, which had been widely derided by human rights organizations, including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, was overturned on July 13.

This personal relief for Khan followed a major legal win for his party, whose official status as a political party had been stripped ahead of the February election, meaning its candidates had to run as independents. Yet the PTI won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the election anyway. On July 12, Pakistan’s Supreme Court restored the PTI to its party status, thereby allowing it to claim its reserved seats in parliament—the additional seats for women and minorities that are proportionally allocated to the number of “general” seats a party wins.

The PTI’s reserved seats had been distributed among the governing coalition parties, meaning the court’s decision has weakened the coalition government while making the PTI the single largest party in parliament. In fact, the coalition government has now lost the two-thirds majority that it needs to make constitutional amendments, effectively shifting the parliamentary balance of power. However, the coalition still has the simple majority it needs to govern.

This rebuke by the judiciary is no coincidence. In the past, Pakistan’s judiciary has frequently been compromised by state pressure, and this year it functioned as an accessory to the military establishment in the run-up to the election. But it has also shown glimpses of independence. A scathing letter written by six judges of the Islamabad High Court to the country’s chief justice in March alleged that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies had been pressuring the judges to rule against Khan’s party. It set up a clear confrontation between the military and the judiciary that has now come to a head.

An unpopular government with a singular focus

Pakistan’s civilian leadership has joined the fray, clearly siding with the military against the judiciary and pushing back on the judicial relief for Khan and the PTI. The government “rearrested” Khan on new charges before he could be released and announced plans to ban his party and initiate treason charges against him. PML-N party leader Nawaz Sharif this week urged the Supreme Court to “rethink” its decision on the PTI’s reserved seats.

It is evident that the government sees Khan as an existential threat and believes that its political survival and future success hinges on eliminating the PTI from the political arena. Khan’s popular support does pose a major political threat to the PML-N: electorally, the two parties compete for the same province, Punjab, the country’s largest. Together with the military, the PML-N government is engaged in a zero-sum confrontation with the PTI. Its energies are consumed by efforts to keep Khan in jail—it has explicitly said that is a goal—and to sideline his party.

Thousands of PTI supporters were arrested after protests last year, some of which turned violent. Many remain behind bars, and some have been subjected to military trials with little transparency. The government has also banned social media platform X for the past five months in an effort to target the PTI’s means of organizing and rallying support.

Yet this is ultimately a losing approach for the civilian government. Its legitimacy has been questioned from the first day of its term, after the election was marred by credible allegations of interference in its favor. It functions as the clear junior partner to the military, which itself faces questions from Pakistanis about its ever-expanding role in the country’s politics and in matters of governance. The military’s and the civilian government’s decisions at this point are indistinguishable; they speak with one voice. But as the senior partner, the military is likely the driving force on most decisions. Their joint attempts to suppress the PTI have proven counterproductive and have only served to make Khan and his party more popular—as seen in February’s election when the PTI won the largest number of seats despite pre-poll and election-day interference.

If anything, the trend has continued after the election: the crackdown irks even those who don’t politically support the PTI. And by making political repression its singular focus, the government has lost sight of its actual job—governing—the means through which it could win back some popular support if it performs well.

Popular resentment

The PML-N has continued to lose popular support since the election, largely due to the country’s tough economic situation and its own policies, which have focused on fulfilling the necessary conditions to sign an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The government’s budget—which has been heavily criticized—is tax-heavy; it has focused on increasing taxes on salaried workers while sparing sectors that have traditionally escaped the tax net in Pakistan (real estate, agriculture, etc.).

Energy tariffs have been increased once again this summer, amid heatwaves and on top of successive years of backbreaking inflation. Annual inflation reached an all-time high in Pakistan of nearly 38% in May 2023, when the current ruling coalition was also in power, and came in at 23.4% for the year ending in June 2024. The perception is that the state’s economic burdens are being passed onto its already financially-stretched citizens. The resulting economic mood is increasingly resentful and hopeless.

This layer of widespread discontent comes on top of tensions between citizens in Pakistan’s western provinces, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, and the state. In Baluchistan, citizens have been protesting “enforced” disappearances. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are large, ongoing protests over a recently announced counterterror operation which residents argue will displace them, recalling past military operations.

Losing the West

The Pakistani state is also losing the West due to its political repression and crackdown on the PTI. A United Nations working group this month deemed Khan’s detention to be a violation of international law. After the government’s announcement that it would seek to ban the PTI, the State Department noted that banning a political party would be of “great concern” to the United States. And in June, a U.S. House resolution condemned “attempts to suppress the people of Pakistan’s participation in their democracy, including through harassment, intimidation, violence, arbitrary detention, [or] restrictions on access to the internet and telecommunications.” But this does not seem to have invited introspection: Pakistan’s parliament hit back by denouncing the resolution as “interference” in the country’s internal affairs.

What comes next

The ruling coalition is unlikely to fracture just yet. The PML-N’s coalition partner, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), says it will stand by the government and federal cabinet’s decision to ban the PTI. It has also joined the PML-N in asking the Supreme Court to review its decision on reserved seats for the PTI. The PPP’s Asif Ali Zardari is the country’s president, but the party did not join the federal cabinet. PPP has aimed to thread the needle in recent months, paying lip service to criticizing the PML-N while still supporting its decisions. Most important for the civilian government’s survival, the PML-N’s relationship with the military remains strong. The prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, is the most pro-military leader in Pakistan’s recent history.

However, the political status quo in Pakistan feels increasingly untenable. With the judiciary granting the PTI relief, the current civilian-military leadership has two options. The PML-N government can accept its weaker position and allow the PTI to function as a regular party and the parliament to function democratically. Alternatively, the current leadership can continue to make moves that are antithetical to democracy and continue to slide toward authoritarianism.

The latter seems likely. The government recently dealt a blow to individual freedoms by granting intelligence agencies the legal power to trace and intercept calls. A move to ban the PTI, the country’s largest political party, when the combination of political repression and economic unhappiness has already created deep resentment in the population, could herald civil unrest. Yet the government still announced the plan, betraying its own sense of insecurity and a lack of awareness of the country’s mood. Despite fears of heavy-handedness with protesters, there is a growing sense that the dam could break, with tensions potentially spilling out onto the streets.

There are two fault lines in Pakistan right now: between the civilian-military leadership and the judiciary, and the civilian-military leadership and ordinary citizens. The state’s authoritarian tactics threaten instability on both fronts: they are worth watching closely in the days ahead.

India

Sen. Marco Rubio introduces legislation to strengthen the nation’s relationship with India (Washington Examiner)

Washington Examiner [7/26/2024 3:59 AM, Staff, 3.6M, Neutral]
Sen. Marco Rubio introduced the U.S.-India Defense Cooperation Act on Thursday. The goal of the proposed legislation was to help forge stronger ties with India amid emerging influences in the region made by China.

“The U.S.-India partnership is vital to countering influences from Communist China,” Rubio announced in a press release. “In order to strengthen this partnership, it is essential to enhance our strategic diplomatic, economic, and military relationship with New Delhi.”

The legislation promotes bilateral cooperation to counter potentially hostile geopolitical actions taken near India by China. Rubio’s legislation takes several steps to prevent that and lays the groundwork for what to do in the future in such a situation.

Rubio’s Act would deem it as U.S. policy to support India against threats to its borders and commit to providing the country with security assistance to deter such adversarial actions. Rubio’s bill would also promote cooperation with India to promote joint efforts “with respect to defense, civil space, technology, medicine, and economic investments.”

The bill would establish that India would be acknowledged in the same status as other American and NATO allies regarding cooperative technology transfers. It also grants the Secretary of State the authority to “with respect to defense, civil space, technology, medicine, and economic investments” with India.

Furthermore, Rubio’s legislation grants Congress the ability to expedite defense weapons and arms, along with “design and construction services,” in such a geopolitical scenario that would align with “U.S. interests and it is in the interest of peace and stability of India to have the capabilities needed to deter threats.”

“Communist China continues to aggressively expand its domain in the Indo-Pacific region, all while it seeks to impede the sovereignty and autonomy of our regional partners,” Rubio said. “It’s crucial for the U.S. to continue its support in countering these malicious tactics. India, along with other nations in the region, is not alone.”

India and China agree to approach border issues with urgency (Reuters)

Reuters [7/25/2024 11:50 AM, Tanvi Mehta, 42991K, Neutral]
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Thursday in Laos, where the two leaders agreed to resolve border issues as soon as possible.

The two countries share a long Himalayan border, much of it poorly demarcated, and relations between them have been sour since a military clash in July 2020 when at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops were killed.

Jaishankar met Wang on the sidelines of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN summit in Laos, just three weeks after their last meeting in Kazakhstan, India’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.

"Agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process. Must ensure full respect for the LAC (Line of Actual Control) and past agreements," Jaishankar said in a post on X.

After their last meeting in Kazakhstan, Wang had said the two countries must handle and control the situation in the border areas while resuming normal exchanges in other areas.

Both nuclear-armed nations have fortified positions and deployed extra troops and equipment along the border since the standoff four years ago. The two countries have been uneasy neighbours for decades after a bloody border war in 1962.

India’s foreign ministry said in a statement that both ministers agreed on the need to work with "purpose and urgency to achieve complete disengagement at the earliest".

"The state of the border will necessarily be reflected on the state of our ties," Jaishankar added.

China, India should work in same direction, relations have an important impact, says Wang (Reuters)

Reuters [7/25/2024 7:48 PM, Bernard Orr, 42991K, Positive]
China Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it is hoped that China and India will work in the same direction and explore how the neighbouring countries can get along, according to a statement.

