Category: General

Simon Louagie dreaded losing Talbot House, a World War I soldiers' club that has become an institution in remembrance tourism on the Western Front where soldiers from all corners of the globe fought amid untold carnage just over a century ago.

For months last year, a COVID-19 lockdown closed the club which had always been an open house. Once it was for Commonwealth soldiers who fleetingly shed the fear of battle in Flanders fields that was within earshot.

For generations since, people found history, solace, wisdom and an understanding at Talbot House about why the motto of this region in western Belgium is "Never into war again."

Since the end of World War I in 1918, millions of visitors — from as far away as the United States New Zealand, and South Africa — have flocked to memorials in northern France and Belgium to pay tribute to the fallen.

Now, closing in on two years of the coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions, the tourist industry welcoming them is crippled. Lockdowns and travel restrictions, of which many remain in place, are keeping foreign visitors away.

Another Armistice Day beckons on Nov. 11 and the outlook remains bleak.

Talbot House manager Louagie remembers that when funds were running low and doors were closed, only one thought ran through his head: "Not on my watch." From as many as 500 guests a day, he sometimes found himself alone.

The house, he said, "needs noise. It needs piano music. It needs visitors, schoolchildren, people playing chess. Cups of tea, rattling in the kitchen to make it come alive. I need to hear the kettle whistle," he said.

"We cannot disappoint all those generations before us by letting it close down," he said. The thought has echoed around the region where hundreds of thousands lost their lives during the four years of fighting which finally led to the victory of allied forces over Germany.

Nick Benoot, who runs the small Hooge Crater Museum not far from Poperinge could not believe it when at the end of 2019, schools started to cancel trips because of reports of a virus in Wuhan, China.

Like Louagie, he had plunged money into the business and needed any income he could get. "Seriously, do you mean that? This is in China. This is far, far away from us," he remembers saying. But the reality of the pandemic, which has since claimed at least 5 million dead across the globe, soon sank in and he had to close on March 13, 2020 - a somber day he remembers well.

From 65,000 paying visitors in 2017 to just 3,000 last year, the numbers demonstrated how remembrance tourism slumped throughout the region.

"It was like we went bankrupt. We had to close everything down," he said.

But each man dealt with it in his own way and is still around to tell his story.

Crowdfunding was the answer for Louagie. Last year, a 98-year-old World War II veteran raised money by walking from a war graves cemetery to Talbot House, cheered on by locals who pulled money out of their wallet when they were not applauding. When a local died, the family asked that instead of flowers, mourners donate money to Talbot House.

"It became very emotional when I saw how many people cared so deeply," Louagie said.

As virus measures eased recently thanks to Belgium's vaccination drive, some visitors enjoyed their breakfast at Talbot house. And just like old times, praise was heaped on English volunteer Libby Madden for her Victoria sponge cake. "You know, we very much want to keep the spirit of this wonderful place alive," she said.

Flanders' fields were once so war-scarred that churches and castles simply vanished as rubble under the mud. Much around Ypres has been restored to its former splendor and imbued locals with an unshakeable sense of optimism.

Benoot was looking at an empty parking lot last year and had missed the din of spoken English from heaps of British tourists that resounded in the museum and cafe. Yet this week, "we have had the first British (bus) in two years."

Even as his income dwindled in the middle of the pandemic, Benoot understood that the message of "the war to end all wars" still needed to be passed on to younger generations.

At 37, he thought himself to old to convey the message to kids, so he left it to his sons Louis and Arthur, 10 and 8, who are now YouTube whizzes to teach kids about gas masks, helmets and medical kits. The Hooge Boys are a hit now.

"We don't do what all the rest does. So I think we have a way to survive," Benoot said.

Even the Last Post ceremony in nearby Ypres — a daily, mournful bugle call harking back to 1928 that had only briefly stopped during World War II — was at risk of being silenced. The tradition has the bugle playing under the Menin Gate where some 55,000 names of soldiers whose remains were never found are engraved.

Yet it pulled through. Volunteers refused to stop and pulled strings all the way up to the top political posts to ensure its continuation, even if it had to be scaled down.

"During COVID, there was only one bugler and the names of 55,000 soldiers," said Benoit Mottrie, the head of the Last Post Association.

On Thursday, there should be the full complement of six buglers again, backed up by a piper, a choir, a band and several hundred invitees and poppy promenade walkers. Even the Belgian prime minister will show up.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON/LONDON — Iran is facing renewed scrutiny for its deadly suppression of nationwide protests in 2019, as a London tribunal organized by rights groups began hearing testimony Wednesday from relatives of those killed and others regarding alleged crimes committed in the crackdown.

The event known as an international people’s tribunal opened in London’s Church House conference center. Its goal is to investigate alleged Iranian atrocities, including the alleged killing by security forces of hundreds of protesters and wounding of thousands more during the November 2019 protests.

