some food and water but despite the hurdles there stationed on the bridge waiting for the next chance to get across. after 7 months and 470000000. masses perseverance rover is said to touch down on mars the car sized rover is expected to land the vast crater that was once a lake that you collect samples in a search for signs of microbial organisms that may have lived 3000000000 years ago successfully brought back to earth they'll be the 1st ever retrieved from another planet. there and these are the top stories the barboy is the latest african country to begin coronavirus vaccinations the world health organization is increasingly concerned about the spread of the south african variant across the continent with

also has more from zimbabwe's capital harare. vaccinate at least $10000000.00 people by the end of the year that 60 percent of the population are the government told the body i'm going to say that this a variant that was 1st identified in africa is now in zimbabwe for people and now are. back in from china going to be against this new variant fungal are the feel that the chinese vaccine and i got back into the market were just to quickly they want to know what exactly is in these vaccines and are they any fighting. a rescue operation is underway in central nigeria that's after gunmen have kidnapped students possibly several 100 it's been confirmed one was shot and killed in the attack on the state run school regatta. in me in march thousands of demonstrators are back on the streets a day after some of the biggest rallies yet protesting for the 13th straight day

calling for the release of deposed leader aung san suu kyi facebook has blocked users in australia from viewing or sharing news on its platform it's a response to those laws to make tech giants pay media groups for content the blackout also affected government agencies as pages carrying health and weather warnings when blank. georgia's prime minister has announced he's resigning georgie got her year's decision follows a disagreement with his cabinet of the arrest of opposition the media. has been critical of the arrest saying it will only fuel political tensions further at least 30 people have died is freezing winter weather sweeps across the united states a historic storm has left millions without electricity and cover barely a 3rd of the country and snow the arctic blast is slowing down the delivery of covert 90 vaccine suppliers and has forced in all kill ation centers to close. was the headline something more news here on al-jazeera right after inside story

which is up next. protests against me in a mars military coup intensified and it's triggered a national reckoning on the persecution of running the most something years or even apologising but will this outpouring of sympathy lead to justice for the rohingya this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. the coup in myanmar appears to have united almost

everyone against the military protesters continue to defy threats of violent crackdowns to demand the release of aung san suu kyi and other democratically elected leaders. rallies across the nation have attracted people from all walks of life and they're not only demanding a return to democracy many are questioning the army's persecution of ethnic minorities some say they were told lies or simply didn't know about the army's crackdown against the mainly muslim rohingya the former un special repertory on me and more was vilified for highlighting the atrocities when young elite tweeted a call for aung san suu kyi to be released some people apologised for ignoring her warnings in the past some running to refugees have been showing solidarity with the pro-democracy protesters. they posted videos on social media showing them banging pots and pans they're also

using a 3 finger salute another symbol of the pro-democracy campaign me in march military is accused of rights abuses against the ring and many don't want to return especially now that the army is again running the country the coup leaders have said they will continue to honor commitments on bringing back refugees from the camps in bangladesh. will continue working on the repatriation of the displaced people who are now in bangladesh according to the bilateral agreement between the 2 countries and our policy. joining us from yangon is on charm 0 human rights activists thanks for being with us today let me ask you how has the coup impacted the rohingya so far in me and more thank you for having me here and of course it's too early to say it what is the impact to what the role. of the coup but we could see already that theory's political priority agenda that commander in chief who commanded this coup was saying the repatriations of the india is

a proud day for that for the country and i think also given time that the political landscape in myanmar suggests the joining it should be participating in the political movement in a more organized to it that they have never been in the last few decades and from an accepting press perspective i think they're going at this in the end give an opportunity for them to show their part of country and we are going to be doing individually or as in a community to to make sure these countries in the right right pop with the democratization process and we have been in the past indeed in history that during the people always has been in the history of myanmar with the cabinet in every cave in it that exists in myanmar or he knew where they are in every every problem and that exists in myanmar we were there every evolution that exists in myanmar we were there and today we are going to be there so that i think that's supposed to be the

