The Russia Sanctions Bill will allow additional sanctions against Russia, including the ability to:
freeze assets in NZ;
prevent people and companies from moving their money and assets to NZ to escape sanctions imposed by other countries; and
stop super yachts, ships and aircraft from entering NZ waters or airspace.
Passing the law under urgency this week is justified due to Russia being one of the UN Security Council member states, allowing it to use its veto power to block any proposed UN sanctions.
But this is a sad development, and a break with 30 years of diplomatic history. Since 1991, New Zealand has worked within the UN framework and largely based its sanctions regimes around what the UN has mandated.
Over Ukraine, New Zealand has taken some small and supplementary steps against Russia, such as travel bans and export controls over technologies that may have military value. But this has been inadequate compared with the actions of its allies, and the rapidly worsening situation.
NZ must align with allies To create a new sanctions regime outside the UN system, New Zealand will need to take into account various important factors, including the law’s scope and how it fits with the actions of its allies.
Above all, the legislation must recognise this is a unique situation and must not create a precedent that enables other actions outside the UN system. The new law must expressly state why the urgent actions are justified and the objectives it wants to achieve, and it should have a sunset clause whereby it will lapse on a set date unless expressly renewed.
The law must be effective, proportionate and targeted. Anti-Russian hysteria must be avoided. Due process, fairness to those involved, and compliance with existing international obligations, must be uppermost.
Detail must be applied to the creation of a cross-party sanctions committee and a monitoring group. The evidence used to justify sanctions should come from secure and robust sources, which should be as transparent as possible.
Coordination with friends and allies is uppermost. It’s not a question of how large New Zealand’s sanctions are, but rather that they are consistent with those of other countries. If there are inconsistencies, these risk being exploited both politically and economically.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. and its allies are having a “very active discussion” about banning the import of Russian oil and natural gas in the latest escalation of their sanctions in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. https://t.co/qk2wtRvSS6
Military aid an option In a normal situation, a “laddering” process for sanctions is used: sanctions start softly (sporting or cultural events, for instance) and escalate (with some diplomatic restrictions) towards increasingly harsh trade restrictions prohibiting goods, from luxuries to near essentials.
Exclusion from airspace, maritime zones and even travel restrictions for ordinary citizens may be added to the mix, as Russia is increasingly isolated from the wider world. With events moving so fast already, New Zealand is already halfway up the ladder.
Military aid needs to be an option, too. The goal is to help the Ukrainians fight for their own freedom, without putting foreign “boots on the ground”. A distinction between lethal and non-lethal aid (such as body armour, communications equipment, food and medical kit) will need to be made.
Again, the question is not one of scale but consistency with friends and allies. The symbolism of such support is important. Supplementing the efforts of Australia, for example, would be useful.
The new law may also need to cover those New Zealanders who want to fight in Ukraine — on either side. New Zealanders without dual Ukrainian citizenship are unlikely to be given prisoner of war status if they’re captured.
Fighting the Russian invasion of a sovereign country is not an act of terrorism, and some may be willing to fight without significant financial incentives. The government should make the rules clear — again, consistent with friends and allies.
Risk of unintended consequences Despite what Vladimir Putin has suggested, sanctions are not an act of war. They are an unfortunate but sometimes necessary non-military strategy aimed at changing or ending a country’s harmful actions.
But even if New Zealand and other like-minded countries apply maximum pressure through sanctions, there is no guarantee Putin will change his policies.
Sanctions have the best chances of success when a country’s leadership feels affected by the pressure of its own citizens — or in Russia’s case, its oligarch class, as the prime minister hinted.
So, sanctions may work better with Russia than North Korea. But there is also a risk, if Putin starts to feel this pain, that he will respond in unexpected ways.
The only real certainty is significant collateral economic damage — for Russia and the world, including New Zealand. Everyone will see or feel the impact as economic and diplomatic relationships hit turbulence. Right now, however, there is no viable alternative.
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. It’s 2022. Yet we’re still a long way from women’s emancipation. And the war in Ukraine has amplified this more than ever. Because when it comes to war, women are infantilised. Our ability to defend ourselves is equated with the vulnerability of children.
But even worse, this is done without hesitation or critique.
Women and children first
In the mainstream media, story after story reflects the ‘women and children first’ narrative. Whether it’s reporting on people leaving the country or bomb attacks, women are put in the same breath as children.
This has been exasperated by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy banning men from leaving the country. In the rush to put Zelenskyy on a pedestal, there’s been little criticism of this frankly obscene mandate. No one, ever, should be forced to fight on behalf of any state or organisation. But even setting this fact aside, there’s been a general acceptance that Zelenskyy’s priorities are right.
It’s 2022. But a woman’s role as a mother and victim is still enforced in nearly every news bulletin reporting on casualties or refugees. There is no dialogue around fathers leaving with children while their mothers stay and fight. Surely, by now, we should have reached the stage where the message is ‘parents and children first’?
And that’s not to say that powerful women aren’t represented in the conflict. Whether that’s BBC journalists Lyse Doucet and Orla Guerin reporting from the conflict, or women Ukrainian MPs such as Kira Rudik staying to fight, women’s strength is, to some degree, represented:
Our #women are going to fight as hard as our #men. Because bullets don't really care which hands are firing them. And bravery has no gender.@TheSunhttps://t.co/zn9qFNz2C9
Rudik is right, “bravery has no gender” (though the Sun sexualising women fighters is a whole other article). But when news bulletin after bulletin repeats the ‘women and children’ mantra, this message is undermined. It shows that we’re still stuck in the mindset of female vulnerability.
Women as fighters
Our past and our present is full of women fighters. But with the exception of Boudicca and possibly Joan of Arc, it’s unlikely many of us encountered them in our history lessons. In more recent history, women have fought on the frontline in the Mexican revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the Sri Lankan civil war, and the French Revolution, to name just a few examples.
However, in recent years, it’s the women of the YPJ (women’s protection units) in Rojava (north east Syria) who’ve shown the power of women fighters. And the Kurdish Freedom Movement more generally has shown the power of a movement for direct democracy that places women’s liberation as one of its central tenets.
Women are disproportionately affected by war, especially through gender-based sexual violence. But this should make their role in conflict even more vital. The YPJ, for example, focuses on education as much as combat. As YPJ commander Zanarin Qamishlo described in 2021:
the Women’s Protection Units had an impact, both from the military point of view and how to develop it to protect the people or from the social side, and how to influence the authoritarian masculine mentality to change it and push it towards justice and equality, and how for women to become a strong and beneficial will that can break the shackles of outdated customs and traditions.
Qamishlo continued:
It changed the stereotyped image of women’s military organizations, as the female fighters presented battles to liberate cities and villages from ISIS mercenaries, took up arms, and not only fought the enemies, but fought the male mentality that permeates the details of life.
Celebrating women warriors doesn’t mean glorifying war
Celebrating women’s role in combat does not and should not mean glorifying war. It’s not about saying everyone or anyone can or should fight. But there are times when fighting back is necessary, and it’s about time we all recognised that women are just as capable on the frontline as men.
As women, we need to reclaim our history and our present as warrior women. Generations of white men have tried to teach us that women don’t fight; that our role is in the home or dressing wounds. History tells a different story.
So this International Women’s Day, let’s reclaim our history and our power. Let’s stop using the phrase ‘women and children’ to depict vulnerability. The patriarchy has spent generations telling us we’re weak. It’s time to fight back.
Content warning: this article includes footage of dead and horrifically wounded civilians
Over several days, we’ve witnessed images and video footage of Russian military attacks on towns and cities across Ukraine. Most appear to be in residential areas. Footage shows bodies of dead Ukrainians or of the severely wounded crying for help. Much of the video footage was shared on social media. It reveals a war of sheer terror and attrition.
The reality of Vladimir Putin’s war
People on the frontline have filmed the reality of what’s happening, as well as the horrific consequences.
This footage further down, shared by journalist Jake Hanrahan, shows the shocking aftermath of an attack in a residential area of Chernivsky (warning: graphic images):
There are also claims that Russia deployed cluster bombs in at least three residential areas in the city of Kharkiv:
#Ukraine: Russian forces fired cluster munitions into at least 3 residential areas in Kharkiv. Using cluster munitions in populated areas shows a brazen, callous disregard for people's lives. Indiscriminate attacks may amount to war crimes. New from @hrwhttps://t.co/hxCHV5TQl8pic.twitter.com/03bslSAOxD
And there are claims that a thermobaric bomb launcher, which uses “oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion”, was launched towards the Ukrainian border.
War crimes
As previously published by The Canary, anarchist and political commentator Noam Chomsky has unequivocally stated that:
the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a major war crime, ranking alongside the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Hitler-Stalin invasion of Poland in September 1939
Human Rights Watch (HRW) claims that on 28 February the Russian military deployed cluster bombs in Kharkiv. HRW explains:
An international treaty bans cluster munitions because of their widespread indiscriminate effect and long-lasting danger to civilians.
HRW added how more cluster bombs were used in an attack on a hospital:
On February 24, a Russian ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition struck just outside a hospital in Vuhledar, a town in the Ukrainian government-controlled Donetska region, killing four civilians and injuring another ten, six of them healthcare workers.
Mixed messaging
On 27 February, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued an appeal for foreign nationals to come to his country to fight against the Russian invaders. He said:
Anyone who wants to join the defence of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals.
Should it be shown that someone aided or joined a proscribed terrorist organisation, they could face prosecution in the English courts. But in a 2020 case, charges were dropped against three British men in regard to support for the mainly Kurdish YPG (Peoples Protection Units). This was after it was shown that British authorities had not banned the units, which were provided with British support. As for Shamina Begum, she lost her British citizenship after being accused of joining Daesh (Isis/Isil), though she was groomed as a 15-year-old.
Widening solidarity
Meanwhile people across Europe are offering support to the people of Ukraine in other ways.
For example, in Berlin hundreds of people welcomed refugees as they arrived from Ukraine, offering them accommodation:
Thousands of people in Berlin have gone to the central train station to offer fleeing Ukrainians a place to stay. Really moving. pic.twitter.com/OReuMnHcfk
This Romanian website lists a number of sites that are providing assistance to Ukrainians, while this site lists “Real ways you can help Ukraine as a foreigner”. And this website provides information on how to provide accommodation to Ukrainian refugees.
Meanwhile, an interactive map provides live updates on resources, including accommodation, for Ukrainian refugees.
According to the BBC, more than one million Ukrainian refugees have escaped their country and are seeking help from neighbouring countries, although the UK government’s policy on Ukrainian refugees remains unclear.
Demonstrations
There have been demonstrations across Europe in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. For example, on the weekend of 26/27 February, Berlin saw at least 100,000 demonstrators take to the streets and thousands gathered in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. It was the same in Bern, Helsinki, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Sofia, Madrid, Brussels and London.
And in Russia, undaunted by the likelihood of years of imprisonment, anti-war protesters are planning more demonstrations in a number of cities:
Anti-war protests planned for Sunday 6 March in Moscow, St Petersburg, Voronezh, Saratov, Tyumen, Kirov, Kaluga, Vladivostok, Ekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Other cities tbc. Information from Socialist Alternative pic.twitter.com/9NOS7BTVE5
On 21 February, in a televised address, president Putin explained his rationale for taking military action against Ukraine. He further explained that he regards the people of Russia and of Ukraine as being one. Moreover, he believes Ukraine is not a sovereign state and that it was “entirely created by Russia”.
An article in The Conversationsummarises some of the arguments regarding Russian-Ukrainian relations. For example, it’s argued that from the Russian perspective:
However, the irony is that should Putin succeed in annexing much of if not all of Ukraine, Russia will end up bordering three additional NATO member countries: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Either Putin has not thought this aspect through, or he has designs to expand the Russian Federation even more.
Media shutdowns, but no place to hide
Much of the footage of attacks on Ukrainian residential areas will not be seen by people in Russia now that Facebook and Twitter are blocked by the Russian authorities. This follows restrictions on Sputnik and Russia Today in the EU. Russian television “liberal” stations TV Rain and Ekho Moskvy have also closed down. That is reportedly because they deliberately broadcast “false information about the actions of Russian military personnel” in Ukraine.
Meanwhile there’s documented evidence to support that the Russian military has committed war crimes. Consequently, Putin and his generals and ministers can be subject to arrest and prosecution at the International Criminal Court should a case be established.
But that is of little comfort to the people of Ukraine, many of whom have lost everything – their family members, their homes, their cities. They want the war to end not in weeks or months but now.
A West Papuan leader has praised the “bravery and spirit” of Ukrainians defending their country against the Russian invasion while condemning the hypocrisy of a self-styled “peaceful” Indonesia that attacks “innocent civilians” in Papua.
Responding to the global condemnation of the brutal war on Ukraine, now into its second week, United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda highlighted a statement by United Nation experts that has condemned “shocking abuses” against Papuans, including “child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.
Wenda also stressed that the same day that Indonesia’s permanent representative to the UN said that the military attack on Ukraine was unacceptable and called for peace, reports emerged of seven young schoolboys being arrested, beaten and tortured so “horrifically” by the Indonesian military that one had died from his injuries.
“The eyes of the world are watching in horror [at] the invasion of Ukraine,” said Wenda in a statement.
“We feel their terror, we feel their pain and our solidarity is with these men, women and children. We see their suffering and we weep at the loss of innocent lives, the killing of children, the bombing of their homes, and for the trauma of refugees who are forced to flee their communities.”
Wenda said the world had spoken up to condemn the actions of President Vladimir Putin and his regime.
“The world also applauds the bravery and spirit of Ukrainians in their resistance as they defend their families, their homes, their communities, and their national identity.”
Russian attack unacceptable
Wenda said Indonesia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Arrmanatha Nasir, had stated that that Russian attack on Ukraine was unacceptable and called for peace. He had said innocent civilians “will ultimately bear the brunt of this ongoing situation”.
“But what about innocent civilians in West Papua? asked Wenda.
“At the UN, Indonesia speaks of itself as ‘a peaceful nation’ committed to a world ‘based on peace and social justice’.