Wang, in talks with his Indian counterpart, said China-India relations have an important impact beyond the bilateral scope, according to the statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry late on Thursday.

"It is in the interests of both sides to get China-India relations back on track," Wang said about the talks with India Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, according to the statement.

Pakistan using "terrorism, proxy war" to stay relevant, says India PM Modi (Reuters)

Reuters [7/26/2024 2:59 AM, Sakshi Dayal, 5.2M, Negative]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that Pakistan is trying to stay relevant through "terrorism" and "proxy war" but its "unholy plans" will never succeed.

The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours share an uneasy relationship and India has, for decades, accused Pakistan of backing Islamist militants fighting its rule in Kashmir, the Himalayan region both claim in full but rule only in part.

Pakistan denies the accusations, saying it only provides diplomatic and moral support to Kashmiris seeking self-determination in the Muslim-majority region.

Modi’s comments came at an event to mark the 25th anniversary of India’s short military conflict with Pakistan in the Himalayan region of Kargil. The arch rivals have also fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.

They also come in the aftermath of a spate of militant attacks in the Hindu-majority Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir - as the territory is formally called - with almost a dozen Indian soldiers killed this year.

Modi said Pakistan was humiliated whenever it tried to further its plans but had "not learned anything from its history".

"I want to tell these patrons of terrorism that their unholy plans will never be successful...Our brave (forces) will squash terrorism, the enemy will be given a befitting reply," he said.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

India-Pakistan relations have been largely frozen as the two countries downgraded their diplomatic ties in tit-for-tat moves in August 2019 after New Delhi scrapped Kashmir’s special status and split it into two federally administered territories.

Ties were further strained after a suicide bombing of an Indian military convoy in Kashmir was traced to Pakistan-based militants, prompting India to carry out an airstrike on what it said was a militant base in Pakistan.

Earlier this year, Pakistan said there was credible evidence linking Indian agents to the killing of people on its soil - accusations that India termed "fake".

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said last month that India would look for a solution to cross-border terrorism, which "cannot be the policy of a good neighbour".

India will not sign global tax deal until its concerns are addressed, official says (Reuters)

Reuters [7/25/2024 9:49 AM, Manoj Kumar and Nikunj Ohri, 42991K, Neutral]
India will not sign a global corporate tax deal focused on highly profitable multinational firms unless its concerns on dispute resolution and the treatment of withholding tax are addressed, a finance ministry official said on Thursday.

The so-called "Pillar 1" arrangement, part of a 2021 global two-part tax deal, aims to replace unilateral digital services taxes (DSTs) via a new mechanism to share taxing rights on multinational companies, such as U.S. tech giants Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) and Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Apple (AAPL.O).

India is "constructively engaging" with all the countries for the successful conclusion of "Pillar 1", and was hopeful the deal would be finalised soon, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra, one of the top finance ministry officials, said.

"However, it cannot be at the cost of our own interests."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in May accused India of refusing to engage on issues important to U.S. interests, noting that negotiations were stuck.

"Unless our suggestions are accepted and we get a reasonable solution which is acceptable to us. We cannot agree to the formulation," Malhotra told Reuters in an interview.

Among other issues, India does not want any tax-related disputes to be subject to international arbitration.

As a conciliatory measure, India proposed to remove a 2% equalisation duty on digital service providers that would cost the Indian government about 25 billion rupees ($300 million) annually.

Talks over a global tax deal are continuing well past a June 30 deadline and governments are now looking to a Group of 20 finance leaders’ meeting in Brazil for progress.

The stakes are high. A failure to reach agreement on final terms could prompt several countries to reinstate their taxes on U.S. tech giants and risk punitive duties on billions of dollars in exports to the U.S.

Many countries are already implementing Pillar 2, which sets a global minimum tax of 15% on multinationals, although it has not be ratified by the U.S.

On Pillar 2, the official said, India has set up a panel to frame rules for its implementation.

NSB

Bangladesh protests quelled but anger, discontent remain

Reuters [7/26/2024 2:54 AM, Ruma Paul and Tora Agarwala, 5.2M, Neutral]
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina imposed a nationwide curfew last week and used the army to quell protests against job quotas that killed nearly 150 people, but anger against her government does not seem to have abated.

The protests, which started in universities and colleges earlier this month, quickly turned into a more widespread agitation against Hasina and her government.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and lobbed sound grenades to disperse tens of thousands of protesters who came out on the streets. The government denied any live rounds were fired, but hospital sources said dead and injured people had wounds from bullets and shot gun pellets.

Rights groups and critics say Hasina has become increasingly autocratic during her last 15 years in power and her rule has been marked by mass arrests of political opponents and activists, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, charges she denies.

Badiul Alam Majumdar, the secretary of Shushahoner Jonno Nagorik, a Dhaka-based civil society platform for good governance, said the protests were "just the tip of the iceberg" and the use of force against students will breed further discontent against Hasina’s government.

"People are being deprived of their basic rights, with a significant lack of human rights and justice. They can’t cast their votes freely," he said. "This widespread frustration and anger among the people is evident in the protests."

Government official were not immediately available for comment. But officials have said previously no students were involved in arson or violence, and instead blamed opposition parties.

Hasina, 76, first led her Awami League party to victory in elections in 1996, serving one five-year term before regaining power in 2009, never to lose again.

She won a fourth straight term in office in January elections that were boycotted by the main opposition party and also marred by deadly protests.

While Hasina managed to overcome discontent and return the country towards some normalcy this week, it will not be "business as usual" going forward, said Zafar Sobhan, the editor of English daily Dhaka Tribune.

"This crisis shows that the government needs to listen to the young people of the country and take their concerns seriously," said Sobhan, adding that the quota issue served as a proxy for several other key issues.

"The government has been put on notice that enough is enough and it needs to address the legitimate concerns of the public," he said.

‘MURDERS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED’

Asif Mahmud, a student leader, told Reuters that he was abducted and abused by authorities for four days and then dumped on the road this week. His allegations could not be independently verified and government officials could not be immediately reached for comment on a holiday.

"There have been killings, nobody is addressing that," Mahmud said. "These murders should be investigated. Those who ran this massacre, we will demand their prompt punishment."

The United Nations, international rights groups, the U.S. and Britain have criticised the use of force and asked Dhaka to uphold the right to peaceful protests.

Hasina said she was forced to impose the curfew to protect citizens and state property, blaming the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami party for the violence, charges they denied.

Tarique Rahman, the exiled acting chairman of BNP, said that Hasina was involved in "mass murder" during the protests.

The daughter of the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, Hasina has been credited with turning around the economy and the massive garments industry.

But the economy has also slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine war pushed up prices of fuel and food imports, forcing Bangladesh to turn last year to the International Monetary Fund for a $4.7 billion bailout.

Experts have blamed the latest unrest on stagnant job growth in the private sector and high rates of youth unemployment that have made government jobs, with their regular wage hikes and other privileges, more attractive.

Failing to tame inflation, which currently hovers around 10%, and unemployment was not due to a dearth of options but rather due to a lack of political will, the experts said.

"One critical policy approach could have been to increase investment into the services sectors like health and education where it would be possible to create more decent jobs, especially for the educated and relatively young people," said Mohammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of Dhaka think tank Research and Policy Integration for Development.

Bangladesh PM surveys destruction as unrest recedes (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [7/25/2024 6:18 AM, Staff, 85570K, Negative]
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wept on Thursday as she surveyed the destruction wrought by days of deadly unrest, as student leaders weighed the future of the protests that sparked the disorder.

Last week’s violence killed at least 193 people, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in one of the biggest upheavals of Hasina’s 15-year tenure.

The unrest was precipitated by protests against a public jobs quota scheme that critics say gives preference to allies of Hasina’s ruling party.

Thousands of troops are still patrolling cities and a nationwide internet shutdown remains largely in effect, although clashes have subsided since protest leaders announced a temporary halt to new demonstrations.

Hasina, 76, spent the morning surveying destruction in the capital Dhaka, where the commuter rail network connecting the sprawling megacity of 20 million people was shut down after mob attacks.

"Over 15 years, I’ve built this country," she told reporters, condemning protesters for damaging city infrastructure. "What didn’t I do for the people?

"Who has benefitted from what we have done?" she said. "Do I ride on the metro? Does the government only ride? Do our ministers only ride? Or is it in fact the general public that rides?"

Pictures released by Hasina’s office showed her flanked by an entourage and weeping at the sight of a vandalised metro station in an outlying Dhaka suburb.

The station was among several government buildings and dozens of police posts torched or vandalised during the unrest.

With calm returning to cities around Bangladesh, Hasina’s government ordered another relaxation to the curfew it imposed at the weekend to allow free movement between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm.

Streets in Dhaka were choked with commuter traffic in the morning, days after ferocious clashes between police and protesters had left them almost deserted.

Banks, government offices and Bangladesh’s economically vital garment factories reopened on Wednesday after they were closed last week.

Student leaders were set to meet later on Thursday to decide whether to again extend their protest moratorium, which is due to expire on Friday.

Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising this month’s rallies, said it expected the government to make some concessions.

"We demand an apology from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the nation for the mass murder of students," Asif Mahmud, one of the group’s coordinators, told AFP.

"We also want the sacking of the home minister and education minister."

Police told AFP they had arrested at least 4,000 people since last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

UN rights chief Volker Turk urged Bangladesh to conduct "an impartial, independent and transparent investigation" into the violence.

