epubdos : Afghanistan
SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO:
SCA & Staff
DATE:
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
Turkish Airlines resumes flights to Afghanistan nearly 3 years after the Taliban captured Kabul (AP)
AP [5/21/2024 10:20 AM, Staff, 82990K, Negative]
Afghanistan’s Taliban government confirmed the resumption of Turkish Airlines flights to Kabul’s international airport, nearly three years after the carrier’s services were suspended following the collapse of the Western-backed government.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation said that the first Turkish Airlines flight landed Tuesday and was greeted by government officials.

Turkish Airlines flights have returned with a schedule of four weekly round-trip flights between Istanbul and Kabul on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

All international airlines halted flights to Afghanistan when the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces departed after two decades of war.

In January, Air Arabia restarted flights to Kabul’s international airport. In November 2023, FlyDubai became the first international carrier to resume flights to Afghanistan.

Two Afghan airlines, Kam Air and Ariana Afghan Airlines, operate from Kabul to destinations such as Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Moscow; Islamabad and Istanbul.
Trump, Biden were warned Afghanistan would get ‘very bad, very fast,’ ex-top general says (The Hill)
The Hill [5/21/2024 3:58 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 18067K, Negative]
The top U.S. general in Afghanistan during America’s 2021 withdrawal said he repeatedly warned the Trump and Biden administrations that pulling out all troops would make the security situation in the country “very bad, very fast,” but officials failed to grasp the danger.

Retired Army Gen. Austin Scott Miller, the former U.S. Forces Afghanistan commander, said he advised both administrations that cutting troop presence to zero would have left the U.S.-backed Afghan Security Forces vulnerable to being overrun by the Taliban, according to his April 15 interview with the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released Monday.

“My view was that going to zero things would go very bad, very fast,” Miller said in the closed-door testimony. “And of course, [I] define that [as] not prepared for a political or a security collapse while we’re still present, just wouldn’t be prepared.”

Instead, Miller recommended that the U.S. keep at least 2,500 forces on the ground in bases in Kabul and at Bagram Airfield — once the largest U.S. military base in the country that was abandoned by the U.S. military in July 2021, a month before the fall of Kabul and the full U.S. evacuation.

“My recommendation was that we retain a footprint,” Miller said. “You leave something here that keeps the Afghan Security Forces in the fight, keeps the Afghan Air Force in the fight, and you move forward. So that was my recommendation and it stayed consistent.”

Still, both President Trump and President Biden took steps to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan, with Trump initiating the withdrawal through a February 2020 deal with the Taliban known as the Doha Agreement, and Biden ultimately completing the effort in August 2021, to disastrous results.

In the chaos of the exit, during which tens of thousands of Afghan civilians desperately tried to leave the country via the Hamid Karzai International Airport, an ISIS-K suicide bomber blew himself up outside airport’s Abbey Gate, killing 13 U.S. service members and nearly 200 Afghans.

Miller said that after the Doha Agreement, the Taliban launched a handful of indirect fire attacks, which he saw as a warning of what was to come.

But in April 2021, after Biden announced his decision to fully withdraw U.S. troops and diplomats from Afghanistan, Miller said he predicted a full Taliban takeover of the country.

Though he later attempted to advocate for the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, State Department officials seemed to have “a lack of understanding of the risk.”

Millersaid that he became so worried by the administration’s failure to grasp how dangerous the withdrawal would be, he warned the Marine Corps commander in charge of planning for a possible evacuation to prepare for “some really adverse conditions.”

After Kabul swiftly fell to the Taliban in August 2021, the State Department finally requested a non-combatant evacuation operation for their employees but “it was too late,” a situation that put U.S. troops in a strained position, Miller said.

“If the building’s already on fire before you start evacuating it, it’s a much more challenging evacuation,” he told lawmakers.

“At that point, my focus was, how do I get these guys out of here without hurting somebody?” he continued. “I don’t usually get scared. I don’t. I was scared. And you know what I was afraid of? I was afraid I was going to lose somebody.”

Miller also lamented that he “did not foresee a good future for Afghanistan as I was departing,” and that he tried to make sure officials had a good understanding of what was happening in Afghanistan.

The interview is likely to recharge critics of Biden’s foreign policy decisions ahead of the November presidential election, with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) leading the charge on an investigation into the Afghanistan withdrawal.

The administration and its supporters, meanwhile, have criticized McCaul’s investigation as ignoring key decisions made by Trump while he was in the White House – including the Doha Agreement, a deal that imposed a May 2021 deadline for a full U.S. military pullout that left Biden with little control and no plan for how to achieve it.
Pakistan
A top ally of Pakistan’s imprisoned former premier Imran Khan is released on bail in graft case (AP)
AP [5/21/2024 2:59 PM, Staff, 39876K, Neutral]
A top ally of Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan was released from prison Tuesday after nearly a year when a court granted him bail in a corruption case, his party said.

Pervez Elahi, the president of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, was arrested in June on charges of illegally appointing officers in the Punjab Assembly when he was the province’s top elected officer. Elahi has denied the charge, saying he is being politically victimized.

Elahi’s party in a brief statement said he was now at home after being freed from prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Elahi hailed the court’s order in a post on social media platform X.

Elahi served as the top elected official in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, when Khan was prime minister.

Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote by Parliament in 2022 and is serving multiple prison terms after being convicted in various cases. He, too, has asserted that he is being politically victimized.
Pakistan Expects Economy Will Grow Slower Than Target This Year (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/21/2024 5:56 AM, Ismail Dilawar, 24454K, Neutral]
Pakistan forecast its economy will grow 2.38% this year to June, less than the target of 3.5% announced in the budget.

The South Asian nation’s economy contracted 0.21% last financial year, the government’s National Accounts Committee approved

the provisional GDP growth rate, according to a statement by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

This year’s growth comes on the back of Pakistan completing an International Monetary Fund’s Stand-by loan in April. The country is currently in talks with the lender for another $6-$8 billion loan to shore up its beleaguered economy hurt by record inflation and deficits.

The Committee estimated agriculture will grow 6.25% this year.

“The healthy growth of agriculture is mainly due to double-digit growth in important crops,” including wheat, cotton and rice, the statement said.

The Committee also revised upward its growth estimates for the first and second quarters to 2.71% and 1.79% from the previously 2.5% and 1%, respectively. The third quarter economic growth was estimated at 2.09%.
India
US watchdog documents hundreds of India election rallies targeting Muslims (VOA)
VOA [5/21/2024 5:25 PM, Masood Farivar, 4186K, Neutral]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stirred controversy with his anti-Muslim remarks since Indians began casting ballots in the country’s parliamentary elections last month.

But it’s not just Modi trafficking in controversial rhetoric about Muslims; top members of his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been echoing similar sentiment as the party seeks a historic third term in power.

In the four weeks since the polls opened on April 19, Hindutva Watch, a U.S.-based watchdog, has documented hundreds of campaign rallies featuring the BJP’s "star campaigners" and candidates delivering incendiary speeches targeting Muslims.

Hindutva Watch founder Raqib Hameed Naik said that in addition to Modi, the party’s list of prominent campaigners includes Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda and the chief ministers of several large states. Hindutva refers to the BJP’s Hindu nationalist ideology.

"They’re the ones at the core of the entire thing," Naik said in an interview with VOA.

Largest election in world

India’s six-week election, considered the largest of its kind in the world, pits the BJP against a broad coalition of opposition parties. Voting runs until June 1, and the results will be announced on June 4.

Modi sparked a firestorm on April 21 when he warned supporters that if the opposition Indian National Congress came to power, it would redistribute India’s wealth among "infiltrators" and "those who have more children."

The word "infiltrator," once used for Bengali refugees, is often employed by right-wing Hindu nationalists to label all of India’s 200 million Muslims as outsiders. Muslims are sometimes called "child breeders," a baseless stereotype used to fan demographic fears.

Understood in this context, Modi’s comments were panned by opposition parties and civil rights groups. But in the weeks since, they’ve been picked up and echoed by other BJP politicians in what experts call the "elite effect."

Naik, an exiled Kashmiri Muslim journalist, founded Hindutva Watch in 2021. In the years since, it has emerged as a respected repository of hate speech and hate crime in India, its work cited by mainstream news outlets.

Though Hindutva has documented nearly 3,000 instances of hate speech and hate crime, Naik said the election-related vitriol seen this year is without precedent.

"I have never seen this kind of inflammatory, hateful election campaign at the national level targeting Muslim minorities," Naik said.

Spokespeople for the BJP in New Delhi and the Indian Embassy in Washington did not respond to repeated email requests for comment. VOA has reached out to the BJP’s U.S. lobbying arm for comment.

Last week, Modi sought to address the controversy over his "infiltrators" remark. Speaking with a local broadcaster, he denied saying "Muslims have more children."

"I won’t do Hindu Muslim," he told News18. "This is my pledge."

To critics, the pledge rang hollow. The day he disavowed playing the Hindu-Muslim card, Modi warned supporters in the eastern state of Jharkhand, "Infiltrators with jihadi mindset are getting support from [the] opposition and putting our sisters in danger."

In the days since, Hindutva Watch has documented at least 10 rallies where Modi has by turn warned voters about alleged plans by Congress to redistribute national wealth among Muslims, award minority quotas to them and shut down a revered Hindu temple built on his watch.

Not all anti-Muslim statements documented by Hindutva Watch amount to hate speech, which is not a crime in India. Some are classified as inflammatory, dangerous or communal.

What Indians call "communalism" has long colored the contentious electoral politics of India, a country of 1.4 billion people, eight major religions and 22 official languages.

In 1984, the Congress Party, now in opposition, swept the polls, riding a wave of anti-Sikh furor created by the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said anti-Muslim rhetoric is "part and parcel" of the BJP’s voter mobilization strategy.

Founded in 1980 and in power since 2014, the BJP has long pursued two core objectives, Vaishnav said: improving the economic lot of the poor and creating a Hindu state.

"I don’t think that this rhetoric we’ve seen on the campaign [trail] particularly surprises me, because it is in a sense attached to every BJP campaign," Vaishnav said.

As far back as 2002 when he served as Gujarat’s chief minister, Modi didn’t shy away from inflammatory rhetoric during violent Hindu-Muslim riots, Vaishnav said. More recently, the country’s 2019 elections witnessed a surge in anti-Muslim rhetoric, he added.

"In a sense, [the current rhetoric] is unprecedented in part because of the way this gets magnified. But this kind of mobilization is certainly not new," he said.

‘Love jihad,’ ‘land jihad,’ ‘vote jihad’

To mobilize voters, BJP candidates, along with other proponents of right-wing Hindu nationalists, have made frequent use of well-worn tropes and conspiracy theories about Muslims.

One is known as "land jihad," a conspiracy theory that alleges Muslims are taking over public lands with unauthorized religious buildings. Another, called "love jihad," accuses Muslim men of marrying Hindu women to convert them, with the ultimate goal of transforming India into a Muslim country. Hindutva Watch has recorded dozens of instances of both conspiracy theories during the campaign.

Earlier this month, a new variant of the phrase emerged: "vote jihad." After a local opposition leader called on Muslims to carry out a "jihad" of "votes" to oust Modi from power, the prime minister accused the Congress Party of announcing a "vote jihad" against the BJP.

"I hope you all know what the meaning of jihad is and against whom it is waged," Modi said.

The topic of jihad has routinely surfaced in campaign rallies. In a May 15 speech, independent candidate Sanjay Sharma warned supporters that "this jihadi mentality will keep spreading" if they "don’t wake up now."

"Vote for me if you want to stop cow slaughter completely," Sharma said, according to a translation provided by Hindutva Watch. "Vote for me if you want to stop love jihad."

‘Fear speech’

In a way, much of the rhetoric employed by BJP candidates is typical political strategy: politicians firing up supporters with exaggerated claims and fear-mongering.

"Look at what House and Senate candidates are saying on the campaign trail," Vaishnav said. "Look at what Republican social media influencers are tweeting about."

Rutgers University Professor Kiran Garimella described the campaign rhetoric suggesting a Muslim takeover through population growth as "fear speech," a term used by researchers.

"We see a lot of cases where this kind of rhetoric is being used both in India and in the U.S.," Garimella said.

But it’s not just rhetoric that’s worrisome, said veteran Indian journalist and civil rights activist Ajit Sahi.

"In India, the rhetoric is part of a larger movement, which is organized, financed and has boots on the ground," said Sahi, now advocacy director for the Indian American Muslim Council. "If there was just rhetoric, that would be possibly tolerable, but the rhetoric is combined with an organized and deeply financed and widely penetrated movement."
India and Chabahar: Navigating the Tides of US Sanctions (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/21/2024 8:59 AM, Namita Barthwal, 847K, Neutral]
On May 13, Indian Ports Global Ltd. (IPGL) and the Port and Maritime Organization (PMO) of Iran signed a 10-year agreement to operate the Shahid-Behesti terminal of the Chabahar port. This agreement is part of a four-phase development program that began in 2016. Under the new agreement, IPGL will invest $120 million in the terminal’s infrastructure development. Additionally, India has agreed on a $250 million credit line to further develop the Iranian port. The signing ceremony was attended by India’s minister of shipping and waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, who reiterated Chabahar’s strategic importance in connecting India with Afghanistan and Central Asian countries.