“This, on the very same day that reports came in of seven young boys, elementary school children, being arrested, beaten and tortured so horrifically by the Indonesian military that one of the boys, Makilon Tabuni, died from his injuries.
“The other boys were taken to hospital, seriously wounded.”
“These are our children that [Indonesian forces are] torturing and killing, with impunity. Are they not ‘innocent civilians’, or are their lives just worth less?”
A leading West Papuan activist is comparing the plight of his region to that of the crisis in Ukraine. https://t.co/K3qsMtXXWI
Urgent humanitarian access
Wenda said that this was during the same week that UN special rapporteurs had called for urgent humanitarian access and spoken of “shocking abuses against our people”, including “child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.
This was an acknowledgement from the UN that Papuan people had been “crying out for”.
Wenda said 60-100,00 people were currently displaced, without any support or aid. This was a humanitarian crisis.
“Women forced to give birth in the bush, without medical assistance. Children are malnourished and starving. And still, Indonesia does not allow international access,” he said.
“Our people have been suffering this, without the eyes of the world watching, for nearly 60 years.”
In response, the Indonesian Ambassador to the UN had continued with “total denial, with shameless lies and hypocrisy”.
“If there’s nothing to hide, then where is the access?”
International community ‘waking up’
Wenda said the international community was “waking up” and Indonesia could not continue to “hide your shameful secret any longer”.
“Like the Ukrainian people, you will not crush our spirit, you will not steal our hope and we will not give up our struggle for freedom,” Wenda said.
The ULMWP demanded that Indonesia:
Allow access for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and for humanitarian aid to our displaced people and to international journalists;
The people of Ukraine are “European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed” while Palestinians are Arab and have darker complexion. Lesson one: Empathy and recognition of pain and suffering is colour coded and race still matters in 2022.
Palestine, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Syria where violence is normal and death is “baked” into the culture while Ukraine is a “European city” that is modern and advanced and these things are not supposed to happen in this area. Lesson two: Western and European history is but a long series of erasures, amnesia and deeply held view of exceptionalism.
Volunteering to fight in defence of the Ukraine from outside is a heroic act, which indeed it is, but volunteering to resist settler colonialism and Apartheid is framed as “terrorism” by Western powers. Lesson three: Palestinians are demonised no matter what heroic acts they underake.
When an officer in the Ukraine blows himself and destroys a bridge to prevent the Russians from advancing then he is celebrated for this sacrifice. Lesson four: Palestinians are demonised for merely being Palestinians and any and all resistance are framed as terrorism.
Sport teams and famous sport figures can express solidarity and carry the Ukrainian flag, post messages on the electronic boards and demonstrate this on the play field, which are all very positive and players should have the right and ability to do it. However, Palestine is an exception when it comes to sport figures expressing any support for the Palestinians who are living under settler colonial occupation that structured with an embedded Apartheid system of racial-religious segregation. Lesson five: The sport administrative structure hands out fines and sanctions (red card) for anyone who expresses support for Palestine including on the occasion of fans hoisting Palestinian flags in the stands.
Calls for sending weapons to Ukraine so as to resist and fight Russian invasion and occupation is supported and expressed as a fundamental right for people facing such an enemy. Anyone who calls for supporting the Palestinians by sending military equipment or items to strengthen the resistance is criminalised and often imprisonment under the spacious law designation of material support. Lesson six: Palestinians don’t have the right to defend themselves but must accept to be occupied and the world community is committed to fund and extend all types of support to the settler colonial occupier.
For the Ukraine, international law advocates in Western world brought out the defence of the 4th Geneva Convention, brushed-up on definitions of war crimes and genocide but none of this applies to Palestine and Palestinians. One can add must of the Global South and the Muslim World suffer the same type of double standards when it comes to international law and 4th Geneva Convention. If you have a doubt for a moment then ask the Afghans, Iraqis and Syrians on this single point then we can have a large discussion. Lesson seven: Palestinians are made to live outside the scope of international law and the Western world delivers the weapons and instruments used by Israel to violate the 4th Geneva Convention and the Convention on Genocide. The Ukraine invasion made this very clear.
Media coverage rightly focused on the victims of the Russian invasion and the human stories with people taking weapons to defend their families, homes, and cities. Palestine always faces the media coverage that amplifies, humanises and centres the narrative of the settler colonial occupation, while erasing or often problematising Palestinian narrative in the often deployed euphemism of death during “clashes”, Israel having the right to defend itself or responding to rocket firing. Lesson eight: Palestinians are made to be the guilty party for wanting to live on their land and having the audacity to insist on it. Double standard and culpability of the Western world in furthering settler colonialism in Palestine.
Educational institutions across the Western World expressed solidarity with the Ukraine, again rightly so when a people face an invasion. Last April-May period, Israel launched a massive attack on the Palestinians on the holiest night of Ramadan, the 27th Night of Ramadan, then followed by a massive bombardment of Gaza. When faculty members, departments and students at universities expressed solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians, a steady stream of political figures, university presidents and media figures insisted that colleges and universities should not be politicised and to make sure that their internal policies prevent them from expressing such solidarity positions. Lesson nine: Palestine on college campuses always meets the administration, Zionist and settler colonial checkpoints that are structured to prevent solidarity with the Palestinians.
The push for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Russia are moving faster than the speed of light and often by the same set of characters that pushed for legislations to criminalise and punish the Palestinian BDS movement. Lesson ten: Palestine faces the constant double standard on the BDS front, free speech and constitutional rights. No clear evidence of double standard than to listen to the same individuals and groups who now are on the front line of seeking legislation to authorise BDS effort directed at Russia while on record opposing the Palestinian BDS Movement.
Professor Hatem Bazian is executive director of the Islamophobia Studies Center and a professor at Zaytuna College and lecturer in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and Asian American Studies, UC Berkeley.
There are “two species” of refugee in Europe, philosopher Slavoj Žižek has warned. He was talking about a tweet – now deleted – from the government of his home country, Slovenia. The tweet attempted to draw a line between those fleeing the war in Ukraine from those who were fleeing wars in other parts of the world.
The tweet claimed:
The refugees from Ukraine are coming from an environment which is in its cultural, religious, and historical sense something totally different from the environment out of which refugees from Afghanistan are coming.
Describing this bizarre, racist position, Žižek wrote:
After an outcry, the tweet was quickly deleted, but the obscene truth was out: Europe must defend itself from non-Europe.
The evidence suggests this problem extends much wider, and goes much deeper, than just individual governments.
Blatant racism
Slovenia’s was just one – very open – example of a wider problem. Ukrainian refugees fleeing the criminal Russian invasion deserve our solidarity. So do Afghans, Iraqis, Yemenis, and Palestinians. The only fundamental difference between them is their place in a made-up racial hierarchy. And that is deplorable.
As one Twitter user pointed out on 3 March, it’s possible to have solidarity with more than one group of people at the same time:
I think whilst the appalling situation with Ukraine continues, as we see the unveiling of racism and bias rearing their heads as the UK (particularly) focuses on the white 'civilised' victims of war, that those refugees who remain unsupported STILL NEED SUPPORTING.
— Knight of the Mace Daddies (@HoydenSpark) March 3, 2022
Another was one of many sharing compilations of racist takes in the mainstream media:
People in #Ukraine are dying, have lost their homes, possessions & are fleeing as refugees.
Human tragedy in Europe is breaking my heart. Other thing breaking my heart is racism. White folks are killing white folks yet finding it hard not to be racist towards people of colour. pic.twitter.com/ZX0piJwCCU
In most cases these involved a level of surprise that war had come to “relatively civilised” country, not a place like Iraq or North Africa. Places we can only assume are ‘uncivilised’.
Little connection was made in these commentaries as to exactly why somewhere like Iraq, for example, has experienced years of war and violence. Did war magically appear in the Middle East? Or could it be connected to the US-led invasion in 2003? Or the centuries of colonialism beforehand?
There seems to be no space to look at this vital context in the mainstream commentary on Ukraine.
Shocking distinction
Žižek wasn’t the only scholar pointing out this contradiction. Professor of Middle East Studies Ziad Majed said the “magnificent solidarity and humanism” shown toward Ukrainians was vastly different to the “dehumanization of refugees from the Middle East”.
When you hear certain comments talking about ‘people like us’ it suggests that those who come from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Africa are not.
“Orientalist and racist”
The Arab and Middle East Journalist’s Association (AMEJA) also condemned the double standard. It listed many examples, including those in the viral video above:
AMEJA condemns and categorically rejects orientalist [racist against Asian people] and racist implications that any population or country is ‘uncivilized’ or bears economic factors that make it worthy of conflict.
AMEJA said these kinds of comment spoke to a deeper problem in Western media:
This type of commentary reflects the pervasive mentality in Western journalism of normalizing tragedy in parts of the world such as the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.
“Two species”
The outpourings of concern for refugees from Ukraine are justified and welcome. Russia’s illegal invasion, as Noam Chomsky has pointed out, is a war crime akin to the US invasion of Iraq and Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939:
Noam Chomsky on the Ukraine war:
‘The most crucial [fact] is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a major war crime, ranking alongside the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Hitler-Stalin invasion of Poland in 1939, to take only two salient examples.’https://t.co/50P4GioOmi
For those of us who’ve opposed wars and supported refugees for longer than a week, our job is to point out that putting a flag in your profile picture isn’t enough. Because every refugee is worthy of our support, and all wars of aggression should be opposed.
A West Papuan advocacy group in Australia has appealed to Foreign Minister Marise Payne to take the cue from a new United Nations Rapporteurs statement this week condemning the “ongoing human rights abuses” in the Indonesian-ruled West Papuan region.
Joe Collins of the Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) said there was an urgent need for Australia to speak out against the Indonesian military abuses in the two Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua.
“We are urging the Australian government to join with the UN Rapporteurs in raising concerns about the situation in West Papua, publicly with Jakarta, condemning the ongoing human rights abuses in the territory,” Collins said in a statement.
“We know the government has said it raises concerns about the human rights situation in West Papua with the Indonesian government, but have not seen any public statements of concern on the issue unlike the governments concerns about abuses in China and the situation in the Ukraine.
“The issue of West Papua is not going away.”
In a letter to minister Payne, Collins raised the UN rapporteurs’ concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in Papua and West Papua, “citing shocking abuses against indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people.”
The association said it would not go into “all the grave concerns” about human rights abuses in West Papua “as we have written many times on the issue”.
But Collins quoted the rapporteurs’ statement: “Between April and November 2021, we have received allegations indicating several instances of extrajudicial killings, including of young children, enforced disappearance, torture and inhuman treatment and the forced displacement of at least 5,000 indigenous Papuans by security forces.”
It is estimated that the overall number of displaced people in West Papua since the escalation of violence in December 2018 is more than 60,000.
Collins said that “Urgent action is needed to end ongoing human rights violations against indigenous Papuans.”
He also reminded the minister about AWPA’s letter on 12 August 2021 raising concerns about West Papuan activist Victor Yeimo, the international spokesperson for the West Papua National Committee (KNPB).
“He is being charged with treason. We look forward to your reply on this matter.”
New Zealand’s official response to Russian aggression and violations of international law have so far been strong — but they could go further.
While no NATO-aligned country can — under any circumstances — put boots on the ground in Ukraine (which could lead to world war), New Zealand must do everything tangibly possible to oppose the Russian invasion.
To that end, New Zealand’s sanctions regime must be nothing less than those of its allies.
This should extend to passing legislation under urgency to allow sanctions beyond those mandated by the United Nations (UN).
Avoiding the need for UN approval is essential because of Russia’s Security Council veto. As other like-minded countries provide military hardware to Ukraine, New Zealand should also consider offering logistical support, with non-lethal military aid such as body armour and medical packs being a minimum.
New Zealand should continue to strengthen its relationship with NATO and consider seeking to become an “enhanced opportunity partner” as Australia did in 2014.
Finally, the government needs to reflect on whether its current defence spend and strategic focus are adequate for the world we now live in.
Decline of the UN These measures are warranted, given the state of the United Nations Charter. Designed to prevent the scourge of war and uphold international law, there are now tank tracks all over it.
In theory, UN member states promise to settle disputes by peaceful means and refrain from the threat or use of force against other sovereign nations. Those commitments are supplemented with bilateral arrangements.
Just such an arrangement underpinned Ukraine’s decision in 1994 to hand its nuclear arsenal over to Russia in return for Russia promising to respect its independence, sovereignty and existing borders.
But two decades of decline lie behind today’s crisis. Since the end of the 1990s we have witnessed the continued destabilisation of the international architecture designed to keep peace.
The UN Security Council failed to adopt a draft resolution on Ukraine on February 25 because of the Russian veto. Image: GettyImages
Erosion of international law We can trace this decline to the US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia in 1999. That same year, NATO (whose member states regard an attack on one as an attack on all) began to expand eastward.
The UN’s effectiveness was dealt a serious blow by the unlawful US invasion of Iraq in 2003, while further NATO expansion in 2004 added to Moscow’s anxiety. But Russia appeared to learn by example.
Military interventions in Chechnya and Georgia, and support for the Assad regime in Syria from 2011, were followed by Russian recognition of breakaway eastern regions of Ukraine in 2014 and its illegal annexation of Crimea the next year.
Russia then withdrew from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and in 2016 quit the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (which the US has never even joined).
Meanwhile, then-US president Donald Trump pulled out of the Intermediate Nuclear Range Treaty (which kept intermediate range nuclear weapons out of Europe) and then exited the Open Skies Treaty which gave European and allied nations the ability to verify arms control commitments.
Putin’s impossible demands The net result is today’s parlous situation. Whether Russia will try to annex all or just some of Ukraine we cannot say.
But before the invasion Putin put peace offers on the table in the form of two draft treaties, one for the US and one for the other NATO states.
Essentially, Putin is proposing the removal of collective defence guarantees by NATO in eastern Europe. He believes this is fair, based on the unwritten promises after the Cold War that former Soviet bloc countries would not join NATO.
Those promises were never made into a legally binding treaty, however, and Putin now wants that changed. Specifically, he wants a rollback of NATO forces and weaponry in the former Soviet allies to 1997 levels.
