Hundreds lined the Bosnian capital’s main street Sunday as a truck carrying 30 coffins passed on its way to Srebrenica, where newly identified victims of Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since World War II will be buried on the 28th anniversary of the massacre.

As the truck, covered with a huge Bosnian flag, briefly stopped in front of the country’s presidential building, members of the crowd tucked flowers into the canvas hiding the remains of victims found in mass graves and identified through DNA analysis.

“It is devastatingly sad that hundreds of victims still have not been found and that some people still deny the genocide [in Srebrenica],” said Ramiza Gandic, who came to pay her respects.

Newly identified Srebrenica massacre victims are reburied annually on July 11, the day the killing began in 1995, at a vast and ever-expanding memorial cemetery outside the eastern town.

So far, the remains of more than 6,600 people have been found and reburied there.

The Srebrenica killings were the bloody crescendo of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which came after the breakup of Yugoslavia unleashed nationalistic passions and territorial ambitions that set Bosnian Serbs against the country’s two other main ethnic populations — Croats and Bosniaks.

In July 1995, Bosnian Serbs overran a U.N.-protected safe haven in Srebrenica. They separated at least 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys from their wives, mothers and sisters, chased them through the woods around the ill-fated town, and slaughtered them.

The perpetrators then plowed their victims’ bodies into hastily made mass graves, which they later dug up with bulldozers, scattering the remains among other burial sites to hide the evidence of their war crimes.

The massacre has been declared a genocide by international and national courts. Still, Serb leaders in Bosnia and neighboring Serbia continue to downplay or even deny it, despite the irrefutable evidence of what happened.
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NEZUK, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA — A solemn peace march started on Saturday through the forests in eastern Bosnia in memory of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since World War II.

The annual 100-kilometer march retraces a route taken by thousands of men and boys from the Bosniak ethnic group, made up primarily of Muslims, who were slaughtered as they tried to flee Srebrenica after it was captured by Bosnian Serb forces late in the 1992-95 war.

The march is part of several events preceding the commemorations on the actual date of the massacre on July 11.

Nearly 4,000 people joined this year’s march, according to organizers. The event comes as ethnic tensions still persist, with Bosnian Serbs continuing to push for more independence and their open calls for separation.

“I come here to remember my brother and my friends, war comrades, who perished here,” said Resid Dervisevic, who was among those who took this route back in 1995. “I believe it is my obligation, our obligation to do this, to nurture and guard (our memories).”

Osman Salkic, another Srebrenica survivor, said, “Feelings are mixed when you come here, to this place, when you know how people were lying (dead) here in 1995 and what the situation is like today.”

The war in Bosnia erupted in 1992 after the former Yugoslavia broke up and Bosnian Serbs launched a rebellion and a land grab to form their own state and join Serbia. More than 100,000 people died before the war ended in 1995 in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement.

In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosniak males were separated by Serb troops from their wives, mothers and sisters, chased through woods around Srebrenica and killed. Bosnian Serb soldiers dumped the victims’ bodies in numerous mass graves scattered around the eastern town in an attempt to hide the evidence of the crime.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Bosnia’s carnage was considered the worst in Europe since WWII. There have been fears that the separatist policies of pro-Russian Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik could fuel further instability as the war rages in Ukraine.

Despite rulings from two U.N. courts, Dodik has denied that genocide took place in Srebrenica, even as the remains of newly identified victims are continuously being unearthed from mass graves. They are reburied each year on July 11, the day the killing began in 1995.

A U.N. war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands, has sentenced to life in prison both the wartime Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and the ex-military commander Ratko Mladic for orchestrating the genocide.

So far, the remains of more than 6,600 people have been found and buried at a vast and ever-expanding memorial cemetery outside Srebrenica. The remains of 30 more victims will be laid to rest there Tuesday.
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PARIS – About 2,000 people defied a ban Saturday to join a memorial rally in central Paris for a young Black man who died in police custody, while marches took place throughout France to denounce police brutality, as tensions remain high after days of rioting engulfed the country.

Nationwide, around 5,900 people took to the streets, according to the interior ministry.

