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Soldiers’ Mothers, an influential Russian non-profit group composed of the family members of Russian soldiers and purposed to act as a watch dog over the use and abuse of Russian soldiers, was labelled “foreign agent” by the government in August after criticizing the government for sending Russian troops into Ukraine to fight an undeclared war, and the group is now applying to be removed from the list.

“In making this appeal, we do not contest Justice Ministry’s actions. We merely ask to be excluded from the register in light of the fact that we do not fall under the category of ‘foreign agent,'” said a spokesperson for the group, Alexander Peredruk.

The group was put on the list after its leaders made certain comments on the conflict in Ukraine in August. The chairman of Soldiers’ Mothers and a member of the Kremlin’s human rights council, Ella Polyakova, made statements on an independent television channel regarding 100 injured Russian soldiers who had been transported to a hospital in St Petersburg. She noted that the government had given no information about from where the injured soldiers had been transported, and hinted that it was Eastern Ukraine, citing information collected by Soldiers’ Mothers on the matter.

Read more: Head of Russian Soldiers’ Mothers Group Denounces Putin for Sending Soldiers to “the Bloody Battlefields” in Undeclared War 

Polyakova referred to the information of other Soldiers’ Mothers and said that Russian soldiers in Dagestan had been paid the equivalent of $7000 to fight in Ukraine.

Soldiers’ Mothers had been on Russia’s watch list since March, when its leaders made statements that were viewed as constituting “political activity” by the Russian Justice Ministry. The group received grants from organizations based overseas, according to Russian news agency Kommersant.

Read more: Russian Soldiers Families to Russian Government: “Give Us Back Our Children” Killed in Undeclared War [with video] 

According to a 2012 Russian law, any NGO that receives foreign funding and conducts political activity must register as a “foreign agent.”

Soldiers’ Mothers appealed the inclusion on the registry, saying that they had stopped receiving foreign funding in May, and had since June been relying exclusively on the Russian government.

“This does not mean we agree with decision [of the Justice Ministry] to include us on the list, of course,” said Peredruk. “That matter will still be challenged in court.”

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Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Andrii Lasenko made warnings Monday that Russia likely intends to target Moldova next, noting that “little green men,” similar to those which invaded and barricaded Crimea in late February before Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine, had been recently reported by the former Moldovan Minister of the Interior, Gennady Cosovan.

“Russia is attempting to destabilize not only Ukraine, but other countries as well,” said Lasenko. The so-called “little green men” now present are those that recruit young people, initiate disinformation, know how to act in emergency situations and use small arms.

Cosovan had made statements Sept. 5 about the appearance of the Russian agents.

“The presence of ‘little green men’ has been found by intelligence and security service investigations conducted in southern Moldova,” said Cosovan. “They were training there, but, due to leaks, they managed to escape.”

The little green men had recruited 500 people in southern Moldova, who attended training in Rostov, Moscow and other locations. As part of their training, the youth shot 500-1000 cartridges per day, reportedly.

“Moreover, there is information that Chisinau is recruiting and training young people,” stated Cosovan.

Cosovan warned of the gravity of the situation. “It is no secret that the Transnistrian army is larger and better equipped–equipped with modern weapons–than the Moldovan [national] army.

“Therefore, in the event of an armed conflict, the Moldovan military will not have adequate strength.”

By Day Blakely Donaldson

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Human rights group Amnesty International has released a collection of images revealing Russian military buildups inside eastern Ukraine, which, the group said, was evidence that Russia was committing war crimes in Ukraine.

The satellite images show installments of Russian armor and artillery within Ukrainian borders.

“Our evidence shows that Russia is fueling the conflict,” stated Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s secretary general, “both through direct interference and by supporting the separatists in the East. Russia must stop the steady flow of weapons and other support to an insurgent force heavily implicated in gross human rights violations.”

The images show new artillery positions established just inside the Ukrainian border between August 13 and 29. The images also show other Russian military installments, including support vehicles, suspected bunkers and armored amphibious vehicles.

“These satellite images, coupled with reports of Russian troops captured inside Ukraine and eyewitness accounts of Russian troops and military vehicles rolling across the border, leave no doubt that this is now an international armed conflict,” said Shetty.

Shetty criticized both Ukraine and Russia for their recent actions. “All sides in this conflict have shown disregard for civilian lives and are blatantly violating their international obligations,” said Shetty.

Amnesty International has workers on the ground in Ukraine, who have interviewed eyewitnesses to the fighting in many locations. Amnesty has documented war crimes committed there, including indiscriminate shelling, abductions, torture and killings.