Russia also wants the US to pledge it will prevent further eastward expansion of NATO, and a specific commitment that NATO will never allow Ukraine or other bordering nations (such as Georgia) to join the western alliance.
But the prospect of a nuclear power like Russia dictating what its neighbour states can or can’t join is untenable in 2022. If anything, applications to join NATO are more likely to increase in the wake of the Ukraine invasion.
Where now for NZ? These are sobering times for small countries like like New Zealand that rely on a rules-based international order for their peace and security.
With the failure of various treaties and the basic principles of international law to deter Putin, and the UN rendered virtually impotent by Russia’s veto power, New Zealand needs other ways to respond to such superpower aggression.
Until a semblance of normality and respect for the UN Charter and international treaties return, small states must focus on their core foreign policy values and finding common ground with friends and allies.
By being part of a united front on sanctions, military aid, humanitarian assistance and defence, New Zealand can leverage its otherwise limited ability to influence events in an increasingly lawless world.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took much of the world by surprise. It is an unprovoked and unjustified attack that will go down in history as one of the major war crimes of the 21st century, argues Noam Chomsky in the exclusive interview for Truthout that follows. Political considerations, such as those cited by Russian President Vladimir Putin, cannot be used as arguments to justify the launching of an invasion against a sovereign nation. In the face of this horrific invasion, though, the U.S. must choose urgent diplomacy over military escalation, as the latter could constitute a “death warrant for the species, with no victors,” Chomsky says.
Noam Chomsky is internationally recognized as one of the most important intellectuals alive. His intellectual stature has been compared to that of Galileo, Newton and Descartes, as his work has had tremendous influence on a variety of areas of scholarly and scientific inquiry, including linguistics, logic and mathematics, computer science, psychology, media studies, philosophy, politics and international affairs. He is the author of some 150 books and the recipient of scores of highly prestigious awards, including the Sydney Peace Prize and the Kyoto Prize (Japan’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize), and of dozens of honorary doctorate degrees from the world’s most renowned universities. Chomsky is Institute Professor Emeritus at MIT and currently Laureate Professor at the University of Arizona.
C.J. Polychroniou: Noam, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has taken most people by surprise, sending shockwaves throughout the world, although there were plenty of indications that Putin had become quite agitated by NATO’s expansion eastward and Washington’s refusal to take seriously his “red line” security demands regarding Ukraine. Why do you think he decided to launch an invasion at this point in time?
Noam Chomsky: Before turning to the question, we should settle a few facts that are uncontestable. The most crucial one is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a major war crime, ranking alongside the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Hitler-Stalin invasion of Poland in September 1939, to take only two salient examples. It always makes sense to seek explanations, but there is no justification, no extenuation.
Turning now to the question, there are plenty of supremely confident outpourings about Putin’s mind. The usual story is that he is caught up in paranoid fantasies, acting alone, surrounded by groveling courtiers of the kind familiar here in what’s left of the Republican Party traipsing to Mar-a-Lago for the Leader’s blessing.
The flood of invective might be accurate, but perhaps other possibilities might be considered. Perhaps Putin meant what he and his associates have been saying loud and clear for years. It might be, for example, that, “Since Putin’s major demand is an assurance that NATO will take no further members, and specifically not Ukraine or Georgia, obviously there would have been no basis for the present crisis if there had been no expansion of the alliance following the end of the Cold War, or if the expansion had occurred in harmony with building a security structure in Europe that included Russia.” The author of these words is former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Jack Matlock, one of the few serious Russia specialists in the U.S. diplomatic corps, writing shortly before the invasion. He goes on to conclude that the crisis “can be easily resolved by the application of common sense…. By any common-sense standard it is in the interest of the United States to promote peace, not conflict. To try to detach Ukraine from Russian influence — the avowed aim of those who agitated for the ‘color revolutions’ — was a fool’s errand, and a dangerous one. Have we so soon forgotten the lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis?”
Matlock is hardly alone. Much the same conclusions about the underlying issues are reached in the memoirs of CIA head William Burns, another of the few authentic Russia specialists. [Diplomat] George Kennan’s even stronger stand has belatedly been widely quoted, backed as well by former Defense Secretary William Perry, and outside the diplomatic ranks by the noted international relations scholar John Mearsheimer and numerous other figures who could hardly be more mainstream.
None of this is obscure. U.S. internal documents, released by WikiLeaks, reveal that Bush II’s reckless offer to Ukraine to join NATO at once elicited sharp warnings from Russia that the expanding military threat could not be tolerated. Understandably.
We might incidentally take note of the strange concept of “the left” that appears regularly in excoriation of “the left” for insufficient skepticism about the “Kremlin’s line.”
The fact is, to be honest, that we do not know why the decision was made, even whether it was made by Putin alone or by the Russian Security Council in which he plays the leading role. There are, however, some things we do know with fair confidence, including the record reviewed in some detail by those just cited, who have been in high places on the inside of the planning system. In brief, the crisis has been brewing for 25 years as the U.S. contemptuously rejected Russian security concerns, in particular their clear red lines: Georgia and especially Ukraine.
There is good reason to believe that this tragedy could have been avoided, until the last minute. We’ve discussed it before, repeatedly. As to why Putin launched the criminal aggression right now, we can speculate as we like. But the immediate background is not obscure — evaded but not contested.
It’s easy to understand why those suffering from the crime may regard it as an unacceptable indulgence to inquire into why it happened and whether it could have been avoided. Understandable, but mistaken. If we want to respond to the tragedy in ways that will help the victims, and avert still worse catastrophes that loom ahead, it is wise, and necessary, to learn as much as we can about what went wrong and how the course could have been corrected. Heroic gestures may be satisfying. They are not helpful.
As often before, I’m reminded of a lesson I learned long ago. In the late 1960s, I took part in a meeting in Europe with a few representatives of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (“Viet Cong,” in U.S. parlance). It was during the brief period of intense opposition to the horrendous U.S. crimes in Indochina. Some young people were so infuriated that they felt that only a violent reaction would be an appropriate response to the unfolding monstrosities: breaking windows on Main Street, bombing an ROTC center. Anything less amounted to complicity in terrible crimes. The Vietnamese saw things very differently. They strongly opposed all such measures. They presented their model of an effective protest: a few women standing in silent prayer at the graves of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam. They were not interested in what made American opponents of the war feel righteous and honorable. They wanted to survive.
It’s a lesson I’ve often heard in one or another form from victims of hideous suffering in the Global South, the prime target of imperial violence. One we should take to heart, adapted to circumstances. Today that means an effort to understand why this tragedy occurred and what could have been done to avert it, and to apply these lessons to what comes next.
The question cuts deep. There is no time to review this critically important matter here, but repeatedly the reaction to real or imagined crisis has been to reach for the six-gun rather than the olive branch. It’s almost a reflex, and the consequences have generally been awful — for the traditional victims. It’s always worthwhile to try to understand, to think a step or two ahead about the likely consequences of action or inaction. Truisms of course, but worth reiterating, because they are so easily dismissed in times of justified passion.
The options that remain after the invasion are grim. The least bad is support for the diplomatic options that still exist, in the hope of reaching an outcome not too far from what was very likely achievable a few days ago: Austrian-style neutralization of Ukraine, some version of Minsk II federalism within. Much harder to reach now. And — necessarily — with an escape hatch for Putin, or outcomes will be still more dire for Ukraine and everyone else, perhaps almost unimaginably so.
Very remote from justice. But when has justice prevailed in international affairs? Is it necessary to review the appalling record once again?
Like it or not, the choices are now reduced to an ugly outcome that rewards rather than punishes Putin for the act of aggression — or the strong possibility of terminal war. It may feel satisfying to drive the bear into a corner from which it will lash out in desperation — as it can. Hardly wise.
Meanwhile, we should do anything we can to provide meaningful support for those valiantly defending their homeland against cruel aggressors, for those escaping the horrors, and for the thousands of courageous Russians publicly opposing the crime of their state at great personal risk, a lesson to all of us.
And we should also try to find ways to help a much broader class of victims: all life on Earth. This catastrophe took place at a moment where all of the great powers, indeed all of us, must be working together to control the great scourge of environmental destruction that is already exacting a grim toll, with much worse soon to come unless major efforts are undertaken quickly. To drive home the obvious, the IPCC just released the latest and by far most ominous of its regular assessments of how we are careening to catastrophe.
Meanwhile, the necessary actions are stalled, even driven into reverse, as badly needed resources are devoted to destruction and the world is now on a course to expand the use of fossil fuels, including the most dangerous and conveniently abundant of them, coal.
A more grotesque conjuncture could hardly be devised by a malevolent demon. It can’t be ignored. Every moment counts.
The Russian invasion is in clear violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity of another state. Yet Putin sought to offer legal justifications for the invasion during his speech on February 24, and Russia cites Kosovo, Iraq, Libya and Syria as evidence that the United States and its allies violate international law repeatedly. Can you comment on Putin’s legal justifications for the invasion of Ukraine and on the status of international law in the post-Cold War era?
There is nothing to say about Putin’s attempt to offer legal justification for his aggression. Its merit is zero.
Of course, it is true that the U.S. and its allies violate international law without a blink of an eye, but that provides no extenuation for Putin’s crimes. Kosovo, Iraq and Libya did, however, have direct implications for the conflict over Ukraine.
The Iraq invasion was a textbook example of the crimes for which Nazis were hanged at Nuremberg, pure unprovoked aggression. And a punch in Russia’s face.
In the case of Kosovo, NATO aggression (meaning U.S. aggression) was claimed to be “illegal but justified” (for example, by the International Commission on Kosovo chaired by Richard Goldstone) on grounds that the bombing was undertaken to terminate ongoing atrocities. That judgment required reversal of the chronology. The evidence is overwhelming that the flood of atrocities was the consequence of the invasion: predictable, predicted, anticipated. Furthermore, diplomatic options were available, [but] as usual, ignored in favor of violence.
High U.S. officials confirm that it was primarily the bombing of Russian ally Serbia — without even informing them in advance — that reversed Russian efforts to work together with the U.S. somehow to construct a post-Cold War European security order, a reversal accelerated with the invasion of Iraq and the bombing of Libya after Russia agreed not to veto a UN Security Council Resolution that NATO at once violated.
Events have consequences; however, the facts may be concealed within the doctrinal system.
The status of international law did not change in the post-Cold War period, even in words, let alone actions. President Clinton made it clear that the U.S. had no intention of abiding by it. The Clinton Doctrine declared that the U.S. reserves the right to act “unilaterally when necessary,” including “unilateral use of military power” to defend such vital interests as “ensuring uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies and strategic resources.” His successors as well, and anyone else who can violate the law with impunity.
That’s not to say that international law is of no value. It has a range of applicability, and it is a useful standard in some respects.
The aim of the Russian invasion seems to be to take down the Zelensky government and install in its place a pro-Russian one. However, no matter what happens, Ukraine is facing a daunting future for its decision to become a pawn in Washington’s geostrategic games. In that context, how likely is it that economic sanctions will cause Russia to change its stance toward Ukraine — or do the economic sanctions aim at something bigger, such as undermining Putin’s control inside Russia and ties with countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and possibly even China itself?
Ukraine may not have made the most judicious choices, but it had nothing like the options available to the imperial states. I suspect that the sanctions will drive Russia to even greater dependency on China. Barring a serious change of course, Russia is a kleptocratic petrostate relying on a resource that must decline sharply or we are all finished. It’s not clear whether its financial system can weather a sharp attack, through sanctions or other means. All the more reason to offer an escape hatch with a grimace.
Western governments, mainstream opposition parties, including the Labour Party in U.K., and corporate media alike have embarked on a chauvinistic anti-Russian campaign. The targets include not only Russia’s oligarchs but musicians, conductors and singers, and even football owners such as Roman Abramovich of Chelsea FC. Russia has even been banned from Eurovision in 2022 following the invasion. This is the same reaction that the corporate media and the international community in general exhibited towards the U.S. following its invasion and subsequent destruction of Iraq, wasn’t it?
Your wry comment is quite appropriate. And we can go on in ways that are all too familiar.
Do you think the invasion will initiate a new era of sustained contestation between Russia (and possibly in alliance with China) and the West?
It’s hard to tell where the ashes will fall — and that might turn out not to be a metaphor. So far, China is playing it cool, and is likely to try to carry forward its extensive program of economic integration of much of the world within its expanding global system, a few weeks ago incorporating Argentina within the Belt and Road initiative, while watching rivals destroy themselves.
As we’ve discussed before, contestation is a death warrant for the species, with no victors. We are at a crucial point in human history. It cannot be denied. It cannot be ignored.
Amnesty International has condemned Russia’s reported use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, saying an attack on a pre-school “may constitute a war crime”.
“War crime”
The human rights charity said “a 220mm Uragan rocket dropped cluster munitions on the Sonechko nursery and kindergarten in the town of Okhtyrka in Sumy Oblast” on 25 February. It added:
The strike may constitute a war crime.
Amnesty said three people were killed in the attack, including a child, while another child was wounded. Cluster munitions scatter or release smaller munitions or bomblets over a wide area. This increases the potential for casualties and damage. More than 100 countries have committed never to use the weapons under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the UK. But neither Russia nor Ukraine have signed the agreement.
Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, said:
It is stomach-turning to see an indiscriminate attack on a nursery and kindergarten where civilians are seeking safe haven. Plain and simple, this should be investigated as a war crime.
As this human tragedy unfolds in Ukraine, any person who commits war crimes should be held individually accountable before the International Criminal Court (ICC) or another international criminal justice process at the national or international level.
It is imperative that UN member states and the ICC urgently consider how to ensure the timely and effective collection and preservation of evidence of any crimes under international law committed in Ukraine.
A preschool in north-eastern Ukraine was hit on 25 February with cluster munitions, killing 3, including a child & wounding another child. There is no possible justification for dropping cluster munitions in populated areas, let alone near a school.https://t.co/XG7hOjnXAc
Human Rights Watch said it has also identified examples of cluster munition use. On 25 February, it said the Russian military had used a cluster bomb the day before in the town of Vuhledar.
(PA Graphics)
Four civilians were killed in the attack, the organisation said.