Seven years after the death of Adama Traore, his sister had planned to lead an annual commemorative march north of Paris in Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise.

But fearful of reigniting recent unrest sparked by the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel M. at a traffic stop near Paris, a court ruled the chance of public disturbance was too high to allow the march to proceed.

In a video posted on Twitter, Assa Traore, Adama’s older sister, denounced the decision.

“The government has decided to add fuel to the fire” and “not to respect the death of my little brother,” she said.

She instead attended a rally in central Paris’s Place de la Republique to tell “the whole world that our dead have the right to exist, even in death.

“We are marching for the youth to denounce police violence. They want to hide our deaths,” she said at the rally, also attended by several lawmakers.

“They authorize marches by neo-Nazis, but they don’t allow us to march. France cannot give us moral lessons. Its police is racist and violent,” she said.

The Paris rally had also been banned on the grounds that it could disrupt public order and a legal case has been opened against Assa Traore for organizing the event, police said.

Youssouf Traore, another of Assa Tarore’s brothers, was arrested and taken into custody on suspicion of violence against a person holding public authority, public prosecutors told AFP.

“The march went off peacefully, it was a success, we don’t understand his arrest,” Assa Traore said.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the outspoken head of the radical leftist France Unbowed party, castigated the government on Twitter.

“From prohibition to repression … the leader is taking France to a regime we have already seen. Danger. Danger,” he tweeted, referring to the World War II regime of Vichy leader Philippe Petain who collaborated with the Nazis.

Many at the rally shouted “Justice for Nahel” before calmly dispersing later in the afternoon.

Around 30 demonstrations against police violence also took place across France, including in the southern port city of Marseille and in Strasbourg in the east. Authorities in Lille banned a gathering.

Several trade unions, political parties and associations had called on supporters to join the march for Traore as France reels from allegations of institutionalized racism in its police ranks following Nahel M.’s shooting.

Traore, who was 24 years old, died shortly after his arrest in 2016, sparking several nights of unrest that played out similarly to the weeklong rioting that erupted across the country in the wake of the point-blank shooting of Nahel.

The teenager’s death on June 27 rekindled long-standing accusations of systemic racism among security forces, and a U.N. committee urged France to ban racial profiling.

The foreign ministry on Saturday disputed what it called excessive and unfounded remarks by the panel.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination — 18 independent experts — on Friday asked France to pass legislation defining and banning racial profiling and questioned “excessive use of force by law enforcement.”

“Any ethnic profiling by law enforcement is banned in France,” the ministry responded, adding that “the struggle against excesses in racial profiling has intensified.”

Far-right parties have linked the most intense and widespread riots France has seen since 2005 to mass migration and have demanded curbs on new arrivals.

More than 3,700 people have been taken into police custody in connection with the protests since Nahel’s death, including at least 1,160 minors, according to official figures. 
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TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN – Confidence in the reform agenda of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is at a low ebb in Uzbekistan ahead of an election Sunday in which the incumbent faces no real opposition and is expected to be returned to power with a huge majority.

With his limited steps toward greater openness and accountability, Mirziyoyev is still seen as an improvement over his post-Soviet predecessor, the autocratic Islam Karimov. But his 2021 pledge to keep the country “on a democratic path” was followed by constitutional changes that opened the door to Sunday’s snap election – and the formerly term-limited president’s eligibility for two more seven-year terms.

“People realize what is happening,” said Umidjon Mamarasulov, a blogger in Andijan. “But they seem too preoccupied with economic worries to do anything. Very little trust in elections in general, as the means for positive change.”

In pre-election interviews with VOA, many Uzbeks shared the sense that the ruling elite is unwilling to allow genuine political competition, and they have little hope the elections will be free or fair — something Uzbekistan has not witnessed since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

“To date, the campaign has been low-key, mirroring lack of opposition to the incumbent,” said a June 26 statement from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It said the campaign has been focused on the economy, health care, education, water and the environment.