A panel of human rights law and international relations experts from Britain, Indonesia, Libya, South Africa and the United States led the first day of the tribunal, scheduled to last until Sunday. The hearings are organized by three rights groups including London-based Justice for Iran, Oslo-based Iran Human Rights and Paris-based Together against the Death Penalty.

In a TV interview with VOA Persian from the venue, the tribunal’s co-counsel Hamid Sabi said the panelists will hear statements from about 160 witnesses vetted by him and fellow co-counsel Regina Paulose during the five-day event.

The counsels’ role is to gather evidence from the witnesses and provide it to tribunal panelists.

“We gave priority [to getting statements from] families whose loved ones were killed, wounded or imprisoned,” Sabi said. “We also prioritized testimony from eyewitnesses to the crackdown,” he added.

Iran’s government sparked the nationwide demonstrations on November 15, 2019, by ordering a 50% increase in the subsidized price of gasoline, further straining the finances of Iranians facing high unemployment and inflation in a shrinking economy under heavy U.S. sanctions. Rights activists have said Iranian security forces killed hundreds of people and arrested thousands more while crushing the mostly peaceful protests, in which some people also damaged public buildings and businesses.

In Iran’s only acknowledgement of the scale of the killings to date, then-Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told state television in May 2020 that the death toll was around 200.

Nahid Shirpisheh, whose 27-year-old son, Pouya Bakhtiari, was killed by a gunshot to the head while protesting in the northern city of Karaj, spoke to the panel by video from Iran. Shirpisheh said she and members of her family have been repeatedly intimidated and detained by Iranian authorities in retaliation for publicly campaigning for justice for Pouya. She said her ex-husband and Pouya’s father, Manouchehr Bakhtiari, is currently in prison for his activism.

Iranian rights activist Masih Alinejad, host of VOA Persian’s Tablet TV program, testified in person at the tribunal. She said she also heard from sources in Iran that authorities have been harassing relatives of slain protesters, including by making them bury their loved ones in remote places.

At the start of Monday’s hearing, the panelists said they had sent letters to 133 Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing them of grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity in suppressing the 2019 protests. The letters invited the officials to present evidence in their defense but no responses were received, the panelists said.

A VOA reporter in London visited the Iranian consulate in the city’s Kensington district Tuesday, seeking comment about the tribunal. The reporter identified himself as affiliated with VOA and asked for a comment after an Iranian consulate staffer opened the door. A male staff member would not respond and escorted the reporter out.

Holly Dagres, a London-based Iran analyst for the Atlantic Council, told VOA it was notable that Iranians provided live video testimony to the tribunal from inside Iran at the risk of angering the Iranian government.

“It demonstrates just how desperate the families of the victims are to have their voices heard, as they seek accountability and justice, that they are willing to risk their own safety, especially with the Islamic Republic actively trying to silence them,” she said.

Amnesty International, which is based in London, was to present its latest findings about Iran’s crackdown on the November 2019 protests to the tribunal Thursday. The group’s Middle East and North Africa director, Heba Morayef, said in a statement provided to VOA Wednesday that the tribunal is a crucial step toward ending impunity for the Iranian perpetrators of the alleged atrocities.

“Crucially, the tribunal must spur U.N. member states into action, both at the current session of the U.N. General Assembly and the next session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, to pave the way for the accountability that is so desperately needed,” Morayef said.

Jason Brodsky, policy director for U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, said in a VOA interview that the international community has not taken action on the issue because it is too focused on trying to revive restraints on Iran’s nuclear program under a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers. The United States and Iran have said they are seeking a mutual return to compliance with the deal after Washington withdrew from it in 2018 under the administration of former President Donald Trump and Iran retaliated by openly violating constraints on its nuclear activities a year later.

“The international community spends most of its time chasing after Iranian diplomats on the nuclear deal, but it does not spend a lot of time on the stories that we heard today and that we’ll be hearing in the coming days. And that has to change,” Brodsky said, noting that Iran’s deputy foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kan was scheduled to be in London on Thursday for talks with British officials.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has said it is willing to ease some U.S. sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran restoring full compliance with measures designed to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Tehran has denied seeking nuclear arms under cover of a civilian energy program.

Brodsky said U.S. offers to ease sanctions on Iran, whose leaders have been accused by the tribunal of committing crimes against humanity, send a “mixed and concerning message” about Biden’s pledge to also prioritize human rights in his foreign policy.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a VOA request for comment about whether the tribunal will influence the U.S. to tighten human rights-related sanctions on Iran.

Source: Voice of America

Witnesses, human rights lawyers, international prosecutors and academics gathered Thursday in London for the second day of the Iran Atrocities Tribunal to investigate how mostly peaceful protests turned violent two years ago.

Iranian security forces killed hundreds and arrested thousands of people who were demonstrating against a sudden spike in fuel prices in mid-November 2019. The Iranian government raised the subsidized price of gasoline by 50%, angering Iranians facing high unemployment, inflation and heavy U.S. sanctions.