Human Rights Watch describes the weapon as posing “an immediate threat to civilians during conflict by randomly scattering submunitions or bomblets over a wide area”.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence told the PA news agency:
As a state party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, we oppose the use of cluster munitions and discourage all states from using them.
In the meantime, the country has embarked on an often haphazard reform programme of its military which has made it — while still vulnerable in many vital respects — a rather more formidable force.
Since 2014-15, Ukraine has tripled its defence budget and attempted to modernise its forces — not only to defend themselves against Russia, but to comply with the standards demanded by Nato as an entry requirement.
The results have been mixed. On paper their army looks impressive — with 800 or so heavy tanks and thousands of other armoured vehicles protecting and transporting a regular force of about 200,000.
These are far better trained troops than in 2014. They have good leadership, especially in the crucial non-commissioned officer cadre — the backbone of any army. Vitally, most observers report high morale and motivation.
But this is only part of the story. Most of their armour and equipment is relatively old and, although factories have been turning out modernised versions of old models such as the T72 tank, these provide little in the way of effective opposition to the far more modern Russian tanks and armoured vehicles — some of which are equal or superior to the best Nato stock.
A Russian armoured personnel carrier crippled in the opening exchanges of the invasion. Image: Ukrainian Defence Ministry handout/EPA-EFE/
Further, the Ukrainian army is vulnerable both to Russian artillery, traditionally the Red Army’s most formidable arm, and the threat posed by Russian strike aircraft.
Ukraine’s air force possesses a considerable fleet of Cold War-era aircraft and personnel are well-organised and trained. But Russia has configured its “aerospace forces” to gain and maintain crucial control of the air using, among other systems, the fearsome S400 long-range anti-aircraft missiles.
These systems give the most advanced Nato air forces serious pause for thought, let alone the 1990s vintage fighters and bombers of Ukraine.
Advanced Russian fighters and missiles will dominate the sky in due course although the Ukrainians have achieved some successes against the expectations of many.
There are credible reports that Ukrainian fighters are still flying and remarkably have shot down several Russian jets. Their old — but in the right hands still effective — anti-aircraft missiles have also caused Russian losses, according to Ukrainian sources.
The navy is now militarily insignificant — the more so since much of it appears to have been sunk in harbour within 24 hours of the beginning of hostilities.
Strengths and weaknesses But this is not a foregone conclusion. Ukrainian generals are highly unlikely to play to Russian strengths and deploy forces to be obliterated by their artillery or air power.
They have seen all too much of that in the past. In July 2014 a formation of Ukrainian troops was destroyed by a rocket artillery strike in eastern Ukraine.
What was notable was the way the rockets were guided to their targets by drones operated by Russian-supported separatist troops.
Focusing on equipment quality or quantity alone is always a big mistake. In the UK, military thinking outlines “three components of fighting power”. These are the moral (morale, cohesion, motivation), conceptual (strategy, innovation and military “doctine”) and material (weaponry).
It is one thing having the advantage in the material component of war, it is quite another to turn it into success. The Ukrainians will try to exploit Russia’s vulnerability to having to wage a lengthy military campaign with the potential to sustain politically damaging heavy casualties.
Many Ukrainians have a basic awareness of weapon handling — the several hundred thousand reservists called up as Russia invaded certainly do. They may be light on modern tanks and sophisticated weaponry, but may well have the edge in the moral and conceptual domains.
There is a strong tradition of partisan warfare in Ukraine where ideas of “territorial defence” — insurgent groups fighting small actions on ground they know well backed up, where possible, by regular army units — are deeply ingrained.
In the early days of the Cold War after the country had been liberated from German occupation, the anti-Soviet “Insurgent Army” was only finally defeated in 1953. During this time they caused tens of thousands of casualties.
It may have been largely forgotten by the rest of the world, but this conflict is well remembered in Ukraine.
The vaunted Russian armed forces have already deployed a large proportion of their ground troops, and have a very limited capability either to occupy ground contested by insurgents or — even more importantly — to sustain operations beyond the first “break-in” phase of the war.
The last thing Putin wants is a protracted war, with bloody urban combat and echoes of Chechnya — which is what Ukrainian forces are likely to give him.
War takes its own course, but the likely and sensible Ukrainian approach will be to trade land for time. They will hope to inflict casualties and draw Russian forces into urban areas where their advantages are less pronounced.
In the event of defeat in the field, Ukraine’s defenders could well default to a well-armed, highly-motivated and protracted insurgency, probably supported by the West. This is Putin’s nightmare.
The other side of that particular coin is that Western support of such “terrorism” could attract an unpredictable and highly dangerous response.
In his “declaration of war” speech, Putin threatened “such consequences as you have never encountered in your history” to those who “try to hinder us”, clearly referencing Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal. In the face of defeat or humiliation rationality may be in short supply.
New Zealand’s leading daily newspaper today contrasted the “reckless self-expression” of anti-covid mandates protesters and the dangers confronting the people of Ukraine fighting for their survival as an independent nation in the face of a brutal four-day-old invasion by its neighbour Russia.
Critising the rhetoric by protesters against the so-called “draconian” and “authoritarian” covid-19 rules in this country, the New Zealand Herald today mocked the anti-mandates protest in the Parliament grounds in the capital Wellington entering its third week, saying “attacks on people and their freedom are real and dangerous in a country under Russian assault”.
The newspaper said public gatherings carried extra risk in a pandemic. However, while a rally to draw attention to a desperate invasion far away was “at least understandable, the anti-mandate protests [in Wellington and Auckland] seem to be more about reckless self-expression”.
In an editorial, the paper said “noticing contrasts between two different situations” could provide clarity.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has instantly put claims from a minority of people opposed to covid-19 restrictions around the world in perspective.
“These people have argued that common coronavirus health requirements during the pandemic are attacks on their personal freedom.
“They have talked and written about oppression, coercion and risks over complying with health measures meant to help people survive a frequently deadly and dangerous coronavirus.”
‘Particularly unpersuasive’
Now, said the Herald, these views “sound particularly unpersuasive”.
“As footage and reporting from Ukraine shows, oppression is having armoured vehicles from a neighbouring country roll down your roads.
“Loss of freedom is having to hide in shelters to avoid military strikes from the air or having to walk with your belongings to the border for safety.
“Risk is potentially dying or being injured when your apartment building is hit by a missile.”
What was happening in Ukraine was also what happened in less publicised conflicts around the globe, said The Herald.
“Its harrowing pictures and eyewitness accounts, its timing in the third year of the pandemic, and its unfolding impact, [have] shaken the world.
“Civilians, who if they were elsewhere might be only fighting off a covid infection, are having to handle improvised weapons in Kyiv or join 120,000 others who have already fled to neighbouring countries, according to United Nations estimates.”
Protests against Moscow’s aggression
Protests condemning Moscow’s aggression and expressing support for Ukrainians have taken place in New Zealand and in different countries, including in Russia where almost 3000 people have been arrested.
“In New Zealand, there have been protests against the war at the same time as ongoing demonstrations by people who see vaccination mandates, social distancing, vaccine passports and mask-wearing as an imposition on their rights,” said The Herald.
“There’s been a lot of rhetoric with covid-19 of ‘draconian” and ”authoritarian” rules,” said the newspaper.
“In reality, complying with some restrictions for a period of time, which have involved adjusting goals and behaviours and dealing with economic issues, has meant this country has survived a challenging situation pretty well so far compared with others.
“It has hit harder for some groups in society than others. Yet a lot of people are still finding it fairly easy to cope, with vaccination shots, boosters and masks, even with omicron case numbers soaring to dizzying heights and New Zealand’s death toll rising again.”
“Russian citizens know about authoritarianism. On Friday thousands of Russians bravely took to the streets to denounce their government’s invasion.
“Those citizens in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities knew the risk they were taking and at least 2700 have reportedly been arrested.
Mass displays of dissent not tolerated
“President Vladimir Putin’s government does not tolerate mass displays of dissent. Opponents of the regime have been poisoned and killed. The country’s main opposition leader Alexei Navalny is imprisoned.”
“These rebels on Friday had a cause: objecting to war, the violation of a country’s sovereignty and the deaths, hardship, and displacement being inflicted.”
The newspaper said that anti-war rallies and anti-mandate protests took place in New Zealand on Saturday despite omicron cases hitting 13,000 and deaths from the pandemic reaching 56 — far lower than in most other countries.
“Police said officers outside Parliament were spat on. Protesters have been seen ignoring social distancing and avoiding masks and the Ministry of Health said people attending are coming down with covid.
“Hospitals around the country were reporting visits from people who had been at the Parliament site,” said the newspaper.
There have been mass protests in many Russian cities, with people demanding an end to the war against Ukraine. From Ukraine itself, people are being urged to take up arms. And there are several reports of cyber attacks against Russian targets.
Multiple mass protests
On 24 February, journalist Alejandro Alvarez posted on Twitter videos of mass protests in cities across Russia. In his Twitter thread they included: St Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningrad, and Volgograd. Those demonstrating could be heard shouting in Russian “No to war”:
Protests are erupting in several Russian cities tonight against Putin's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, along with attempts from police to forcibly suppress them. Here's his hometown of St. Petersburg. I'll be threading videos below as I find them. pic.twitter.com/B5MyG5E4ou
Many of the brave Russian protesters were arrested and under the notorious Russian prison system may face imprisonment, beatings or worse. Though they will no doubt inspire the people of Ukraine to stand fast in their opposition to Putin’s war.
Indeed, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the people of his country to rise up and take up arms against the invaders:
We will give weapons to anyone who wants to defend the country. Be ready to support Ukraine in the squares of our cities.
We are arming people who will be taking that fight to the Russians in every way. We are a nation of 40 million people and we are not going to just stand idly by as Russia does as it wants all across its borders.
We will fight with everything we have and all the support the world can provide us.
Cyber resistance
There are also reports that hacktivists have temporarily taken down the website of Russia Today (RT):
The #Anonymous collective has taken down the website of the #Russian propaganda station RT News.
Other Russian sites reportedly brought down include the Duma (Russian parliament), the Russian Ministry of Defence, and the Kremlin. There’s also a claim that the website of the Russian energy giant Gazprom was taken down.
Moreover, on 26 February, ‘Anonymous Ukraine’ issued a warning to Putin and put out a call to other Anonymous hacktivists to step up the attacks:
Meanwhile, Amnesty International reports that Russia may be guilty of war crimes. Indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces have included hits on civilian areas as well as hospitals.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, commented:
The Russian military has shown a blatant disregard for civilian lives by using ballistic missiles and other explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas. Some of these attacks may be war crimes.
Possible outcomes
One suggestion to how Putin’s war could end has come from former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis:
The only issue today should be to stop the war and to secure the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. The only way that could happen is a Washington-Moscow agreement that Russia withdraws in exchange for a commitment of Ukrainian neutrality. Anything else is war mongering.
In the past, armed resistance groups made up of citizens around the world have supported the fight against authoritarianism. One example is the International Brigade in Spain in 1936-39.
Indeed, it’s now reported that Ukraine is setting up an “international” legion for foreign volunteers to join the Ukrainian army. Zelensky explained:
Every friend of Ukraine who wants to join Ukraine in defending the country please come over, we will give you weapons.
Though the details of how that would run are not clear. Nor how local democratically-organised militias would or would not fit in with this initiative. Also, the call out could easily attract the far-right from every corner of the globe. That is not an exaggeration, given the integration of ultra-nationalists such as the Azov Battalion into Ukraine’s military structure.
Another possible outcome is Russians deploying sheer people power to demand the end of the corrupt and autocratic Putin-led regime. But this would require protesters taking to the streets not in their thousands but in their millions – and in every city and town in Russia. In short, a real revolution – by the people, for the people.
Putin’s Achilles heel?
Russia knows too well that Ukraine has a proud history of resisting totalitarianism. The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU) consisted of a 100,000 strong army, led by anarchist insurrectionistNestor Makhno. The RIAU fought a campaign against the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the Communist revolution. In defence of the libertarian communes and “free soviets”, its long-term goal was to form a stateless, anarcho-communist society. That goal was never achieved.
As for the current conflict, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine may ultimately prove to be his greatest mistake. For in recent days, the Russian people may have tapped into hope for a real revolution.
A national network of groups supporting freedom and justice for West Papua has called on Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta to condemn Indonesian charges of treason against accused West Papuan Victor Yeimo.
They have called for the release of Yeimo, who this week rejected charges against him in a court hearing in the Papuan provincial capital of Jayapura.
Spokesperson Catherine Delahunty, a former Green Party MP, described the charges against West Papua National Committee (KNPB) international spokesperson as “trumped up” and said Yeimo had suffered a “serious health crisis”.
“In addition to taking a strong position in support of Ukraine at this terrible moment we are asking Nanaia Mahuta to stand up for human rights in our neighbourhood,” she said in a statement.
“Last week Victor Yeimo was charged with treason for participating in an antiracism peaceful protest on August 19, 2019.
“He also spoke against the abuse of West Papuan students, which included hours of being harangued and called ‘monkeys’ before being beaten and arrested.
“That is his only ‘crime’, but for that he has been detained for ten months, suffered a serious health crisis and is now in court facing trumped up charges of treason,” Delahunty said.
Yeimo charged with makar
In Jayapura, the preliminary court hearing against Yeimo was held at the Jayapura District Court in Abepura, Papua, on last Monday, reports Suara Papua.
During the hearing, the public prosecutor read out the indictment in which he charged Yeimo under the makar (treason, subversion, rebellion) articles.
The defence believes that the charges are excessive because what happened in August 2019 was a response to the racism which was “rooted in the nature of the Indonesian population against Papuans”.
Papuan campaigner Victor Yeimo in handcuffs … he is international spokesperson for the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), a peaceful civil society disobedience organisation. Image: Tribunnews
The prosecution said that during the protest actions which ended in riots on August 29, 2019, there was verbal as well as written involvement of the defendant along with his colleague the chairperson of the KNPB, Agus Kossay, in demonstrations which were facilitated by the chairpeople of the Student Executive Council (BEM) in Jayapura.