“We deserve better but who dares resist the leadership? This is where we’re stuck for now,” said Khatam, a voter in Tashkent. A cabdriver, he sees the public as “quite concerned about the future” but also fearful that opposition to the president would lead to social tension.

Selling homemade savories in Chorsu Bazaar, Nilufar Rashidova argued that if allowed, Uzbeks “can totally handle pluralism, and everything else that comes with more freedom.” She said she appreciated Mirziyoyev’s reforms but wished that “we had some real candidates in this election trying to win our trust and vote.”

Standing against Mirziyoyev are candidates representing three parliamentary factions: the Ecological Party’s Abdushukur Khamzayev, the People’s Democratic Party’s Ulugbek Inoyatov, and Robakhon Makhmudova from the “Adolat” Social Democratic Party.

But no one who spoke with VOA viewed any of them as a genuine rival to Mirziyoyev, who was nominated by the Liberal Democratic and the National Revival Democratic parties. None of the three has challenged the president or urged voters to choose himself or herself over Mirziyoyev.

Khidirnazar Allakulov has led the Truth, Development and Unity opposition movement for the last four years. He said he saw Khamzayev, Makhmudova and Inoyatov as “string puppets” who would not even debate among themselves, let alone against Mirziyoyev.

“They are the faces of this crooked establishment, tasked to validate its reforms, which are empty promises,” he said. “Uzbekistan needs a real party reflecting the nation’s aspirations for freedom, integrity and prosperity.”

Allakulov’s group has twice been rejected registration by the Justice Ministry, which said the applicant failed to collect the required 20,000 signatures.

“We won’t give up,” said Allakulov. “Our countrywide network, led by women, is engaging the public, gathering support. No pressure, no harassment will stop us. We are taking this effort to ensure our children’s future. They must live in a better Uzbekistan.”

President’s pledges

Mirziyoyev claims he is governing a “New Uzbekistan.” Campaigning region by region, he has pledged to create jobs, ease labor migration, build schools and hospitals, boost business and attract more investment. He vows to keep Uzbekistan open to the world and maintain balanced relationships with major powers and neighbors.

He also says he is committed to developing Karakalpakstan, an autonomous western region where at least 21 people were killed last July during protests over proposed changes to the constitution. A year later, Mirziyoyev has kept his promise not to change the republic’s “sovereign” status, but Tashkent notably ignored the anniversary of the killings.

Sixty-one Karakalpaks were convicted in connection with the protests this past year, after trials that rights groups criticized for lack of due process. No officers have been held accountable for killing protesters, and a report by a parliamentary commission — which authorities heralded as independent — remains unreleased.

Sources told VOA that following these elections, authorities plan to introduce another round of parliamentary elections, citing the new constitution as the reason.

Despite some improvements in society, Oybek Alijonov, a migrant worker-turned-blogger in Jizzakh, observed “continuous backsliding, eroding trust and deep cynicism towards the political system. People are not as optimistic as they seemed three, four years ago. I sense growing fear and corruption seems to be expanding day by day.”

Some say the Mirziyoyev of 2023 is not as democratically minded as he initially seemed. Others underscore that he is “the best option” Uzbekistan has.

Those who support Allakulov see Sunday’s vote as mere theater, predicting a manipulated turnout in which the president will be reelected by an overwhelming majority.

“I have never seen a free and fair election in Uzbekistan, and I’m over 80. We have never democratically elected any leader. I feel sorry for our people, but at same time, I question all of us for tolerating this for so long,” said Yuldash, who chose not to reveal his last name.

Better than predecessor

Still, many told VOA they vastly preferred Mirziyoyev to his predecessor, crediting the incumbent for caring about Uzbekistan’s future, even though, they said, the system he runs remains profoundly authoritarian and nepotistic.

Mothers from the Ferghana Valley, from where millions migrated to Russia and elsewhere over the years, said they wanted Mirziyoyev to improve the economy.

“Our kids should work at home, have opportunities for well-paid jobs here,” said Dilkhumor Kuchkarova, who has worked as a teacher for 40 years. Her sister Gulbahor Kuchkarova agreed, urging the authorities to serve the population’s needs.