However, this development was quickly overshadowed by a warning from the U.S. State Department, which raised concerns about potential sanctions risks for IPGL. In response, India has taken a diplomatic route to deter the United States from imposing sanctions stemming from the 2012 Iran Freedom Counterproliferation Act (IFCA) on IPGL, a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU). Previously, Indian PSUs have received exemptions from Washington under the IFCA for their engagements with Iran, including importing oil from the country and developing Chabahar port, considering its regional significance.

India has four reasons for building the Shahid-Behesti terminal of the Chabahar port. First, it has established a direct trade route from India to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan. On October 29, 2017, the first shipment of wheat from India to Afghanistan via Chabahar port marked the terminal’s operational status.

Second, the terminal is part of India’s broader effort to develop the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which aims to reduce transportation costs and time for goods traded between India and Eurasia. The transport costs via the INSTC are estimated to be 30 percent cheaper compared to the traditional Suez Canal route and can potentially increase trade between India and Russia.

Third, the development of Chabahar port is crucial for ensuring India’s stable energy supplies. Before the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions in 2018, Iran was a key supplier of crude oil to India, ranking as the second-largest supplier with imports reaching about 457,000 barrels per day. Presently, India maintains a position of zero imports of Iranian oil in compliance with the U.S. sanctions. Nevertheless, Chabahar port, strategically located in southeastern Iran, provides India with a direct maritime route for importing oil and gas, circumventing the politically unstable Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for the world’s oil supply. Moreover, the development of this port is also expected to pave the way for future pipeline projects, such as the proposed Iran-India subsea pipeline, which would enable India to receive natural gas directly from Iran and Central Asia.

Fourth, the development of Chabahar port is also seen as a strategic counterbalance to China’s influence in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region, particularly through its investments in Pakistan’s nearby Gwadar port under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The first agreement between India and Iran regarding Chabahar – commonly referred to as the “Chabahar Agreement” – was signed in 2003. That deal laid the groundwork for India’s participation in the development of the port. However, international sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program subsequently hampered India’s ability to invest and collaborate effectively.

The turning point came in 2015 when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed between Iran and a group of world powers known as the P5+1: the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany, along with the European Union. Under the agreement, Iran agreed to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 percent, which provided a temporary easing of sanctions, allowing for increased international trade and investment in the country.

India saw the easing of sanctions as an opportunity to deepen its investments and operational commitments in Chabahar. The following year, in 2016, India and Iran signed a bilateral agreement to develop the Chabahar port. This agreement included India’s commitment to invest $85 million to develop the Shahid Beheshti terminal. India also resumed importing oil from Iran, which had seen severe fluctuations between 2012 and 2015 due to IFCA-led sanctions.

Things again took a turn in India-Iran relations when, on May 8, 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States would unilaterally withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Trump criticized the deal for not addressing Iran’s ballistic missile program and regional activities and claimed that the JCPOA had provided Iran with significant economic relief without ensuring long-term prevention of nuclear weapon development. Following the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, Trump announced a comprehensive plan to re-impose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, which had been lifted under the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. This plan included the reactivation of IFCA provisions.

The IFCA of 2012, enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, is a U.S. legislative measure designed to impose comprehensive sanctions on Iran’s energy, shipping, and shipbuilding sectors, as well as on the trade of precious metals and other materials. These sanctions led to a significant reduction in Iran’s oil exports, which dropped from approximately 2.5 million barrels per day in 2017 to less than 0.5 million barrels per day by mid-2019. IFCA also targets financial institutions facilitating significant transactions with designated Iranian sectors. Despite the stringent measures, under Section 1244 of the IFCA, exemptions were granted for humanitarian purposes, allowing the trade of agricultural commodities, food, medicine, and medical devices to continue. Under Section 1245(d), specific waivers were issued to countries that demonstrated significant reductions in Iranian oil imports, enabling them to avoid penalties under the act. After the re-imposition of IFCA sanctions, eight countries received waivers from the United States, including China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Taiwan, and India.

In April 2019, Washington announced that it would not renew these waivers, thereby ending the exemptions and pushing all countries to suspend their imports of Iranian oil or face U.S. sanctions. The move was part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at cutting off Iran’s revenue from oil exports and pressuring it to renegotiate the nuclear deal and curb its regional activities.

At that time, India managed to secure some exemptions related to the development and operation of the Chabahar port due to its strategic importance in supporting Afghanistan’s development and enhancing regional connectivity. The exception covered “three principal activities,” which included the development and maintenance of Chabahar port along with its railway link to Afghanistan, the import of refined petroleum products such as gas, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas by Afghanistan from Iran, and the transit of non-sanctioned goods through Chabahar port to Afghanistan. India has complied with these rules, creating a plausible case for continued exemptions.

The United States recognizes the role of Chabahar port in facilitating humanitarian aid and economic support to Afghanistan, aligning with its broader goals of promoting stability and development in the region. Exempting India from certain sanctions could be interpreted as a strategic move by Washington to support a key regional ally in countering China’s influence, especially given the strategic rivalry between China and the U.S. There is a prevailing concern in Washington that if India were to abandon the development of the Chabahar port, China would likely step in to fill the void. Offering exemptions could be used as a diplomatic tool to maintain and enhance India-U.S. relations, ensuring that India remains a strong partner in the Indo-Pacific region.

Following the U.S. State Department’s warning about potential sanctions risks related to IPGL’s involvement in Chabahar, Indian officials, including External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, have reaffirmed their commitment to the port project. They have also said that the port’s operations are in line with the IFCA and serve broader regional interests. Furthermore, IPGL has worked closely with Indian authorities to ensure that all activities at Chabahar comply with relevant international regulations and to mitigate any potential risks associated with U.S. sanctions.

In conclusion, the latest agreement between New Delhi and Tehran underscores India’s unwavering commitment to enhancing connectivity with Afghanistan and Central Asia via Chabahar port. This connectivity is facilitated through a blend of port infrastructure, road and rail networks, and trade corridors that ensure the seamless transport of goods. India has already constructed a 218-kilometer highway linking Zaranj, near the Iran-Afghanistan border, to Delaram in Afghanistan, integrating into the Afghan ring road, which connects major cities such as Kabul, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif. Plans are also underway to bolster rail connectivity between Chabahar and various regions in Afghanistan and Central Asia. The developing Chabahar-Zahedan Railway aims to link Chabahar port to Zahedan, from where the rail network extends to the broader Iranian national rail grid, thereby enhancing connectivity to Afghanistan and beyond.

India’s investment in Chabahar port is driven not only by economic and strategic imperatives but also by New Delhi’s vision of regional stability and development. The broader implications of the latest developments in India-U.S. relations vis-a-vis India-Iran relations hinge on diplomatic negotiations and mutual strategic interests. Continued exemptions under the IFCA are possible but require careful diplomatic maneuvering to ensure India’s engagements with Iran do not undermine its relations with the United States.
India touted as option to ease U.S. chip workforce gap (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [5/21/2024 2:28 PM, Nishant Annu, 2197K, Neutral]
Indian talent could help solve anticipated worker shortages in U.S. chip supply chains, but immigration policies remain a hurdle as the two countries look to strengthen cooperation on critical technologies.

American chipmakers have committed billions of dollars in investments in India following a memorandum of understanding to establish a Semiconductor Supply Chain and Innovation Partnership signed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal in March 2023.

"India, with its wealth of human resources, has the capacity to be able to meet the needs of both [the Indian and American] economies," Ambassador Sripriya Ranganathan, the deputy chief of mission at the Indian Embassy in the U.S., said Monday during an event at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington.

The two countries should work together to maximize the economic impact of these workers, she said.

India is home to a large pool of students in science and technology courses. In 2021, over 600,000 undergraduates were enrolled in electronics engineering programs nationwide, the All India Survey on Higher Education reports.

But Indian experts found that most students require on-the-job training after graduation to work capably in manufacturing environments.

The U.S., meanwhile, is projected to face substantial chip workforce shortages. A report by lobbying group Semiconductor Industry Association estimates the industry will add almost 115,000 jobs by 2030. But 58% of these new jobs are at risk of going unfilled.

Some experts have argued that introducing a special visa program that facilitates the circulation of chip industry talent between India and the U.S. would benefit both countries.

Most Indian tech workers in the U.S. are on H1-B visas, a category of work permits designated for professionals with highly specialized knowledge. But the annual cap for new H1-B visas, awarded on a lottery basis, is 85,000.

The H1-B visa lottery for fiscal 2025 drew more than 470,000 entrants, meaning that over 80% of them will not receive a work permit.

Stephen Ezell, vice president of global innovation policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), said it might be politically feasible to establish a capped, time-limited visa for professionals in industries deemed important to the U.S.-India technology partnership, such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence, where there was a documented shortage of American talent.

But, "I’d posit that any such progress on this issue wouldn’t be made until election cycles are complete in both nations this year," he said.

Among the investments in India announced by U.S. chipmakers last year, the most significant is Micron’s new semiconductor assembly, test and packaging (ATP) facility in Sanand, an industrial city in the western state of Gujarat. Construction began in September, and the first phase of the project is expected to be operational by late 2024.

The Indian government will finance half of Micron’s $2.75 billion project, with an additional $550 million financed by Gujarat. Micron is responsible for the rest.

Other investments by companies such as Applied Materials and Advanced Micro Devices include building facilities for chip research and development.

A recent ITIF report noted that most of the world’s chip ATP work takes place in mainland China and Taiwan. Washington has used export controls and sanctions to curb China’s chipmaking since May 2019 when the Commerce Department placed Huawei Technologies on its Entity List, forcing the Chinese company to get approval to buy American technology.

The U.S. last week announced an increase in tariffs on Chinese semiconductors to 50% from 25%, citing concerns about China’s potential to dominate the market for legacy chips.

Konark Bhandari, a fellow at Carnegie India, described the move as "music to the ears of Indian policymakers" who wish to expand their country’s market share in the production of less advanced chips.

American chipmakers have been diversifying their supply chains to other countries amid the U.S.-China semiconductor battle.

Semiconductor ATP is more labor-intensive than other segments of the industry, so India’s combination of low-cost labor and government incentives could make the country attractive for more such investment, said Pranay Kotasthane, chair of the High-Tech Geopolitics Programme at the Takshashila Institution, a think tank in Bengaluru, India.

"Getting Micron’s Sanand packaging plant up and running fast is the key here," Kotasthane said, noting that the project could pave the way for other chipmakers to make similar investments.
How India Is Coping With Extreme Heat (New York Times)
New York Times [5/21/2024 4:14 PM, Manuela Andreoni, 831K, Neutral]
Since April, heat waves, most likely fueled by climate change, have reached dangerous levels across India and other Asian countries. This week, many Indian cities, including New Delhi, the capital, recorded temperatures above 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Local governments sent out heat alerts warning people to avoid staying outside and schools in several states were ordered to close.

It’s all happening as hundreds of millions of Indians head to the polls and are expected to re-elect Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The grueling heat crisis, one of several in India over the last few years, made me wonder if the nation’s leaders had made climate change more central in their campaigns.

Not really, my colleague Suhasini Raj, who covers India, told me.

“In their election manifestoes, India’s top political parties, including the governing Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition, the Congress party, have made multiple promises to act on climate damage and reduce emissions,” she said. “But climate pledges on paper are absent from speeches and rallies in the campaign trails.”

Still, as Raj pointed out, Indians are suffering the effects of climate change more acutely than most. “Climate change and pollution lead to loss of livelihoods, forced migrations and kill over two million Indians annually,” she said. “It is projected that 148.3 million people in India will be living in severe climate hot spots by 2050.”

Measuring the impact of heat can be difficult: Estimates of how many deaths can be attributed to heat in India vary from a few hundred to tens of thousands a year. Official tolls often fail to capture the full lethality of extreme temperatures.

Today, I want to explain how India is adapting to extreme heat, even as climbing temperatures are making its transition to a cleaner economy even more difficult. The country is not short of good ideas. But scaling them in the world’s most populous nation is still a challenge.

The rush to adapt

India was the first country in South Asia to create a heat action plan. It started in the city of Ahmedabad after an extreme heat wave in May 2010 resulted in a 43 percent increase in mortality compared with the same period in previous years, as Somini Sengupta wrote.

The plan involved establishing a system to warn residents when dangerous temperatures are expected, educating health care workers to recognize heat-related illnesses and opening cooling centers. Research estimates these programs save more than 1,000 lives a year.

Since 2010, India’s national government has worked with over 20 states and more than 130 cities to establish their own heat action plans. The results are mixed. Many plans aren’t public, fail to reach vulnerable populations or lack the resources to implement solutions.

But local governments are trying a variety of strategies. I asked Vishwas Chitale, from the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a think tank based in Delhi, to list some of the most successful.

He mentioned Telangana’s statewide policy to help paint or tile roofs in white colors that can reflect sunlight and cool buildings, new heatstroke wards in big hospitals and a workshop run by India’s National Disaster Management Authority to help local officials prepare for extreme heat.

A lot of the work is supported by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. Vijay Limaye, a climate and health scientist who follows India’s heat policies for the group, told me that the country’s experience showed that there were “some tested solutions.” “But they need to be deployed rapidly and at scale,” he said.

India’s difficult energy transition

India is also the fastest-growing big economy in the world and its dependence on coal to produce electricity is a major source of concern in the struggle to curb climate change.

India’s in a bind: It needs to replace coal even as its energy needs are growing quickly, along with its economy. More extreme temperatures create an even bigger burden, as the country is often forced to burn more coal to keep cooling devices running across the country.

This problem may only get more difficult in the future. Scientists say global temperatures will continue to rise and, though only 9 percent of Indians have air-conditioning units now, that number is likely to increase ninefold by 2050.