“They [the chairpersons of the West Papua National Parliament (PNWP), the Federal Republic of West Papua (NRFPB), the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) and the Free West Papua Campaign (FWPC), together with the defendant], called for, and took part in committing the act of makar with the maximum [aim] of all or part of the country’s territory [separating from Indonesia],” said prosecutor Andrianus Y. Tomana in reading out the charge sheet in the courtroom.
According to the prosecutor, Yeimo was being indicted for crimes under Article 106 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph (1) on the crime of makar, Article 110 Paragraph 1 of the KUHP on criminal conspiracy to commit a crime, and Article 110 Paragraph 2 on endeavoring to mobilise people or call on people to commit a crime.
In reply, Yeimo admitted that he had been involved as a participant in the anti-racist demonstration on August 19, 2019. However, the protest happened without problems and after it finished the protesters returned home.
‘I was arrested because of racism’
“I was arrested only because of the racism case, indeed I was involved and it’s true there were speeches.
“But it was not just me that gave speeches, the DPRP [Papua Regional House of Representatives] spoke, the governor spoke, all of the Papuan people spoke at the time. So if I’m being tried, why aren’t they being tried?” he asked.
Yeimo explained that he attended along with other Papuan people in order to oppose and to fight against the racism and this opposition was conveyed peacefully at the Papua governor’s office.
Delahunty said the Yeimo case had attracted a strong response from UN Special Rapporteurs, but in letters to the West Papua Action Network the New Zealand government only said it was “concerned” and that its officials “raise the case”.
The European Union Commission has called for Indonesia to allow their high commissioners to visit West Papua, specifically naming the Victor Yeimo case as a human rights issue.
“Our Foreign Minister needs to support the growing international calls for justice for Victor,” Delahunty said.
“She needs to condemn this outrage and call for the treason charges to be dropped and Victor Yeimo to be immediately released.”
Although geographically removed from the conflict the Pacific Nations should be concerned about the negative effect this war will have on multilateralism says Sandra Tarte, an Associate Professor at the University of the South Pacific and the Acting Head of the School for Law and Social Sciences.
“Multilateralism is on its knees, it’s in tatters,” Professor Tarte said. “Particularly for the smaller island countries, we really need multilateralism to protect ourselves.
“We don’t have power as such in the entire system. We rely on multilateralism and institutions like the UN and the rule of law.”
Professor Tarte also said that Pacific countries would feel an economic impact.
“We will see perhaps markets react, we will see confidence plummet,” she explained . “There might be supply chain issues with the oil markets.
Associate Professor Sandra Tarte … “Multilateralism is on its knees, it’s in tatters.” Image: Sandra Tarte/RNZ
“We are all connected. Through this global supply chain, we will see potential effects.”
EU targets Russian economy The European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to impose new economic sanctions on Russia, joining the United States and Britain in admonishing President Vladimir Putin and his allies for invading Ukraine.
Leaders of the 27-nation bloc lambasted Putin at an emergency summit in Brussels, describing him as “a deluded autocrat creating misery for millions”.
The EU will freeze Russian assets in the bloc and halt its banks’ access to European financial markets.
These moves are part of what EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described as “the harshest package of sanctions we have ever implemented”.
The EU’s Ambassador to the Pacific, Sujiro Seam, echoed the sentiments of world leaders and “condemned the unprovoked and unjustified military actions” of Russia.
This is a gross violation of international law, Seam said, and he stated that the EU Office in Suva would reach out to its partners in the region to condemn Russia’s actions.
Seam hoped that Fiji, which had championed multilateralism in the United Nations, would support sanctions against Russia.
European Union Ambassador for the Pacific Sujiro Seam … condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified military actions” by Russia. Image: Sujiro Seam/RNZ
FSM severs diplomatic relations with Russia The Federated of the Micronesia has severed diplomatic relations with Russia following the brutal invasion of Ukraine.
FSM President, David Panuelo Photo: Office of the President of the FSM
In a statement, the FSM government said it condemned the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine and the unjustified and brutal assault on its people and territory.
President David Panuelo said the FSM condemned any actions which threatened global peace and stability and the rules-based international order.
He said the FSM would only entertain renewing diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation when the latter demonstrated actionable commitments to peace, friendship, cooperation, and love in common humanity.
Fiji condemns Russia’s actions Fiji has joined the international community in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In a Friday social media post, Fiji’s Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said that Fijians were praying for the people of Ukraine.
He called for an end to all the “hostilities and any violations of the international rule of law”.
Sayed-Khaiyum urged the warring parties to return to the diplomatic table, echoing the call for peace from UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Guterres addressed the UN General Assembly calling for negotiations, to save the people of Ukraine from the scourge of war.
Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Satyendra Prasad, echoed his government’s support of the UN’s call for a de-escalation of conflict.
On his official Twitter account, Prasad stated that Fiji supported the “UN’s efforts to have a swift return to the path of dialogue between the two warring nations”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Less than 48 hours into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and so much remains unclear. Will Russia occupy? Will NATO respond militarily? What are the risks of nuclear escalation? But one thing should be very apparent. Looking to either NATO or Russia in search of a good guy in all of this is deeply naïve.
On the one side we have the Russian regime. Viciously illiberal and oligarchic, it’s a model of authoritarian capitalism. Determined to reclaim its lost imperial status, it’s as willing to bomb Ukrainian cities as it is to batter its own courageous anti-war protestors off the streets of Moscow.
In NATO, we have an organisation which today functions as a beard for US imperial ambitions. It comes with a bleak history of supporting fascists in Europe and of the kind of brinkmanship which has brought us to where we are today. It’s also played a direct part in the disastrous wars in – to name just two recent examples – Libya and Afghanistan.
Putin’s regime is no more anti-fascist than NATO is the FBPE movement with guns. They both just like to claim otherwise because it suits them.
How about… no.
There is little to admire or endorse in either party, even if both make claims which contain an atom of the truth. Has NATO aggressively pushed into the buffer zone Russia wanted after the end of the USSR? Have NATO countries helped arm and train actual, real-life fascists in Ukraine? Absolutely. Is the Russian regime grotesquely corrupt? Does it oppress LGBTQI+ people? Has it just invaded a sovereign nation? Yes, yes, and yes.
Then why the clamour to side with one over the other? Of course, part of it is effective propaganda. NATO, for example, is held up by many as a liberal institution which sustains peace. This is a line echoed by mainstream British politicians of all stripes. It’s a position which even notionally left-wing MPs invoke uncritically. Even the last Corbyn manifesto promised to fund NATO. I myself, however, have a NATO medal from the war in Afghanistan which tells a different story. A story of occupation, injustice and, ultimately, hubristic failure.
For some on the Russia-supporting side there is a nostalgia for an ‘anti-fascist’ and ‘anti-imperialist’ Russia which, if it ever did exist in this pure, unblemished form, it certainly does not today. The point being this nostalgia makes Putin’s claims of his invasion being about clearing out Nazis from Ukraine seem appealing and genuine. At least for some people. The Russia of 2022 is many things, but it’s certainly not the Russia which inhabits the mind of today’s Stalinists – even if that is your bag. From a purely humanist viewpoint, it definitely isn’t mine.
Software update
We need to move past the Cold and World War framings which are being applied to Ukraine. New Hitler’s, New Stalin’s, ‘appeasement’, and so on – this is a crass brand of politics, and it only benefits the powerful. We need to look at the world as it is, and support the people who are suffering in this war.
While Ukraine was being invaded, people across the political spectrum here in the UK were churning out any number of hot takes on Twitter. And that’s what Twitter is good for – pretending you have all the answers – something which should absolutely be avoided. The real questions we should be asking are where can practical forms of solidarity be given? And where is the resistance from below coming from?
We can’t make sense of the world running on Windows 1945, or Windows 1954. It’s long past time for some of us to update our software on Russia/NATO antagonism. And that doesn’t involve backing one over the other.
If not them, who?
While their crowdfunders and posts haven’t gained the same mass traction as some others, there are Ukrainians and Russians who are resisting both fascism and Russian militarism. The website CrimethInc has published the positions of some of these groups. Its article includes both Russian and Ukrainian perspectives.
Russian anarchists released a statement on the invasion which CrimethInc published:
Palaces, yachts, and prison sentences and torture for dissenting Russians are not enough for Putin’s imperial gang, they should be given war and the seizure of new territories. And so, “defenders of the fatherland” invade Ukraine, bombing residential areas. Huge sums are being invested in murder weapons while the people are impoverished more and more.
The Anarchist Black Cross Dresden group have also established a fundraiser to help those caught up between these two forces. It said:
You can help people to bring their relatives and friends in safety, support people who need to leave the country and establish a place to live, organize resistance to protect their neighborhoods, get needed goods and medical supply to survive. There are also a lot of people from other countries in the region like Belarus and Russia who seek in the last years refugee in Ukraine. With a Russian invasion they are threatened in Ukraine and are not safe anymore.
Neither NATO nor Putin
Partly, what we have seen in the last days are two sets of nostalgists relitigating old conflicts while Ukraine burns. This does nothing to help a population caught between two rapacious powers. There is a suggestion at times that because Ukraine – like Russia and, indeed, Britain – has fascists in it, the whole population is fascist and thus undeserving of solidarity. On the other side, there is considerable apologia for the bosses club that is NATO, and myth-peddling about its commitment to some liberal, ‘rules-based order.’
These are positions which cannot stand. They are no use to thinking people, because they are factually wrong and fundamentally immoral. On the left, we are meant to be engaged in the project of reason. We are meant to back people, not power. And the time to do so is now.
Keir Starmer has shut down 11 MPs who signed a Stop the War Coalition (STWC) statement on Ukraine. It’s divided opinion and caused controversy. Now, he’s also taken action against Young Labour, too. And his timing with all of this couldn’t have been worse.
The STWC statement
PA reported that STWC issued the statement earlier in February on Ukraine. The group accused the UK government of “aggressive posturing”. It also said that NATO “should call a halt to its eastward expansion”. The Labour MPs who signed the statement were:
Diane Abbott.
John McDonnell.
Richard Burgon.
Ian Lavery.
Beth Winter.
Zarah Sultana.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Apsana Begum.
Mick Whitley.
Tahir Ali.
Ian Mearns.
As PA reported, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also signed the letter, as did MP Claudia Webbe, both of whom now sit as independents.
NATO: not a “defensive alliance”
You can read STWC’s full statement here. The part of it that caused controversy was that STWC:
believes NATO should call a halt to its eastward expansion and commit to a new security deal for Europe which meets the needs of all states and peoples.
It continues:
We refute the idea that NATO is a defensive alliance, and believe its record in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia and Libya over the last generation, not to mention the US-British attack on Iraq, clearly proves otherwise.
When the media picked up the story on Thursday 24 February, Labour quickly acted. The shadow chief whip wrote to the MPs, telling them the party would remove the whip from them if they did not retract their support for the letter.
So, all the Labour MPs removed their names from the STWC statement.
Starmer and Young Labour
Then on Friday 25 February, the Mirrorreported that Starmer:
has cut funding for Young Labour and scrapped its annual conference after the youth wing accused the leader of “backing Nato aggression” over the Ukraine crisis.
The dramatic clampdown is the latest clash between the leader and left-wing activists and comes after Young Labour’s Twitter account was restricted “until further notice” by party chiefs
It appears that the STWC and Young Labour situation are linked. The Mirrorsaid that after the party threatened the 11 MPs who signed the STWC statement:
Young Labour later lashed out at… Keir and declared its support for Stop The War “and other pro-peace activists”.
Divided opinion
People have had divided opinions on this. Leader of the Northern Independence Party Philip Proudfoot tweeted:
As Russia takes control of Chernobyl, Keir Starmer has used the greatest threat to peace in Europe for a generation to wage his pathetic war against tiny anti-war left in his party.
Absolute clown of a man. He is not fit to lead the Labour movement.
Momentum tweeted about the Young Labour situation:
This is a desperate, anti-democratic move by Starmer that will further weaken the Party and alienate a generation of voters Labour needs to win an election. https://t.co/Qa8RW6oIpy
As someone who once had pieces published on Stop the War’s website, who defended the coalition against media attacks, who participated in marches against the Iraq & Afghan wars & Israel’s wars in Gaza, today’s statement on Putin’s war is sickeningly mealy-mouthed & disingenuous.
11 MPs who signed the Stop The War Coalition letter were threatened wth having whip withdrawn if they didn't cancel their signatures. They all capitulated within an hour.
In reality, this story is reflective of the current mess within the Labour Party. It seems to be another clear attempt by Starmer to continue with his purge of left-wingers. But there are several other problems with what’s gone on.
His timing, in the middle of a global crisis, was dire. He managed to get headlines and column inches dedicated to internal divisions in Labour while the situation in Ukraine worsened. His clampdown also reeks of an anti-democratic approach to internal divisions. This is despite Starmer saying as recently as September 2021 that the party was a “broad church”. There are also questions to be asked over why these 11 MPs chose to back down. Was it because they agree with Starmer’s position? Did they not want to lose the whip? Or did they think it was better not to make the story about Labour at this time? Currently, this isn’t clear.
Undemocratic
Whatever the logic behind all these decisions, several things are clear. Starmer’s clampdown on both left-wing MPs and Young Labour shows a cementing of the party’s now right-wing position. Domestically, that isn’t good for democracy nor the public.
But moreover, the UK government is making decisions that will affect people around the world for years to come. Labour’s role should be as an opposition. For a functioning domestic democracy, it needs to be questioning what the Conservative leadership is doing. But that’s not what’s currently happening. Stifling internal party debate compounds this, and it’s bad for all of us.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand joins its international partners in condemnation of Russia’s attack on Ukraine and has immediately taken a range of measures against the Russian government.
Giving a statement today about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ardern said Russia began a “military offensive and an illegal invasion” yesterday.
Putin said his goal was the “demilitarisation and denazification” of Ukraine, but US President Joe Biden has asserted the evidence clearly showed Russia was the aggressor and it had no evidence for its justifications.
Ardern said: “The UK’s Ministry of Defence communicated this morning that more than 80 strikes have been carried out against Ukrainian targets and that Russian ground forces are advancing across the border on at least three axis from north and northeast, and south from Crimea.