Engineering student Renat Abdirayimov, 21, insisted that Uzbekistan was advancing despite enormous challenges.

“As a society, we are slowly yet steadily becoming more critical and demanding. … The nature of governance and elections will improve as we become more assertive and responsible as citizens,” Abdirayimov told VOA.

“This is not the same Uzbekistan I grew up in. We must enable ourselves to tackle our problems, instead of expecting others to solve them for us.” 
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Russia launched a missile attack on an apartment building in Lviv early Thursday, leaving at least 10 people dead and 42 wounded. Rescuers are still searching for people in the rubble. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story.
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THE WHITE HOUSE – President Joe Biden will seek to grow his “close relationship” with the United Kingdom, the White House says, when he pays his first visit to newly crowned King Charles III and meets with Britain’s political leader to strengthen the bond between the two nations ahead of a critical NATO summit that could determine the course of the conflict in Ukraine.

London is the first stop on Biden’s three-nation tour, which begins Monday. He will then go to Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, for a summit of NATO leaders, and then to Helsinki, the capital city of NATO’s newest member, Finland.

“The president is very much looking forward to this,” John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, told VOA. “As you know, the United Kingdom is our strongest ally, in so many ways, on so many levels.”

Kirby said Biden will discuss issues such as the war in Ukraine with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and will discuss environmental challenges with the monarch, who was an early advocate for climate action.

“Not to downplay the U.K. trip, but this is not a full-fledged visit to the country but rather a stop on the way to Lithuania,” Dalibor Rohac, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA, via email.

And, he said, London noticed when Biden heaped praise on his ancestral home of Ireland, which he has described as “part of his soul.” The southern two-thirds of the Irish island is not part of the United Kingdom and has historically opposed the monarchy.

“For a host of reasons, British Conservative commentariat and political class feel constantly slighted by Biden – from his expressions of Irishness, through his absence at the king’s coronation, to Ben Wallace’s unsuccessful bid to lead NATO,” Rohac said. “That sense of neglect and of being snubbed is not going away, even if Rishi Sunak’s personal relationship with Biden appears good and even if the U.K. and the U.S. work extremely closely on a range of topics from Ukraine to security in the Indo-Pacific.”

Still, there is some symbolism to the American leader meeting amicably with the British king. Charles III is a direct descendant of King George III, the distant sovereign against whom a group of American colonists leveled a litany of complaints in the Declaration of Independence.

“So it’s to kind of recognize the pomp and circumstance of the unique head of state in the U.K. and of course, the unique history between these two great nations,” said Sean Monaghan, a visiting fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“But also on a more substantive policy front, President Biden has met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak a number of times in recent months, and they will be looking to move forward that agenda that they agreed recently, during Sunak’s last visit here, the so called Atlantic Declaration, which promises closer cooperation on a range of issues from trade, to defense, and elsewhere.”

Commonwealth changing

King Charles III remains head of state – mostly in a ceremonial sense – for more than 2.6 billion people, spread across the globe as citizens of the 56 Commonwealth nations. The voluntary political association consists mostly of former territories of the British Empire. Their collective goals include supporting democracy, government and the rule of law and promoting liberal values like gender equality. The United States is not a member, but 13 nations in the Americas are.

In recent years, members have questioned Britain’s right to rule them and interrogated their painful colonial past. Constitutional scholar Richard Albert is a member of Jamaica’s constitutional reform committee, which will help the nation set up a post-Commonwealth framework.

Albert, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said he recently returned from a trip to New Zealand – another Commonwealth member state – where “they corrected me when I called it the Commonwealth,” he said.

“They called it the Commontheft, the idea being that the Commonwealth has gained and accumulated all of its power and money on theft, of peoples, of lands, of possessions, of culture,” he told VOA. “And so I thought that was a very powerful statement on the part of the people there in New Zealand.”

The king, in his first Commonwealth Day message earlier this year, described the alliance as “an association not just of shared values, but of common purpose and joint action.”

“Its near-boundless potential as a force for good in the world demands our highest ambition; its sheer scale challenges us to unite and be bold,” he said.

