This is an excellent terse article about war mongering between India & Pakistan over Kashmir that completely leaves out any reference to Kashmiris, the military occupation, & their struggle against Indian colonialism.

As the authors point out: “There was a certain irony in calls by Indian officials & public figures calling for Pakistan to uphold the Geneva Convention in its treatment of the captured Indian pilot. In Kashmir, India has failed to apply not just the Geneva Convention, but much of international law for that matter. Kashmiris are still being jailed on political charges & used as human shields, while the United Nations resolution which mandates a referendum on self-determination to be conducted in Kashmir is yet to be implemented.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/kashmir-forgotten-190301213038382.html?

What are we to make of Duterte’s offer of asylum & citizenship to Rohingya refugees? This is where credulity does not serve politics but on the contrary becomes madness. The official accounting of deaths in his vigilante war against the urban poor was 11,000 after the first eight months of his regime. The media agencies keeping a daily accounting were likely terrorized into silence under threat to their lives. Under Duterte’s tenure–as under Trump, Modi, Bolsonaro, Putin, Assad, Xi, & others–vigilantism is emboldened & legitimized. In the Philippines, not just lawyers & farm workers, but journalists, environmentalists, & human rights activists have been arrested or assassinated. The many courageous Filipinos who stand up to protest such repression & violence are vilified as terrorists & underground communists.

Muslims in Mindanao & surrounding parts of the archipelago have fought against successive Filipino regimes & under Duterte sustained martial law & war in 2017. Duterte claimed that insurgency against repression in Mindanao was by ISIS-linked forces. They will continue to sustain persecution, massacres, mass rapes, & repeated military assaults despite the peace accord Duterte negotiated with the Moro Muslims last year. It is probably similar to the peace deal signed between the Taliban & the US in Afghanistan with betrayal of the Moro people written all over it.

Should the Rohingya reject the offer of citizenship? Of course not. But it remains to be seen what kind of asylum Duterte will provide them since discrimination against Muslims is a hallmark of Filipino rule as it is across the globe.

(Photo of Duterte from September 2018 from Reuters)

These are the young boys in Belfast who in 1983 walked me through the Catholic neighborhoods to photograph the many murals in solidarity with the hunger strikers in Long Kesh prison. They were my first encounter with stone pelters because every time a caravan of British armored vehicles passed by they would pelt them with rocks. When I left the boys I asked if they would like me to send them the photos. One of them answered, “No need to do that. Just tell the world what is happening here.”

Reposting this brilliant “Revolutionary Manifesto of 21st-century Hypocrites” about Syria by poet Musab Iqbal written in 2016:
*****
The “Revolutionary” manifesto of 21st-century Hypocrites
– Russian intervention is different from US/Nato intervention
– Russia has no imperial/colonial ambition (ever) unlike US and allies
– Iran-backed militias are not like US/Saudi-backed militias. Former unlike later is busy saving human lives with great empathy and kindness
– Assad is the most ideal democrat and any criticism of him and his power is sinful
– Assad army never shot or killed anyone, in fact Hama massacre never happened, there is no prison and torture center in Syria
– Syrian Army is personally trained by Gandhiji
– The world is made of binary. If you are not with us (Russia-Syria-Iran) then you are with them (ISIS-Al Qaeda- USA- Saudi etc)
– Celebrating death and torture is the most merciful and dignified revolutionary act
– Iran is defending Secularism and Democracy in Syria like it is doing in its own country
– Everyone is lying except PressTV, RT and journalists close to Assad regime
– Don’t criticize Syrian regime if you have not criticized all the violence in the world starting from Habeel and Qabeel (Adam’s son killing the other son)
– There is/was never political opposition in Syria, there were terrorists and there are terrorists.

This young girl is a relative of 15-year-old Palestinian Yousif al-Dayyah who was killed by Israeli snipers at the Great Return March yesterday. These are mourners at his funeral in Gaza City.

A UN Human Rights Council commission of inquiry just ruled that “Israeli security forces killed & maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities.” By their estimates, nearly 200 Palestinians, including children, journalists, & medical personnel, were killed by Israeli snipers in 2018 & over 6,100 were wounded, some of them sustaining permanent disabilities & dismemberment. The commission concluded that Israeli occupying forces “may have committed war crimes” & that it had “reasonable grounds to believe” that Israeli soldiers “committed violations of international human rights & humanitarian law”. Such tentative conclusions are the stock-in-trade of UN inquiries when the overwhelming evidence would lead to criminal indictments in any respectable court of law.

The Great Return Marches which have gone on for nearly one year are peaceful in nature, unarmed, & only demand Israel end the blockade of Gaza & the right of return to Palestinian refugees.

Stand with Palestinians by honoring & building the economic & cultural boycott of Israel for crimes against humanity, including genocide.

(Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

Yesterday, thirty-four tired, weak, & hungry Rohingya refugees were found on a beach in Malaysia. Local villagers said they were found covered with mud like this little guy & many were crying. It’s not known at this point whether they originated in Arakan state of Burma or in Bangladesh. It’s also not known how many other Rohingya refugees tried to make this trip but were intercepted & turned back or arrested by Bangladeshi or Thai officials. Malaysian immigration officials believe they were ferried into Malaysian waters from neighboring Thailand by human smugglers & just dumped close to shore.

Refugee rights are human rights. Open the damn borders & grant asylum as is mandated by international law.

(Photo by Charles Santiago)

These are women White Helmet rescue workers with children protesting the recent Syrian bombing of civilians in Idlib province. Meanwhile, the Russian government at the UN recently held hearings, with fascist Assad propagandist Vanessa Beeley as their key witness, claiming the White Helmets are a front for terrorists & engaged in organ trafficking. The hearings (which are on YouTube) were an embarrassment to watch because they were more like a combination of amateur hour, burlesque, & the gong show. How the Russian government thought it could bring a discredited & disagreeable propagandist like Beeley on as their key witness boggles the mind. They expressed dismay at the lack of questions from journalists but if one looked at the audience there were very few journalists present & those few present were likely third string flunkies or satirists trying to milk some humor out of the Russian delegation making asses of itself.

The only explanation for why Russia & Assad propagandists devote so much time to vilifying White Helmet rescue workers–now for the charge of organ trafficking–is that they rankle Assad by exposing Russian & Syrian bombing of civilians. The only thing those Russian hearings proved is that Beeley & Bartlett will have a job for them with Putin when the Syrian well runs dry.

(Photo is from National Coalition of Syrian Revolution & Opposition Forces)

Pankaj Mishra, who often writes postmodern gibberish, is a longtime supporter of the Kashmiri struggle & has written cogently & coherently about it. This is a useful essay about war mongering in Indian media though it limps to the conclusion that India bombed Pakistan primarily to influence the upcoming general elections in India. He also inexplicably adds that pogroms against Kashmiris in India will produce more Kashmiri militants when there are reportedly only a few hundred in a population of under ten million. What India really fears & hopes to demoralize & terrorize is not the growth of guerrilla warfare in Kashmir nor certainly the Indian elections but the massive social movement which the occupation & freedom struggle has created.

One issue that isn’t being addressed by writers is the impact of massive US cutbacks in military aid to Pakistan which may partially explain its reluctance to escalate war against India.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2019-02-28/india-pakistan-war-claims-first-casualty-truth?

In 1983, I hitchhiked around Northern Ireland, then under occupation by the British Army. It was just after the hunger strike of political prisoners at Long Kesh Prison had ended. A little group of adolescent boys took me through the Catholic neighborhoods to show me the many political murals on the side of buildings in solidarity with the hunger strikers. This is one of them.