“There are reports of attacks in a range of locations around Ukraine, including heavy shelling in eastern Ukraine and fighting in some areas, including around airports and other targets of strategic importance.
‘Unthinkable’ loss of lives
“By choosing to pursue this entirely avoidable path, an unthinkable number of innocent lives could be lost because of Russia’s decision,” she said.
New Zealand called on Russia to do what was right and immediately cease military operations, and permanently withdraw to avoid a “catastrophic and pointless loss of innocent life”, she said.
The invasion posed a significant threat to peace and security in the region and would trigger a humanitarian and refugee crisis, she said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s media briefing today. Video: RNZ
Russia had demonstrated a disregard for diplomacy and efforts to avoid conflict in the lead-up to the attack, she said, and “must now face the consequences of their decision to invade”.
As a permanent UN Security Council member, Russia has “displayed a flagrant disregard for international law and abdicated their responsibility to uphold global peace and security” and now must face the consequences, Ardern said.
New Zealand has immediately imposed measures in response which include targeted travel bans against Russian officials and other individuals associated with the invasion. They will be banned from obtaining visas to enter or transit New Zealand.
Secondly, this country is prohibiting the export of goods to Russian military and security forces.
Blanket ban a ‘significant step’
“While exports from New Zealand under this category are limited, a blanket ban is a significant step as it removes the ability for exporters to apply for a permit and sends a clear signal of support to Ukraine,” she said.
Finally, New Zealand has suspended bilateral ministry consultations until further notice.
Ardern says there will be a significant cost imposed on Russia for its actions. New Zealand will also consider humanitarian response options, she said.
“Finally our thoughts today are with the people in Ukraine affected by this conflict. Decades of peace and security in the region have been undermined.
“The institutions built to avoid conflict have been threatened and we stand resolute in our support for those who now bear the brunt of Russia’s decisions.”
She again called for Russia to cease military actions and return to diplomatic negotiations to resolve the conflict.
During questions from journalists, Ardern said New Zealand was not constrained by being unable to launch autonomous sanctions.
Additional measures
“There are additional measures that we can take. Obviously already you’ll see those targeted travel bans, we do have the ability to extend those as required and as those involved with this activity grows,” she said.
“We also have the ability to continue to restrict the amount of diplomatic engagement that we have … and obviously the autonomous sanction regimes that have been proposed in the past don’t for instance cover situations of human rights violations.”
Ardern admitted there were some limitations on economic sanctions New Zealand could impose, but the government continued to get advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the tools that could be used and “we want them all to be on the table”.
The measures New Zealand has imposed are limited but send a very clear message.
“What this does say is that there’s no ability to apply or seek to export … this is a blanket ban,” she says.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, New Zealand’s government is implementing a range of measures, including a travel ban on Russian officials and limiting diplomatic engagements.
Earlier today, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta condemned Russia’s actions and said she would provide another update later.
An adviser to Ukraine’s president said about 40 people had been killed so far amid Russia’s invasion with multiple air, land and sea attacks, according to Al Jazeera.
A Russian missile hits an unnamed city in Ukraine today. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot APR
Oleksii Arestovich, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s aide, also said that several dozen people had been wounded. He did not specify whether the casualties included civilians.
In a statement after 10.30pm, Mahuta and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern released a joint statement once again condemning Russia and calling on the country to cease its military operations in Ukraine.
“This is an unprovoked and unnecessary attack by Russia,” Ardern said. “By choosing to pursue this entirely avoidable path, an unthinkable number of innocent lives could be lost because of Russia’s decision.
“We call on Russia to do what is right and immediately cease military operations in Ukraine, and permanently withdraw to avoid a catastrophic and pointless loss of innocent life.”
International efforts disregarded
Mahuta said Russia had disregarded consistent international efforts for a diplomatic de-escalation of the Ukraine crisis and “they must now face the consequences of their decision to invade”.
New Zealand will introduce targeted a travel ban against Russian government officials and other individuals associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, prohibit the export of goods to Russian military and security forces, and suspend bilateral foreign ministry engagement until further notice.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta … Russia “must now face the consequences of their decision to invade.” Image: Samuel Rillstone/RNZ
The travel ban will stop intended individuals from obtaining visas to enter or transit New Zealand.
The government said while exports from New Zealand under the now-prohibited category were extremely limited, a blanket ban removed the ability for exporters to apply for a permit, and sent a clear signal of support to Ukraine.
“Officials have been engaging with affected businesses about the possible economic and trade impacts a military conflict could have on them. Russia is our 27th largest export market, with dairy accounting for about of half of those exports,” Mahuta said.
“In applying these measures, New Zealand joins other members of the international community, in responding to this breach of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
The new sanctions are in addition to existing bans put in place following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Mahuta said she had also asked officials to give advice on how New Zealand could contribute to possible humanitarian response options, given “serious concerns” about the military conflict.
She said her “thoughts today are with the people in Ukraine impacted by this conflict”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A column of Russian armoured vehicles enters Ukraine territory today. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot APR
Authorities in Myanmar’s Sagaing and Tanintharyi regions have arrested dozens of people for allegedly joining a nationwide strike to protest the junta, in what observers say is part of a widening campaign of retribution against opponents of military rule.
Protesters gathered in cities across Myanmar on Tuesday as part of the “Six Twos Revolution” strike in a show of resistance despite the junta’s brutal crackdown on critics. Civilians joined monks in the streets displaying banners with the numbers to signify the continuation of mass strikes and demonstrations a year after a protest on Feb. 22, 2021, in which millions of people participated, three weeks after the military overthrew the country’s elected government.
During the strike, authorities in Sagaing and Tanintharyi arrested more than 60 people they say took part in the action, residents of the two regions told RFA’s Myanmar Service.
A spokesman for the Dawei District Strike Committee said police from Tanintharyi’s Launglone township donned riot gear to raid a shop in Thabyah village, arresting 34 youths celebrating a birthday before releasing 29 of them later Tuesday evening.
“Yesterday, at about 1:30 p.m., a friend from our group went to a birthday party at a restaurant in Thabyah village. Police raided the party and arrested him and others. All of them were around 18 years old,” the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They were not protesters or gathering for a protest. This shows how much the junta is worried about the people’s resistance.”
The spokesman said the five youths who remain in custody had been wearing black makeup on their faces and black T-shirts, similar to what participants in the Six Twos strike had worn Tuesday.
The 29 released were summoned to the Launglone police station on Wednesday morning and told to sign a pledge that they would refrain from “engaging in politics,” he said.
‘Torture’ in detention
In Sagaing’s Monywa township, where the military has faced strong resistance from anti-junta armed groups, authorities arrested 27 people on Tuesday for allegedly aiding members of the local prodemocracy People’s Defense Force (PDF) militia.
A resident of Monywa, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA that at least some of the 27 were “severely tortured” while in detention.
“According to one person who was released, most of the men were beaten, although the women were spared,” the resident said. “Some of the tortured could even face death.”
Photographs posted on social media, purportedly of the arrests in Monywa, showed a young man with a leg injury and severe facial injuries, although RFA could not independently verify their authenticity.
People Media — a news outlet said to have ties to military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) — reported on Tuesday that “eight PDF members, 10 who provided financial support to the PDF, and nine PDF informants” from Monywa had been arrested.
Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun about the arrests went unanswered Wednesday.
Zeyar Lwin, a member of the University Students’ Union Alumni Force, told RFA that the impact of protests such as the Six Twos strike is significant and urged members of the public to remain vigilant while they are underway.
“The military arrests anyone they want whether they take part in protests or not,” he said. “Even people who remain in their own homes are targeted for arrest. These kinds of things will continue to happen for as long as we remain under a military dictatorship.”
Former railway department employees being evicted from state housing in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, in an undated photo. Citizen journalist
Railway employee evictions
News of the arrests on Tuesday came as dozens of former railway department employees face eviction from state housing in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina for taking part in the nationwide anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). They told RFA they are struggling to make ends meet after more than year of no pay.
The 80 former employees joined the CDM on Feb. 8, 2021, and were quickly removed from their positions, but had been allowed to remain with their families in state housing for nearly a year before being ordered to vacate the premises in mid-January this year.
A member of the group told RFA on Wednesday that many of the families left the state housing within a week, but others have been unable to secure a place to stay because they no longer earn regular wages.
“All staff who took part in the CDM find life difficult except for a few … and most are now poor,” the former employee said.
“When there is no regular income, we must take any job we can to feed our families. … At least we didn’t have to worry about accommodation while we tried to earn some money. But now that we have been evicted, we must worry about our housing as well.”
The former employee said that some of the evicted families are now renting houses in the city, while others had to return to their hometowns because they could not afford the cost of living. Among the evicted employees were senior staffers with health problems and at least two mothers with young children, he said.
Financial pressure
Another former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the workers had received some financial support from the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) when the CDM was first launched, but dare not take any more because of the growing number of arrests.
Some 20 of the 80 former employees are now preparing to withdraw from the CDM because of the financial pressure, the source said.
“It is difficult to move out all of a sudden because they have no money and no place to live,” they said.
“It was very disturbing to see these [eviction] notices and we were constantly on edge. Sometimes we dared not sleep at home and stayed outside when we heard there might be arrests. We’d come back only when things calmed down.”
Sources close to the NUG said that the relevant shadow ministry is compiling a list of the evicted former railways department staffers and is undertaking measures to assist them with donations.
They counted more than 13,000 CDM staff members in Kachin state, based on figures dating from October 2021, and said former health workers and railways employees make up the majority.
The junta has cracked down on its opponents through attacks on peaceful protesters, arrests, and beatings and killings. The military regime has also attacked opposition strongholds with helicopter gunships, fighter jets, and troops that burn villages they accuse of supporting anti-junta militias.
As of Wednesday, more than 1,570 people had been killed since the coup and almost 12,300 arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights organization based in Mae Sot, Thailand.
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
North Korea has punished more than 10 military officials after they were caught in possession of “impure” video files–South Korean TV shows, Japanese porn and Hollywood films–as a crackdown on illegal foreign media shifted to focus on high-ranking men in uniform, military sources told RFA.
Though citizens of North Korea are forbidden to watch or listen to media from outside the country, foreign TV shows, music, and movies are smuggled in on easily concealable SD cards and USB flash drives. They are then distributed widely among the populace through the black market.
Nervous about all this exposure to outside information, Pyongyang in December 2020 passed the draconian Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture Law, which carries a maximum penalty of death for watching, keeping, or distributing media from capitalist countries, particularly from South Korea and the U.S.
To enforce the law, it tasked a strike force called Surveillance Bureau Group 109 with seeking out and arresting violators.
Many civilians caught by Group 109 over the past year have been sentenced to hard labor, life in prison, or even death, but now the strike force is turning its eyes on high-ranking military officials.
“Since the beginning of January, the General Political Bureau of the People’s Army started an intensive inspection on the use and possession of ‘impure’ video media,” a military source in the capital Pyongyang told RFA’s Korean Service Feb. 14.
“Some of the military officers were found to be in possession of impure videos after an inspection conducted by the 109 Joint Inspection Team, made up of members of the General Staff Department, the Ministry of Defense and the State Security Department, under the direction of the General Political Bureau,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.
The inspection targeted senior officers who own computers or have access to them as part of their duties, and those who have mobile phones, the source said.
“A member of the 109 Joint Inspection Team, to who I am close, said that about 10 officers who stored impure recordings and watched them from time to time have been punished, so the military command is getting nervous,” the source said.
“An official of a trading company directly under the Ministry of Defense was caught with three South Korean movies, 10 Japanese pornographic movies, and seven South Korean dramas, including ‘Crash Landing on You,’ and ‘Descendants of the Sun,’ and five American movies… he was punished after the inspection,” he said.
The two South Korean TV shows named by the source are of particular concern to North Korean authorities due to their subject matter. “Crash Landing on You” is about a South Korean woman who mistakenly crosses the border into North Korea and falls in love with a North Korean soldier, while the main protagonist of “Descendants of the Sun” is a South Korean Special Forces soldier.
The trade official was in a high position in the Ministry of Defense, and this was not the first time he had been caught with foreign media.
“Three years ago, they caught him with South Korean dramas, Japanese porn, and other foreign movies, but they generously forgave him. He was given clemency due to his outstanding performance in foreign trade for the ministry, but this time he will be severely punished in a military trial, with the new Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture law in effect,” the source said.
“The inspection also caught a military officer who was the adjutant to the general of the Ministry of Defense. He had three South Korean adult magazines and 20 South Korean superstitious materials on his laptop,” the source said.
The officer was put under the investigation by the Military Security Command of the Korean People’s Army, according to the source.
“His superior, a general, was even demoted and dismissed from his position. He is now in a lower-level combat unit.”
The crackdown’s turned its attention to senior military personnel after a whistleblower told the General Political Bureau that that there were banned videos among the entirety of the military command structure, a military source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA.
“During the inspection, a military officer working in the communication unit directly under the Command Information Bureau of the General Staff Department was caught with an SD card containing one South Korean movie, 27 South Korean dramas and 40 South Korean songs,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
“After they caught him, they began a large-scale inspection of the cellphones on senior unit officers under the Ministry of Defense and General Staff Department,” said the second source.
The military authorities were embarrassed and nervous after the inspection revealed many officers with impure videos at the higher-level units in Pyongyang, the second source said.
“In an internal directive, the General Political Bureau told all the political departments of each unit to take responsibility and cooperate with the 109 Joint Command,” the second source said.
“All units are nervous as they announce that the 109 Joint Command will begin random inspections… of all the units where someone was caught in the crackdown this time.”
An August 2019 Washington Post report documented how certain South Korean media are considered dangerous by North Korean authorities because they encourage people to escape. K-pop and American pop music has had an instrumental role in undermining North Korean propaganda, it said.
It also cited a survey of 200 North Korean escapees living in South Korea, in which 90 percent said they consumed foreign media while living in the North, with 75 percent saying they knew of someone who was punished for it.
More than 70 percent said they believed that accessing foreign media became more dangerous since Kim Jong Un took power in 2011, said the survey by South Korea’s Unification Media Group.
Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Myung Chul Lee.