thing for the ringgit people despite the end of the government we are all dear when they were in power to prevent. the military from from from preventing them or a standing as a firewall for an international court of justice i'm sure the fact that there have been protesters mainly young protesters on the streets of cities like yangon carrying signs in which they are expressing regret for what happened to the rowing in the. asked what does this say to you does that mean that there is more awareness of the plight of the rangar now in myanmar while the battle is not to be between the and i will and the and the military the battle is between the the the the public cloud the public office and the democrates solve. their big military i think we need to be able to distinguish this is not a war that we are in between the military or the or the end of the it is

a war between the public where the power of sourced exist in a democratic society and i think it's that like the number that you have giving that does regrets what happened to the ring gates is still very small number and this should be a quite a lot of people although they are very girding like what happened to ring of people in the past and the common enemy is not really there and get it it's another cute self who committed these atrocities and things like that and at the same time i think growing every poll should be able to express themselves and position them politically to be part of this country and to be participating in any means they can to be contributing to this democratization process and the more importantly i think the the generations see who are demonstrating on the street are not claiming on the for democracy under 2008 constitution they're asking to abolish to the it kind of situation that has a lot of controversial. articles and tougher around and that means that we are

going to be rewriting the history of the democracy democratic transition and it is important that we can get people participate in this process from very early stage that either we are winner as a simply and against the military or we are loser and the history will remain so it is a given political opportunity for rowing if people of the rigs is high for wing if people compare to other and the other thing i think group in the country because we are of we are we are already atrix by the fall of being human being here on tom oh thank you so much for joining us today. thank you very much appreciated. all right let's bring in our guests in bangkok debbie stothard is founder and coordinator of the see on burma network in london ronan leigh is a visiting scholar at queen mary university of london international state crime initiative and in vancouver just mean

a lot is president of the rohingya human rights network a warm welcome to you all yes ma'am let me start with you today the reading go are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world how concerned are you that they could become even more vulnerable both inside and outside of me and more as a result of the coup. it is really really worrisome especially. because the general milling actually appeared on a state t.v. just a few days ago and he was actually mentioning. the attempts that he's going to make in order to repatriate running back from bangladesh and he's looking forward to working biologically with the country in order to bring people back but there isn't really any details that were given and i believe that this is this is to try to do

with easing off some of the international pressure that he says feeling some of the heat that he's feeling from staging the coup and if the international community actually falls into that trap there's a high chance that there might be something really really tragic that's about to happen and it's not just one year that will have to brace for that effect it will probably be something that everyone in the country will also feel debbie i want to speak with you about something specific that yes mean just mention and that's the the repatriation agreement between me and maher and bangladesh this. is an agreement that's long been in the planning phases and that has never happened in fact i was in the camps in cox's are in november 2018 at one time when they thought it was going to happen it didn't happen then because they were so much concern about being able to safely return to me and more there not being a mechanism in place to guarantee their safety once they got back there do you believe that we could see this type of repatriation agreement going forward do you

think it's complicated because of the coup i think the coup is going to make it simpler. general the head of the who was is trying to stave off international pressure by promising to implement the repatriation agreement the problem is there will be no guarantees of safety for there are who are returning they will be no guarantees they will get their homes back and they will definitely be no guarantees that they'll get their citizenship back basically they're going to be put into another spiral of creation and expulsion under this model terry vishy run and there was a case brought by the gambia to the international court of justice accusing me and mars military of perpetrating a genocide against the ring in 2017 what are the ramifications of the coup on that is that going to delay the possibility of justice even further. well the

case will continue the case has been made already at the i.c.j. this been presentations my 2 to the judges there and the expectation again because all rate the i.c.j. is already issued provisional mage's in the favor of the gambians case instructing the state of me and ma not to continue committing genocide against the regime i think the coup complicates matters because it will be somewhat on certain whether or not the statements that were made by on sunset sheet to the i.c.j. 8 and the assurances that she gave to the i.c.j. that there was an essential me must case was that there was sufficient justice measures in place with me and i will those those assurances really no i cannot cannot stand it's very clear that there are not appropriate justice measures in place within me and not despite what has been said to the international court of

justice i mean i think what we're saying we think lang and me a must military raghad the regime is the continuation of a long pattern that they use the rich when they feel that there's a political neat he needs to present a business as usual efficient business as usual model to the i've cited he's desperate not to be betrayed as having thrown me into chaos week which he has and that's why he indicated to me and mas neighbors bangladesh and indicated to china that he was prepared to continue with the repatriation but that would bring joy to. be very nervous about 80 repatriation that is undertaken under the military's control i mean one of the more remarkable things that i have seen in the past week or so playing out on social media platforms is this out poor

