As preparation for this newsletter was underway, events in South Sudan and Turkey hit the global news headlines, with clashes in Juba between rival factions of the security forces and an attempted coup by disaffeted military officers in Turkey. Front Line Defenders conducted missions to both countries in the last few months, and is in contact with HRDs as these current events unfold, ready to support HRDs at risk as needed.
South Sudan
Front Line Defenders is closely monitoring the situation in South Sudan as factions within the armed forces fight each other in July 2016, sparking fears of a reignited civil war.
Just a few months ago, in late March 2016, Front Line Defenders Protection Coordinator for Africa, Aloys Habimana, traveled to South Sudan, at a lull in the civil war between the government headed by President Salva Kiir and leading opposition figure Riek Machar that would ultimately last 18 months.
The civil war had a severe impact on human rights defenders. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities, HRDs in the country were working to establish a human rights norm in society as the country was building following its declaration of independence. However, the conflict forced many HRDs to flee the country. Most who were based in Juba, the capital, had to evacuate the city, if not the country. Among HRDs who stayed, many went missing or were detained.
When there is a conflict like that, it brings a lot of challenges, particularly to civil society actors, human rights defenders...you see those well-established groups collapsing.
- Aloys Habimana
During the mission, it became clear that HRDs were only tentatively returning, and that there was a great fear that the conflict could resume. In July 2016, despite the deal, major violence broke out in Juba between competing elements of the security forces. This reflects what was witnessed by Aloys - the society is polarized and HRDs are seen through that lens of polarization, not simply as human rights defenders working for the rights of all.
For the HRDs seeking safety during the period of intense conflict, there was some response made by international organizations and regional groups, but not enough - with the crisis situation, response mechanisms, particularly in the region, were overwhelmed. Civil society in East Africa is not yet fully integrated or networked in a way that allowed for effective regional civil society response to the needs of the HRDs in that kind of emergency situation. Most HRDs who found themselves outside the country had to fend for themselves, even if they were able to get support from international organizations like Front Line Defenders.
One group of HRDs particularly targeted in the country are human rights journalists and those journalists working for independent media outlets. The government tends to identify these journalists as working for rebel groups, which is a slander against those working independently, and many of them were abducted or detained, and in some cases killed. Notable among this group are the cases of Peter Moi - shot and killed for his reporting work - and Clement Lochio Lomornana, an independent jouranlist who was arbitrarily detained and disappeared in August 2015, and who is still missing and presumed dead.
Turkey
Front Line Defenders Protection Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia, Masha Chichtchenkova, visited Turkey this Spring, at a time when the army is embroiled in an armed conflict with the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group, and when the security forces have been seemingly unable to prevent mass bombings by terrorist groups operating from Syria, notably ISIS.
Human rights defenders in the country, especially those concerned with Kurdish or minority rights, journalists and those working for freedom of expression, and even LGBTI rights defenders are finding themselves targeted by the government, which seems to be using the excuse of the various security challenges as a means to crackdown on all aspects of civil society that challenge the authoritarian rule of former Prime Minister, now President Erdogan.
Reporting on or documenting what is happening in the Kurdish region - southeastern Turkey - is proving impossible, due to the military operations, curfew and the targeting of those who do manage to report.
- Masha Chichtchenkova
Journalists, lawyers and even academics have all come under pressure or face judicial processes for working on these issues or seeking to challenge the government narrative with regard to the conflict. The recent arrests of Dr. Sebnem Korur Fincanci and Erol Önderoglu was a chilling message to civil society as these two leading figures were jailed for guest editing a Kurdish newspaper. Another shocking recent case was that of detention of members of the broad-based group, 'Academics for Peace', a group of academics from universities across the country calling for an end to the conflict with Kurdish groups.
While there is no doubt that the country is under pressure - from the refugee influx from Syria, from the attacks by armed Islamist groups and by economic pressures as a result of the regional conflicts and global economic downturn - most HRDs in the country feel that the government is going beyond what should be done to meet those challenges and is bringing the country in a downward spiral.