Poland must investigate all allegations of harassment of human rights defenders, including media workers and interpreters, at the border with Belarus, and grant access to journalists and humanitarian workers to the border area ensuring that they can work freely and safely, UN human rights experts* said on 16 February 2022.
“I am receiving several reports of harassments from human rights defenders who assist migrants and document human rights violations against them at the Polish-Belarusian border, and I am deeply concerned at this practice,” said Mary Lawlor, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
Jakub Sypiański, a volunteer interpreter assisting migrants and asylum-seekers, was reportedly stopped by armed soldiers when driving home in November 2021. The soldiers, who were in an unmarked vehicle, did not identify themselves nor explain their actions. They forced open the car door, took the keys out of the ignition and tried pulling him out by his legs.
“Most of the migrants at the border do not speak Polish,” said Mary Lawlor. “Interpreters play a vital role in ensuring their human rights are protected both at the border and in immigration detention centres.”
At around the same time, armed soldiers reportedly harassed journalists covering the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers. Soldiers who did not identify themselves stopped, searched and handcuffed photojournalists Maciej Moskwa and Maciej Nabrdalik outside a military camp. The soldiers searched their equipment, scrutinising their photos, and documented their phone messages and incoming calls.
Journalists Olivia Kortas and Christoph Kürbel, along with two local Polish residents, were allegedly harassed by soldiers while filming a documentary about the human rights situation of migrants at the border.
“Reports that these journalists are being persecuted for documenting such human rights violations are appalling,” said Irene Khan, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression. “Their work is crucial for everyone’s access to information about the situation unfolding at the border. If they are not allowed to do their job, there are very serious consequences for the human rights of migrants”.
“Interpreters and journalists, along with medics, lawyers and others who peacefully work for the protection of human rights or who provide humanitarian aid, are human rights defenders, according to the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Poland should bear this in mind and ensure that they are able to carry out their legitimate work in a safe and enabling environment and with full access to the border area,” said Lawlor.
The experts are in contact with the Polish authorities on the matter.
The experts’ call was endorsed by: Mr. Felipe González Morales, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, and Ms. Elina Steinerte (Chair-Rapporteur), Ms. Miriam Estrada-Castillo (Vice-Chair), Ms. Leigh Toomey, Mr. Mumba Malila, and Ms. Priya Gopalan, Working Group on arbitrary detention.
Google images of a country or region can offer a wealth of information about the people and cultures that live there. Some images accurately portray reality while others present camouflage, attempting to deceive or twist our perception.
From a marketing standpoint, it’s all about selling the national identity, brands and products.
When you type “West Papua” or “West Papua genocide” into Google Image search, you are immediately confronted with some of the grossest human rights violations on Earth.
Images of other Melanesian island countries, conversely, display pristine, exotic beauty, presenting them as an ideal vocational playground for first-world self-exhausted tourists.
West Papua is a region where its public image is produced and controlled by those who want West Papua to mould to and represent their modern, capitalist ideals.
On the one hand, we have images of West Papua representing a hidden heaven on earth, with majestic glaciers, mountains, lush lowlands, mangrove swamps along the coastline, and coral reefs with a rich biodiversity.
On the other hand, we see images of Indonesian soldiers torturing, killing, bombing, and destroying ancestral homelands; we see images of West Papuan freedom fighters in their jungles with modern machine guns, performing their cultural rituals while declaring war on the Indonesian military.
Freeport’s gigantic hole – a graveyard for Papuans At the centre of this tragic display of contradiction is the image of a giant gaping hole right in the middle of West Papua’s magnificent ancient glacier — a sacred home of local indigenous people.
The Grasberg mine in West Papua is the largest goldmine in the world and Indonesia’s biggest taxpayer. Image: Free West Papua.org
Local elders say that this hole has become “a graveyard for Papuans”.
This hole was created by the discovery of a strange-looking, greenish-black rock on Gunung Jayawijaya (Mount Carstensz) by Dutch geologist Jean Jacques Dozy in 1936.
It took some 20 years before the discovery was brought to the attention of American geologist Forbes Wilson in 1959, who was the vice-president of Freeport Minerals Company at the time.
From 1960 to 1969, the Papuan people lived through a century of great historical significance. It began with a sense of hope and optimism as the Dutch prepared Papuans for independence in 1961.
This independence dream was taken to New York in 1962, only to be abandoned at the mercy of the United Nations, and then to Indonesia in 1963.
The controversial UN sponsored “Act of Free Choice” in 1969, which Papuans called “Act of No Choice”, ultimately sealed the fate of Papuans’ independence dream within Indonesia. It may seem that the world and UN have forgotten Papua’s dream, but Papuans have never lost sight of it and continue to die for or because of it.
The US-based Freeport-McMoRan was given the green light to begin digging this hole behind the scenes during that decade, during which Papua’s fate was controlled by world leaders in their cruel puppet show. For the newly created state of Indonesia, this was an economic blessing, but for Papuans it was a death sentence.
Over the past 60 years, this hole has taken the lives of many Papuan mothers, fathers, and children, creating an endless world of grief and mourning.
Papuans not happy, says Governor Enembe
It was these decade-old wounds and grievances that caused Governor Lukas Enembe, the current governor of Papua’s province, to erupt on February 7, 2022.
“Papuans are not happy. Papuans are not happy in all of Papua. Papuans are the most unhappy people on earth. You take note of that,” he said in a recent video posted by senior journalist Andreas Harsono on his Twitter account.
Gubernur Lukas Enembe: Kehidupan orang Papua tidak bahagia. Orang Papua tidak happy di seluruh Papua. Intan Jaya menangis, Puncak menangis, Nduga menangis, Pegunungan Bintang menangis dan Maybrat menangis. Orang tidak hidup aman di negeri kita sendiri https://t.co/VOsuJNOkpepic.twitter.com/HvTVYo5yXx
Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe in the middle: Twitter image
The governor also said that some areas such as Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Star Mountains “cry” with the harsh conditions experienced by the Papuan people.
“Papuans do not live in happiness. Intan Jaya is crying, Puncak is crying, Nduga is crying, The Stars Mountains are crying, and Maybrat is crying. People are crying. People [Papuans] do not live safely in our own country. We were not born for that,” he said.
“We want to live happily. We want to live and enjoy happiness. Papuans have to live happily, that’s the main thing,” Governor Enembe said in a statement he made in a speech circulated on a video on Tuesday, February 8, 2022.
These areas, where the governor is referring to, are among the most militarised in West Papua.
Victor Yeimo, a prominent Papuan, said that over the past three years, Jakarta had sent 21,369 troops to West Papua, some of them referred to as “Satan Troops”, as reported by Arnold Belau on Asia-Pacific Report.
Sadly, this overwhelming military presence in West Papua is not a new phenomenon. Indonesia has been sending military troops equipped with western-made and supplied war machines since 1963.
The West Papua National Liberation Army of Free Papua Movement (OPM-TPNPB) is actively engaged in an ongoing war with Indonesian forces, which is being ignored by the international media.
The grace of Papuan mothers
In spite of the tragedies, grievances and the haunting images that Google displays, one story is rarely shown — The story of Papuan mothers. They are known for their resilience, courage, and indomitable will to live and work, despite the odds being stacked against them.
They are hard-working, compassionate, and strong — the backbone of Papuan society. They sacrifice everything to send their children to school and welcome foreigners with open arms.
There was a recent Tiktok video clip circulating in West Papua and Indonesia which received thousands of views and comments. The video footage featured a young Indonesian migrant weeping while singing in Papuan, the language of the Lani people of the highlands. Her name is Julitha Mathelda Wacano. She works in Tolikara, one of the newly created regions in the highlands of West Papua.
The young Indonesian woman singing in the local Papuan language of the Lani people. Video: Tiktok
The following lines are translations of what she wrote on the video below:
I cannot hold this song anymore.
I am a migrant, my hair is straight,
my skin is white, but in Tolikara,
after I return home from office,
food is already prepared on the table.
Who cooks this?” she asks. Then she replied “Mama gunung dorang…” meaning the “mothers from the mountains”.
Julitha Mathelda Wacano
The emotional video depicts the experience of a young Indonesian migrant girl being cared for by people deemed “enemies” by the state in some of the most demonised and militarised areas in Indonesia, due to constant negative representation in media coverage.
She opened a window to the world of Papuan mothers, for others to see the kindness of Papuans in the face of a society segregated by racism and caste.
The video of Julitha singing in the local Lani language has received more than 1500 comments, many of which share their own experiences of the goodness of the Papuan people. Many praise the love and kindness of Papuans, while others praised God and Allah for her story.
Papuan mothers still face so many challenges
Despite their unwavering love for others, Papuan mothers struggle to compete with the might of migrant economic dominance and their modern entrepreneurial skills.
In the eyes of Indonesians, Papuans do not produce anything of value to be traded or sold on either the national, regional, or global market.
Most Papuans produce fresh food, which has its own value and merit for those seeking a healthy lifestyle.
Papuan mothers spend their days sitting in the rain, in the dirt, alongside busy dusty roads. Meanwhile, migrants sell their imported products and gadgets in high-rise buildings, malls, kiosks, and shops, with comfort and convenience.
At sunset and sometimes into the night, if the mothers don’t sell their produce, they have no place to store it — no cool room or freezer– so they either give it away or take it home to be eaten. They have to start it all over again the next morning.
Many of these mothers are torn between taking care of their children, attending constant funeral services for family members, and finding money to send their children to school to participate in the education system that fails them and demonises their identity at every turn.
All roads lead to Rome – West Papua economics
A total of Rp 126.99 trillion (more than US$20 billion) has been distributed to the provinces of Papua and West Papua since Jakarta passed the so-called Special Autonomy Law in 2021. The details of how this figure was distributed throughout the period 2002-2020 are summarized here by Muhammad Idris and Muhammad Idris on compass.com.
Fiscal figure of this type, or any reports provided by those who seek to promote the state’s interests, can be difficult to verify independently, owing to the nature of the mechanism in place by Jakarta to carry out its settler colonial activities on Papuan Indigenous lands. Nevertheless, this type of report gives us some rough insight into what goes on in the region.
Despite such an amount, the poverty rate in these two provinces is nearly three times higher than the national average. Infant, child, and maternal mortality rates are among the highest, and health services and literacy rates are among the lowest in Indonesia.
There is an “all roads lead to Rome” economic system operating in West Papua, to which no matter how much money Jakarta gives to Papuans, it will all end up back in Jakarta, with migrants, security forces, foreign companies, misfits and opportunists.
Unfortunately, Papuan mothers’ hard-earned money ends up in the same hands that control and maintain this brutal settler colonial system.
A mama-mama Papua (market for Papuan mothers) in Jayapura. Image: bumipapua.com
As part of the efforts to empower Papuan mothers, President Jokowi in 2018 toured the five-story building which he ordered to be constructed two years earlier in Jayapura, the capital city.
As it was dedicated to Papuan mothers, it was named “Pasar mama-mama Papua” (Market for Papuan mothers).
The building can accommodate up to 300 traders. Each floor has been allocated for “mama mama Papua” to sell their produce and to display cultural artifacts. The building also houses a school for Papuan children to learn.
Papuan mothers have unimaginable willpower and determination to compete with Indonesian settlers, who have almost total control of the economic system in West Papua.
Their lives and work are shaped by the realities of constant violence and inequality in one of the most heavily militarised regions in the world.
No matter what the odds are, Papuan mothers overcome them with grace and compassion.
This sacred power broke the heart of that young Indonesian woman living in the highlands of the Lani people.
Papuan mothers and their international students
Unfortunately, the majority of Papuan international students whose scholarship funds were threatened to be cut by President Jokowi’s administration are the sons or daughters of these mama-mama Papua.
The students who are now spread across different continents and countries, from North America, Russia, Asia, Europe and Oceania, have united under the name International Alliance of Papuan Student Associations Overseas (IAPSAO) and strongly condemn any slight alteration in the scholarship package that would have a crippling effect on their education.
Some of the West Papuan students in Aotearoa New Zealand pictured with Papua provincial Governor Lukas Enembe (front centre) during his visit in 2019. Image: APR
These students overcome so many obstacles, from connecting to the right people within the brutal system, to leaving home, learning new languages, and adjusting to a new cultural system.
The constant loss of their family members back home takes a heavy toll on their studies.
Ali Mirin is one such student who is pursuing a master’s degree in International Relations at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
Mirin came from the Kimyal tribe of Yahukimo region of West Papua. He came to Australia on a student visa in 2019 to study at Monash University in Melbourne but struggled to meet the English requirements.
The university placed him in an English language course before enrolling him in a master’s programme. In the end, he was trapped between international student agencies such as International Development Programme (IDP), university and immigration departments since his two-year required study visa had almost run out, though he had yet to complete his master’s degree.
It was not clear to them why he was not in a master’s programme, but he was struggling to make sense of all the information he was receiving from these various parties.
The combination of covid-19 lockdown, passing of family members in West Papua, frustration with adjusting into a new culture, along with inconsistency in scholarship funds nearly cost everything that his mother worked for to help him achieve this level of education.
Additionally, he had to find a part-time job in Melbourne just to survive and pay rent, which nearly led to his study visa being revoked.
Ali Mirin at Flinders University, Adelide … “tip of the iceberg in terms of the challenges faced by Papuan students.” Image: YK
Mirin’s case is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the challenges faced by Papuan students studying overseas. Almost all Papuan students have dramatic and traumatic stories to share about the obstacles they faced just to receive a scholarship, let alone the difficulties of studying abroad.
Studying in first world industrialised countries like USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Germany requires tremendous amounts of money, which the parents of these students will likely never be able to afford in their lifetime.
The governor knows and understands what it is like to be Papuan (especially from the highlands) and study in Indonesia, let alone overseas.
With all these tragic circumstances Papuans have endured for decades, when the Jakarta government withdraws scholarship funds or changes its policies, Papuan students are shattered.
Papuan mothers, who Jokowi calls “mama-mama”, are the ones most affected by the news of deported or failed Papuan students who are studying abroad.
A new policy needs new minds and hearts in Jakarta
The central government in Jakarta should listen to what students have to say as they clearly stated in Asia Pacific Report on January 27.