"We understand that many people were subjected to violent attacks by groups reportedly affiliated with the Government, and no effort was made to protect them," he said in a statement.

Protests began after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates, including nearly a third for descendants of veterans from Bangladesh’s independence war.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina’s Awami League.

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Bangladesh minister defends gov’t response to protests amid calls for probe (Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera [7/25/2024 3:59 PM, Staff, 20871K, Negative]
Bangladesh’s minister of state for information and broadcasting has defended the government’s handling of mass protests, as United Nations experts called for an independent investigation into the government’s deadly crackdown on demonstrators.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday, Mohammad Arafat said the country’s security forces had done everything “to bring back the peace” amid the student protests.

He accused “third-party” actors, including “extremists and terrorists”, of fuelling the unrest.

“We’re not referring to the students [as] the terrorists and anarchists. It is the third party, those who intruded into this movement and started doing all this,” Arafat said on Talk to Al Jazeera.

“We tried our best to de-escalate the tension,” he said, adding that “some people are trying to add fuel to the fire, are trying to create a situation where they can take advantage … and topple the government”.

Thousands of Bangladeshi students took to the streets earlier this month to demand reforms to the South Asian country’s quota system, which allocates 30 percent of government jobs to the descendants of veterans who fought for Bangladesh in the 1971 war.

More than 150 student protesters have been killed and thousands have been arrested in the crackdown on the demonstrations, according to local media, fuelling tensions across the nation of more than 170 million people.

The protests turned violent on July 15 after members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) – the student wing of the country’s ruling party – allegedly attacked the protesters.

Police then cracked down on the demonstrations and imposed a curfew. Students were asked to vacate universities, which were shut down; businesses were shuttered, and internet access was disrupted nationwide.

The Bangladeshi government has come under international scrutiny for its handling of the protests.

On Thursday, United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Turk called for “an impartial, independent and transparent investigation into all alleged human rights violations” that occurred during the crackdown.

“We understand that many people were subjected to violent attacks by groups reportedly affiliated with the Government, and no effort was made to protect them,” Turk said.

In a separate statement, a group of UN experts also called for an independent probe into what they described as the government’s “violent crackdown on protesters”.

“The government is blaming other people, others are blaming the government; we need a full impartial investigation,” one of the experts, Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion, told Al Jazeera.

“But since there is no trust in the government, it has to be done with the international community,” Khan said on Thursday.

“We are calling on the government to invite the UN to conduct such an investigation to find out what went wrong, to take responsibility, and to hold the perpetrators to account.”

Official death toll not yet determined: Minister

In his interview with Talk to Al Jazeera, Arafat – the minister – denounced the protesters for storming the headquarters of state broadcaster Bangladesh Television (BTV) in the capital, Dhaka.

He said policemen guarding the building were outnumbered, and “because they were not permitted to open fire … those miscreants went inside the BTV, literally invaded, and set fire and started vandalising and destroying all the assets”.

Arafat said the government has yet to determine an official death toll from the unrest.

“When it comes to the casualties, injuries, and deaths, we’re not willing to discriminate between the police and general people, or the protesters, or the people from the supporters of the government,” he said.

The minister told Al Jazeera that an independent judicial committee would ensure a thorough investigation into what happened, “so that everyone responsible for any of these casualties can be brought to book.”

Arafat also dismissed any calls for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign, adding she had only been “protecting the people”.

On Tuesday, protesters extended the suspension of their protests until Friday, but they were slated to meet on Thursday to discuss whether they would extend the pause further.

Among their key demands is a stipulation that Hasina must publicly apologise for the killings of students.

They have also called on Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, and Law Minister Anisul Haque to resign from the cabinet and the party.

Bangladesh says it forgot to remove UN logos from vehicles as it contained unrest (Reuters)

Reuters [7/25/2024 11:17 AM, Ruma Paul and Shivam Patel, 42991K, Neutral]
Bangladesh has said that it forgot to remove U.N. markings from vehicles during an army-enforced curfew to contain deadly violence that spread across the country last week and killed nearly 150 people.

The United Nations said it has sought a response from authorities in the capital Dhaka after footage filmed by Reuters journalists on Sunday showed what appeared to be an armoured personnel vehicle marked with the letters ‘UN’.

The vehicle was carrying gun-bearing soldiers on a street in Dhaka, which last week saw days of deadly clashes as security forces cracked down on student-led protests against reservation quotas in government jobs.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud told reporters on Wednesday that some vehicles had been "rented to the UN peace mission".

"We forgot to remove the logo. Now the logos have been removed," he added.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government had suspended internet services and called in the army to enforce a curfew from midnight on Saturday.

The students were agitating because a high court last month overturned a decision by Hasina’s government to scrap 56% quotas in government jobs, reinstating them during an unemployment crisis in the country.

But the protests stopped after the Supreme Court on Sunday ruled in favour of an appeal from the government and scrapped most quotas, directing that 93% of jobs should be open to competition.

The United Nations, international rights groups, the U.S. and Britain were among those who criticised the use of force against the protesters and asked Dhaka to uphold the right to peaceful protests.

"We have raised our concern about the situation in Bangladesh with relevant authorities in Dhaka and New York and also sought clarity regarding reports that some UN-marked vehicles may have been used during recent events," Farhan Haq, a deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, told Reuters.

He said countries that contribute troops and police to UN peacekeeping are to use UN insignia and equipment marked with UN insignia only when they are performing mandated tasks as UN peacekeepers.

Bangladesh is the third largest troop and police contributor to the UN peacekeeping mission, after Nepal and Rwanda.

UN human rights chief calls on Bangladesh to disclose protest crackdown details (Agence France-Presse)

Agence France-Presse [7/25/2024 9:20 AM, Staff, 8591K, Neutral]
The UN rights chief called Thursday on Bangladesh to urgently disclose the details of last week’s crackdown on protests amid accounts of "horrific violence", calling for "an impartial, independent and transparent investigation".

"We understand that many people were subjected to violent attacks by groups reportedly affiliated with the Government, and no effort was made to protect them," Volker Turk said in a statement.

Last week’s violence killed at least 193 people including several police officers, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in one of the biggest upheavals of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure.

The unrest was sparked by protests against a public jobs quota scheme that critics say gives preference to allies of Hasina’s ruling party.

Thousands of troops are still patrolling cities and a nationwide internet shutdown remains largely in effect, but clashes have subsided since protest leaders announced a temporary halt to new demonstrations.

Turk’s statement lamented reports that some of the more than 1,000 injured in last week’s crackdown were denied medical care, while many people remained missing.

"At least two journalists were reportedly killed and scores of others injured. Hundreds of people were also reportedly arrested, including opposition figures," the statement said.

The government, it said, "must provide the details of those killed, injured, or detained for the benefit of their families".

The UN high commissioner for human rights also called on the government to restore full internet access to allow people, including journalists, to communicate freely.

"Blunt measures such as a blanket deliberate internet shutdown for a prolonged period contravene international law, affecting States’ obligations to respect freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly," he said.

This also breached "a wide range of other rights, including freedom of association and of movement, the rights to health and education, and a number of economic rights," Turk said.

"Internet shutdowns can also reduce public scrutiny and knowledge of conduct of law enforcement agencies, and so risk heightening impunity for their actions," he warned.

The Overlooked Reason That Planes Crash So Often in Nepal (New York Times)

New York Times [7/25/2024 4:14 PM, Bhadra Sharma and Mujib Mashal, 831K, Negative]
The plane crash that killed 18 people in Nepal on Wednesday was at once horrific and sadly common, one of dozens of aviation disasters in the small Himalayan nation in the past decade.

After each new accident, investigators point the blame in many directions, citing weather, difficult terrain, overworked pilots, aging aircraft. But a root problem is left unaddressed: A conflict of interest in which the officials who provide lucrative aviation services are the same ones who regulate them.

This arrangement leaves the country’s Civil Aviation Authority to investigate itself if problems arise. It impedes, analysts and former officials say, the kind of urgent changes, and strict adherence, needed to improve oversight of life-or-death safety matters.

The result has not just been frequent crashes — nearly 40 since 2010, according to government reports, resulting in over 350 deaths. Nepal’s poor record also threatens to further cut off its aviation industry from the outside world and deprive the poor nation of an important tourism stream.

The European Union has barred the country’s airlines, including the national carrier, Nepal Airlines, for over a decade. If countries like India, China and the Gulf nations did the same, said Yogesh Bhattarai, a former aviation minister in Nepal, “that would be a huge loss for us.”

The crashes in recent years have run the gamut, involving planes of all sizes: Fifteen helicopters, four single-engine planes and 16 double-engine planes. Except for three foreign airplanes, they have all been operated by Nepali companies.

The plane that crashed on Wednesday belonged to Saurya Airlines, which is struggling financially. About 20 seconds after takeoff, the 50-seater Bombardier CRJ-200 veered to the right and crashed near the runway.

The flight had been bound for Pokhara, a tourist destination, from the capital, Kathmandu. It was carrying 19 people — 17 airline staff members, and the wife and child of one of them. The pilot was the only survivor.

As they do after every crash, the authorities promised another committee to investigate the disaster.

The plane was being moved to Pokhara International Airport, which has remained mostly empty after being built largely by Chinese companies and financed through debt to Chinese creditors. The airline does not have a designated hangar at the Kathmandu airport, according to a Civil Aviation Authority spokesman, Gyanendra Bhul, and the charge to park the plane at Pokhara was lower.

