Darfur Dispatch: “Do you know us?”: Daily Brief

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August 3, 2023
By Andrew Stroehlein
Contact me at DailyBriefTeam@hrw.org and Twitter @astroehlein.

In today's Daily Brief:

Shipwreck Survivors vs the Greek Coast Guard
Crackdown in Bangladesh
Darfur Dispatch: “Do you know us?”
Take Note: Other Key Stories
Taking a Break
Final Thought: What do you think?

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Reading Between the Lines of the Pylos Shipwreck

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Who do you believe?

On the one hand, you have the survivors of the greatest tragedy off the Greek coast in recent years.

On the other hand, there’s the Greek coast guard.

The two sides offer very different accounts of what happened on June 14, when the fishing vessel Adriana sank near Pylos, drowning most of the 750 people on board.

One critical issue involves a rope – or “line,” as sailors would say – between the overcrowded boat and the coast guard vessel dispatched to the scene.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch interviewed survivors, who consistently described how the coast guard ship attached a line to the Adriana and started towing it. This, survivors say, caused the Adriana to sway unusually and then capsize.

Greek authorities have strongly denied this. Senior officials of the Hellenic Coast Guard told us their vessel came close to the Adriana and used a line only to approach the boat. They claim they did this to assess whether migrant passengers wanted help, but that passengers threw the line back and the boat continued its journey.

The survivors say people on the Adriana were pleading to be rescued from the rickety fishing vessel – they’d even called for help by satellite phone hours earlier – but the Greek coast guard wouldn’t listen.

When accounts differ as dramatically as this, there clearly needs to be an independent, impartial investigation into what happened. Greek authorities have opened two criminal investigations, one targeted at the alleged smugglers and another into the actions of the coast guard.

Equally clearly, there will be questions about the credibility of Greece’s investigations.

This is especially true given the “Farmakonisi” shipwreck in 2014, in which survivors also argued their boat capsized when the Greek coast guard tried to tow them. The European Court of Human Rights in that case condemned the rescue operations and the subsequent investigation, including how victims’ testimonies were handled.

There are things authorities can do to help make today’s investigations more credible.

One would be to put investigations under the supervision of the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office. Another would be to ensure the Greek Ombudsman’s Office is able to fulfill its oversight role properly, with access to all necessary evidence.

And, of course, investigations should involve taking testimonies from all survivors, under conditions where they feel safe to talk openly.

Investigations seem to be proliferating now, too. In a separate, welcome development, the EU Ombudsman has announced it will open an inquiry into the actions of EU border agency Frontex in the Mediterranean, including in the Adriana shipwreck.

If there’s room for another investigation, I’d like to see one look into the EU’s illegal and morally bankrupt asylum and migration policies generally.

But for now, one final question about Pylos: where are the mobile phones? Survivors say the Greek coast guard took their phones from them (and perhaps from dead bodies, too) after they were pulled out of the water. Survivors told us they contain vital video evidence about the shipwreck and what led to it.

Accounts of what happened that terrible day vary widely, but if the Greek coast guard is so sure of its account, why won’t they give those phones back – or turn them in as evidence?

News this week suggests this is precisely where investigators are now focusing their interest.

Bangladesh Nationalist party activists block a highway entering Bangladesh's capital during a protest demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 29, 2023. © 2023 Habibur Rahman/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Images

Crackdown in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is heading toward national elections in January, tensions are rising, and authorities are responding with a brutal crackdown on the political opposition.

At protests in late July, police used excessive force against opposition party supporters, including rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons. They also beat demonstrators with batons. In the days leading up to a major demonstration on July 29, authorities arrested more than 800 leaders and activists of the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

It looks a lot like a systematic effort to target and detain political opponents.

It really should be ringing alarm bells internationally that elections in Bangladesh will not be democratic.

The outside world should already be getting the message. The violence and other election-related abuses occurred during a visit by the European Union’s special representative for human rights. The United States government has warned it will restrict visas for any Bangladeshi who undermines the democratic election process.

“The ruling Awami League government is acutely aware of the heightened international scrutiny of its rights record,” says my colleague and expert Meenakshi Ganguly, HRW’s deputy Asia director.

“Incapacitating the opposition through mass arbitrary arrests and violent crackdowns will not fool anyone into thinking that the Bangladesh elections are free and fair.”

Darfur Dispatch: “Do you know us?”

On Monday, in a special edition of this newsletter, we highlighted ongoing mass atrocity crimes in Darfur, Sudan, and promised updates from our researchers interviewing survivors in neighboring Chad.

On Tuesday, we presented a shocking account of a 16-year-old girl who barely escaped the slaughter in El Geneina, the regional capital of West Darfur. On Wednesday, we published an eye-witness testimony of an attack on a medical clinic.

Today, my colleagues, Belkis Wille and Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, have sent the following testimony of a government official from El Geneina. It highlights the clear targeting by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias of prominent community leaders, primarily from the ethnic Massalit community. We are not using the person’s name or identifying information for security reasons.

On the fourth day of the attack [April 27], they [the RSF] set fire to our house … [It] was completely burned. I left the house with my family, just with the clothes we were wearing.

We went to the north of El Geneina. I spent four days in my family’s house. Then, there was a very heavy attack on the city – Janjaweed [Arab militias] barged into the house where I was staying.

At that point, the witness learned their name was on a list of people the assailants were looking for, but luckily, the assailants didn’t know what they looked like:

Actually, this group, they didn’t know me. They looked like strange people, not Sudanese. They looked like they come from other countries.

They said, “Do you know us? We are not from this area. We are coming from Libya, from Niger. Don’t blame us… We have been invited by the Arabs to kill these people and to occupy the land. We came here, and we lost many people.”

There have been other reports of foreign fighters’ involvement in the Darfur atrocities, and this adds to that evidence.

The witness managed to flee their home and sought refuge in another relative’s house. However, there the witness was then arrested, detained, and beaten by RSF forces and allied Arab militia.

They took me to a police station. The place was occupied by the RSF, and they used it as a prison and would torture people there.

They started beating me with their hands on my face to scare me into confessing. I was wearing these clothes at that time, and they ordered me to sit down, and they tied my legs.

When I was there, they brought in two [other detainees], one was in his 30s and the other about 15. We were in the same room. There was also [a man] who was wearing his rifle with many [bullet] magazines in the front.

He also had a broken teacup glass. He came and injured the man in his 30s in his eye. He stabbed his eye with the glass in front of me. The man’s eye was bleeding.

And with the other boy, they stabbed him in his abdomen with a knife and they came to tell me, “We will do the same to you if you do not confess…”

[Then] they would beat them, kick them… They would insult them: “We will kill all Massalit!”

“The government is going to be our government!”

The young boy… who had been stabbed [with a knife] was bleeding, and he died in front of me.

The witness was eventually released that evening.

I spent one week with a headache and my face was swelling. My eye was also inflamed because of the torture. My face had changed and people couldn’t recognize me.

Psychologically, it was so difficult for me to be targeted. I’m not feeling safe even being here [in Chad]. The [assailants] have sources in the camp… They have many sources, and they monitor.

This witness is one of many government officials, lawyers, medical staff, activists, traditional leaders, religious figures, and other prominent community leaders in El Geneina targeted by the RSF and their allies.

Commanders responsible for these attacks should be held to account, and more should be done to protect those at risk, both in Darfur and in their places of refuge.