Myanmar topped the global list of casualties from landmines last year, HRW said in a report released on Nov. 21.

The country had a total of 1,003 documented civilian deaths and injuries from landmines and explosive remnants of war in 2023, almost three times the previous year, the HRW report said.

The casualties resulted as fighting between the junta military and alliances of opposition and ethnic armed groups spiked nationwide last year, it said.

Landmine casualties and contamination have been documented for the first time in all 14 Myanmar states and regions, affecting about 60 percent of the country's townships, it added.

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Police have also removed domes, minarets, and other Islamic architectural features from other mosques as part of Beijing's "mosque consolidation" policy, the New York-based group said.

"The Chinese government is not ‘consolidating' mosques as it claims, but closing many in violation of religious freedom," said Maya Wang, Human Rights Watch's acting China director.

"The Chinese government's closure, destruction, and repurposing of mosques is part of a systematic effort to curb the practice of Islam in China," she said.

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Fr Amila Jeewantha Peirism is asking for the Court's protection to safeguard his fundamental rights and prevent his arrest. He has been a key figure during Sri Lanka's anti-government protests.

The priest says as a responsible citizen he actively participated in the peaceful anti-government struggle, but is concerned he may be arrested on false charges.

The police say they have orders to arrest him and a court has put a foreign travel ban on him.

Over 1,600 Catholic priests, nuns and brothers have made statements on his behalf. They are lobbying against attempts to pressure Jeewantha and other protesters.

A student who worked with Jeewantha said he "always stood for non-violence and could never [despite accusations] cause damage to public property."

Protesters have been arrested

Prominent protester Dhaniz Ali was arrested when he was about to board an international flight from Colombo last week.

Unidentified men in civilian clothes abducted Veranga Pushpika. He is a former student activist and journalist who had also been active in the anti-government protest.

Police have launched an investigation against Kayleigh "Kayz" Fraser. The British woman is said to be actively involved in the protests. The Department of Immigration confiscated her passport on Tuesday.

Authorities said that she had brought disrepute to Sri Lanka and its security forces on the international stage.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is not impressed with the Sri Lankan government.

It is using emergency regulations to harass and arbitrarily detain activists seeking political reform and accountability for the country's economic crisis, HRW says.

"The government needs to end its repressive policies and practices and act urgently to address people's basic needs, win public trust and uphold the rule of law by holding those responsible to account."

Shehan Malaka is an activist who was abducted for seeking justice for Easter attack victims. He says there is a need to safeguard priests, nuns, activists, students and lawyers involved in anti-government protests.

Source

• UCA News

Before he began the mass exorcism, Monsignor Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya, the bishop of Buenaventura, said he would say a prayer intended to purge the area of demonic infestation.

He decided to carry out the ancient rite shortly after a 10-year-old girl was tortured and murdered.

"We have to drive the devil out of Buenaventura, to see if we can restore the peace and tranquility that our city has lost due to so many crimes, acts of corruption and with so much evil and drug trafficking that invades our port," Montoya told a local radio station.

"We want to go around the whole of Buenaventura, from the air, and pour holy water on to it to see if we exorcise and get out all those demons that are destroying our port, so that God's blessing comes and gets rid of all the wickedness that is in our streets."

A helicopter for the aerial exorcism, was provided by Colombia's army.

Buenaventura was named Colombia's most violent place in 2014.

Human Rights Watch says "many of the city's neighbourhoods are dominated by powerful criminal groups that commit widespread abuses, including abducting and dismembering people, sometimes while still alive, then dumping them in the sea.

"The groups maintain ‘chop-up houses' where they slaughter victims, according to witnesses, residents, the local Catholic church and some officials."

Fifty-one homicides were reported in Buenaventura in the first five months of this year: 20 more than the same period last year.

Although exorcisms are usually carried out on individuals, in 1890 Pope Leo XIII added a prayer, "Exorcism against Satan and the Fallen Angels", for resolving demonic infestation.

Last year, the Vatican held an exorcism training course for priests, saying demands for deliverance from demonic possession had greatly increased across the world.

The increase represents a "pastoral emergency", according to the Vatican-backed International Association of Exorcists, which represents more than 200 Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox priests.

Source

• The Guardian
• Ancient Origins
• Image: Times Now

Most of them have been held there for three years. They routinely face neglect by health workers and other service providers who have been hired by the Australian government.

And, as well they suffer frequent unpunished assaults by local Nauruans.

They endure unnecessary delays and at times denial of medical care, even for life-threatening conditions. Many have dire mental health problems and suffer overwhelming despair—self-harm and suicide attempts are frequent. All face prolonged uncertainty about their future.

Refugees and asylum seekers interviewed said they have developed severe anxiety, inability to sleep, mood swings, prolonged depression, and short-term memory loss on the island.

Children have begun to wet their beds, suffered from nightmares, and engaged in disruptive and other troubling behaviour.

"Australia's policy of exiling asylum seekers who arrive by boat is cruel in the extreme," said Anna Neistat, Senior Director for Research at Amnesty International, who conducted the investigation on the island for the organization.

"Few other countries go to such lengths to deliberately inflict suffering on people seeking safety and freedom."

Michael Bochenek, Senior Counsel on Children's Rights at Human Rights Watch, conducted the investigation on the island for this organisation.

"Driving adult and even child refugees to the breaking point with sustained abuse appears to be one of Australia's aims on Nauru," he said

Amnesty International says Australian authorities are well aware of the abuses on Nauru.

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a Senate Select Committee, and a government-appointed independent expert have each highlighted many of these practices, and called on the government to change them.

The Australian government's persistent failure to address abuses committed under its authority on Nauru strongly suggests that they are adopted or condoned as a matter of policy.

Source

• pacific.scoop.co.nz
• Image: michelleparsons.com

Lengthy prison terms are threatened for almost any criticism of the government or Islam.

The new laws are accompanied by a series of related royal decrees which seem to criminalise virtually all dissident thought or expression.

Secular citizens who commit thought crimes are placed in the same category as terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch.

Under a new decree by King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia will jail for up to 20 years anyone who fights in conflicts abroad.

This is an apparent move to deter Saudis from joining rebels in Syria.

But the law also applies to any Saudi citizen or a foreigner residing in the kingdom who "calls for atheist thought in any form or calls into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based".

The laws have been denounced by human rights groups for making no distinction between religious expression and violent extremism.

"Saudi authorities have never tolerated criticism of their policies," said Joe Stork from Human Rights Watch.

"But these recent laws and regulations turn almost any critical expression or independent association into crimes of terrorism," he said.

Human Rights Watch describes the laws as having "serious flaws, including vague and overly broad provisions that allow authorities to criminalise free expression, and the creation of excessive police powers without judicial oversight".

Blogging for Al-Bab, Brian Whitaker wrotes that while the new laws might seem bizarre, "in Saudi terms it does have a certain logic".

"Since the entire system of government is based on Wahhabi interpretations of Islam, non-believers are assumed to be enemies of the Saudi state".

He cites a 2012 WIN/Gallup International poll which found that almost a quarter of people interviewed in Saudi Arabia described themselves as "not religious".

And of those, five per cent declared themselves to be atheists.

Whitaker adds: "Extrapolating that figure on a national scale suggests there around 1.4million atheist terrorists living in Saudi Arabia."

Sources:

• Daily Mail
• Huffington Post
• Image: Colombo Telegraph