Indigenous Papuan representatives should oversee Indonesian and foreign agents and agencies that deal with students’ affairs. Because as long as they are not Papuan, whether Indonesian, American, Australian, or British, it will be difficult for them to fully comprehend the mental trauma and cultural issues that each of the students suffer due to the conditions at home.
Papuan students fail their studies or struggle with them, not because they are unintelligent, but because they are deeply traumatised by the abuse and persecution that their families endure at home.
Most of these result from decades of violence, torture, and denigration of their human value under Indonesia’s settler colonial system in their own homeland.
Whatever the number of expert reports on success and failure stories of education in West Papua, if students’ deepest issues are not being listened to or understood, how can we help them or hope to change things for the better?
The politicisation of these students will continue to cloud Jakarta’s judgment about West Papua as it has for 60 years. Elites in Jakarta forget that these people have no agenda to colonise the island of Java, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Ukraine or build nuclear weapons.
They simply want to live peacefully in their own land and pursue their education.
Jakarta’s policies in West Papua are largely influenced by fear, and worst of all, wrong ideas and misguided judgments. They should be more concerned about a potential global nuclear war between the Western Empire and its allies, and the emerging Chinese-led eastern empire, which poses an existential threat to everyone and everything on this planet.
Indonesians target the wrong people and attack the wrong places — West Papua is not your enemy.
Images of ‘Wonderful Indonesia; and West Papua torture
I wonder if Jakarta searched images of West Papua on Google if they would like what they see. Would they see the truth — the horror, torture, abuse, murder, and exploitation of Papuans at their own hands?
Or would they see their ideals reflected back to them, the current state of terrorism that they manufactured in stolen lands.
These images do not represent the true nature of West Papua and its people, it is Indonesia that is reflected in these images.
Indonesia’s famous national promotional image of “wonderful Indonesia” that has been marketed throughout the world can be best authenticated when it uses the situation in West Papua as a mirror in which to see what Indonesia really is.
Wonderful Indonesia … The programme promoting Indonesia as a country “blessed with countless wonders”. Image: Wonderful WI screenshot PMC.
This hallmark of Jakarta’s nation-building image of Indonesia, which has been marketed around the world, can be best comprehended when it uses West Papua’s reality as a mirror to show the reality of Indonesia. In any case,
It may represent Bali or Java, but for West Papua it is just an elaborate ploy to deceive people about the terror image they have been projecting in the region.
Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
On December 30, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade published a tweet condemning the forced closure of two Russian human rights groups, International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Centre.
The groups were shut down by the Russian Supreme Court which was enforcing strict laws relating to dealings with “foreign agents”.
In releasing the tweet, the government urged Russia to “live up to its civil and political rights commitments”.
Our government has also been speaking out against human rights abuses in China against the Uighur people, to the extent of facilitating a parliamentary motion condemning the cruel policies of the Chinese government.
Compare the criticism of Russia and China with MFAT’s reaction to Israel’s outrageous attacks on Palestinian human rights groups last October when it declared six of them to be “terrorist” organisations.
The targeted groups (Bisan, Al-Haq, Addameer, Defence for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees) typically challenge human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority as well as Israel, both of which routinely detain Palestinian activists.
Israel’s “terrorist” claim against these groups was a blatant attempt to undermine some of the most effective Palestinian civil society organisations, stifle their collective voices, and cut their sources of funding.
Not a peep from MFAT
But not a peep from MFAT. No tweets, no public statements, nothing.
When our Foreign Minister is asked about these things her officials say the government is “very concerned” about developments in the Middle East and “keeping a close watch” on the situation. They say they regularly raise human rights concerns with the Israeli ambassador in meetings with officials.
Heaven only knows what goes on in those meetings but if all human rights abuses by Israel against the Palestinian people were discussed, the Israeli ambassador would be in permanent residence at MFAT.
MFAT gives similar responses when massive human rights abuses are perpetrated against the people of West Papua by the Indonesian Army, which has occupied the territory since 1962. These are discussed behind closed doors, if they are raised at all, with Indonesian officials.
So what’s the difference that results in the Russian and Chinese governments being castigated for human rights abuses but for countries like Indonesia and Israel, there is minimal, if any, public comment?
The awful truth is that our current government has moved New Zealand closer to the US than at any time since the 1980s and MFAT calls out human rights abuses to a US agenda.
If the abuses are perpetrated by enemies of the US, such as in Russia or China, they get a full public blast but if US allies are killing unarmed people protesting the occupation of their country then it’s all hushed up.
Kept ‘in the family’
It’s kept “in the family”, behind closed doors. Martin Luther King’s comment about “the injustice of silence” applies.
Human rights abuses against Palestinians and the people of West Papua continue because countries like New Zealand have self-important ministry officials who think it’s clever to operate a public/private hierarchy of human rights abuses according to US criteria.
Aotearoa New Zealand is complicit in many ongoing human rights abuses through our silence.
Cowardice is another word that comes to mind. It’s not acceptable.
The hypocrisy of the US, and Aotearoa New Zealand’s, position on human rights was laid bare last week when Amnesty International released a 280-page report which concluded that Israel was an apartheid state. US Government officials attacked the report outright without reading it and without challenging any of the report’s substance.
MFAT hasn’t uttered a word
At a Washington press conference, a State Department official was left to try to explain why US Human Rights Reports have quoted extensively from Amnesty International regarding Ethiopia, China, Iran, Burma, Syria and Cuba but reject outright Amnesty’s report on Israel.
Needless to say, MFAT hasn’t uttered a word on the Amnesty report but is busy helping support a webinar intending to “build strategic partnerships in agriculture” with Israel through AgriTech New Zealand. This is deeply embarrassing to this country and MFAT should cancel Aotearoa New Zealand’s involvement in this webinar.
It goes without saying this country should stand against all abuses of human rights in a principled and forthright manner. This won’t happen until the current leadership of MFAT is stood down.
I first met cartoonist Harn Lay, who has died peacefully at 59, 15 years ago in the northern Thai town of Chiang Mai. He was then working for The Irrawaddy Magazine.
I was impressed by his cartoons that never failed to skewer Burma’s military regime and wanted to write a feature about him and his work.
Today, the military regime still rules Burma with an iron fist. Poets, writers, lawyers, monks, artists, doctors, comedians, musicians, bloggers, politicians, activists and journalists have been hunted, arrested, tortured and jailed for for speaking out against the regime and its 1 February 2021 coup.
During our series of interviews in 2006, Harn Lay didn’t hold back in his contempt for Burma’s military hardmen.
Harn Lay said he detested former General Than Shwe and his regime and it showed in the cartoons he drew for The Irrawaddy Magazine, Democratic Voice of Burma, Voice of America and the Shan Herald Agency for News.
Harn Lay dismissed the generals with a cutting barb: “Than Shwe’s a pumped up bully. I try to show how ridiculous he is, a little fat man in a uniform. His only power, his gun.”
Despite the humour, Harn Lay took his role as an artist seriously and said it was his duty to point out the emperor was naked, even when it was the so-called “good guys”.
Cartoons also upset pro-democracy, aid groups
“It’s like a responsibility. I stand by the victims of the powerful and the ruthless. I try to make people not only laugh, but to be aware of how they can be manipulated. Sometimes my cartoons have upset the pro-democracy and aid groups.”
Harn Lay was proud of his Shan State heritage and explained he first tried for freedom by joining an ethnic armed group.
“When I was younger, I joined the Mong Tai Army (MTA) to fight for Shan freedom and independence. But it was an illusion. Khun Sa [the MTA leader] was power mad, the same as Than Shwe and other dictators.
“He was like a kid, no control, he wanted everything he saw.”
Harn Lay soon realised it was time to put down the gun and pick up his pen.
“The gun kills, the pen doesn’t. I tried to use cartoons to express my politics, the injustices people suffer and to make them laugh at the powerful –– they can’t be too powerful if people are laughing at them.”
Harn Lay told me his intention was always to get under the skin of the ruthless and powerful dictators of Burma.
“Translated, my name means a leaf that causes irritation and itching. I want to make these powerful generals uncomfortable, I want to show people what they are really like without the protection of their uniforms and I want to show they are mortal.”
Harn Lay said the cruelty of the Burma regime was never a laughing matter and he was still drawing cartoons lampooning the generals until recently.
“Every Burmese person has been hurt or touched by their brutality. I’ve given up the gun, but I’ll keep drawing and try to expose this regime for the criminals they are.”
Until late 2021, Harn Lay was still lampooning the military junta and its generals in his cartoons.
Harn Lay enjoyed the support of his wife Yuwadee and his daughter Wan Wan, but told me at the time they could be his harshest critics.
“I met Yuwadee 16-years-ago in Shan State. I test my work out on her for clarity. If she laughs, I know I’m on track.”
Harn Lay’s art has featured in a number of international exhibitions and he is the recipient of numerous awards for his work.
Phil Thornton is a journalist and senior adviser to the International Federation of Journalists in South East Asia. This article was first published by Karen News and is republished with the author’s permission. Thornton is a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
Harn Lay realised it was time to put down the gun and pick up his pen. Cartoon: Harn Lay/Karen News
China’s activities in the South Pacific are causing growing alarm in Washington, forcing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to make an urgent visit to Fiji.
But, sources say, he cannot do it due to the continued absence of Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, and like many people, Blinken is awaiting word on when he will return.
Last month Bainimarama flew to Melbourne for unannounced open heart surgery and has given no word on when he will return.
Washington has regional concerns but Blinken appears to believe he can speak to the whole South Pacific in a single meeting with Bainimarama.
Washington regards its concerns as too important to be dealt with via acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
US aid and involvement in the Pacific has been minimal and the last high level visit of any kind was the 2012 trip to Rarotonga of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A decade between visits shows a high level indifference.
But concern has mounted after recent riots in the Solomon Islands in the wake of its switch in diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China.
Beijing appears now to have strengthened its hand in Honiara.
Slow to give significant aid
While China has been slow to get significant aid to eruption damaged Tonga, they will still beat the United States to it. Washington got a frigate to Nuku’alofa with boxes of water; China’s PLAN Wuzhishan and Chaganhu are grunty vessels, carrying significant aid.
Nuku’alofa is already home to a large and modern Chinese Embassy.
The business of asserting Western power has not been helped by Australia’s naval failure of its flagship HMAS Adelaide.
However, while Blinken’s flying trip into Suva will wave flags and provide the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) with yet another dress up parade, how it will go down with other countries in the region is far from clear. They are not overly fond of Bainimarama’s preaching.
But all depends on one thing: Bainimarama showing up at all.
Michael Field is an independent New Zealand journalist and co-editor of The Pacific Newsroom. Republished with permission.
Two important bits of news were announced this week. One is that energy bills will be hiked by 54%. The second is that Tories have found £1.4bn to spend in a fantasy military space initiative that looks set to largely benefit defence contractors and spy agencies.
At least GCHQ will be able to watch your nan shiver in her house from five miles up.
Yes, the Ministry of Defence has finally revealed its ‘Defence Space Strategy’, complete with the kind of cryptic subtitle only the MOD can muster: “Operationalising the Space Domain”. But what does this mean? It means that a government which refuses to even consider a wealth tax to help out the worst off has found enough spare change down the back of the sofa to fund another new madcap military project. For the next ten years, in fact…
The UK’s first Defence Space Strategy has been published today, with £1.4 billion invested in cutting-edge space technology
Close international collaboration with our allies New investments in cutting-edge space technology
Here’s defence secretary Ben Wallace channelling a sort of evil captain Picard on in the report’s opening passages:
Space has brought unprecedented advantages and new threats. Daily life is reliant on space and, for the Armed Forces, space underpins vital, battle-winning technologies. From space we can deliver global command & control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, precision navigation, and more. Adversaries understand this reliance and are increasingly able to exploit vulnerabilities, threatening our strategic stability and security
But what does this look in in practice? Well, we know the new strategy will increase surveillance capacity for the military and government partners. Naturally, most of the strategy is written in Whitehall gibberish, but we can discern that both “Earth-facing and spacefacing” capacities will be increased at a cost of only £970m over the next decade. One can only imagine this will allow us to spot strange alien creatures both in space and here on Earth. Because who wouldn’t want to keep an eye on Rory Stewart?
Capitalist space cadets
The document is very clear that major beneficiaries of the programme will be capitalists. In fact, capitalists of all sizes from “start-ups to multinational conglomerates” will make their money. The space strategy authors actually seem rather proud of the profit-making record of the burgeoning UK space market:
Space-related activity was once solely the preserve of governments; launching satellites into space relied on the same technologies as ballistic missiles. Today though, investment is driven by private investors and the UK space industry primary income is from commercial ventures
So someone, at least, is going to directly benefit from the space strategy. It just won’t be you. Sorry.
Threats
The new strategy claims the military must “seek out and seize the enduring strategic advantage opportunities offered by space”. Space, like cyber, is now a battlefield to be fought across. But who are the enemies? It’s probably a sign of the times that the terms ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ do not feature in the document. Two examples are given of ‘International Threats’, and these are, predictably, Russia and China.
And while busily chasing its own military goals in the stratosphere, the UK will continue to seek engagement with “nations who are committed to the peaceful use of space”.
Beyond these two much-touted enemies, the report warns we are all at the mercy of space weather, which:
in addition to energetic particle storms produced by solar flares and major changes to the solar wind, directly impacts the Earth’s magnetic field, which could reduce the effectiveness of satellites or induce undesirable effects on the ground.
Militarizing space
To understand the UK’s military space strategy we need to look beyond its rhetoric. Space is a new theatre of warfare and surveillance. It’s also a new market in which profit can be made by firms small and large. Much of that profit looks like it will come from British state investment. And this vanity project comes at a time when the kind of sums involved would be better used to support people whose utility bills are soaring.
(@HoydenSpark) 
A preschool in north-eastern Ukraine was hit on 25 February with cluster munitions, killing 3, including a child & wounding another child. There is no possible justification for dropping cluster munitions in populated areas, let alone near a school.
(@anonukr) 
(@PhilipProudfoot) 
(@PeoplesMomentum) 
#ItWasAScam #David Miller (@duduschka) 
Close international collaboration with our allies
New investments in cutting-edge space technology