The good news is that, in recent years, renewable energy capacity has been growing fast, said Kaushik Deb, who runs the India program at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

In the first quarter of this year, for example, 71.5 percent of the new power capacity added in India came from renewable energy, according to an analysis by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The report also noted that coal accounted for less than half of India’s total capacity for the first time since the 1960s.

Making sure India’s energy needs don’t grow more than necessary is also part of the answer. That means investing in more efficient buildings and appliances, public transportation and electric vehicles, some of which are already part of India’s development plan.

Until India can come up with a “sensible and reasonable adaptation policy for heat wave-kind events,” Deb said, “the demand for electricity will continue to rise.”
India’s northwest braces for more heatwaves amid elections (Reuters)
Reuters [5/21/2024 7:08 AM, Chris Thomas, 45791K, Neutral]
As India’s northwest braces for more heatwave days this summer, capital Delhi has ordered the closure of all schools as temperatures surge as high as 47 degrees Celsius ahead of voting in the final two phases of national elections.

The India Meteorological Department said a confluence of weather patterns was driving up temperatures in the breadbasket region.

WHY IS INDIA IS SEEING MORE HEATWAVES?

Summer temperatures often peak during May in India, but IMD scientist Soma Sen Roy said the department was predicting 7-10 heatwave days in northwestern regions this month, compared to the usual 2-3 days.

This was largely due to fewer non-monsoon thundershowers and an active but weakening El Nino, she said, referring to a climate pattern that typically leads to hot and dry weather in Asia and heavier rains in parts of the Americas.

Warm, westerly winds blowing in from Pakistan also contributed to the heat, she said.

Other parts of India have already seen summer temperatures climbing to record peaks, including eastern and southern India, where temperatures in April were among the highest on record.

The weather department also declared a rare heatwave in the southwestern coastal state of Kerala last month.

EXTREME HEAT, POLLS

On Sunday, Najafgarh area in southwest Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 47.8 degrees Celsius (118.04°F), the highest this summer.

The IMD threshold for a heatwave is when the maximum temperature reaches 40C in the plains, 30C in hilly areas, 37C in coastal areas and when the departure from the normal maximum temperatures is at least 4.5 degrees.

Delhi will vote on Saturday, along with the nearby states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, among others, in the penultimate phase of a seven-phase general election.

The IMD has declared a red-alert for a heatwave this week in Delhi, indicating a likelihood of searing temperatures that could cause heat-related illness for those exposed.

WHAT IS THE WEATHER DEPT FORECASTING?

The IMD has said heatwave to severe-heatwave conditions are very likely this week in many parts of grain-producing states like Punjab, and Haryana in the northwest, along with parts of Delhi and nearby Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The meteorological department is also forecasting "extremely" heavy rainfall over the southern state of Kerala this week and in neighbouring Tamil Nadu state, due to cyclonic circulation - referring to a particular wind circulation pattern - over Kerala.
Indian Opposition Leader in Key State Eyes Electoral Success (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/22/2024 2:13 AM, Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Debjit Chakraborty, 5.5M, Neutral]
A top opposition leader in India’s electorally important state of Uttar Pradesh predicts a big win for his party, saying young and poor voters are turning against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party.

Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the Samajwadi Party — the biggest opposition group in Uttar Pradesh — said Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won’t repeat its past success in India’s parliamentary elections ending June 1. He didn’t provide any polling data to support his views, which were based on feedback from party workers and turnout at political rallies for the opposition.

“The BJP route to power was through Uttar Pradesh, now they are losing all seats and that will be their end,” Yadav said in an interview Tuesday at a political rally in Bhadohi, a rural town in the eastern part of the state.

Of the 543 seats contested in India’s parliamentary elections, 80 seats come from Uttar Pradesh, making it the state with the largest number of lawmakers. The northern region is the heartland of the Hindi belt, a stronghold for the BJP, which won 62 seats there in the 2019 elections.

Modi had set an ambitious target that the BJP and its allies would win 400 seats in the parliamentary elections, increasing the coalition’s majority from more than 350 seats in 2019. Slightly lower voter turnout figures, and Modi’s turn towards sharper and more divisive rhetoric, have raised doubts about the BJP’s support. Uncertainty about the results has crept into financial markets as well, with stock market volatility rising in recent weeks.

Amit Shah, India’s home minister and key Modi ally, sought to dismiss those doubts, telling a rally in Odisha state on Tuesday that “Modi has crossed 310 seats” already, and the coalition will aim to reach 400 in the final two phases of voting, set to take place on May 25 and June 1. The votes will be counted on June 4.

Dayashankar Mishra, an Uttar Pradesh state minister from the ruling BJP, said Tuesday that Modi remains popular and the BJP will easily reach its electoral goals. Citizens have benefitted in the past 10 years from the BJP’s policies, such as a free food program, and support measures targeted toward farmers and women, he said in an interview in Varanasi, the Hindu holy city where Modi is contesting the election.

Yadav, in his interview, said that voters in the province are turning against the BJP because of a lack of jobs, especially for young people, the high cost of living, and concerns that the ruling party may dilute affirmative action policies for lower-caste individuals. His party has traditionally drawn its support from lower caste voters and Muslims.

At the rally in Bhadohi, Yadav claimed that his party and allies will win all 80 seats up for grabs in Uttar Pradesh. While that’s unlikely, if the BJP loses significant support in the state to Yadav’s party, he’ll emerge as a key player in the alliance.

Yadav was in Bhadohi to campaign on behalf of a candidate from the Trinamool Congress, who is standing in the constituency against the incumbent winner from the BJP. To dent the BJP’s support in the elections, the opposition alliance, comprising of more than 20 political parties, have agreed not to contest seats against each other.

Yadav said opposition groups were aligned on policy priorities if they came to power: they plan to waive loans for farmers, create more government jobs and conduct a caste survey nationwide to better target affirmative action policies.

He said the alliance hasn’t yet chosen a candidate for prime minister, but will do so once the results are known.

“We are yet to finalize one face,” he said. “We have so many faces, but they have only one face,” he added, referring to Modi, who has emerged as an increasingly dominant figure in the BJP, with the party even labeling its manifesto Modi’s Guarantee.
Indian Kashmir voting reaches 59% (VOA)
VOA [5/21/2024 1:32 PM, Muheet Ul Islam, 4186K, Neutral]
A voter turnout of 59% was reported Monday in Indian-administered Kashmir during the fifth phase of the Indian general elections. The May 20 polling marks significant progress for the area since the eruption of armed conflict in the region against Indian forces in 1989.

More than 1.7 million adults were eligible to vote in the disputed Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir, a region claimed by both India and Pakistan.

Historically, the Kashmir valley has experienced low voter turnout in parliamentary elections. The highest turnout was recorded in 1984 at 61.09%. In 2019, some 37% of voters participated.

The elections in India began in late April and will continue through June. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third term in office. His bitter rival, Rahul Gandhi, is aiming to replace him.

“This year’s poll percentage is definitely the second highest in the democratic history of Baramulla Parliamentary Constituency,” reads a media statement issued from the office of Jammu and Kashmir’s chief electoral officer, Pandurang Kondbarao Pole.

“The main reasons for the increased turnout include improved security and law-and-order conditions over the last 4-5 years, mobilization efforts by 22 candidates and political parties, election awareness initiatives by Deputy Commissioners and the CEO office through Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation activities, and, importantly, the voters’ strong belief that it is the ballot which can lead to sustainable development,” the statement added.

Polling for Baramulla, a northern constituency, started slowly but gained momentum in the latter half of the day. Voters of all ages were seen lining up to cast their ballots.

“Voting is a fundamental right that allows us to participate in the democratic process and honor those who fought for democracy and equal rights,” Ruqaya Akhter, a first-time voter, told VOA. “Many individuals and movements have faced significant challenges to secure this right for all citizens, often in the face of violence, discrimination and imprisonment. By voting, we acknowledge and respect the sacrifices made by those who risked their lives to ensure a fair and inclusive society for everyone.”

In Baramulla, the expected battle was between Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister and vice president of the National Conference, or NC, party, and Sajad Ghani Lone, a separatist-turned-mainstream politician and founder of the People’s Conference, or PC, party. The dynamics shifted, however, when incarcerated politician and former member of the legislative assembly Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, decided to contest the election from New Delhi’s Tihar jail.

Rashid is the founder of the Awami Ittehad Party. He is jailed under anti-terrorism laws.

“NC and PC have had a stronghold in north Kashmir, but this year people may surprise everyone as a large number of youth have come out in support of Engineer Rashid,” Nazir Ahmad Reshi, a resident of the Sumbal area in Bandipora district, told VOA.

“One cannot predict the victory of any particular candidate. The youth are with Engineer Rashid while the rest of the people are with NC and PC,” he said.

Despite having few resources to cover his campaign expenses, Engineer Rashid has attracted large support. Thousands rallied around him voluntarily when his son, Abrar Rashid, filed nomination papers on his behalf.

The elder Rashid was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir government in 2019 and later booked by the National Investigation Agency in a terror-funding case.

Simran Jan, a first-time voter, said she hoped Rashid would receive many votes.

“Engineer Rashid has always taken a strong stance and consistently advocates for the rights of Kashmiris. He is currently imprisoned due to his ideology. During the 2014 floods, he personally rescued victims using his own vehicle,” Simran Jan said.

“Local and national political parties have consistently failed to fulfill their promises. I wish to see him free. The day he is released from prison will feel like a festival,” she told VOA.

Rashid’s detention came before the Modi government revoked the semiautonomous status of Muslim majority Kashmir in August 2019. Kashmir’s loss of its special status led to the division of the region into two federal territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Both areas are ruled by the central government and have no legislatures of their own.

Meanwhile, Ladakh also exercised its electoral franchise for the first time since it was separated from the previous state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Ladakh parliamentary constituency, the largest in the country in terms of area, recorded a voter turnout of approximately 67.15%, officials said.

“People of Ladakh choose this election as a referendum in order to send a message to the center government. In 2019 elections, BJP government did not fulfill the promises made by them during the previous elections,” Padma Stanzin, a resident of the Leh district of Ladakh, told VOA. “The local population is upset. BJP is not coming into power in Ladakh. Independent candidates and Congress Party candidates may win because of anti-incumbency against BJP as we feel that our rights are at stake.”

A candidate from Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Tashi Gyalson, and one from the main opposition party, Indian National Congress’s Tsering Namgyal, are among those contesting the elections in Ladakh.

The BPJ is not contesting the elections in Indian Kashmir. News reports say the move signals ongoing discontent over the 2019 move, and there is speculation BJP candidates would have lost.
India Eyes $12 Billion Bonanza From Central Bank, Aiding Budget (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/21/2024 7:31 PM, Anup Roy, 24454K, Positive]
India’s central bank is expected to pay up to one trillion rupees ($12 billion) as dividend to the federal government, economists said, a move that would boost New Delhi’s coffers and help meet its budget deficit target.

The Reserve Bank of India’s central bank of directors is expected to meet this week and is likely to approve a dividend ranging between 800 billion to one trillion rupees, according to economists’ estimates. That compares with a transfer of 874.2 billion rupees last year

and the government’s own target of 1.02 trillion rupees, which includes dividends from state-controlled banks.

If the RBI pays out a dividend worth one trillion rupees, it will be the highest in five years.

The higher dividend payout is likely to help the federal government achieve its fiscal deficit target of 5.1% of gross domestic product in the current financial year. It would also likely shore up revenues for any new government that takes office after general elections conclude early next month, allowing it greater spending flexibility.

A big surplus transfer “will help the government in meeting any shortfall in disinvestment receipts and create room for funding welfare programs after the elections,” said Teresa John, an economist with Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities, by phone. She forecasts the dividend payout to be around one trillion rupees.

The RBI makes an annual payout to the government from the surplus income it earns on investments and valuation changes on its dollar holdings, and the fees it gets from printing currency. It is mandated to maintain a contingency risk buffer of 5.5% to 6.5% of its balance sheet.

Among the key factors that could contribute to a large surplus transfer are higher interest income that the central bank would have earned on securities held abroad and in the domestic market. Those earnings are expected on the back of a tighter monetary policy regime in many advanced economies and back home.

However, earnings on foreign exchange transactions could be lower as the central bank sold less dollars in the last fiscal year than the previous year, Gaura Sen Gupta, an economist with IDFC First Bank wrote in a note earlier this month. In the year to March 2024, RBI’s foreign exchange reserves went up by $67 billion.

A large dividend, coupled with high cash surplus may allow the finance ministry to cut its bond sales, aiding lower borrowing costs, people familiar with the matter said, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. India plans to borrow a record 14.13 trillion rupees in the financial year ending March 2025, according to the February interim budget.

Bond Index Inclusion

An expected bonanza for New Delhi comes just a month before Indian bonds are added to the JPMorgan Chase and Co.’s emerging market index. That inclusion is likely to see inflows of up to $25 billion and could see the central bank’s balance sheet swell in the fiscal year to March 2025, making it essential for tweaks to be carried out to meet the minimum levels of capital. The RBI is widely expected to intervene and absorb the bulk of the inflows expected due to the bond inclusion.

The ballooning of the balance sheet could lead to revisions in the RBI’s economic capital framework at some point later in the year, wrote Barclays Plc.’s economists Shreya Sodhani and Amruta Ghare in a note earlier this month. They estimate a dividend payout of over a trillion rupees, which could increase if the framework is revised.