The plane was to undergo a battery of heavy maintenance in Pokhara known as a C-check, normally conducted every 18 to 24 months. That raised an immediate question among air safety analysts: Why would the aviation authority allow so many people to travel on a plane ahead of those tests?

Experts and former officials said that such decision-making was emblematic of the structural problems that have long gotten in the way of reducing the number of crashes in Nepal.

The Civil Aviation Authority runs dozens of airports and provides most of their services. At the same time, it regulates and monitors everything from the training and qualifications of personnel to the technical aspects of aviation and air traffic navigation.

Sanjiv Gautam, a former civil aviation chief in Nepal who now works as a safety consultant, said that most of Nepal’s neighbors had long split off the work of air safety regulation, entrusting it to independent bodies.

What makes matters worse in Nepal, he said, is that the regulatory side of the authority is extremely underfunded and understaffed, with just 8 percent of the agency’s personnel allocated to it.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. watchdog, has asked the Nepali government to split up the civil aviation body. As evidence that the current system is not working, Nepal’s post-accident investigations score abysmally with the I.C.A.O., meeting just a quarter of its listed norms. The European Union has also cited the conflict of interest in its blacklisting of Nepali airlines.

“The Civil Aviation Authority has two hats on one head — one of service provider, and another of oversight,” Mr. Gautam said. “Can you tell me what happens if any air traffic controller makes a mistake? Will the Civil Aviation Authority hide the information or not?”

Nepali officials cite improvements in other areas audited by the international regulatory authority, including better implementation of oversight functions. In an interview last year, Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane, the Civil Aviation Authority’s chief, acknowledged that the Nepali air safety system was still hampered by “weakness” and a shortage of resources, but said that the agency continuously learned and implemented lessons from accident investigations.

“Of course, incidents happen once the implementation part is weak,” he said.

Since 2020, there has been an effort to split up the aviation agency. But that push is still caught up in the country’s messy and turbulent politics.

“There should be a permanent investigation institution that is free from any influence,” Mr. Bhattarai, the former aviation minister, said.

Relatives of 18 dead in Nepal plane crash demand answers (Reuters)

Reuters [7/25/2024 6:32 AM, Staff, 42991K, Negative]
Relatives of the 18 dead in an airplane crash in Nepal have yet to hear from the government or the airline on the possible cause of the disaster, they said a day after the small jet went down during take-off at the airport in Kathmandu, the capital.

The incident has cast a spotlight on the mountainous, landlocked nation’s poor record on air safety, with almost 360 people killed since 2000 in plane and helicopter crashes.

The 50-seater CRJ-200 aircraft that crashed this week was operated by Saurya Airlines, and was ferrying 15 technicians, two crew and two of a technician’s family to the central city of Pokhara, where it was scheduled for regular maintenance.

Only the captain survived after it crashed in a field beside the runway and caught fire.

"Nobody has contacted us," said Krishna Bahadur Magar, a relative of Nava Raj Ale who was a ground handler at Saurya and died in the crash.

"Our relative was a member of the Saurya Airlines family," Magar said. "Why is the airline now behaving as if they don’t care about him?"

Magar was among the dozens who crowded into a narrow alley outside the forensic unit of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital on Thursday, waiting for authorities to release the bodies of the dead.

Some said doctors had told them they would not receive the remains of loved ones before Saturday, while those bodies charred beyond recognition would require DNA tests to be identified, a process that could take two weeks.

The victims’ families felt as if Saurya officials were "deliberately hiding" from them, said Jageswar Giri, whose brother-in-law, Uddhab Puri, died in the crash.

"We want to know what technical problems the aircraft was facing, why so many people were on it yesterday, and why it was decided that maintenance work would be done in Pokhara instead of Kathmandu where the plane was grounded," he said.

Officials from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have said the plane was being sent to Pokhara because its new airport was equipped with aircraft maintenance hangars.

Responding to the families’ questions, the regulator said it was the airline’s responsibility to co-ordinate with them.

"It was not a passenger flight," said CAAN spokesperson Gyanendra Bhul. "Saurya Airlines has officially said all people on board the plane were their staff, so they should co-ordinate with the family members."

The airline did not respond to telephone calls and messages from Reuters seeking comment.

A government panel set up on Wednesday to investigate the crash will submit a report within 45 days.

Nepal’s worst crash in 1992 killed 167. Last January, 72 people died when a Yeti Airlines plane crashed just before landing in Pokhara.

Nepal family holds out hope for son taken hostage by Hamas (Deutsche Welle)

Deutsche Welle [7/25/2024 7:11 AM, Swechhya Raut, 15592K, Neutral]
Every morning, schoolteacher Mahananda Joshi walks for hours through his remote village in western Nepal to find a corner where his phone picks up a signal.

When he finds a connection, he scrolls through multiple international news portals, hoping for news about a cease-fire between Israel and the militant Hamas group in Gaza.

So far, the headlines have not been optimistic. Joshi’s 23-year-old son, Bipin Joshi, is believed to have been kidnapped from a kibbutz in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Joshi’s only hope for his son is that a cease-fire will lead to a hostage release.

"I keep my mobile volume high even while I am teaching in class or trying to take nap during the night. I don’t sleep. I fear missing a single call," he told DW.

His wife, Padma Joshi, tries to call him if any updates appear.

"The wait has been long. But what we have received so far are just false assurances," she lamented, complaining about how the Nepalese government has been unable to confirm whether her son is alive.

Internship of a lifetime

Bipin Joshi, from Kanchanpur district in the southwestern corner of Nepal, was studying agriculture at Sudurpaschim University. He went to Israel for an internship in September 2023, along with 48 fellow students.

The 11-month-long program, called "Learn and Earn," combined work on Israeli farms with classroom learning.

The Nepalese students were divided into groups and assigned to different farms around southern Israel. Some worked on mushroom or lemon farms, while others were involved in poultry or dairy farming.

Joshi regularly shared his experiences with his family back home via video calls. "He showed us the lemon farm where he worked and shared his vision of opening a farm upon his return," his mother recalled.

All of them were due to receive their first salary in the second week of October. On October 6, a few of them gathered virtually to discuss what they planned to buy with their first paycheck.

"Getting an iPhone had been our dream for a long time. Before going to bed, Bipin and I talked over the phone about buying it together," said Louish Rijal, a fellow student.

Around 7 a.m. on October 7, the interns woke up to a terrible sound, with the building shaking and smoke everywhere.

They exited the building, and Rijal said they heard the sound of gunfire.

"It seemed like firecrackers to us. I took a video and posted it online," Rijal told DW.

"Bipin called me and told me to remove the video. At first, I refused. When he mentioned that a few of our friends had been shot dead, I started shivering and regretted capturing it," he said.

The Nepalese students were on four different farms and they tried to reach out to one another. Rijal said no one was responding to his calls except Joshi.

At 11:50 a.m., Joshi messaged Rijal, pleading for help to get them out of there. "That was the last text from him," said Rijal.

A few hours later, there was an update that 10 Nepalese students in Kibbutz Alumim has been killed in the terror attacks. Four were injured and taken to the hospital, and one was kidnapped by Hamas.

The missing person was Joshi, as witnessed by his friends. His phone was later traced to Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Other than being spotted in video footage weeks after his capture, Joshi’s condition is unknown.

Nepal asks for help

It has been nearly 10 months since the October 7 terror attacks. Securing Joshi’s release has been raised numerous times in Nepal’s parliament and in international forums.

When Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, visited Nepal in April, the Nepalese government made an official request for Joshi’s release, as Qatar has served as a mediator between Israel and Hamas.

Despite the uncertainty, Joshi’s family believes that he will return home soon.

"With the current political turmoil, we are uncertain how this instability might be affecting diplomatic efforts for his release," his father said.

Nepal’s government said it has taken action to secure Joshi’s release.

"Since we don’t have direct contact with Hamas, we are seeking help from third parties, especially from countries like Qatar, which maintains good relations with the militant group," Amrit Bahadur Rai, a spokesperson for Nepal’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, told DW.

Hamas is designated as a terror organization by the United States, Germany, Israel and several other countries.

Rai mentioned receiving some positive responses from international actors but added, "we haven’t received a concrete answer from anywhere yet."

Family still waiting

After the terror attacks, Nepal’s government halted the "Learn and Earn" program.

Kumar Bahadur Shrestha, spokesperson and deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Nepal in Israel, told DW that the embassy speaks regularly with Israeli diplomats to confirm Joshi’s well-being and ensure the safety of Nepalese living in Israel.

According to the embassy, nearly 5,000 Nepalese are living in Israel, most of them working as caregivers.

Despite the well-meaning efforts of Nepal’s government, Joshi’s family is still desperately waiting for all of the "reassuring words" to turn into action.

His father occasionally comes down to the city of Bajhang from the family’s Kanchanpur village to follow up on the progress of efforts by the government and other agencies. Joshi’s mother checks every new face that turns up near the house, hoping it might be their son. His 82-year-old grandmother is distressed daily by the fear that she will pass away without seeing her grandson’s face again.

Joshi’s 17-year-old sister returns from school every day hoping there’s good news about her brother, who will come back soon and help her with homework.

"The only thing keeping us alive is the hope of returning our son. We must stay strong and spread our words louder so that our son might hear us from some corner of the world," said Mahananda Joshi.

UN cultural agency decides against placing Lumbini, Buddha’s birthplace in Nepal, on endangered list (AP)

AP [7/25/2024 7:43 AM, David Rising and Binaj Gurubacharya, 47701K, Neutral]
The United Nations’ cultural agency decided Thursday against putting the Buddhist pilgrimage destination of Lumbini on its list of heritage sites in danger, instead giving authorities in Nepal more time to help restore the famous gardens and temple that are falling into disrepair.