Albert, who is Canadian – and who supports the idea of Ottawa withdrawing from the group – said “it’s possible to imagine the Commonwealth now and into the future, being a force for good for democracy, for constitutionalism, for the rule of law.”

But first, he says, something big has to happen.

“I wish the president would ask the king whether he plans to make amends for the wrongdoings of the monarchy over the past centuries,” he said. “But of course, if the president were to ask King Charles that, he’d have to ask himself the very same question, wouldn’t he?”
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LONDON – Britain said on Thursday that it would create a new sanctions regime for Iran, giving the U.K. greater powers to target decision-makers, including those involved in weapons proliferation and threats against British nationals. 

Britain’s current sanctions regime against Iran focuses on human rights, but the proposals would widen the scope of criteria that the government could cite in bringing new designations in the future. 

“The Iranian regime is oppressing its own people, exporting bloodshed in Ukraine and the Middle East, and threatening to kill and kidnap on U.K. soil,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement. 

“Today the U.K. has sent a clear message to the regime — we will not tolerate this malign behavior and we will hold you to account. Our new sanctions regime will help to ensure there can be no hiding place for those who seek to do us harm.” 

The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the charge d’affaires of the British Embassy in Tehran over the “destructive British statements and interference in our affairs,” Iran’s Arabic-language television network Al Alam reported on Thursday. 

Britain said that under the new regime, which will be legislated for later in the year, individuals and entities could also be sanctioned if they contributed to the undermining of peace and stability in the Middle East and internationally. 

It also said it had given evidence at the U.N. Security Council that Iran was continuing to send weapons to the Houthis in Yemen, and to Russia, to support its fighting in Ukraine. 

Under the new criteria, sanctions could also be targeted at those Britain says are involved in Iran’s undermining democracy and the rule of law in the U.K., and hostile activities aimed at British people or property, or Britain’s allies. 

Britain says Iran has made at least 15 attempts to kidnap or kill British nationals or individuals based in the United Kingdom since the start of last year. 

“What we have seen over the last 18 months is an unprecedented level of aggression from Iran against people here in the U.K., trying to silence dissenting voices,” Cleverly told reporters on Thursday. 

Britain has also announced new designations under its existing human rights sanctions regime for Iran.
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Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday announced the expelling of nine Finnish diplomats and shutting down of Finland’s consulate in St. Petersburg in retaliation for Finland expelling nine Russian diplomats last month.

The ministry said in a lengthy statement that it summoned Finland’s ambassador to Russia, Antti Helantera, on Thursday, and relayed its “strong protest in connection with the confrontational anti-Russian policy pursued by the Finnish authorities.”

The statement also noted that “the parameters of Finland’s accession to NATO create a threat” to Russia’s security, and “encouraging the Kyiv regime to (go to) war and pumping it with Western weapons means clearly hostile actions against our country.” The statement concluded that “this line of the Finnish authorities cannot remain unanswered.”

It said nine Finnish diplomats would be expelled from Russia, and a permit allowing the Finnish consulate in St. Petersburg — the country’s second-largest city — to operate will be revoked starting from Oct. 1.

Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, joined NATO in April as the military alliance’s 31st member. Interaction between Helsinki and Moscow has become restrained in recent months.

Finland’s veteran politician and then foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, announced in May that Russia has frozen the bank accounts of Finland’s diplomatic representations in Moscow and St. Petersburg, disrupting money flow and forcing the Nordic country’s missions to resort to cash payments.

In June, Finland expelled nine Russian diplomats, suspected of working in intelligence operations at Russia’s embassy in Helsinki.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto tweeted that he considered Moscow’s move on Thursday as “a tough and asymmetric” response to Helsinki’s decision to expel Russian diplomats.

Niinisto said the Finnish government was mulling counter-measures including a possible closure of Russia’s consulate in the western Finnish port city of Turku.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said on Twitter that Moscow’s move was “out of proportion” and that “Finland will react” to Russia’s decision.
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday that Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was no longer in Belarus and had returned to Russia.