Any reduction in contingency risk buffer, and dilution of revaluation balances, “could have material fiscal implications, by increasing dividends paid to the government,” they said.
Resigned to a fate of constant displacement, India’s river islanders return home in between floods (AP)
AP [5/21/2024 9:12 PM, Anupam Nath, 27514K, Negative]
Yaad Ali is dreading the rainy season’s arrival this year.

The 56-year-old farmer from northeastern India’s Assam state lives with his wife and son on Sandahkhaiti island on India’s Brahmaputra River. The island, like two thousand others on the river, floods with increasing ferocity and unpredictability as human-caused climate change makes rain heavier and more erratic in the region.

The family move away with every flood, and move back to their house every dry season. Ali said politicians in the region have made promises to provide relief for them, including during the current election, but little has changed for his family. For now, they contend with being displaced for large parts of the year.

“We need some sort of a permanent solution,” Ali said. “In the last few years, it’s only a short time after we recover from flood damages that we have to be ready to face another flood.”

A permanent piece of land in a safer region of the state can be the only solution to their troubles, he said. And while local governments have talked about it, only a few river islanders have been offered land rights in the state.

When The Associated Press met Ali and his family last year, they were relocating because of incessant rain that had flooded their island home. Now, during the dry season, Ali and his family cultivate red chile peppers, corn and a few other vegetables in their small farm on the island.

Like most other islanders, farming is their livelihood: An estimated 240,000 people in the Morigaon district of the state — where some of the river islands, known as Chars, are located — are dependent on fishing and selling produce like rice, jute and vegetables from their small farms.

When it rains, the family stays as long as they can, living in knee-deep water inside their small hut, sometimes for days. Cooking, eating and sleeping, even as the river water rises. But sometimes the water engulfs their home, forcing them to flee with their belongings.

“We leave everything and try to find some higher ground or shift to the nearest relief camp,” Monuwara Begum, Ali’s wife, said last year. The relief camps are unhygienic and there’s never enough space or food, Ali said, and “sometimes we get only rice and salt for days.”

But when it’s dry, the family has temporary respite. They move back to their homes, tend to their farms, and are able to make a living selling the produce they harvest.

India, and Assam state in particular, is seen as one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change because of more intense rain and floods, according to a 2021 report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a New Delhi-based climate think tank.

Like many families on the Chars, Ali and his family are unable to afford to permanently relocate, and have reconciled themselves to their fate of moving back and forth to their home.

“Nobody cares about our problems,” said Ali. “All the political parties promise to solve the flood problems but after the election, nobody cares about it.”

“We have to manage here somehow,” he said.
Modi accused of failing on 10-year-old promise to clean up Ganges River (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [5/22/2024 12:50 AM, Neeta Lal, 2.2M, Neutral]
For years, the clean-up of the polluted River Ganges has been mired in politics, with accusations of corruption and mismanagement flowing thick and fast while the river has remained filthy. With India now voting in its six-week-long general elections, which began in mid-April, the topic has come under the spotlight again.

On May 14 when India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi filed his nomination papers from Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh -- his constituency since 2014 -- critics and opposition leaders questioned him about his achievements for the city. At the top of their agenda was why India’s most sacred river, the Ganges, which flows through the holy city, continues to remain polluted despite billions of rupees having been spent on cleaning it up.

Jairam Ramesh, the leader of the main opposition Congress party, asked why "the Ganga [the Ganges river] has gotten dirtier" after so much money has been spent. "Where has the 20,000 crore [rupees] in taxpayer money gone? How much has been siphoned off in corruption and mismanagement?" At current exchange rates, 20,000 crore rupees, or 200 billion rupees, amounts to about $2.4 billion.

When Modi was elected in May 2014 to Parliament from Varanasi, a city with a population of 3.6 million, he promised a cleaner Ganges through his governance and policies. His party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), promptly launched its flagship Namami Gange project under which 200 billion rupees was pledged towards reducing pollution and rejuvenating the river.

The initial target was to clean up the waterway by 2019, but this was extended to 2022 with an additional budget of 100 billion rupees. The target has since been moved to 2026 while the river continues to be one of the world’s most polluted, sullied by human and industrial waste flowing unchecked into it.

The river’s fecal coliform level (bacteria found in the gut and feces of warm-blooded animals) was found to be three to 12 times higher than the permissible level at most interstate boundaries, according the Central Pollution Control Board, a governmental body under the environment ministry which sets these levels.

Experts say that the Namami Gange plan is lagging behind schedule while large swathes of the river continue to remain contaminated by toxic waste and sewage. Much of the money allocated to the project remains unspent, officials from the National Mission for Clean Ganga, a government body overseeing the project, told Nikkei Asia on the condition of anonymity. "Because the river flows through nearly a dozen states, there’s often overlap of authorities which slows down decision-making, resulting in no action at all," an official said.

Even though Modi has not directly responded to critics who have slammed the Namami Gange project, his party has defended the initiative saying it has shown good results. In a response to the Indian parliament last year, the Ministry of Jal Shakti, which overseas water issues, said in a statement that between 2018 and 2021, there was a "marked improvement" in the state of the river.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said last year that the scheme had improved the river’s condition and that Ganges river dolphins, which were on the verge of extinction, have started appearing again in the river because the water has become clean. "There was a time when taking a dip in Ganga used to cause skin diseases, but today the sacred river has become not only clean but also fit for aachaman," meaning drinking, he said.

However, in 2022, the National Green Tribunal, a specialized body that handles environmental disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues, observed that "nearly 50 per cent of untreated sewage and substantial industrial effluents are still being discharged in the river or its tributaries, in absence of requisite functional treatment capacity." Funeral ceremonies are held on the banks of the river and the ashes of the cremated are scattered in the water, exacerbating its pollution, the body added.

Varanasi’s residents recall how the Ganges used to be clean and is now unrecognizable. "When our family would go boating in the 1970s, we could clearly see fish cavorting in the river’s water," recalls Suryakant Pandit, a third generation priest based in Varanasi. "Now, all we see is filth and garbage. Occasionally the sight of a floating corpse has also given us a fright."

The Ganges basin, regarded as sacred and essential to more than 600 million people across the Indian subcontinent, is facing mounting environmental threats, according to a report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, an intergovernmental organization based in Kathmandu, Nepal, which consists of eight regional member countries including India, China and Bangladesh.

Rapid industrialization, urbanization and intensive agricultural practices have impaired the river’s ecological health while the indiscriminate discharge of sewage and industrial waste have severely polluted the water, posing significant risks to both human health and the environment, the report added.

Experts link pollution in the rivers to India’s high rate of waterborne illnesses, which kill an estimated 1.5 million children each year. Researchers have also discovered the emergence in Ganges water samples of so-called superbugs -- bacteria that are resistant to the most commonly used antibiotics.

However, the priest admits that some good things have happened over the years. "Electric crematoria have been built as an alternative to the traditional and less efficient wood-burning pyres. Many agencies have also been involved in picking up ceremonial flowers from the ghats (river banks) to recycle this floral waste into eco-friendly items," he said. "This not only cleans up the areas but also provides employment to poor women."

Experts say long-term sustainable measures are needed. Rakesh Jaiswal, environmentalist and president of Eco-Friends, a non-profit organization spreading awareness about river pollution, said the Indian government must focus on long-term strategies prioritizing adaptive infrastructure, flexible governance structures and inclusive policies to protect the river.

According to Ramji Tripathi, national coordinator of Ganga Pradushan Mukti Abhiyan, a non-profit focusing on Ganges’ pollution, all rivers can cleanse themselves if there is sufficient water. "However, in the Ganges’ case, its flow has become worryingly low due to climate change which makes purification impossible."

He added, "Residents living in areas around the Ganges should harvest rainwater while farmers should be encouraged to grow crops that require less water. This will whittle down irrigation costs and save water. We need all hands on deck if we are to save the Ganges."
Of 69,000 South Asians Displaced Last Year, 67,000 Were From Manipur: IDMC Report (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/21/2024 3:52 AM, Rajeev Bhattacharyya, 847K, Negative]
The northeast Indian state of Manipur witnessed the highest displacement triggered by conflict and violence in South Asia last year, according to the 2024 Global Report on Internal Displacement by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The report said that of a total displacement of 69,000 people in South Asia, Manipur alone accounted for 67,000 people.

“Figures for displacement triggered by conflict and violence in South Asia were significantly lower than the decadal average of 576,000 but still double the 2022 number, at 69,000 last year. The vast majority were the result of an increase in communal violence in India’s north-eastern state of Manipur,” the report said, adding that “Protests turned violent in Churachandpur district on 3 May, and the violence spread to other districts, including Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Tengnupal (sic) and Kangpokipi (sic), triggering around 67,000 displacements.”

Further, the report pointed out that the displacement in Manipur was the “highest figure” caused by conflict and violence in India since 2018. It was of the view that more than three-quarters of the movements of the people uprooted from their homes took place within Manipur, but almost a fifth were to the neighboring state of Mizoram and smaller numbers to Nagaland and Assam.

Conflict in Manipur erupted on May 3 last year following a protest rally at Churachandpur by members of tribal communities. They were protesting against a judgment by the Manipur High Court directing the state government to consider granting Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community mostly inhabiting the Imphal valley.

So far more than 200 people have been killed in the violence, besides the thousands who were compelled to flee from their homes.

The crisis has attracted global attention with U.N. experts raising an alarm last year about reports of serious human rights violations and abuses in Manipur, including alleged acts of sexual violence and extrajudicial killings. The issue resonated in the U.K. Parliament with a member describing the violence as “premeditated and systematic.”

However, observers of the situation in Manipur, including some government officials and research institutes, are of the unflinching opinion that the displacement figures cited in the ICMD report do not reflect the reality in the state.

Kh Athouba, spokesperson of the Coordination Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), said that nearly 30,000 people of the Meitei community have been displaced. “The displacement has been mostly from Churachandpur, Moreh and Kangpokpi. They are now in several relief camps in Imphal valley,” he pointed out.

The turmoil has adversely impacted both, the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities. The places referred to by Kh Athouba are located in the state’s hill districts where the majority belongs to the Kuki-Zo ethnic groups. Not surprisingly, members of these communities were at the receiving end of violence in the Meitei-dominated Imphal valley where thousands had to flee their homes.

Prof Kham Khan Suam Hausing, who hails from Manipur and is a faculty member at the University of Hyderabad, referred to the data released by the Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO) that pegged the number of displaced people from the Kuki-Zo groups at 41,425. “They have been mostly rehabilitated in Lamka (Churachandpur), Kangpokpi, and Aizawl. Many have dispersed to other Indian cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati and Shillong,” he told The Diplomat.

Other community members believe that the number of displaced people could be more than the figure arrived at by KSO. Gracy L. Haokip, who is also a member of KSO, pointed out that the data released by the student organization was genuine but based on assessment till December last year. She told The Diplomat that “in real terms, the number of people displaced from the Kuki-Zo communities is around 50,000 and these were residents primarily from the villages located in the periphery of Imphal valley.”

All these estimates of a higher figure for the displaced people in Manipur have been echoed in reports compiled by research institutes. The Rights & Risks Analysis Group in a report in July last year said: “At least 120 persons have been killed so far while around 70,000 people have been displaced, including 50,698 persons in relief camps in Manipur, over 12,000 persons who fled to Mizoram, 3,000 persons who fled to Assam, and over 1,000 people who fled to Meghalaya while thousands of the displaced have not sought shelter in relief camps.”

Violence has receded in Manipur in recent months, barring occasional incidents. But the mistrust between the two communities has not diminished, with the result that they cannot venture into each other’s zones.

A section among the displaced people, mainly from the Kuki-Zo groups, have relocated and settled in the neighboring states. But the majority, including the Meitei, continue to be lodged at relief camps in Manipur. Whether they are able to return to their homes is entirely predicated upon how fast the fault lines are blurred and normalcy is established in the state.
NSB
US blacklists ex-Bangladesh general named in Al Jazeera investigation (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [5/21/2024 9:57 AM, Yarno Ritzen, 20951K, Negative]
The United States has blacklisted Bangladesh’s former chief of staff, retired General Aziz Ahmed, because of his involvement “in significant corruption”.

Ahmed was the subject of the 2021 Al Jazeera investigation All the Prime Minister’s Men, which focused on the how a criminal gang led by the general’s brother, Haris Ahmed, used police and paramilitary units to abduct rivals and earn millions in bribes.

“Aziz Ahmed engaged in significant corruption by interfering in public processes while helping his brother evade accountability for criminal activity in Bangladesh,” the US Department of State said in a statement on Monday.

“Aziz also worked closely with his brother to ensure the improper awarding of military contracts and accepted bribes in exchange for government appointments for his personal benefit,” it added.

As a result of the blacklisting, Aziz and his immediate family members will be ineligible to enter the US.

All the Prime Minister’s Men

In February 2021, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit revealed how the general’s brothers, Haris Ahmed and Anis Ahmed, had fled Bangladesh to Hungary and Malaysia, respectively, after being found guilty for their involvement in the 1996 murder of Mustafizur Rahman Mustafa, said to be a member of a rival political party.

While Haris Ahmed and Anis Ahmed lived outside Bangladesh, their brother worked his way through the ranks in the Bangladesh army, becoming a close confidant of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leader of the ruling Awami League.

All the Prime Minister’s Men found that although his brothers were wanted by Bangladesh law enforcement, Aziz Ahmed had stayed in contact with both of them.