Although Amnesty and many other groups and governments have long ago concluded that the Russian government is waging an undeclared war in Ukraine, Moscow has continued to deny involvement.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

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After receiving new reports on the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, the UN has warned that over 1 million Somalis currently face starvation. Conditions in Somalia are worsening due to delayed and erratic rains, as well as to trade disruptions that have resulted from military actions against insurgents.

An estimated 1,025,000 people–particularly children–will be “in crisis and emergency” as the food crisis worsens, the UN warned. The number represents a 20 percent increase since the beginning of 2014.

The UN based its assessment on a joint report released by the UN’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).

“Morbidity, poor infant and young child feeding practices and inadequate humanitarian assistance are among the main contributing factors of malnutrition in Somalia,” stated the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Over 40,000 severely malnourished children face even higher risk of morbidity and death, figures included in the report warned.

“The gradual recovery and gains made since the end of the famine in 2012 are being lost as poor rains, conflict, trade disruptions and reduced humanitarian assistance led to a worsening of the food security situation across Somalia,” FAO explained.

Drought has also affected livestock, a major source of nutrition in Somalia.

Conditions in Somalia are expected to continue until October, when Deyr rains should begin.

By Sid Douglas

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Al Qaeda has formed a new branch in India and surrounding nations. The branch, Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent, was formed of Afghan Taliban and mujahideen in the region, and was years in the making, according to al Qaeda. The group has the stated purpose of defending the faithful in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujurat, Ahmedabad and Kashmir. Its leaders, high level al Qaeda members, have also been vocal about targeting the United States.

“A new branch of al-Qaeda was established and is Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent, seeking to raise the flag of jihad, return the Islamic rule, and empowering the Shariah of Allah across the Indian subcontinent,” said Ayman al Zawahiri, a leader of the group, in the video released Wednesday.

“This entity was not established today,” said Zawahiri, “but it is the fruit of a blessed effort for more than two years to gather the mujahideen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity to be with the main group, Qaedat al-Jihad, from the soldiers of the Islamic Emirate and its triumphant emir, Allah permitting, Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid.”

“It is an entity that was formed to promulgate the call of the reviving imam Sheikh Usama bin Laden, may Allah have mercy on him, to call the Ummah to unite round the word of Tawhid [monotheism], to wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty, and to revive its Caliphate.”

The branch will be active in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir, according to the group’s recent video.

The leaders of the new branch include, in addition to Zawahiri, Asim Umar, the group’s emir, and Usama Mahmoud, the group’s spokesman. Zawahiri and the group ultimately report to Mullah Omar. Zawahiri renewed his oath of allegiance to Omar last July.

Umar was previously a commander of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, a group with close ties to al Queda. Umar called on Indian Muslims to wage “global jihad to give a final push to the collapsing edifice of America” in July of 2013.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Translations of the video courtesy of SITE intelligence group.

Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent video

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In Pakistan, a group formerly belonging to the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) has splintered off, forming a new group called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA). The group cited the failure of the TTP to pursue the objectives of overthrowing the Pakistani government and establishing an Islamic state as the reason for the split.

A top TTP commander, Omar Khalid al Khorasani, who was running for the leadership of the TTP, was among those that defected from the network, which includes factions from the Mohmand, Bajaur, Khyber, and Arakzai tribal agencies, and the districts of Charsadda, Peshawar.

Maulana Qasim Khorasani, JuA’s emir, said that “the leadership of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan is a victim of narrow, personal objectives,” justifying the split.

The announcement of the formation of the new group was made over Twitter on the pages of Ihsanullah Ihsan, the former spokesman of the TTP, and Omar Khorasani, the “Personal Assistant” of Omar Khalid Khorasani, the former emir of the TTP in Mohmand.

JuA is the second group to splinter off from the TTP this year. Ahrar-ul-Hind formed out of the TTP in February.

Khadim Hussain, a Peshawar-based analyst, has found 3 patterns common to breakaway splinter groups in militant organizations.

First, the splinter is precipitated by a strategic and tactical retreat by the parent network. National security forces build pressure on a networks, Hussain expained, causing networks to break up into several groups. The cohesive network melts away, but when pressure dissipates, the network resurrects itself.

Second, the concept of “jihad” is interpreted variously among members of militant organizations. Most splinter groups justify their break along ideological lines.

Third, the spoils of war become a bone of contention among the members of the organizations.