. by young activists and young protesters in me and more who are posting things saying that they regret what happened to their were hanged saying that they were brainwashed by the military that they didn't realize what had been going on that they're very sorry and now that they are pledging their support to the really good going forward i want to ask you because i know you've interacted with some of these people on platforms like twitter as a human rights defender as an activist how does that make you feel seeing that. it actually fills me with a lot of hopes. in no way am i trying to be naive in the sense that. we have seen what the apathy of the general public can can can do but within the context of what has happened and my work with with debbie actually with the project that we're working on cult bridges myanmar i've seen the same

sense of. sort of shift in the mindset in their views in terms of you know who are here you are and and our existence as a people in general there is a lot of changes that are that are coming and i can feel that the sincerity the regret and the you know the the want to to change the country for the better it is truly there. but the conditions and the situations the violence and you know the restrictions and the suppression of the military is not allowing that and these are general are the generations of people who have been you know socialized to hate to hate and to you know to to feel the difference to actually highlight all of the you know all of the things that are going wrong and they've been suppressed for so long but they're now starting to see that there is a common. anomie there is

a common threat of the perpetrators and they're really wanting out the country to actually we become a little bit restructured in a way that they could truly look forward to their future not being you know under the control of the military so that is really hopeful for all of us actually not just for the rohingya but for the at mic communities as far debbie i saw you nodding to a lot of what you just mean were saying so it looked like you wanted to jump in i will give you the opportunity i also wanted to ask you what you think about what's going on do you think from your perspective that there is a kind of a reckoning going on right now well of course i'm going to. going to agree with everything that years man says because you huge ferrero you support of her. and all the young go women activists who are such kick ass feminists going out there and putting themselves out and having these very meaningful personal dialogues with

diverse activists and young people from burma myanmar and this is where what this is what we're seeing a lot of the leaders of the n.t. coup movement where young activists who actually stood against the rohingya genocide they stood on the side of the room and called out the military for the atrocities crimes not only against when you go but against other ethnic nationalities now these young people are leading this movement and what they bring with them is increased credibility and their ability to influence public attitudes and so public opinion is shifting and this is creating space for a lot of people to push for a substantial to inclusive democracy the status quo is no longer acceptable people recognize that this divide and rule strategy. of success of what

he aims is what is going to make the country and the society constantly evolve to propose and policy has so i think this is also a way not just a wake up call in the human rights movement movements off in law but also. a point in time that they recognize that it's time to shift the way they do the rights and democracy with ronan in your book you call on memoirs young people and the rohingya to embrace each other as allies do you think we are starting to see that happen and are we going to see more of it i certainly hope we will see much much more. very young country 70 percent of the people in myanmar were even born when aung san suu kyi 1st entered politics in 1980 s. but young people have been a long way away from political power in myanmar with we're seeing that change with

these protests and we're seeing young people presenting a much more mature view about the sort of democracy that they want to far more inclusive i think this year we should be cyber and we should be realistic but i think there's lots of reasons to be genuinely optimistic about the opportunities moving forward but i think we need to to recognize that there will be hard work to be done by the leadership of the riga and by young political leaders as well there's a lot of work to do in me and i mean miles a country that that has struggled to emerge from 6 decades of military rule that's now been another coup this if it will take real if it's to roll back the sort of political narratives that the military has presented about groups like the rich and about other at the minorities too but i'm cautiously up to me. yes i mean there