Leaked documents obtained by Al Jazeera revealed how the general used military officers to help Haris Ahmed create a false identity, which was then used to set up businesses in Europe and buy properties around the world.

During secretly recorded meetings, Haris Ahmed boasted about making profits from military contracts using his brother’s power as army chief to extract bribes.

Aziz Ahmed retired as chief of staff of the Bangladesh army six months after the Al Jazeera investigation was released. At the time, local media reported he had denied the allegations.

Following the airing of All the Prime Minister’s Men, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement describing Al Jazeera’s findings as a “smear campaign” that was orchestrated by opponents of the government based abroad.

It dismissed the statements made by Haris Ahmed and said the brother of the former army chief Ahmed had no links to the prime minister or any other state institution.
US Sanctions Retired Bangladeshi Army Chief, But It Will Have Little Impact (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/21/2024 11:44 AM, Saqlain Rizve, 847K, Neutral]
On May 20, the United States government announced that it was imposing sanctions on a former Bangladesh Army chief, General Aziz Ahmed, due to his involvement in “significant corruption.”

“His actions have contributed to the undermining of Bangladesh’s democratic institutions and the public’s faith in public institutions and processes,” the State Department said, adding that Ahmed and his immediate family members were now ineligible for entry into the United States.

The sanctioning of a high-ranking Bangladeshi military official, albeit a retired one, has left many pondering its implications and effectiveness. The U.S. often employs sanctions to exert pressure and drive change in a government’s policies. However, how effective they are in forcing real change is debatable.

In December 2021, the United States announced sanctions on Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite paramilitary force, for serious human rights violations. When Washington sanctioned the RAB, it drew international attention to human rights issues in Bangladesh. There was reportedly a dramatic decrease in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by the RAB following the sanctions. However, whether this led to substantial changes or bolstered democracy in Bangladesh is debatable.

The focus now shifts to Ahmed, who is no longer in active service. It raises the question: What does sanctioning a retired official achieve?

Such a move can be seen as symbolic, signaling disapproval of corruption and human rights abuses. However, its direct impact on current affairs and governance might be limited.

Sanctioning a currently serving official could potentially have more immediate effects, such as disrupting the status quo, prompting internal discussions, and even leading to policy changes. Nonetheless, this approach also risks straining diplomatic relations and may have unintended consequences.

The sanctions on Ahmed are particularly significant in the context of the recent general elections in Bangladesh on January 7, where the ruling Awami League (AL) won a fourth consecutive term amid controversies and oppression of opposition parties. Much scrutiny and debate has centered on the United States’ reaction.

In the run-up to the elections, the Biden administration had expressed concern over their fairness. However, its stance changed after the polling, as reflected in President Joe Biden’s letter congratulating Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on her victory.

More recently, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu visited Bangladesh. The visit was widely seen as aimed at resetting Bangladesh-U.S. ties, which suffered during the elections. After the meeting with Lu, Hasina’s Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman F. Rahman told the media that Lu had conveyed to the Hasina government that the U.S. would support lifting sanctions against the RAB.

However, things shifted course thereafter.

On May 16, the U.S. State Department said it was not retracting the sanctions placed on the RAB. Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson at the department, said that sanctions are meant to induce behavioral change and uphold accountability. A few days later, the State Department imposed sanctions on Ahmed.

The mixed signals from the U.S. suggest internal debates or varying priorities within its government regarding its approach to Bangladesh.

By imposing sanctions on Ahmed, the U.S. may have aimed to signal its continued concern for Bangladesh’s democracy and corruption issues. Or it could be aimed at placating Bangladeshi civilians and opposition political parties.

These sanctions could instill fear among corrupt government officials and politicians of Bangladesh. But would it prompt a change in high-ranking retirees? It could, as many own property and settle in the U.S. or are keen to secure their children’s futures there. Sanctions would crash those ambitions.

But sanctions may not work to force a change in policy, conduct, or course of action in the AL government. If they did, the sanctions on the RAB would have prompted the AL to hold free and fair elections this year.

Bangladesh is not afraid of U.S. sanctions because it has strengthened relations with China. Indeed, for Bangladesh, China is fast becoming an alternative to the United States.

Not only is China a key military partner – it provided Dhaka with two refurbished submarines in 2016, financed a submarine base worth $1.21 billion, and will begin joint military drills with Bangladesh soon – but also Beijing has invested over $25 billion in various Bangladeshi projects and is Bangladesh’s top trade partner too.

The U.S. sanctions on a retired general, while symbolizing a stance against corruption, are unlikely to change Bangladesh’s political landscape. With Ahmed no longer in active service, the sanctions’ direct impact is limited, serving more as a symbolic gesture than a catalyst for significant reform.

Moreover, Bangladesh’s strengthening ties with China reduce the influence of U.S. actions. Hasina’s indifference to these sanctions and the country’s pivot toward Chinese military and economic support suggest that U.S. measures will not alter the ruling Awami League’s governance or reduce corruption.
Australia, Bangladesh vow to boost trade as foreign ministers meet in Dhaka (AP)
AP [5/21/2024 11:18 AM, Staff, 39876K, Neutral]
Australia and Bangladesh on Tuesday said that the two countries would work to expand trade and cooperation on areas including security and the Rohingya refugee crisis.

The statements came as Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong arrived in Bangladesh’s capital on a two-day visit and held talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud.

In a briefing with Mahmud after the talks, Wong said that Australia was eager to support Bangladesh as it graduates from least developed country status at the World Trade Organization to developing in 2026.

“We share a region. We share an ocean and we share a future ... we are determined to do what we can to work with you and other partners to make sure the region is peaceful, stable and prosperous,” she said.

Wong’s visit, her first to Bangladesh, is aimed at enhancing Australia’s “engagement with the Indian Ocean region,” a press statement from the Australian Foreign Ministry said.

“Australia is working with Bangladesh to deepen our cooperation, including on trade and investment, and to find practical solutions to shared challenges such as climate change, regional maritime security and people smuggling,” the statement said.

Trade relations between Bangladesh and Australia are expanding. The two nations signed a Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement together in 2021, and two-way trade between Australia and Bangladesh now stands at more than $2.67 billion, up from about $200 million a decade back.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Mahmud called the growing trade volume “impressive” and said that the ministers had discussed a number of issues including human trafficking.

Wong said that the ongoing humanitarian crises in Bangladesh and Myanmar are the largest and most complex in the region. Australia often praises Bangladesh’s “generosity” in hosting more than 1 million Rohingya refugees displaced from Myanmar.

“Australia will continue to complement our humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya crisis with our efforts in advocating for accountability for the atrocities in Rakhine State; and working with Myanmar, Bangladesh and other regional and international partners to find a durable solution to the crisis,” the Australian Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

Wong is scheduled to visit the sprawling Rohingya refugees camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district before she flies to Singapore on Wednesday.
Torturers deployed as UN peacekeepers (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [5/21/2024 12:00 PM, Naomi Conrad, Arafatul Islam, and Birgitta Schulke, 15611K, Negative]
At first glance, the photo is an innocuous one: Taken on a sunny day in 2022, a cheerful group of twelve men and women are huddled together, posing for a selfie. They’re all dressed in military fatigues — their badges identify them as Egyptian, Indonesian and Bangladeshi officers. One man is wearing the light blue beret of a UN peacekeeper: The group has just finished their induction course for their stint at MONUSCO, the UN’s mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Innocuous, that is, but for a bald man with glasses in the center of the photo; his arm casually draped around the shoulder of an Indonesian officer. A military source shared the picture pulled from social media with DW, Sweden-based investigative outlet Netra News, and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Before the officer was deployed to the UN mission, he was deputy director of the Intelligence Wing of an elite force in Bangladesh: The Rapid Action Battalion, RAB.

The force, made up of Bangladesh’s police and military, was set up in 2004 with the support of the US and others to fight terrorism and violent crime. But its brutally efficient methods meant it was soon mired in accusations of wide-spread human rights violations, leading its former backer, the US, to impose sanctions on RAB in 2021.

In an investigation published last year, DW and Netra News revealed that RAB commits torture, murder, and abductions – and goes to great lengths to cover up its crimes. Its targets: alleged criminals, opposition activists, and human rights defenders.

Its members seemingly operate with complicity from the highest political level in Bangladesh, according to two whistleblowers. A claim the government rejected as "baseless and untrue."

RAB members sent to UN missions

A year after those revelations, DW, Netra News and Süddeutsche Zeitung can reveal that members of this infamous unit are seemingly being sent on peacekeeping missions: The deputy intelligence chief turned peacekeeper was not, we found, the only man who came from the group that several of our sources referred to as "death squad."

For months, DW and its partners conducted interviews with military and UN sources in Bangladesh and beyond; trawled through classified military files, deployment lists and painstakingly identified officers through Flickr, LinkedIn and Facebook.

One man’s UN deployment was corroborated with the help of his daily running routes uploaded on a jogging app: for months, the avid jogger ran around Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, the seat of the UN’s MINUSCA mission. In another picture, he posed for a selfie outside RAB’s headquarters in Dhaka.

Two deputy heads of unit that runs torture cells among the peacekeepers

We found more than 100 RAB officers who went on peacekeeping missions, 40 of them within the last five years alone.

While we don’t have evidence that every single officer was implicated in crimes, at least three of them — Nayeem A., Hasan T. and Masud R. — worked for RAB’s infamous Intelligence Wing, two as deputy directors. According to several sources, it is this unit that runs a secret network of torture cells across Bangladesh, some of them located in safe houses, others hidden deep inside RAB’s compounds. Survivors and military sources told DW and Netra News of beatings, mock executions, waterboarding and electric shocks.

"We have all the available tools," one former member of RAB explained. One particularly brutal method he witnessed was to place a detainee inside a container and heat it from below. "At some point the temperature is untenable," and the detainee, he said matter-of-factly, "would speak up."

The torture cells, another source said agreed, are "where they get information from civilians."

A source in RAB told DW, Netra News and Süddeutsche Zeitung that both of the two deputy directors were implicated in crimes, such as torture and executions.

While the claim cannot be corroborated independently, several other sources confirmed that it was likely that deputy directors with command responsibility would have signed off on what was happening in the torture cells, or at the very least known what was happening.

And yet, they were later tasked, as peacekeepers, to protect vulnerable civilian communities. The idea of peacekeeping was born after the Second World War: a force at the behest of the international community made up of soldiers and police officers drawn from the UN’s member states, sent by the Security Council when governments fail and countries descend into turmoil.

Currently, tens of thousands of peacekeepers are deployed globally, in conflicts and crises ranging from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic to Kosovo and Kashmir.

Despite these lofty ideals, peacekeeping operations, individual soldiers and entire contingents have over the years been embroiled in scandals, which the UN has always been swift to condemn. Critics say peacekeeping missions have been ineffective, while those defending peacekeeping say they have saved countless lives.

In 2012, after several sexual abuse scandals by peacekeepers made headlines, most notably of children in Haiti, the UN implemented a new human rights policy for its personnel.

Up to ‘abusive government’ to vet peacekeepers

While troop contributing countries generally continue to select and vet the military personnel they send to missions with the exception of Force Commanders and their deputies, they now have to attest for each soldier that they have not committed or are alleged to have committed any human rights violations.

In the case of Bangladesh, that means that "they are asking an abusive government to then decide which officers are abusive or not," Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director for South Asia at Human Rights Watch said in a phone call.

Bangladesh’s government, Ganguly explained, "does not seem to believe that people that commit human rights violations need to be prosecuted and held to account.” Indeed, few members of RAB have ever been prosecuted.

And that is why she, together with several other human rights organizations, both Bangladeshi and international, has long called for RAB to be banned entirely from peacekeeping operations.

They are not the only ones to sound a warning: In August 2019, the Committee against Torture, a UN body made up of independent experts that monitor human rights in UN member states, published its report on Bangladesh.

Its authors voiced concern at "numerous reports" of cases in which members of RAB "have been credibly alleged to have committed torture, arbitrary arrests, unacknowledged detention, disappearances and extrajudicial killings of persons in their custody."

‘Grave concern’

One of the report’s authors is Jens Modvig, a medical doctor who runs Dignity, the Danish Institute Against Torture, an NGO housed in an unassuming office block in Copenhagen.

While making coffee in the organization’s small kitchen, he recalled the experts’ "grave concern" at the reports of human rights abuses by Bangladesh’s security forces. It was a term, he said, they had "not used lightly."

The Committee’s recommendations, Modvig said, "was that former and current members of RAB should not be allowed to do service in peacekeeping operations."

And yet, our investigation shows nothing happened.

DW, Netra News and Süddeutsche Zeitung sent several requests for an on-camera interview to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. They were declined.

Instead, the UN agreed to respond in writing to the findings: "We do not have", a spokesperson wrote, "the resources to screen each and every person and have a long-standing policy that places specific responsibility on troop and police contributing countries."

In the case of Bangladesh, the spokesman went on, UN Peacekeeping "has continuously engaged bilaterally with national authorities to convey concerns about serious allegations of human rights violations by defense and security forces, in particular by members of RAB".

UN susceptible to blackmail?

We did eventually find one man willing to go on-the-record: Andrew Gilmour, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights. Today, he heads the Berghof Foundation in Berlin that advocates for global peace: a-long-time UN diplomat, who, he said, picks his jackets according to an interview’s topic and mood.

For a story about peacekeeping and human rights abuses, he donned a somber blue.

If he was still in the UN, he said, "I probably wouldn’t be able to be this frank and to say we get some really pretty useless troops and some pretty brutal ones as well."