Prigozhin went to Belarus as part of a deal to end an armed mutiny by his Wagner mercenary group last month.

Lukashenko brokered the agreement, which included security guarantees for Prigozhin and his fighters.

Lukashenko told reporters Thursday that his offer to allow some Wagner fighters to be stationed in Belarus still stood.

“At the moment the question of their transfer and setup has not been decided,” Lukashenko said. “I am absolutely not worried or concerned that we will host a certain number of these fighters here,” he added.

Prigozhin and his fighters launched their mutiny June 23 in a challenge to Russia’s military leadership.  They captured military headquarters in the southern Russian city of Roston-on-Don before moving toward Moscow.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Reuters this week said that it will appeal a move by Turkey to block access to more than 90 web links and social media posts that used reporting by the news agency.

The ban relates to an article that said that Swedish and American anti-corruption authorities were reviewing a complaint that named the Turkish president’s son, Bilal Erdogan.

The Reuters article was translated into Turkish by several media outlets, including VOA’s Turkish Service.

An Istanbul Court on June 26 issued an order that blocks access to 93 web addresses that used the Reuters news article, its Turkish translations or information from the news agency. VOA’s Turkish Service is among those affected.

“This is the first time that access to a Reuters news article was banned within 24 hours [in Turkey],” Yaman Akdeniz, a cyber law professor at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, told VOA.

Reuters on Monday said it would appeal the ruling, which it said “runs contrary to Turkish legal protections for freedom of the press and expression.”

In its reporting, Reuters cited a lawyer for Bilal Erdogan as denying involvement and describing the allegations as “a web of lies.”

Reuters also noted that it could not “confirm independently whether Erdogan and his son Bilal were aware of or had involvement” in the alleged scheme.

A Reuters spokesperson told VOA that the agency stands by its story.

“Our story was prepared in keeping with the Thomson Reuters’ Trust Principles and our commitment to the publication of fair and accurate reporting in the global public interest,” the spokesperson said.

Ruling

The Turkish court ruling, seen by VOA, defined the Reuters article as “far from reality, unconfirmed, and far from goodwill,” adding that citing it in other media outlets “will not justify and legitimize the content.”

The ruling said, “Freedom of the press obliges those concerned to respect professional ethics, to provide accurate and reliable information, and to act in good faith. Malicious distortions of truth may exceed the limits of acceptable criticism.”

But media critics say that the ruling goes too far.

“The court ruled that Reuters’s article should not be credited, and its coverage should not be published,” Akdeniz said.

Yusuf Kanli, the director of the E.U.-funded Media for Democracy project, said, “The Turkish Constitution clearly states that the press is free and cannot be censored.”

“Instead of banning access to the reporting of the bribery claim, the request to ban access to these allegations should be prevented,” Kanli added.

Gurkan Ozturan, the coordinator of Media Freedom Rapid Response team at the European Center for Press and Media Freedom, thinks that blocking access to articles in Turkey has become a problem.

“In recent months, there has been an apparent increase in blocking access to news articles and content removal orders targeting local media organizations. This threatens people’s right to access information and media freedom deeply,” Ozturan told VOA.

In June 2022, for example, access to VOA Turkish was blocked after it declined to get a broadcasting license from Turkey’s media regulator, the Radio and Television Supreme Council.

Several Turkish authorities condemned the Reuters article and described it as disinformation.

And several pro-government media outlets under the Albayrak Media Group and TurkMedya said on social media they had ended their contract with Reuters.

Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency’s director of communication, on Twitter condemned Reuters for what he said is a “false news story,” which he said made “baseless claims.”

“They have once again demonstrated to the entire world just how crucial our struggle against disinformation is,” Altun said.

Last year, Turkey’s parliament adopted a law that carries prison terms of up to three years for spreading “disinformation” online.

Asli Aral of VOA’s Turkish Service contributed from Ankara to this report, which originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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Two environmental activists were arrested at Wimbledon on Wednesday after getting on court and disrupting a match by scattering orange confetti and puzzle pieces on the grass.