Appearing virtually and in person at a conference hall in Westminster, the witnesses described in detail the deadly crackdown by authorities two years ago. Some spoke live, others via taped testimonies, with many wearing masks and sunglasses to conceal their identities for fear of reprisals by the Iranian government against family members.

Some showed photos of dead children. One woman, grasping a picture of her son with his own children, asked during the opening session Wednesday whom she could turn to without help from Iranian courts.

“I don’t know what to do and where to go,” she said. “In this world, isn’t there anyone who can hear my cries?”

Former police officer testifies

Thursday’s session featured a former Iranian police officer — identified only as “Witness 195” — who recalled intelligence agents “spraying the protesters with bullets.” Another person, “Witness 366,” showed X-rays of bullets lodged near his lungs.

The tribunal is organized by civil society groups Justice for Iran, Iran Human Rights and Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (Together Against the Death Penalty) and will hear evidence from more than 160 witnesses over four days but carries no legal standing.

As the tribunal proceeds, Amnesty International called Thursday for the international community to listen carefully.

“The hearings at the International People’s Tribunal on Iran’s Atrocities of November 2019 are crucial for ensuring that these atrocities do not fade into memory,” Heba Morayef, the human rights organization’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement. “Crucially, the tribunal must spur U.N. member states into action.”

Raha Bahreini, an Amnesty International researcher and human rights lawyer, said during Thursday’s session that many protesters were sexually assaulted, tortured and executed by Iranian forces two years ago.

On its website, the Iran Atrocities Tribunal, also known as the Aban Tribunal, says its panelists will determine whether Iranian security forces violated international law and will identify perpetrators after proceedings wrap up November 14. Their findings will be released in early 2022.

24 more victims

Amnesty International also updated its list of people killed in the crackdown. It added 24 newly identified names to the database, which now lists 323 Iranians killed in protests across the country November 15-19, 2019.

One of these victims was Pejman Gholipour Malati, an 18-year-old shot in Tehran. His mother, Mahboubeh Ramazani, spoke at Wednesday’s tribunal via recorded video, surrounded by decorations to mark her son's 20th birthday.

“We want justice. Hear our cries,” she said. “Tell us who killed our children. … We lost our loved ones in our own homeland.”

Ramazani’s camera panned to a neatly made bed: “My son’s empty bed that I see every day,” she said. Then black pants hanging from a door: “Clothes of Pejman I hanged here, in case he returns one day.” A red box crossed with white ribbon: “My son’s bloody clothes are in that box. They’d removed them in the hospital. There were holes in them.”

Source: Voice of America

A homemade bomb thrown through the roof of a university lecture hall wounded 11 students on Wednesday, the vice chancellor said, in an English-speaking region of Cameroon in the grip of a bloody separatist conflict.

University of Buea vice-chancellor Horace Ngomo Manga said "the device fell to the ground and exploded."

One boy and 10 girls were wounded, he told state radio CRTV, adding that all were in a stable condition.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the bomb or who might have thrown it.

Buea is the capital of Cameroon's Southwest region. Both the Southwest and Northwest regions are mainly English-speaking in the otherwise predominantly French-speaking central African country.

A decades-long campaign by militants to redress perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority flared into a declaration of independence on October 1, 2017, sparking a crackdown by security forces.

The conflict has claimed more than 3,500 lives and forced 700,000 people to flee their homes, according to NGO estimates that have not been updated in more than a year despite an escalation in violence in recent months.

The United Nations and international organizations regularly denounce abuses and crimes committed against civilians by both sides.

Wednesday's bombing has not been claimed, but the anglophone separatists have regularly attacked schools and universities that they accuse of favoring French-language education.

The separatists have also recently ramped up attacks on the country's armed forces using improvised explosive devices.

In September, a Buea court sentenced four men to death over the killing of seven schoolchildren a year earlier, however Human Rights Watch called the trial a sham.

Source: Voice of America

Former Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang, currently in detention in South Africa, will be extradited to the United States to face trial over a $2 billion scandal, a court ruled Wednesday.

Chang has been held in South Africa since 2018 at the request of U.S. authorities over his alleged involvement in a "hidden debt" affair involving loans to the Mozambican government. The fallout from the loans plunged the impoverished country into its worst financial crisis and pushed hundreds of thousands into poverty.

"Mr. Manuel Chang is to be surrendered and extradited to the United States of America to stand trial for his alleged offenses," South African High Court Judge Margaret Victor ruled.

She said Chang "stands accused of corruption of the highest order."

The loans were taken out by the Mozambican government when Chang was finance minister in 2013 and 2014, supposedly to buy a new fleet of tuna fishing and maritime security vessels.

Hidden from parliament and undeclared to the country's international donors, the loans were equivalent to 12 percent of the gross domestic product of one of the poorest countries in the world.

The United States asked that he be arrested while in South Africa because part of the money went through the U.S. financial system.

He was arrested at Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport on December 29, 2018, while in transit to Dubai.

The Mozambican government also had asked that he be extradited to Maputo, where 19 suspects, including the son of former President Armando Guebuza, are on trial for the same case.

Source: Voice of America