Lumbini is the birthplace of Buddha according to Buddhist tradition, and was made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997.

Experts from UNESCO had recommended placing it on the agency’s list of sites in danger, saying that the deterioration of key features to the site shows an “alarming state of conservation.”

Basanta Maharjan, a Nepalese expert on the site and Buddhism, said Nepal has “totally ignored” UNESCO’s past suggestions and warnings.

“Now Nepal has one last chance to make the right amends,” he said after the decision was announced.

“Lumbini is important not just for Nepal or for Buddhists but for the world and there needs to be immediate improvements made to Lumbini by the Nepalese authorities,” he added.

Putting a site on the list, on which there are currently more than 50 properties, is meant to rally international support for conservation efforts rather than as a punishment, but can eventually lead to a site being dropped from UNESCO’s prestigious list of heritage sites.

In deciding at its annual meeting to give Nepal more time, delegates from the countries making up the World Heritage Committee, which maintains the UNESCO list and the conservation of the sites, noted Nepal’s ongoing efforts to preserve the site.

The Committee gave Nepal until Feb. 1, 2025 to submit a new report on the state of conservation and said the matter would be considered again at next year’s annual meeting.

Nepal’s delegation assured the group that it was committed to the “full implementation” of recommendations made by UNESCO experts that had inspected the site.

Lebanon, supported by Belgium, argued against giving Nepal more time, noting that there have been concerns about the state of its conservation since 2002, and multiple discussions to place it on the endangered list that have always been postponed due to promises from Nepal.

In the report on the state of the site, UNESCO experts said remains at an ancient Lumbini village located within the site’s buffer zone had been destroyed, its Sacred Garden is not being maintained, and the centerpiece Mayadevi Temple is suffering continuing water damage.

“The condition of the Sacred Garden and the Mayadevi Temple Shelter, in particular, continues to alarm, with previous interventions failing to halt deterioration,” the experts said in their report.

“The need for immediate conservation efforts at the Mayadevi Temple Shelter is critical.”

Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Lord Buddha, was born in the famous gardens of Lumbini in 623 B.C., according to UNESCO, although experts differ on his exact date of birth.

It quickly became a site of pilgrimage, and the white Mayadevi Temple is the center of the area where people pray.

Next to the temple is the Ashoka Pillar, erected by Indian Emperor Ashoka in tribute to Buddha while on pilgrimage to Lumbini in 249 B.C.

Today the site includes several monasteries, gardens, pagodas and a man-made pond, and regularly attracts more than a million visitors a year.

The Gautam Buddha International Airport was opened in 2022 in the nearby city of Bhairahawa, and a highway now connects the airport to Lumbini.

Sri Lanka Set for Elections as IMF Dealmaker Seeks Mandate (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [7/26/2024 2:31 AM, Niki Koswanage, 5.5M, Neutral]
Sri Lanka will hold elections in September to elect a new president as the incumbent leader Ranil Wickremesinghe seeks a mandate for his tough fiscal reforms in the South Asian nation that’s trying to move past its worst financial crisis on record.

The Election Commission said the vote will be carried out on Sept. 21 with nominations for presidential candidates due on Aug. 15, according to a government notice. The national vote will be the first for the country after a historic debt default in May 2022 that saw living standards plummet and widespread unrest, forcing the populist Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

Wickremesinghe, 75, who took the presidency through a parliament vote, went on to negotiate a $3 billion bailout package with the International Monetary Fund. A career politician who has been prime minister five times, Wickremesinghe has become deeply unpopular for his austerity measures that include raising taxes, hiking utility prices and putting some state enterprises up for sale.

An ally of Wickremesinghe was the first to make a deposit for his candidacy, Dinouk Colombage, director of international affairs for the president, said in a post on X. Wickremesinghe is standing as an independent candidate though political observers say he is backed by the Rajapaksa clan through their party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna that holds a majority in parliament.

Wickremesinghe’s key contenders are likely to be Sajith Premadasa, 57, who leads the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya party, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna party. It started out as a radical group and led insurrections against the government in the 1970s and 1980s before evolving into a socialist party that Sri Lankans are increasingly backing over the traditional parties led by the elites.

While all the potential presidential candidates have negative favorability ratings in June, Dissanayake has remained the least unpopular leader in Sri Lanka since Wickremesinghe took power July 2022, according to the Colombo-based Institute of Health Policy, an independent pollster. About four in five Sri Lankans say the island nation is still heading in the wrong direction, a view that has become more negative since polling started on this in early 2022.

Other politicians are also looking to take part in the presidential contest. Retired general Sarath Fonseka, who led the military offensive to crush a decades-long insurgency by separatist Tamil guerrilla fighters, has announced his candidacy. A member of the current cabinet, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has also declared he will take part in the race.

The elections will take place against a backdrop of austerity measures slowing inflation. Nevertheless, the economy remains resilient with better-than-expected 5.3% growth in the first quarter and Sri Lanka has struck a deal to restructure $12.6 billion of bonds with its commercial creditors, allowing it to tap more funding from the IMF.

Sri Lanka will hold presidential election on Sept. 21, its first since declaring bankruptcy in 2022 (AP)

AP [7/25/2024 11:16 PM, Bharatha Mallawarachi, 47701K, Negative]
Sri Lanka will hold a presidential election on Sept. 21 that will likely be a test of confidence in President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s efforts to resolve the country’s worst economic crisis.

The date was announced by the independent elections commission Friday, which said nominations will be accepted on Aug. 15.

Wickremesinghe is expected to run while his main rivals will be opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Anura Dissanayake, who is the leader of a leftist political party that has gained popularity after the economic debacle.

It will be the first election in the South Asian island nation after it declared bankruptcy in 2022 and suspended repayments on some $83 billion in domestic and foreign loans.

That followed a severe foreign exchange crisis that led to a severe shortage of essentials such as food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas, and extended power outages.

The election is largely seen as a crucial vote for the island nation’s efforts to conclude a critical debt restructuring program and as well as completing the financial reforms agreed under a bailout program by the International Monetary Fund.

The country’s economic upheaval led to a political crisis that forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign in 2022. Parliament then elected the then-Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as president.

Under Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka has been negotiating with the international creditors to restructure the staggering debts and to put the economy back on the track. The IMF has also approved a four-year bailout program last March to help Sri Lanka.

Last month, Wickremesinghe announced that his government has struck a debt restructuring deal with countries including India, France, Japan and China — marking a key step in the country’s economic recovery after defaulting on debt repayment in 2022.

The economic situation has improved under Wickremesinghe and severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine have largely abated. But public dissatisfaction has grown over the government’s effort to increase revenue by raising electricity bills and imposing heavy new income taxes on professionals and businesses, as part of the government’s efforts to meet the IMF conditions.

Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely the result of staggering economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which along with 2019 terrorism attacks devastated its important tourism industry. The coronavirus crisis also disrupted the flow of remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad.

Additionally, the then-government slashed taxes in 2019, depleting the treasury just as the virus hit. Foreign exchange reserves plummeted, leaving Sri Lanka unable to pay for imports or defend its beleaguered currency, the rupee.

Under the agreements with its creditors, Sri Lanka will be able to defer all bilateral loan instalment payments until 2028. Furthermore, Sri Lanka will be able to repay all the loans on concessional terms, with an extended period until 2043. The agreements would cover $10 billion of debt.

By 2022, Sri Lanka had to repay about $6 billion in foreign debt every year, amounting to about 9.2% of gross domestic product. The agreement would enable Sri Lanka to maintain debt payments at less than 4.5% of GDP between 2027 and 2032.

Sri Lanka to hold presidential election amid critical economic reforms (Reuters)

Reuters [7/25/2024 11:32 PM, Uditha Jayasinghe, 42991K, Negative]
Sri Lanka will vote on Sept. 21 to elect a new president, a government notice said on Friday, a crucial contest that is expected to determine the future of reforms in the South Asian island nation weathering its worst financial crisis in decades.

Nominations for the election have to be submitted on Aug. 15, the notice added.

Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe is widely expected to run in the election, with almost 17 million of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population eligible to vote.

Wickremesinghe, 75, took office in July 2022 after widespread protests caused by the debilitating financial crisis forced his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and later resign.

Parliament elected Wickremesinghe to serve out the rest of the five year-term vacated by Rajapaksa who was elected in November 2019.

"This is a critical time for Sri Lanka," said Bhavani Fonseka, senior researcher for Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives.

"An election being called is extremely important for democracy but now the election commission must be allowed to do what they are mandated to do. Having a free and fair election is essential."

Helped by a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme, Wickremesinghe has stitched back the shattered economy, bringing down inflation from a steep 70% in September 2022 to 1.7% in June, strengthening the rupee and rebuilding previously decimated foreign exchange reserves.

Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to grow 3% in 2024 after shrinking 2.3% last year and 7.3% during the height of the crisis.

Bilateral creditors including Japan, China, and India signed up to a $10 billion debt rework last month, which gave Colombo breathing space to defer repayments for four years and save $5 billion.

But Sri Lanka still has to put the finishing touches on a preliminary agreement with bondholders on restructuring $12.5 billion of debt ahead of a third IMF review later this year.

Higher taxes imposed under the IMF programme, prolonged inflation, and a stagnant job market caused by the grinding crisis has plunged a quarter of the population into poverty and pushed thousands to migrate.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake who heads the Marxist-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are expected to tap into this discontent as they make their presidential bids.