A woman and a man wearing T-shirts from Just Stop Oil — a protest group that wants the British government to stop new oil, gas and coal projects — made it onto the field of play at Court 18 before being taken away by security. Later, during a different match at the same court, another man representing the same organization also threw orange confetti on the grass before security guards corralled him and dragged him away.

The initial interruption happened as three-time Grand Slam semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who is seeded 21st in the men’s bracket, was about to hit a serve in the second set of a first-round match against Sho Shimabukuro of Japan.

Before the debris could be cleared from the court to allow the players to continue, action was halted by a rain delay.

“Following an incident on Court 18, two individuals have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage and these individuals have now been removed from the grounds,” an All England Club spokesperson said in a statement. “Play on the court was temporarily paused and, following a suspension in play due to a rain delay, play [resumed].”

One of the activists sat down on the court before being removed.

The All England Club coordinated with London police and other agencies to increase security for this year’s tournament, in part as a result of protests at other major sports venues in Britain this year.

“Based on what has happened at other sporting events, and on the advice from our key partners, we have reviewed our security plans, which have now been uplifted for The Championships accordingly,” All England Club operations director Michelle Dite said last week.

“We have plans in place to mitigate the risks working in partnership with specialist agencies and the Metropolitan Police and should an incident occur, the appropriate specialist teams will respond,” Dite said.

Her comments came a day after people representing Just Stop Oil briefly disrupted play about five minutes after the start of a cricket match between England and Australia in London. Players from both teams intervened when the protesters attempted to spread orange powder on the field.

Earlier in June, protesters held up the England cricket team bus briefly during the test against Ireland in London. Activists also have targeted Premier League soccer matches, the Premiership rugby final at Twickenham and the world snooker championship in Sheffield this year.
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The human rights situation in Belarus is catastrophic, and only getting worse, the United Nations special rapporteur on the country said Tuesday.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Minsk is deliberately purging civil society of its last dissenting voices, Anais Marin told the U.N. Human Rights Council.

“The situation remains catastrophic. Unfortunately, it keeps on worsening,” said the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus. “The Belarusian government amended an already restrictive legislation aimed at dismantling civic freedoms, leading to a surge in politically motivated prosecutions and sentencing.

“The lack of accountability for human rights violations fosters a climate of fear among victims and their families,” Marin said.

‘Totalitarian turn’ 

Marin has been in post for five years and reminded the council that she alerted them two years ago to the “totalitarian turn” taken by Minsk, evidenced by the “disregard for human life and dignity” during the crackdown on peaceful protesters in 2020.

In her annual report, the French political scientist said more than 1,500 individuals were still being detained on politically motivated charges, with a daily average of 17 arbitrary arrests since 2020.

“I have good reasons to believe that prison conditions are deliberately made harsher for those sentenced on politically motivated grounds, by placing them in punishment cells for petty infraction to prison rules,” said Marin.

“No one has been held accountable in Belarus for arbitrarily detaining tens of thousands of peaceful protesters in 2020, nor for the violence or torture many of them have been subjected to.

“This general impunity, and the climate of fear resulting from ongoing repression, have compelled hundreds of thousands of Belarusians into exile.”

Media called ‘extremist’

Human rights defenders face ongoing persecution, she said, with more than 1,600 “undesirable organizations forcibly dissolved, including all remaining independent trade unions.

“This illustrates a deliberate state policy of purging civic space of its last dissenting elements,” she said.

Marin said independent media outlets had been labelled as “extremist organizations,” while academic freedom is “systematically attacked.”

“Ideological control and disciplinary measures restrict freedom of opinion and their expression,” she said.

Primary and secondary education is also subject to “ideological control,” with children “discouraged from expressing their own opinions” and facing “threats and consequences” for holding dissenting views.

Consequences for speaking out 

As for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, individuals face challenges when trying to speak out against it or question Belarus’s role in facilitating the 2022 invasion.

“Anti-war actions led to numerous detentions and arrests, some on charges of planning terrorist attacks — a crime which can now be punished by death,” she said.

Belarus was immediately offered the Human Rights Council floor to respond to Marin’s comments but was not present.
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