JuA may be a reaction to state pressure in North Waziristan. JuA accused the TTP of failing the group’s main objective of imposing an ideal version of Sharia in Pakistan, and vowed to continue the struggle. The splinter may also be a result of relationships within a Pakistani war economy in which organizations finance themselves by kidnapping, extortion, gun-running, drug trafficking, car lifting and human trafficking. Some of the Pakistani network has allied itself with criminal syndicates more than others.

The TTP was established in 2007 with the goal of overthrowing the Pakistani government and establishing an Islamic state with sharia law. The groups former emir, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a 2009 US drone strike.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

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In a working paper by David K Deng, writing on behalf of the South Sudanese Law Society (SSLS), the society has proposed a “Truth and Dignity Commission” that would seek to understand the varying historical narratives conceived by South Sudanese–which, the SSLS feels, have contributed and are contributing to the ongoing violent crisis in the nation–and then harmonize the varying narratives into one broadly acceptable common narrative.

The paper, “Truth and Dignity Commission: A Proposal to Reconcile the Many Truths of South Sudan from 1972 to the Present,” was published in August 2014 and is the third in a series of working papers developed by the SSLS to stimulate thought on issues of truth, justice and reconciliation in South Sudan’s peace process.

The Truth and Dignity Commission is proposed to investigate and report on human rights abuse patterns over the past four decades.

The authors stated that rhetoric from the warring parties in the current conflict clearly pointed towards unresolved historical grievances and contrasting narratives of past conflicts as a driver of violence, and concluded that South Sudanese needed to reconcile their conflicting historical narratives in one acceptable historical narrative that would reflect the diversity of the nation.

The SSLS posed a question it says all nations emerging from civil conflict must ask: whether to discuss openly the terrible events that characterized the war or to try to forget and move on, referencing Mozambique and Cambodia as notable examples of forgetting. The Truth and Dignity Commission would be part of a solution to dealing with past events in South Sudan.

The Truth and Dignity Commission would be a temporary body established to investigate and report on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law that occurred within South Sudan over its past four decades of history.

The Commission would be used alongside a truth-telling mechanism and other transitional justice mechanisms.

“If done well, …and if given the necessary resources and support, a truth commission can change how a country understands and accepts its past, and through that, if it is lucky, help to fundamentally shape its future,” the report quoted Priscilla Hayner, an expert on truth commissions and transitional justice, and who has worked on official truth-seeking measures in political transitions around the world.

The report also quoted Hayner to write, “There is never just one truth: we each carry our own distinct memories, and they sometimes contradict each other; but debunking lies and challenging dishonest denial can go far in allowing a country to settle on one generally accurate version of history. There are some facts that are fundamental enough that broad acceptance of their truth is necessary before real reconciliation can take place.”

By Day Blakely Donaldson

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[BRIEF] In the face of political protests across the nation, Brazil has banned the wearing of masks in public demonstrations.

The ban was signed by Geraldo Alckmin, the governor of Sao Paulo state, and will go into effect upon regulation–which can take up to 180 days.

The ban has sparked a further protest against the Brazilian government. A Thursday protest has been planned for in Sao Paulo.

The protest will take place at Roosevelt Square between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.

The penalty attached to mask wearing at public demonstrations has yet to be decided.

By James Haleavy

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In Italy, protests continue against the government for plans that would criminalize the basic right of Italians to a house. The protesters are criticizing the government for using the housing crisis and austerity–which protesters refer to as “artificial impoverishment”–to push for further gentrification in the nation.

The Italian government approved the first changes to the housing plan early this year. The changes have been contested throughout Italy, particularly by poor workers, social activists and refugees, who are most affected by the austerity measures.

Profits created by the austerity measures, the protesters charge, benefit private interests, although they are funded by public

money. These profits go to real-estate speculators and political sponsors. The measures will exacerbate social exclusion of the poor and vulnerable, the protesters contest.

The current protests are taking place in Bologna.

Earlier, in Florence protests took place to prevent poor families from having their electricity shut off because they could not pay their bills.

Activists are particularly focusing on the Italian housing law’s Article 5, “Fighting Illegal Occupation of Properties,” which reads:

“This article stipulates that anyone occupying a property illegally can not apply for residency or connection to public services in relation to the property while also providing the same nullity ex lege of the effects of the acts issued in violation of this prohibition.

“The RT is limited to reiterate that the device requires that anyone who illegally occupy a property without title can not ask for a residency or connection to public services in relation to the property itself. It is also expected void ex lege of the effects of the acts issued in violation of this prohibition.

“The arrangement, character of the legal order, does not result in new or increased charges for public finance.

“In this regard, there is nothing to observe.

The next protests have been planned to place in Pisa September 6-7.

By James Haleavy