Both Premadasa and Dissanayake have publicly said that they will look at revamping the IMF programme to reduce the cost of living pressures on Sri Lankans and ease the country’s debt repayment burden.

Sri Lanka’s recovery is still very fragile and attempts to reverse the reforms could precipitate a new crisis, analysts say. The new government will need to ensure the reforms are taken forward and concluded to transform the economy and put it on a positive track, they say.

Central Asia

Kazakhstan: Plan to boost agricultural output overlooks farm workers (EurasiaNet)

EurasiaNet [7/25/2024 4:14 PM, Aiman Zhusupova, 57.6K, Neutral]
Kazakhstan has big plans to double agricultural output within five years. But in mapping expansion plans, the government appears to have overlooked a key element in the agro-industrial complex – farm workers.

Kazakhstan is already a major global supplier of wheat and barley. But in January, the Kazakh government unveiled a blueprint covering 2024-2028 to diversify crop-growing and make it more efficient. The plan calls for a reduction in the share of “water-intensive crops and [an] increase [in] the production of highly profitable plants, for example, oilseeds.”

The plan also calls for technological upgrades, including investment in state-of-the-art water management systems and environmentally friendly fertilizing techniques, along with machinery modernization.

The cost of implementing the government plan is estimated at 33 billion euros, two-thirds of which would come in the form of low-interest loans. Investment will be geared to stimulate the production of processed meat, dairy and plant-based products for export.

The plan doesn’t have much to say about farmers themselves. And it doesn’t directly address some concerning realities for Kazakhstan’s agricultural sector.

In recent years, the agricultural sector has been bleeding farm workers. The sector’s share of overall GDP also is declining: in 2023 it accounted for 4.3 percent of GDP, down from 5.2 percent the previous year.

While poor infrastructure and outdated machinery have played roles in declining performance, productivity has also been hurt by low wages paid to farm laborers and uneven labor management practices. Lacking financial incentives, lots of farm workers are abandoning the sector, moving to urban areas in search of better-paying employment.

About 15 years ago, roughly one-third of all Kazakh workers were employed in the agricultural sector; today that percentage is 12.5. The trend has two worrisome socioeconomic implications: urban infrastructure in Kazakhstan is being stretched by the steady influx of rural residents; and frustration among underemployed rural youth is on the rise, fueling the potential for protest.

Farm workers complain that the labor management system in the agricultural sector is out of whack. Many say they are often compelled to work without formal contracts, leaving them vulnerable to abuses, including unpaid wages and lack of compensation in cases of accidents that lead to disability.

“In farming there is no formal contract, only verbal agreement. That’s why this happens: they hire you and don’t pay you,” said a 38-year-old farm worker in the Mangystau Region, who requested anonymity out of concern of retaliation.

A current trend in the agro-sector is for unskilled workers to engage employers on a day-laborer basis, a practice that limits the worker’s exposure to abuses, especially wage disputes, according to research conducted under the auspices of the Germany-based Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, which is affiliated with that country’s Die Linke Party.

Redressing complaints in the absence of contracts is often an exercise in futility, according to farm workers. Government inspectors don’t have the time or resources to handle many cases. “The same labor inspector must come to an enterprise and interview about 10 people to collect evidence,” said an agricultural worker in the Almaty region who also requested anonymity. “No one will do this; the load is too big.”

Labor organization efforts lag in the Kazakh countryside for a variety of reasons. The vast distances between settlements on the Kazakh steppe create a geographic barrier; another obstacle is inadequate Internet access in many rural communities, contributing to low levels of digital literacy and awareness of labor rights.

Central Asian military spending surges amid border tension, regional conflict fears (VOA)

VOA [7/25/2024 6:03 AM, Staff, 4032K, Neutral]
Military spending is surging in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, a development officials link to regional conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, although experts doubt the buildup will increase stability.

While Russia was the dominant arms supplier to these countries for more than three decades, other countries including Turkey, China and the United States have now entered the market.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, last year’s military spending by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan was $1.8 billion. Figures from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which do not disclose information about the share of military spending in their gross domestic product, were not included in the report.

Regional media reports say that last year’s Kazakhstani military budget was 0.5% of the country’s estimated $259.7 billion GDP. Kyrgyzstan’s military accounted for 1.5% of its estimated $13.9 billion GDP, or $208.5 million, and for Tajikistan it was 1% of an estimated $12 billion GDP, or $120 million.

Kyrgyz buildup

Kamchibek Tashiev, deputy chairman of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers, who coordinates Kyrgyzstan’s security forces, told a July 2023 government meeting that since 2021, Kyrgyzstan had spent $1,3 billion to modernize its military. He said much of that went to new high-tech weaponry.

"We bought unmanned Bayraktar, Aksungur, Akinci, combat aerial vehicles, which many countries have not yet bought; we also bought upgrades to our air defense system, Mi-8, Mi-17, helicopters," he said.

Tense relations with neighboring Tajikistan prompted Kyrgyzstan’s government to start paying more attention to the military, with a 2023 Kyrgyz Defense Ministry military doctrine calling the threat level posed by Kyrgyz-Tajik border tension significant.

That tension led to armed conflicts between the countries in April 2021 and September 2022, together causing the deaths of civilians and displacement of thousands of people.

If Kyrgyz officials were hoping new weapons would give them an upper hand with Tajikistan, they were mistaken.

In May 2022, Iran opened a drone production plant in Tajikistan, producing the Ababil-2 reconnaissance and combat drone. Then, in April of 2024, the Tajik government signed a $1.5 million agreement with Turkey on the supply of unspecified number of Bayraktar attack drones.

In a December 2022 interview, Dushanbe-based political analyst Parviz Mullojanov, said in the "ongoing arms race" Tajikistan is likely to buy modern weapons.

"We’re talking about radio and electronic warfare equipment, air defense systems that will neutralize attack drones," he said.

Other regional countries

Other countries in the region are increasing military spending too. Kazakhstan’s defense spending has increased by 8.8% compared to last year. Uzbekistan, which does not disclose its military budget, reportedly allotted an additional $260 million to its defense budget last year.

During his January 2024 meeting with Uzbek military leaders, broadcast by Uzbek state TV, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that by 2030, Uzbekistan will have a modernized army with high-tech weaponry. In Turkmenistan, President Gunbanguly Berdymukhamedov instructed the Defense Ministry to increase military preparedness at a meeting this month of the country’s security council.

Regional officials point to the conflicts in the post-Soviet space – such as the Ukraine war and the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, border conflicts in Central Asia, and instability in Afghanistan – as reasons for beefing up their militaries.

However, Peter Leonard, a writer specializing in Central Asian affairs, told VOA, "Partly it is a matter of prestige. Authoritarian leaders like to flaunt shiny and expensive weapons. We see this visually in Turkmenistan, where officials show off their new weapons and vehicles from China, Europe and elsewhere during annual military parades. We see this trend in all of Central Asia."

The rise in Central Asian militarization underscores changing geopolitical context as well. The Russian-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization, an alliance of Russia and five other former Soviet republics -- Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Armenia – has historically played an important role in in Central Asian security matters.

However, in recent years, outside countries, including Turkey, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, China, Germany, France, and Belarus, have emerged as military partners to the Central Asian republics.

According to regional media reports, between 2010 and 2024, Turkey and Iran supplied attack drones to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; the United States provided technical support and military vehicles to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan; China sold air defense equipment to Uzbekistan; France and Germany sold military helicopters to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; and Belarus supplied air defense equipment to Kyrgyzstan.

Varying views on effects from militarization

With so much cash given to the military and weapons flooding the region, discussions among experts focus on the militarization’s effects. Svenja Petersen, a Berlin-based analyst and researcher specializing on the former Soviet Union, told VOA that the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan arms race was of particular concern.

"While Kyrgyz and Tajik leaders have spoken about a need to foster peace and security along the frontier, both countries have been girding for renewed battle," she said.

A January 2023 commentary by Vecherni Bishkek, a Kyrgyzstani pro-government news website, claimed that "while the likelihood of a war is low, confrontations [between regional armed forces] are unavoidable."

Other experts express doubt that the arms race between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will lead to conflict.

"Paradoxically," Leonard said, "the intensification of militaries in these countries has not, in fact, exacerbated tensions but has resulted in a different outcome -- which is much more cordial and practical dialogue about border demarcation. These countries, which were at a dangerous point, are on the cusp of signing a historic border agreement which will put an end to three decades of [border-related] conflict."

Bakhtiyor Ergashev, director of the Tashkent-based political research institute Mano said in a January 2023 media interview that he doubted that large-scale military conflicts in the region would happen.

"Undoubtedly, there are some hotspots, such as the conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. But I am convinced that this conflict, though it has tendency for escalation, will be resolved."

Regional residents also hold differing views on the effects of militarization.

Danil Usmanov, a Kyrgyzstani photojournalist who was in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken province, bordering Tajikistan, reporting on the April 2021 and September 2022 Kyrgyz border conflicts told VOA that in his conversations with residents of Kyrgyz border towns, he sensed they would prefer that Bishkek officials spend more to solve their region’s economic problems.

But, he said, they accept increased military spending and militarization of Batken "as a necessary vice to deter border conflicts with Tajikistan."

Kyrgyz officials have defended their increased military spending, saying that it boosted their capacity to thwart potential conflicts. During his January 2024 meeting with residents of Kyrgyzstan’s Jalal-Abad province, Tashiev said weapons and related purchases have allowed a change in the Central Asian balance of power.