Bangladesh, he concluded, was far from a unique case: "It is not the first time that member states have put forward people with bad human rights records to serve in their battalions that they assign to the UN." At times, he said, "it can be entire contingents that were implicated in some action, repressing people in their own country, for example, and other times it is individuals."

He stressed repeatedly that the UN was doing its best to prevent that from happening.

But he conceded, if the UN pushed countries too hard, there was a risk they might threaten to pull out their troops entirely. It was "pretty hard to do something about if the government of that member state is insisting on putting forward a contingent or an individual."

In one case, he recalled, "one country that was really important in contributing troops to a number of peacekeeping operations literally said, OK, we’re going to pull out all together." And so, he explained, the UN’s Secretary General at the time "had to basically go to that country and essentially apologize to the head of state."

Otherwise, four UN peacekeeping operations would have collapsed, Gilmour said.

His testimony seemed to point to one thing: that when it comes to peacekeepers, the UN is seemingly susceptible to blackmail.

A UN source agreed: at even the slightest hint of criticism, officials in Bangladesh — one the UN’s major troop contributors — threatened to withdraw their troops. As of March of this year, about 6,000 Bangladeshi peacekeepers were actively deployed worldwide.

It’s unclear, however, whether Bangladesh would actually go through with this threat and thus lose access to UN missions, which are lucrative both for individual soldiers and the countries deploying them.

According to government officials, Bangladesh has received more than 2.5 billion USD over the past 23 years. Individual peacekeepers receive a higher salary than they would back home.

The spokesperson for UN Peacekeeping rejected the claim that the UN is seemingly powerless when faced with threats: "The largest troop contributor at the moment contributes less than 10% of the 65,000 personnel deployed. Therefore, no single troop contributor can credibly threaten to undermine the viability of a peacekeeping operation by withdrawing all of their forces".

UN’s hands seemingly tied

There is a reason why, according to Gilmour, the UN’s hands are seemingly tied. When he was "very, very young," the majority of UN peacekeepers came from places like Sweden and Ireland, he explained.

But over the years, as the Cold War drew to a close in the early 1990s, faced with deadlier missions, Western governments increasingly started to pull their troops out of peacekeeping operations, preferring to pay for them instead.

Democratic governments had to weigh whether they could pay a certain blood toll, according to a political source from a western European country with inside knowledge of the workings of the UN. If soldiers deployed to UN missions returned in body bags, he explained, their governments could soon have a parliamentary inquiry on their hands.

That, he added, was not a problem countries like Bangladesh had to deal with. At the same time, he conceded that UN peacekeeping missions were lucrative for both individual soldiers and governments to fill their coffers.

Almost ‘never enough’ peacekeeping troops

The result: "Very, very few highly trained, Westernized troops for the United Nations," said Gilmour, a statement also supported by official UN figures. Today, the top five contributors are Nepal, India, Rwanda, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

"There are almost never enough" troops, Gilmour said. "So that means it’s not as if the UN then can say, OK, we’ll take this group because we think this country respects human rights. And I’m sorry guys, we’re not going to take you."

The UN "don’t have that option."

Given situations, Gilmour concluded, "where literally thousands of people could be killed in the absence of UN peacekeepers, which — when you have to balance things — perhaps sending two or three bad apples is a less-bad option than thousands of people getting killed."

Sri Lanka: ‘impunity writ large’

It’s an admission that Frances Harrison finds ‘shocking." She is a former foreign correspondent turned activist who documents human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

Her laptop contains a trove of color-coded folders with photos and testimonies that document the atrocities committed in the decades-long brutal civil war between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers, which drew to a particularly vicious end in 2009. Both sides perpetrated horrific human rights abuses, which the UN says likely amount to war crimes.

Among Harrison’s many documents, is a slightly grainy photo showing a group of Sri Lankan officers shielded from the rain by large, colorful umbrellas, looking down at dozens of corpses lined on a tarpaulin. One officer is pointing at the bodies.

His name is Shavendra Silva.

He is the man who commanded the 58th division, which carried out "gross violations of human rights, namely extrajudicial killings," according to the US Department of State, which imposed sanctions on Shavendra Silva in February 2020 for war crimes committed in the civil war.

In 2019, Sri Lanka promoted him to a top position — that of Army Chief. Following international outcry, including by the UN’s own human rights body, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations announced that it would suspend future Sri Lankan army deployments, except "where suspension would expose UN operations to serious operational risk."

But figures published by the UN show that in 2019, Sri Lanka sent 687 peacekeepers on UN missions. One year after Silva’s appointment, it was still deploying more than 665 troops.

The suspension, the spokesman for UN Peacekeeping explained in his written response, "would have exposed UN peacekeeping operations to serious operational risk, therefore exceptions were made for these contingents, while existing deployments were kept under review.”

This, of course, is in contrast to his earlier assertion that no single troop contributor could undermine a peacekeeping operation by withdrawing its forces.

As documented in several photos, Shavendra Silva, his uniform hung with medals, was often the one to see the blue berets off.
"Can you imagine what that’s like for victims of the civil war, of the violations, then to see that," Harrison asked, the anger clear in her voice. "This is impunity writ large and nobody has done anything to stop that."

Harrison has warned the UN and others for years about individual Sri Lankan soldiers that were likely involved in war crimes and yet deployed as peacekeepers.

In 2019, she alerted the UN about an officer who was to be deployed as Contingent Company Commander in Mali.
The UN seemingly didn’t take her warnings seriously. It didn’t take us long to find that the man was in fact deployed as Contingent Company Commander in Mali in 2019 – just days after Harrison’s warnings. A photo shows him at the airport, the UN’s blue beret on his head, hands clasped with none less than Army Chief Shavendra Silva.

And, our research shows, he was still stationed in Mali as recently as 2021.

Her warnings, Harrison says, were simply "brushed away."

The spokesperson for UN Peacekeeping wrote to DW, Netra News, and Süddeutsche Zeitung that it had taken "these allegations seriously". But, he continued, "found no information available at the time that gave reasonable grounds to believe that his individual may have had responsibility for violations of human rights".

‘Noone cares who Bangladesh is deploying’

Our investigation points to one thing: when it comes to selecting troops, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations is faced with a difficult dilemma. It must accept the troops it knows in some cases may have committed abuses or, faced with threats from troop contributing countries to withdraw their contingents, turn a blind eye to uphold the missions it says are saving the lives of the most vulnerable on the ground.

In the case of Bangladesh, our research shows that the UN seemingly opts for the latter.

No one, a political source from a western European country summarized, really cared who Bangladesh was deploying, given the general scarcity of troops for UN missions. And, he added, troops from militarized countries like Bangladesh were generally well-trained.

This could explain why, at Bangladesh’s vast UN training grounds close to the capital Dhaka, one general told DW during a recent visit that was carefully orchestrated, all questions pre-approved, that Bangladesh was in fact planning to extend its contribution to UN peacekeeping.

It showed, he said, as a press officer stood by, "how they value us."

He was, of course, referring to the UN.

We confronted the individual officers mentioned in our story, as well as the government of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with our findings. They didn’t respond.

The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations stressed that "the vast majority of troops perform well, despite many of them operating with limited resources in challenging environments."
Owner of Nepal’s largest media organization arrested over citizenship card issue (AP)
AP [5/22/2024 3:07 AM, Staff, 456K, Neutral]
The owner of Nepal’s largest news organization has been arrested for allegedly violating the country’s citizenship laws over an issue with his citizenship card.

Kailash Sirohiya will be presented before a judge in a district court in south Nepal on Wednesday where a case has been filed against him.

He was arrested Tuesday at the Kathmandu offices of Kantipur Publications, which operates newspapers, television and radio stations, magazines and online news sites.

Sirohiya has denied any wrongdoing and accused Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane of seeking revenge for publishing news stories about alleged financial irregularities involving the minister.

Opposition political parties have protested against Lamichhane and sought his resignation over the alleged irregularities.

Police say that Sirohiya’s citizenship card has the same number as another person’s, which would violate the country’s citizenship laws.

National citizenship cards are issued to all Nepali adults and are the main document people use for identification, including during transactions.

Several people in the past have been known to make fake citizenship certificates, mainly in southern Nepal bordering India.
Sri Lanka inflation rises to 2.7% in April from 2.5% in March (Reuters)
Reuters [5/21/2024 6:12 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe, 45791K, Negative]
Sri Lanka’s consumer price inflation rose to 2.7% in April from 2.5% in March, official data showed on Tuesday.

The National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) (LKNCPI=ECI) captures broad retail price inflation and is released with a lag of 21 days every month.

Food prices rose 3.3% in April from 5% in March, the Department of Census and Statistics said.
Prices for non-food items rose 2.3% in April from 0.7% in March, as the impact of a 22% reduction in power tariffs for households implemented in March wore off.

Overall inflation is unlikely to change significantly in the next three months, analysts said, due to expectations that global oil prices and local demand-side pressures will remain subdued.

Inflation will remain within the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s (CBSL) target of 5%.

“Inflation might increase slightly because of higher food prices in the months ahead. So we might see inflation hitting 4%-4.5% but nothing to worry too much about," said Dimantha Mathew, head of research at First Capital.

Sri Lanka racked up record high inflation that peaked at 70% in September 2022 after its economy was crushed by the worst financial crisis in decades, triggered by a severe plunge in foreign exchange reserves.

Helped by a $2.9 billion program from the International Monetary Fund, Sri Lanka’s economy has slowly stabilised and is expected to grow by 3% in 2024 after two years.

Slowing inflation has prompted the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to cut policy rates by 700 bps since last year to help the economy return to growth.
Central Asia
Kazakhstan: Government grappling with discontent over disaster relief compensation (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [5/21/2024 4:14 PM, Almaz Kumenov, 57.6K, Neutral]
Residents in at least one area of western Kazakhstan hit by flooding are mounting public protests against what they say is an inadequate government response.

Several hundred residents of Kulsary, a town of about 50,000 in the Atyrau Region, have been gathering outside the local administration building every day since May 15, airing complaints about what they believe is the low level of reconstruction assistance being offered by the government.

Floods this spring have inundated large swathes of northern and western regions of the country, forcing tens of thousands from their homes and causing millions in property damage. Some rivers remain at or near flood level, as government clean-up efforts are continuing. About 5,000 displaced residents currently remain in government-provided shelters.

The Kulsary protest centers on the issue of reconstruction compensation. The government is offering up to 240,000 tenge (about $540) per square meter of lost living space. But residents say that figure is too low to rebuild and are seeking roughly double the government offer. They also want to receive direct cash payments so that they can rebuild as they see fit.

“We have all already seen that the walls of the houses that the state is building are covered with cracks, and there were even destructions in some buildings,” local resident Zhaylash Mukanova said in an interview with Radio Azattyk, the Kazakh service of RFE/RL. “We’d rather build our own houses.”

Local officials contend the state’s compensation assessment is based on market values, adding that the transfer of funds personally to flood victims does not conform with established disaster relief procedures.

The discontent has not escaped the attention of central government leaders. So far, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has not responded to an appeal by Kulsary residents to personally visit the flood zone around the town. But the president did say local officials needed to do a better job of articulating and publicizing reconstruction assistance.

“The heads of local executive bodies are obliged to actively and effectively work with citizens, clearly explain state policy and measures taken to resolve emerging issues, and [respond to] reasonable demands,” the presidential website quoted Tokayev as saying May 18 during a government meeting.

According to official figures, the government has already paid out more than 11 billion tenge ($25 million) in compensation to affected residents in damages, providing funding for home repairs and to replace dead livestock. Assistance provided to this year’s flooding victims marks a considerably improved response compared to flooding in 1993, when few among those affected received any government compensation.
Chinese Foreign Minister Reiterates Beijing’s Support For Kazakh Independence (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [5/21/2024 7:26 AM, Merhat Sharipzhan, 1299K, Positive]
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has reiterated Beijing’s readiness to "firmly support Kazakhstan’s efforts to defend its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity."

Speaking after a meeting with Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev in Astana on May 20, Wang echoed several similar statements made by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in recent years for China’s backing of its neighbor to the northeast.

"China will support a series of strategies for development and important measures initiated by [the Kazakh] President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, oppose with resolve against any external forces that are trying to interfere in the internal affairs of that country," Wang said.

Since Moscow launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many in Kazakhstan and elsewhere have considered statements from Chinese leaders regarding Kazakhstan and other Central Asian nations to be a message to Russia, where in recent months, many pro-Kremlin politicians and political observers have hinted that Kazakhstan is a takeover target for Moscow.

Toqaev, in his turn, praised Chinese-Kazakh ties, emphasizing that his country’s giant neighbor "will remain Kazakhstan’s reliable partner."

"China’s diplomacy plays an important role in the world’s policies. The future of Kazakh-Chinese relations is significant," Toqaev said during his talks with Wang.

The Kazakh presidential press service said that Toqaev also held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on May 20.

Foreign ministers from member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) -- China, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- arrived for a meeting in the Kazakh capital this week.

It was announced at the foreign ministers’ gathering held on May 21 that the leaders of the SCO’s member states will convene again in Astana on July 3-4.
More than 3,000 Pakistanis return home from Kyrgyzstan after recent attacks on foreigners (AP)
AP [5/22/2024 3:52 AM, Staff, 456K, Neutral]
Pakistan has repatriated more than 3,000 Pakistanis, mostly students, from Kyrgyzstan in the past week after recent attacks on foreigners over an unknown dispute with migrants, the deputy prime minister said Wednesday.