has been so much international condemnation about the military coup do you think the fact that the military the top mcdowell is under more scrutiny by the international community right now is going to lead to more focus on the plight of the rohingya and do you think you would see more countries going forward designating the atrocities that were committed against the ring as a genocide i would surely hope so surely hope that this would be a catalyst to a lot of the stagnation that we have we've been failing we've been feeling the often what was told to me when when i engage on various different levels with various governments is that because of their because there was an appearance of democratic transition with the n l d being in power there was a little bit less. inclination of all of these state governments to actually jump

in or to actually get involved in you know scrutinizing the the sort of you know human rights violations and various or friend. terrible situations that are on that were ongoing within the country now it's sort of you know is a manifestation of that you know the the compromise at the end he has towards the military and it manifests in this way a very very tragic situation where you know the entire country is are under siege i surely hope that you know the economic incentives that the military has been you know pursuing will will become something that the international community will sort of look at and try to steer clear of and hopefully that you know the military will will face a lot more are we tally. ation from the international community and that you know

it will slowly ease off and be pushed out of the power i know that's a long way a long ways away but we're very hopeful that you know with the with the plight of the rohingya it can be woven into you know the larger structure of the abuse of power that the military is enjoy it for so long and the culture of impunity that is ridden and infested within the society of me and mar and that we can actually do some little bit of revamping and that knowing that the n.l.p. will not be the silver bullet of the democrates movement debbie one of the other things that's really striking on social media right now is there's a lot of post by rohingya refugees in the camps in bangladesh and they are making 3 finger salute they are showing their solidarity with protesters in myanmar here's a population that was so brutalized by me and more as a military they are so marginalized and so warm rable and yet they are standing in

solidarity with protestors in myanmar what does that say to you it says to me that the road in those camps all the really been displaced and expelled and subjected to genocide of violence by them the means military they still feel they're very much part of me and mom and they feel a kinship with the people with all communities there even though they have been rejected by them i think that is a generosity of spirit and a form of solidarity which mustn't be ignored and must not be forgotten wrote in the fact that the myanmar military stands accused of genocidal actions against the or hangar for these atrocities that were committed in 2017 atrocities at the u.n. labeled a textbook example of ethnic cleansing is that from your vantage point fact. dring

into their decision making when it comes to what their response is going to be going forward to the protests i think it's clear that the the military's attitude towards groups like the rigging is that they see them as as things to be used for political advantage so i think that what you'll see from the military is that if they think this is this some political advantage to making a particular statement about repatriation or not repatriation that's what the i think what's very clear from these protests is that man must compromise. constitutional system that granted the military so much power just did not work and we simply cannot allow the country to go back to that i mean that's why this protest is on the streets in such large numbers they don't want to compromise political system that grants the military ongoing power i mean when the military's got more power in myanmar it that's always bad news for groups like the regime get

but moving forward there's a real opportunity to finally remind me of a powerful political military yes i mean we only have about a minute and a half left i just want to ask you quickly how dire does the situation remain for the 600000 or so rohingya who are still in iraq kind of say to me and more extremely dire people still don't have access to their basic needs they still can't you know they still don't have the rights to movement don't have the rights to access you know health care education everything sort of remained the same although you know right now there is a restoration of the internet by the military in order to appease the general public in order to you know support and endorse the cuckoo but i do genuinely hope that what happened to the range. does not happen to anyone else and

this is. why truly truly urge the international community to not take the eyes off of the situation that's happening in myanmar all right we've run out of time so we're going to have to leave the discussion there thank you so much to all of our guests that we started ronan lee and you asked me a lot and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time visiting our website others here at dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story for me. and the whole team here i cannot.

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india identity politics on the rise what we're seeing is the construction of politicians in coats and loads of new ones of people across the country and as a dark side is you do see the grit from his office the majesty of the him fit into something more like the team i didn't see of the british when i meet with victims of violence and discover what life is like for minorities in the country join me on my journey in search of india's soul on al-jazeera. romania's ancient forests some of europe's most pristine they are crucial for our society and a crucial fall battle against the climate crisis but illegal logging by a ruthless to the mafia is destroying both the landscape and people's lives being in the main areas are what our songs violence killing was a rolls amidst claims of corruption and the role of powerful multinationals people in power investigates rumania break with the far east on al-jazeera. we understand

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