"We are no longer seen as a weak country that lacks [military] might. ... Today, we are seen as a formidable opponent, as a strong state and strong partner. All of this indicates that our country has grown in strength," he said.

Leonard, though, said the militarization is unlikely to bolster the Central Asian republics’ political stability.

"If Central Asian governments are perceiving conventional armed forces as a key to bolstering stability in their countries without giving sufficient attention to issues such as political reform, putting institutions in place that serve as means for relieving pressure from below, then they may be in for an unpleasant surprise," he said.

"Kazakhstan, for instance, invests extensive resources into its army. But can that prevent events like the January 2022 nationwide protests that rocked the whole country?"

Understanding how patronage networks function in Central Asia (EurasiaNet – opinion)

EurasiaNet [7/25/2024 4:14 PM, Morgan Y. Liu, 57.6K, Neutral]
Since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, there is a curious inconsistency in what authoritarian governments in the region do and fail to do. While state leaders have succeeded in building vast and effective surveillance systems to perpetuate their rule, they have often struggled to provide regular and uniform social services to all citizens, including electricity, heating and healthcare, as well as create sufficient economic opportunities for young and growing populations.

An underexamined feature of Central Asia’s political landscape since the early 2000s is the prevalence of local power brokers who are non-state actors performing state-like functions on small scales, enabling citizens’ access to jobs, goods, services, pensions, aid, education, entertainment and religious worship. These patrons create businesses to generate wealth, dispense benefits for their constituencies to curry loyalty, establish systems to secure their own indispensability, and arrange political cover for these endeavors with government officials.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that local power brokers, operating outside formal government frameworks, play an important role in preventing social discontent from boiling over. The systems they create are often corrupt and inefficient, but they nonetheless fill gaps in government services. In political terms, power brokers may well act like dark matter in maintaining order invisibly to outside observers. But just as astronomers have trouble directly observing dark matter and its workings, unofficial patronage arrangements in Central Asia are little documented or studied.

My preliminary research, including interviews with Central Asian citizens, indicates that non-state patronage networks are operating across the region, although it is difficult to ascertain specific locations and patrons; power brokers tend to want to operate quietly lest undue attention from officials or rivals interferes with their operations.

Local observers tend to have imprecise knowledge of arrangements not affecting them personally. It is also difficult to discern how government officials at all levels view these patronage networks. Do they want to quash them because they make the state look inadequate? Or are local power brokers succeeding in co-opting and convincing officials that their activities constitute no threat to the state, and even make officials’ jobs easier? Another broad question needing clarity is whether the needs of local communities are being met by government officials, power brokers, both, or none? If citizens are experiencing a “services void,” what recourse do they have? Determining answers to these and other key questions concerning power brokers will require time and resources for investigative reporting and fieldwork research.

There are a few examples of influential power brokers from the early 2000s that highlight why such actors must not be overlooked. One involves Kadyrjan Batyrov, the grand Uzbek patron of Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan, who was instrumental in building some basic infrastructure in that Uzbek-majority city before inter-ethnic violence of 2010 brought about the quick collapse of his fiefdom.

Batyrov built and led an extensive suite of institutions that included a university, newspaper, publishing house, school, medical clinic, cultural centers, shops, bazaars, mosque and theater. His achievements appeared impressive on Jalal-Abad’s cityscape in the 2000s, especially given the troubled history of Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations in southern Kyrgyzstan. He enabled vibrant economic and professional activity because he cultivated a personal relationship with then-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, an ethnic Kyrgyz also from Jalal-Abad. Batyrov also created political cover for himself by crafting a public image of being a loyal Kyrgyzstani citizen working for the republic’s common good. But after the 2010 clashes, Batyrov felt compelled to flee the country and seek political asylum in Sweden. He remained in self-imposed exile until dying in 2018.

The most well-known, and controversial case of power-brokering involves Akrom Yuldashev, who founded and led an Islamist network known as Akromiya, in and around the Ferghana Valley city of Andijan in Uzbekistan. The group played a central role in catalyzing a violent government crackdown in 2005, remembered as the Andijan massacre. Sidestepping questions about what Akromiya might have been intending to do that constituted a security risk to then-Uzbek leader Islam Karimov’s government, one aspect of the group’s activities hasn’t received sufficient attention: Yuldashev was part of a collective of pious businessmen that provided credit, jobs, Islamic education, and aid to the city’s residents. Whatever else it might have been up to, Akromiya’s operations resembled similar Islamic business networks across Central Asia starting from the 2000s that provided material benefits to local communities. The group’s popularity was such that crowds of Andijanis voluntarily rallied on its behalf on the city’s central Babur Square for months before the 2005 crackdown. This may illustrate why Uzbek political leaders felt threatened by Akromiya: the group fulfilled socioeconomic needs in the city, underscoring the government’s shortcomings. The state, unable to brook this rival source of authority, ultimately moved decisively to dismantle it.

The authority of Central Asian power brokers, even those who hold some sort of political office, tends to be rooted in personal trust and feelings of obligation. If these patronage networks are not state structures, neither are they part of civil society, as analysts and scholars understand the term. This Central Asian model of exercising power over communities carves out private domains that deliver influence to the patron and benefits to dependents. These arrangements are paternalistic and communalistic, bound by sentiments of personal loyalty between patron and clients. This is not a civil society of autonomous citizens in voluntary association. No NGO would conceive of such a paradigm for communal flourishing.

It would be a mistake to assume that Central Asian citizens are content with patron-centered arrangements as the preferred option for regional social and economic development. The problem is, it is difficult to envision Central Asian citizens somehow organizing to shape better alternatives to existing systems. Yet, any viable development model for the region would nonetheless require their participation in crafting reform principles consonant with their understandings about community and trust, while at the same time avoiding the paternalism and partiality of patronage.

Twitter

Afghanistan

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/25/2024 12:15 PM, 96.5K followers, 7 retweets, 53 likes]
The Turkmen Ambassador, Hoja Ovezov called on IEA-Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi. The meeting focused on upgrading the level of bilateral diplomatic relations & ways to commence the practical work of TAPI Pipeline project in the territory of Afghanistan.

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/25/2024 12:15 PM, 96.5K followers, 4 likes]
At the outset, Mr. Hoja Ovezov updated the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the latest developments regarding the practical work of the construction of TAPI Pipeline in Afghanistan. Later, FM Muttaqi said that the construction of TAPI Pipeline is among the top priorities of

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/25/2024 12:15 PM, 96.5K followers, 4 likes]
the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, adding further, FM Muttaqi said that the line authorities of Afghanistan are engaged in finalizing the technical work of the TAPI Pipeline,

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/25/2024 12:15 PM, 96.5K followers, 4 likes]
& in near future the construction of the pipeline will be practically commenced in the territory of Afghanistan.

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/26/2024 12:08 AM, 96.4K followers, 5 retweets, 24 likes]
The Deputy Minister of Culture & Tourism of the People’s Republic of China & the Director General of the National Cultural Heritage Authority of P.R.C, Mr. Li Qun called on IEA-Foreign Minister, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi. The meeting underlined in-depth discussions...

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/26/2024 12:08 AM, 96.4K followers, 1 like]
on cultural exchanges between Afghanistan & China, protection of antiquities in Miss Aynak area & the provision capacity building programs in various technical fields to the government of Afghanistan. At the outset, FM Muttaqi expressed hope that the extraction & processing of

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/26/2024 12:08 AM, 96.4K followers, 1 like]
copper mines in the area of Miss Aynak will soon commence, ensuring the protection of the antiquities on the site. Additionally, FM Muttaqi called the Wakhan Corridor between Afghanistan & China an important junction of the two countries, deeming the corridor as one of

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/26/2024 12:08 AM, 96.4K followers, 1 like]
the priorities of the Afghan government. Later, viewing Afg-PRC relations positive, Mr. Li Qun expressed his happiness for visiting cultural sites in Afghanistan adding that cultural cooperation between the two countries may potentially pave way for broader cooperation in

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/26/2024 12:08 AM, 96.4K followers, 1 like]
other areas too. Calling Aynak Copper Project an unparalleled example of the cultural exchanges of the two countries, the Deputy Minister of Culture & Tourism said that he is accompanied by the experts of cultural affairs on his visit to

Hafiz Zia Ahmad
@HafizZiaAhmad
[7/26/2024 12:08 AM, 96.4K followers, 1 like]
Afghanistan so as to start the extraction process of copper mines in a manner that ensures the protection of antiquities on the site.

Pakistan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[7/25/2024 12:14 PM, 479.6K followers, 16 retweets, 34 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 had a telephone conversation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi @FilippoGrandi , today. They discussed matters related to Pakistan-UNHCR cooperation. The recent attacks and violent demonstrations (by Afghani diaspora) against Pakistan’s Diplomatic Missions in Frankfurt, London and Brussels also came under discussion. The High Commissioner appreciated Pakistan’s traditional hospitality towards Afghan refugees, in particular the recent decision by the Government of Pakistan to extend the validity of PoR cards. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and the High Commissioner agreed to continue to work together to advance Pakistan-UNHCR cooperation and find lasting solution to the issue of Afghan refugees, building on the discussions held during the recent visit of the High Commissioner to Pakistan in early July 2024 and today’s telephone conversation.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[7/25/2024 10:02 AM, 479.6K followers, 26 retweets, 53 likes]
Secretary General ECO, Ambassador Khusrav Noziri, called on Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today. The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister appreciated the Secretary General’s services for the organization.