Pakistan began using special and commercial flight over the weekend to bring people home. More were expected to return later Wednesday, bringing their number to slightly over 4,000 by midnight.

Ishaq Dar told a news conference in Islamabad that the situation was under control now in the capital Bishkek, where authorities are trying to arrest people who attacked foreigners, including Pakistanis.

Thousands of Pakistanis study or work in Kyrgyzstan, and Dar said most of them wanted to come home.

He said he visited Bishkek the previous day, where he met his counterpart as well as Pakistanis who live there.

“Though the situation is now normal in Bishkek, we are facilitating those Pakistanis who want to come back,” Dar said.
Pakistani Students Continue To Leave Kyrgyzstan Following Mob Attacks (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [5/21/2024 8:08 AM, Staff, 1299K, Negative]
Pakistani students are continuing to leave Kyrgyzstan following last weekend’s violent mob attacks targeting university students from the South Asian nation who were studying in Bishkek.

Eight charter flights from Bishkek to the Pakistani cities of Islamabad, Lahore, and Peshawar took hundreds more students from the Central Asian nation’s capital on May 21.

A day earlier, Kyrgyz officials confirmed that about 1,200 Pakistani students had left the country after the May 18 violence, which was triggered by the appearance on social media of a video purportedly showing a group of "people of Asian appearance" harassing foreign students on the night of May 13.

The group then pursued the students to their dormitory, where at least one foreigner was assaulted by several men and dragged along the floor.

Kyrgyzstan’s Health Ministry said on May 20 that more than 40 people were injured during the violence, some of whom were taken to hospital.

On May 21, Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry said Pakistani Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, who is currently attending a gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s foreign ministers in neighboring Kazakhstan, will visit Kyrgyzstan and meet with Kyrgyz officials to discuss the situation faced by Pakistani students in Bishkek.

The Interior Ministry said on May 21 that police detained a fourth Kyrgyz man suspected of being involved in the initial attack on foreign students. The ministry said earlier that four foreign nationals had also been detained on hooliganism charges.

The Kyrgyz government has vowed to pursue those responsible for the violence and rejected what it said were "insinuations aimed at inciting intolerance toward foreign students."

Still, it appeared to lay the blame for the violence on illegal migrants, saying authorities had been taking "decisive measures to suppress illegal migration and expel undesirable persons from Kyrgyzstan."

Just three days before the violence, Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security detained 28 Pakistani nationals for "working illegally" in a sewing shop in Bishkek.

The same day, Bishkek city police shut down delivery services conducted by more than 400 foreign students, mostly from Pakistan, on motorcycles and scooters, citing traffic safety concerns.

Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said on May 21 that six Pakistani nationals were detained overnight while trying to illegally enter Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan.
Pakistani Student Exodus Damages Kyrgyzstan’s Reputation, Causes Economic Fallout (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [5/21/2024 12:33 PM, Farangis Najibullah, 1299K, Neutral]
Hundreds of Pakistani students have left Kyrgyzstan amid safety fears after mob attacks on South Asians last week left dozens injured in the capital, Bishkek.

Many of the students’ parents urged Islamabad to bring their children home and some students say they are unsure about ever returning to Kyrgyzstan to continue their studies.

The violence also prompted some embassies in Bishkek, including the U.S. and Turkish ones, to advise their citizens to exercise caution in Kyrgyzstan due to safety concerns.

The violent events in Bishkek have damaged Kyrgyzstan’s image as a safe place for foreigners and could potentially deprive it of a major source of revenue.

Kyrgyz authorities say foreign students studying in English-language universities bring in up to $180 million annually to the economy.

Kyrgyzstan hosts about 28,000 students from countries outside the former Soviet Union, according to Deputy Education Minister Rasul Abazbek-uulu.

The huge majority of the international students -- some 24,000 -- are from India and Pakistan and they mainly study medicine, paying about $3,000 in tuition per year. They collectively spend millions more dollars in Kyrgyzstan for room and board and living expenses.

"The foreign students who live here spend money in our country by using services such as taxis, restaurants, and hair salons, to name a few," Abazbek-uulu said in Bishkek on May 20.

"They bring in between $136 million and $181.4 million to our country every year, contributing to our economy," he added.

The total number of foreign students in Kyrgyzstan is about 60,000 according to official statistics, with the bulk of them from former Soviet republics.

That includes some 24,500 from Uzbekistan and more than 2,000 from both Russia and Kazakhstan. Students from neighboring countries study in Russian and Kyrgyz-language faculties that charge lower tuition than the English-language courses.

Abazbek-uulu said the violent attacks on at least four different student hostels in the capital will tarnish Kyrgyzstan’s reputation as an "education hub" for foreign students -- an image Bishkek had spent "many years building."

The number of foreign students in Kyrgyzstan has significantly increased in the past decade.

According to official statistics, there were about 11,300 foreigners studying in Kyrgyzstan in the 2012-13 academic year, including 4,457 from Kazakhstan and some 1,140 from India, and 778 from Pakistan.

Abazbek-uulu mentioned the intense "competition" among countries trying to attract foreign students to boost their education sector and their economies.

Medical schools in Kyrgyzstan and its Central Asian neighbors Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have become increasingly popular with Indian and Pakistani students due to their comparatively low tuition fees and living costs, as well as their relatively easy visa regimes. Jobs in the medical sector are highly regarded and well-paid in India and Pakistan.

The tuition fees in other Asian countries are usually much higher and it costs tens of thousands of dollars to study medicine in the West.

Most Kyrgyz Welcome Foreign Students

Meerim Osmonalieva, the head of the Oasis Foundation in Kyrgyzstan, said it will take a "long time" for the country to rebuild its image after foreign students in Bishkek suffered "beatings, violence, and attacks on their dorms."

"Kyrgyzstan is a hospitable country. It’s a shame that the reputation of our country is suffering. Recovery will take a long time," she told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service.

A survey conducted by the International Organization for Migration in 2021 showed that most Kyrgyz were in favor of their country hosting foreign students and migrants, saying they have a positive impact on Kyrgyzstan.

Between 80 and 90 percent of respondents said that foreigners bring money to the economy, increase peoples’ interest in learning foreign languages and culture, while also creating new business and investment opportunities.
Why Mass Labor Exporter Kyrgyzstan Faces Migrant Worker Fear At Home (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [5/21/2024 2:44 PM, Chris Rickleton, 1299K, Neutral]
Order a pizza in Moscow and the chances that a Kyrgyz delivery worker will bring it to your door are fairly high. Do the same in Bishkek and it might be a young Pakistani trying to pay his way through medical school.

Until last week, that is.

A night of lawlessness on May 17-18 that saw students from South Asia suffer mob attacks in Bishkek has underlined the fact that migrant populations inside Kyrgyzstan can be just as vulnerable to xenophobic violence as their Central Asian counterparts in Russia.

And if Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Uzbeks have been aggressively targeted by sweeps in Russian cities since the deadly Crocus City Hall attack near Moscow in late March, then Kyrgyz authorities had been talking up their own crackdown on "illegal migration" even before the unrest in their capital.

Many locals have registered their disgust at the attacks that left several foreigners hospitalized and prompted more than 1,000 Pakistanis to abandon a country where ethnic tensions have had lethal outcomes in the past.

Some Bishkek residents even turned their hands to volunteering, bringing food to students afraid to leave their dormitories in the aftermath of the mob rampage apparently sparked by an online video of foreign citizens brawling with locals several days before.

But the fact that Kyrgyz authorities have been actively promoting their raids on migrants suggests they are aware of growing tensions surrounding the foreign population that has grown increasingly visible in the capital.

The question, then: Why is this happening now?

Increased Quotas For Foreign Workers

Far from explicitly condemning the assaults on dormitories housing South Asians in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s national security chief, Kamchybek Tashiev, opined the day after the violence that the demands of a Bishkek crowd that had formed to demand action against foreigners were "to some extent correct."

For the record, Tashiev is not a security veteran who earned his current post after a steady rise through the ranks of law enforcement.

Instead, he is the country’s de-facto co-ruler and President Sadyr Japarov’s comrade-in-arms going back to their time as populist opposition leaders.

Much like Japarov, he is mindful of what the political base wants to hear.

In his video appeal, Tashiev described the mostly young men that police tried in vain to disperse as being agitated by "increasing numbers of students and workers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Egypt, and other countries."

Following an order from Japarov to target illegal migrants this spring, Tashiev said his officers had been catching "20 or 30, or around 50" such migrants every day.

By Tashiev’s count, there are still 5,000 illegals unaccounted for, despite deportations of 1,000 Bangladeshis and 1,500 Pakistanis -- figures that no official had mentioned before.

This was hardly the kind of talk to tamp down xenophobia.

But what Tashiev neglected to mention was that the government has been actively seeking laborers from South Asian countries.

In October, the Labor Ministry said it would increase the quota for 2024 for foreign workers by 50 percent, from 16,600 places to around 25,000 places.

Just under two-thirds of those placements were allocated for jobs in industry, construction, and transport, while a further 13 percent were slated for mining and 14 percent to the service and trade sectors.

Of the nearly 17,000 vacancies that have found applicants as of this month, Bangladeshis accounted for nearly half, with Pakistanis accounting for a quarter, and Chinese for 16 percent.

On May 18, with Bishkek still reeling from its night of disorder, Labor Minister Gulnara Baatyrova explained this drive using some rather nonpopulist language.

"Private business owners say foreigners show up for work regularly and on time, and in some cases work beyond the established schedule. Most of our citizens have gone to work in Russia and other neighboring countries and received permanent residence there. Our offers to return and work in Kyrgyzstan always remain unanswered," claimed Baatyrova.

As for local employees, "many people do not come to work on time, disappear for two to three days after receiving their salary, and ask for time off for celebrations and birthdays," the minister ventured, noting that in May 6,500 job vacancies remained unfilled.

Garments Sector Needs More Hands

One sector that Baatyrova said is particularly short of labor is the garment industry, a vital part of the economy that traditionally employs tens of thousands of Kyrgyz.

That would explain why Bangladeshis have been in particularly high demand, with Kyrgyzstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Avazbek Atakhanov even making a visit to Dhaka in April in a bid to attract more workers.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, a Bishkek sewing shop owner said workers from "Bangladesh sew well and with high quality," while workers from India are "diligent and learn quickly."

Naturally, these labor market entrants are likely undercutting their local competitors in terms of wages, which have risen sharply in Kyrgyzstan lately.

Independent economist Azamat Akeneev told RFE/RL that wage growth has followed the strong expansion of Kyrgyzstan’s economy in the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which threw open fresh and unusual business and trade opportunities for Kyrgyz working with the sanctions-hit Russian market.

But the war and related sanctions have also fueled inflation and economic uncertainty while "not all businesses want or can afford to pay these new rising wages," Akeneev told RFE/RL.

Garment makers, whose fortunes RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service has covered extensively since the war in Ukraine began, would seem to fit into that category.

After Russian monetary policy and capital controls allowed the ruble to soar above its pre-invasion value in the first half of 2022, Kyrgyz sewing shops found themselves lacking the labor to meet strong demand from its most important customer.

But when the ruble once again plunged against foreign currencies, including Kyrgyzstan’s som, Kyrgyz garments suddenly seemed pricey for their predominantly Russian buyers.

All the more incentive, then, for the industry to look to cheaper labor from further afield, in an effort to keep costs down.

Another industry increasingly attracting migrant labor is the expanding construction industry, with migrants from neighboring Uzbekistan outnumbering incomers from South Asia in that sector.

‘Chaotic’ Policy, Corruption, And De Facto Slavery

Earlier this month -- and before the May 17-18 disorder -- Labor Ministry officials said that quotas for foreign workers had been temporarily suspended due to a larger than expected influx of foreigners.

Of course, formal work quotas are only part of the equation.

More than 24,000 of the some 60,000 foreign students in Kyrgyzstan are from India and Pakistan, with most studying medicine.

This has been a long-standing situation, with Kyrgyz medical education cheaper than in many other countries, and the massive student cohort providing an important economic contribution to cities like Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city, and Kant, a provincial city an hour from Bishkek.

Like their counterparts throughout the world, some of the students seek small jobs to help them pay their way through their studies -- something the Labor Ministry says they should not do according to the terms of their student visas.

In April, Bishkek city police said they had apprehended 400 foreign students who were working as delivery workers "in connection with the increase in road accidents involving foreign students, as well as in order to prevent and solve crimes involving them."

On May 16, Tashiev’s State Committee for National Security (UKMK) detained 28 Pakistani nationals a day earlier for "working illegally" at a sewing shop in Bishkek after their entry visas expired.

But earlier in the year and last year, announcements such as these were thinner on the ground.

Migration policy appears to be "chaotic," says Cholpon Djakupova, head of the nonprofit Legal Clinic Adilet and a former top migration official.

"The boom in foreign workers has become very evident over the last two years. And I think this would not be possible without vested interests among officials. That is, corruption," Djakupova said.

People trafficking is also a big business in Kyrgyzstan.

Interviews by RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service earlier this month found that many South Asians had been lured to Kyrgyzstan on ordinary visas with the promise of further work visas that never materialized.

"So they move from one workshop to another, don’t receive salaries, and say that they have fallen into slavery. A lot of them had their passports taken away and so cannot do anything," said Nurislam Kambarov, whose company facilitates legal migration between Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan.

As an example, Kambarov cited a single address in Bishkek where he found around 40 Bangladeshis living in cramped conditions.

"They were brought here and abandoned by fellow citizens of Bangladesh. I arranged visas for about 25 or 30 of them. To achieve this, they had to go to Uzbekistan and then return," the entrepreneur said.

‘National-Patriot Discourse’ Fuels Anti-Migrant Sentiment

Tensions in a labor market where decent work is typically hard to find are being compounded by "national-patriot discourse," Djakupova said.

There was plenty of that in last week’s crisis, which the authorities appeared to mismanage from the start.

Ostensibly sparked by fighting between Egyptian citizens and Kyrgyz on the night of May 12-13, police initially released no information about the incident, only showing footage of the detained Egyptians apologizing to the Kyrgyz people for their role in the event after a video of the fight began circulating online on May 17.

It wasn’t until May 18 -- after dormitories housing Pakistani students had been attacked -- that the Interior Ministry released a full chronology that revealed the Egyptian men that beat up a Kyrgyz man were actually defending their hostel from that man and three other assailants who abandoned their accomplice and made off with an iPhone and several thousand dollars in cash.

While those suspects have now been arrested -- the four Egyptian citizens are under house arrest -- there has been almost no news of arrests of the dormitory attackers filmed punching and kicking cowering Pakistani students five days later.

Police said on May 21 that one citizen suspected of attacking a foreigner at his place of residence was detained, but that incident appears to have taken place several kilometers from the dormitories.

By contrast, on May 21, the UKMK gave news that it had detained six Pakistanis that it said were trying to illegally cross Kazakhstan’s border with Kyrgyzstan.

The only official to directly apologize to the Pakistani students affected by the violence was Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov, who visited the International University of Kyrgyzstan dormitory that was the worst-affected.

There Baisalov called for the attackers of the dormitory to be "demonstratively imprisoned."

"They didn’t only break through doors, but [into] spaces leading to the toilets. Girls were hiding there…. They took money, gadgets, and jewelry for themselves."

President Sadyr Japarov, for his part, kept his silence until May 20, when he said in an address published on his website that "the demands of our patriotic youth to stop the illegal migration of foreign citizens and to take strict measures against those who allow such activities are certainly correct."

But Japarov blamed "provocative" messaging coordinated by jailed political opponents for the mobilization and appeared to ignore evidence that the foreign students had been attacked in their dormitories -- albeit nobody fatally.

"If there had been looting, attacks on the police, or attacks on students in the [dormitories], we would have taken harsh measures. Fortunately, this did not happen," he said, before cautioning his citizens against xenophobia.

"More than 1 million of our people work and study abroad. Just like our citizens, there are those who come from abroad to study and work with us. We should be glad about this," Japarov said.
Twitter
Afghanistan
Bilal Sarwary
@bsarwary
[5/21/2024 12:54 PM, 253.7K followers, 4 retweets, 34 likes]
The anti Taliban group @AfgFreedomAFF says its fighters targeted Taliban’s Defense ministry intelligence members in Kabul city. According to AFF, “ Taliban’s MOD intelligence members were targeted in Syaasaang area killing TWO TALIBS.”
Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[5/21/2024 2:57 PM, 478.8K followers, 37 retweets, 86 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 held a meeting with a group of Pakistani medical students at Bishkek Airport. He listened to their concerns about the recent events of violence in Bishkek. He apprised them of his discussion with the Kyrgyz leadership on their safety and the commitment of the Government of Pakistan to the welfare of overseas Pakistanis.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[5/21/2024 2:27 PM, 478.8K followers, 24 retweets, 86 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 held a very productive meeting with Kyrgyz Deputy Chairman of Cabinet of Ministers Edil Baisalov @baisalov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan today. Deputy Prime Minister Dar took up the issues relating to the welfare of Pakistan textile workers living in the Kyrgyz Republic. The Kyrgyz leader expressed readiness to find an early resolution to their visa status issues and regularise their continued stay in the Kyrgyz Republic. The two sides also agreed to initiate discussions on a government-to-government labour mobility agreement and to strengthen trade and economic ties between the two countries.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[5/21/2024 2:13 PM, 478.8K followers, 45 retweets, 144 likes]
On arrival in Kyrgyzstan today, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 visited the National Hospital, Bishkek to meet Mr. Shahzaib, a Pakistani textile worker who was injured during the recent mob violence in Bishkek. Deputy Prime Minister Dar was received at the hospital by Deputy Chairman of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers Edil Baisalov and Kyrgyz Minister for Health Alymkadyr Beishenaliev. The Deputy Prime Minister inquired about the health of Mr. Shahzaib who expressed a desire to return to Pakistan and undertake further treatment in Pakistan. After discharge from the hospital, Mr. Shahzaib will travel to Pakistan with the Deputy Prime Minister on his special aircraft.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[5/21/2024 2:02 PM, 478.8K followers, 30 retweets, 84 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 today held a detailed meeting with Foreign Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic Kulubaev Zheenbek Moldokanovich in Bishkek, Kygyzstan. The two sides reaffirmed the longstanding friendly relations between Pakistan and the Kyrgyz Republic and their commitment to strengthen people-to-people contacts between the two countries. The two Minister discussed the recent unfortunate incidents of violence against foreigners, including Pakistanis, in Kyrgyzstan. The Deputy Prime Minister thanked the Kyrgyz government for swiftly restoring normalcy and ensuring the well-being of Pakistani students, hoping those responsible for the violence would be held accountable. The Kyrgyz Foreign Minister explained the steps taken to restore law and order, pledged to prosecute the perpetrators of the mob riots, and reaffirmed the commitment to ensure the security of all foreigners, including Pakistani nationals.

Imran Khan
@ImranKhanPTI
[5/21/2024 10:20 AM, 20.6M followers, 16K retweets, 31K likes]
Strongly condemn the cowardly attack on Raoof Hassan, our party’s Information secretary. The entire nation knows who is orchestrating these attacks on our leadership. It’s the same powers that lurk in the shadows & use proxies to harass & threaten judges & make a mockery of elections by brazenly tampering results. Let us make it very clear that PTI will not be deterred by such dirty tactics & violence which only serve to expose the perpetrators before the nation.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[5/21/2024 10:14 AM, 210.1K followers, 2.4K retweets, 7.5K likes]
I condemn today’s attack on Raoof Hasan in Islamabad. Really shaken by this news. He’s a kind soul and a longtime friend. Hoping he’ll be OK.

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[5/21/2024 7:03 AM, 8.5M followers, 146 retweets, 1.1K likes]
Technical knockout. Islamabad High Court rejected the petition in Tyrian White case because it was filed to disqualify Imran Khan from 2018 election but he is no more a MNA.

Anas Mallick
@AnasMallick
[5/21/2024 1:54 PM, 73.4K followers, 17 retweets, 125 likes]
Pakistan’s Prime Minister @CMShehbaz to visit Tehran tomorrow to attend the funeral prayers of Late Irani President Ebrahim Raisi and other senior officials.

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[5/21/2024 10:05 AM, 42.7K followers, 1 like]
Amid protests, Punjab Assembly passes defamation law that journalists say is "aimed at gagging the media"
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/21/2024 11:30 AM, 97.9M followers, 2.5K retweets, 7.5K likes]
In an interview to @news24tvchannel, spoke on diverse topics. Do watch. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1YpKkwQlBePKj

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[5/21/2024 11:01 AM, 97.9M followers, 2.3K retweets, 6.6K likes]
My interview to @newsx. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1OdKrjqDNqvKX

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[5/21/2024 11:09 AM, 3.1M followers, 112 retweets, 513 likes]
The entry into force of the BIMSTEC Charter reaffirms 🇮🇳’s commitment to a prosperous, peaceful and sustainable neighbourhood. It is achieved by building on our shared history, culture, vision and mutual respect for each other. BIMSTEC reflects the synthesis of our Neighbourhood First and Act East policies!

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[5/21/2024 6:50 AM, 3.1M followers, 1K retweets, 8.4K likes]
Visited the Embassy of Iran in Delhi today to convey our deepest condolences on the tragic passing away of President Ebrahim Raisi and my colleague, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. They will always be remembered as friends of India who contributed immensely to the growth of the India-Iran relationship. Government of India stands in solidarity with the people of Iran at this very difficult time.
NSB
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh
@BDMOFA
[5/21/2024 7:20 AM, 36.5K followers, 2 retweets, 25 likes]
Foreign Secretary (Senior Secretary) chaired today’s Country Support Mechanism meeting at MOFA, with Dr. Khalid Koser, Executive Director of GCERF, in attendance. #Bangladesh #PVE #GCERF #Collaboration

Awami League
@albd1971
[5/21/2024 8:21 AM, 637.8K followers, 23 retweets, 68 likes]
To provide modern, safe, and comfortable services to passengers, #Bangladesh Railway is set to purchase 200 broad gauge carriages from #India for Tk1,205.54 crore (excluding customs duties). The agreement was signed between Bangladesh Railway and RITES Limited, India. https://daily-sun.com/post/749252 #RailNetwork

Awami League
@albd1971
[5/21/2024 2:50 AM, 637.8K followers, 25 retweets, 69 likes]
The number of #internet subscribers in #Bangladesh spiked by a massive 43.5 lakh in March, the biggest jump in recent years, with #mobile data users making up a bulk of the new customers. There were about 13.47 crore internet users in March, up from 13.03 crore previously, according to the latest data of BTRC. https://thedailystar.net/business/news/internet-subscriber-base-sees-massive-boost-3613076 #AwamiLeague #SheikhHasina

MOFA of Nepal
@MofaNepal
[5/21/2024 4:09 AM, 257.6K followers, 7 retweets, 20 likes]
Secretary-General of BIMSTEC H.E. Mr. Indra Mani Pandey paid a courtesy call on Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Hon. Mr. Narayan Kaji Shrestha this afternoon and exchanged views on deepening Nepal-BIMSTEC cooperation.@nksthaprakash @sewa_lamsal

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[5/21/2024 9:02 AM, 5.4K followers, 13 retweets, 72 likes]
Pleased to attend an event to present A cheque to President @RW_UNP for Rs. 40,198,902 to support the #Gaza Children Fund by the Chinafort Gem and Jewellery Traders Association, GEM SRI LANKA, and Chinafort Mosque Society on the initiative of Hon. Marjan Faleel. The Government is working diligently towards efficiently transferring the funds from the Gaza Children Fund, a brainchild of President Wickremesinghe, to those in need. Sri Lanka will continue to support and assist the people of Gaza through these difficult times.
Central Asia
Farangis Najibullah
@FarangisN
[5/21/2024 2:11 PM, 10K followers, 12 retweets, 17 likes]
Foreign students bring $180 million to Kyrgyzstan’s economy annually. Attack on Pakistani students jeopardises that income. #Kyrgyzstan #Pakistan https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-student-exodus-damage-economy/32957912.html

Bakhtiyor Saidov
@FM_Saidov
[5/21/2024 8:29 AM, 3.5K followers, 4 retweets, 9 likes]
Took part in the #SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting today in #Astana. Started our meeting with a minute of silence in the honor of late president of #Iran H.E. @Raisi_com and our colleague H.E. @Amirabdollahian. Welcomed Foreign Minister H.E. Sergei Aleinik and congratulated him on the successful completion of all procedures for #Belarus to join our family as a full member. In preparation for the upcoming summit, reviewed a number of cooperation topics within the #SCO. We frankly and constructively exchanged views, particularly in the areas of economic cooperation, security, transport and logistics, cultural and people-to-people and other dimensions. #Uzbekistan stands for further strengthening the role of the #SCO on a regional and global scales, and the effective use of its enormous potential, especially in the light of the Organization’s expansion.

Bakhtiyor Saidov
@FM_Saidov
[5/21/2024 7:11 AM, 3.5K followers, 5 retweets, 14 likes]
Glad to meet with Deputy Prime Minister – Foreign Minister of #Kazakhstan H.E. Murat Nurtleu. Thanked my colleague for the hospitality and congratulated on the successful meeting of the Foreign Ministers Council of the #SCO member-states. We covered both bilateral and multilateral topics on our common agenda. @UzbekMFA and @MFA_KZ will continue deploying their full efforts to timely implement all the agreements reached between our Leaders.

Bakhtiyor Saidov
@FM_Saidov
[5/21/2024 6:24 AM, 3.5K followers, 6 retweets, 18 likes]
Together with my colleagues, we were received by the President of #Kazakhstan H.E. @TokayevKZ. Delivered the warmest greetings on behalf of @President_Uz H.E. Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Underscored the large-scale work being undertaken during KZ chairmanship in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to ensure the comprehensive content of the upcoming Summit in #Astana. Representatives of #Uzbekistan at various levels have been actively taking part in all meetings of the SCO bodies, conferences, forums and other events.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[5/21/2024 1:36 PM, 23K followers, 4 retweets, 2 likes]
How does Washington envision the Middle Corridor? Arun Venkataraman, AS @CommerceGov for Global Markets & John Mark Pommersheim, Dep Assistant Sec of State for Central Asia @State_SCAspeaking today at the 8th Annual Trans-Caspian Forum @caspiancenter

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[5/21/2024 1:26 PM, 23K followers, 5 retweets, 5 likes]
How does Uzbekistan envision its role in the Middle Corridor? UZ ambassador Furqat Sidiqov addressing the 8th Annual Trans-Caspian Forum @caspiancenter this morning along with ambassadors of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and other diplomats from the region. https://youtu.be/C-g4GcXB24E @UZEmbassyDC

{End of Report}
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