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[7/25/2024 11:51 PM, 8.5M followers, 1.1K retweets, 3.5K likes]
Congressman @BradSherman suggested @State_SCA that US Ambassador in Pakistan Donald Bloom should visit @ImranKhanPTI in Adiala Jail Rawalpindi.

India

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[7/26/2024 12:43 AM, 100.4M followers, 4K retweets, 16K likes]
On 25th Kargil Vijay Diwas, the nation honours the gallant efforts and sacrifices of our Armed Forces. We stand eternally grateful for their unwavering service.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[7/26/2024 12:43 AM, 100.4M followers, 3.8K retweets, 15K likes]
On 25th Kargil Vijay Diwas, the nation honours the gallant efforts and sacrifices of our Armed Forces. We stand eternally grateful for their unwavering service.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[7/25/2024 10:57 AM, 100.4M followers, 6.1K retweets, 51K likes]
It was an honour to meet former Prime Minister, Shri HD Devegowda Ji at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. His wisdom and perspective on various subjects are deeply valued. I am also thankful for the artwork that he gave me, taking my mind back to my recent visit to Kanyakumari. @H_D_Devegowda @hd_kumaraswamy

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[7/25/2024 10:56 PM, 100.4M followers, 6.7K retweets, 39K likes]
Tomorrow, 26th July, is a very special day for every Indian. We will mark the 25th Kargil Vijay Diwas. It is a day to pay homage to all those who protect our nation. I will visit the Kargil War Memorial and pay tributes to our brave heroes. Work will also commence for the Shinkun La Tunnel Project. This project is important to improve connectivity to Leh, especially during bad weather.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[7/26/2024 1:57 AM, 3.2M followers, 101 retweets, 758 likes]
My remarks at the Opening Session of the ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers Meeting in Vientiane today. https://x.com/i/status/1816714475094884545

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[7/25/2024 10:21 AM, 3.2M followers, 501 retweets, 3.1K likes]
Met with CPC Politburo member and FM Wang Yi in Vientiane today. Continued our ongoing discussions about our bilateral relationship. The state of the border will necessarily be reflected on the state of our ties. Agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process. Must ensure full respect for the LAC and past agreements. It is in our mutual interest to stabilize our ties. We should approach the immediate issues with a sense of purpose and urgency.

Rajnath Singh
@rajnathsingh
[7/26/2024 1:20 AM, 24.2M followers, 163 retweets, 744 likes]
On the 25th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas, paid tributes to India’s bravehearts at the National War Memorial in New Delhi. #KargilVijayDiwas2024

NSB

Awami League
@albd1971
[7/25/2024 1:27 PM, 639.6K followers, 52 retweets, 74 likes]
Armed cadres of @bdbnp78 , @BJI_Official, and @info_shibir came from many parts of #Bangladesh and congregated in #Rampura, #Badda, and #Banasree areas of #Dhaka. They attacked people’s homes, multiple government establishments, and national broadcaster #BTV. They killed a policeman and injured a #journalist. Watch this video which shows that no students were present here, only #BNP-#Jamaat miscreants and hired goons. Bangladesh will not forgive them! #QuotaMovement #QuotaProtest

Awami League
@albd1971
[7/25/2024 10:09 AM, 639.6K followers, 38 retweets, 58 likes]
Under the cover of the #QuotaMovement, @bdbnp78 and @BJI_Official’s armed cadres launched targeted attacks on activists of #AwamiLeague and its associated organisations all across #Bangladesh. As soon as the violence started, it was no longer a student movement, but a violent movement of extremists Jamaat and their backer BNP.

We are listing the names of our fallen comrades whose deaths have been confirmed so far (the number is likely to increase as many injured are in critical situations):
1. Sabuj Ali (Activist of Bangladesh Students’ League, Dhaka College);
2. Nazmul Hossain (59 No. Ward Volunteer League leader, Dhaka Metropolitan West);
3. Sumon (61 No. Ward Volunteer League leader, Dhaka Metropolitan West)
4. Nure Alam (18 No. Ward Sromik League leader, Gazipur Metropolitan);
5. Jewel Mollah (personal assistant to former mayor of Gazipur Jahangir Alam);
6. Md. Roman (Awami League activist);
7. Baki Mollah (Joint General-Secretary, 18 No. Ward Volunteer League, Dhaka Metropolitan North);
8. Syed Zahirul Islam Tipu (son of late Syed Faizul Islam).
Thousands of leaders and activists have been injured. Among them, at least 50 are currently in critical condition.

Sabria Chowdhury Balland
@sabriaballand
[7/25/2024 5:50 AM, 5.7K followers, 10 retweets, 20 likes]
One of the topics that has been coming up repeatedly among the Bangladeshi diaspora is foreign remittance to #Bangladesh. This is an excellent method by which to seriously weaken the authoritarian, illegal regime. The already weakening economy will weaken more rapidly, adding to a whole host of problems that Sheikh Hasina & her party are already facing. #HasinaOut

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[7/25/2024 12:12 PM, 211.1K followers, 36 retweets, 103 likes]
Even if PM Sheikh Hasina rides Bangladesh’s crisis out (and she likely will), she has suffered unprecedented political damage that could come back to haunt her in the weeks and months ahead. This week’s South Asia Brief for @ForeignPolicy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/24/bangladesh-protests-undermine-sheikh-hasina/

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[7/26/2024 11:09 AM, 211.1K followers, 16 retweets, 38 likes]
Interesting quote on the Bangladesh crisis from scholar Mubashar Hasan: “It’s an incredibly young country and this movement doesn’t care much about history anymore. But this has been the building block of legitimacy for Hasina and her party.” https://time.com/7003130/bangladesh-student-protests-police-job-quota-hasina-awami-league-razakars/

Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office
@amnestysasia
[7/25/2024 8:51 AM, 85.9K followers, 1K retweets, 2.1K likes]
BANGLADESH: @amnesty has verified further video and photographic evidence which shows that Bangladeshi security forces have continued to use unlawful force against student protesters. Our findings point to abusive use of birdshot, dangerous use of tear gas in enclosed spaces and unrestrained use of lethal firearms, such as AK-pattern assault rifles, by security forces. We urgently call for an independent and impartial investigation into all human rights violations committed by security forces, including the high death toll of protesters to be immediately conducted. Read our full analysis here: https://amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/07/bangladesh-further-video-and-photographic-analysis-confirm-police-unlawfully-used-lethal-and-less-lethal-weapons-against-protesters/ #ProtectTheProtest #SaveBangladeshiStudents

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[7/26/2024 1:25 AM, 99.4K followers, 25 retweets, 89 likes]
Welcome to Bhutan! @Starlink

Maldives in USA
@MDVinUSA
[7/25/2024 8:57 PM, 506 followers, 2 likes]
Ambassador @aghafoormohamed was pleased to welcome @WhiteHouse’s new National Security Council Senior Director for South Asia, Lindsey Ford, to the Embassy of Maldives in the USA for an introductory meeting. Discussions ensued on the strong, ongoing relations between the Maldives and the US.

MOFA of Nepal
@MofaNepal
[7/25/2024 4:16 AM, 258.8K followers, 8 retweets, 25 likes]
H. E. Air Chief Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana (Retd), Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Nepal, paid a courtesy call on Hon. Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba today. Various matters relating to Nepal-Sri Lanka relations and cooperation were discussed on the occasion.

K P Sharma Oli
@kpsharmaoli
[7/25/2024 12:08 PM, 856.2K followers, 58 retweets, 456 likes]
Had an inspiring meeting with Dr. Sanduk Ruit today! Despite the heavy rain, we had a great conversation about advancing eye care and overall health. His passion for restoring sight to those who can’t see is truly uplifting. Feeling refreshed and motivated! #Healthcare

Eran Wickramaratne
@EranWick
[7/25/2024 8:23 AM, 68.9K followers, 17 retweets, 43 likes]
One of the main reasons there are no queues for essential supplies like fuel and gas is because most people can’t afford these essential supplies, I pointed out joining the debate on the Economic Transformation Bill in parliament today. Research organisations have revealed that the monthly expenses of 90% of families in Sri Lanka are higher than their monthly incomes. 25% of families cannot afford milk for the children. Over 50% of families can’t buy school books and school uniforms. The population living below the poverty line has increased from 3 or 4 million to 7 million. That means one third, or 33.33%, of the country, is below the poverty line. This bill, which claims it will bring this down to 10%, will ring hollow to these suffering masses.

Harsha de Silva
@HarshadeSilvaMP
[7/26/2024 12:39 AM, 356.2K followers, 34 retweets, 74 likes]
PM @DCRGunawardena on behalf of gov of Pres @RW_UNP makes statement in @ParliamentLK saying injunction order of Supreme Court suspending IGP is invalid. Thus Pres need not enforce SC ruling to appoint acting IGP. Huge blow to #democracy in #SriLanka with 57 days to election.

Karu Jayasuriya
@KaruOnline
[7/26/2024 2:39 AM, 53.4K followers, 6 retweets, 10 likes]
It’s crucial for the judiciary, executive, and legislature to avoid conflicts, especially during election times. The nation’s future must come before self-interest.

Central Asia

Furqat Sidiqov
@FurqatSidiq
[7/25/2024 4:38 PM, 1.4K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
Had a productive meeting with Senator @SteveDaines to discuss strengthening the strategic partnership of Uzbekistan and the U.S. We explored opportunities to enhance trade & economic cooperation, focusing on expanding trade and economic ties with the Treasure State, #Montana.

{End of Report}

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