in this country between democrats and republicans, donald trump won the presidential election here in 2016, joe biden in 2020. and in this years senate race both candidates are sticking closely to their party platforms, while at the same time attempting to show that they're more pennsylvania and less washington dc. it's a contest of personalities. political scientists to sara nibbler has been following the race. they're both running as political outsiders, right? no one wants to be part of the, the washington establishment or, or, you know, government in washington. inflation is weighing heavy on pennsylvania voters. i'll think anyone has gone to a grocery store and bought some eggs or milk or anything like that and found out how much you know, there increased for some party platform is more important than debate performance. it turns into an argument that's not in my opinion, won't help me make a decision. it just turns me off. an pennsylvania voters with so few senate races and serious contention could very well determine which party controls in the senate

. kristin salumi al jazeera harrisburg, pennsylvania. ah, your child deserves lisa. hello, robin doe, reminder of all top stories, lebanon has started repair tracy. hundreds of syrian refugees. officials say they're returning home ball entirely, but rights groups have raised concerns about their safety. so dakota has more from also, with a level severe border cynthia, early hours of the morning, a few 100 refugees have gathered here at one of the many border crossings between lebanon and syria. they have begun to go home. we've been speaking to people here at the end of the day, we have to understand that these people are really caught between a rock and a hard place. they're scared in lebanon, and they're scared and syria. it's been an unwelcoming country for, for many of them. lebanese officials have made it clear time and time again that

they are a burden. in fact, they even blame them for the economic crisis. its been 40 days since the death of mass media and around the 22 year old on while in the custody of the so called morality police students and protested universities across the country to find an ongoing crackdown. i mean, he had been detained, violating strict dress code for head covering stuff that is constant protest since her death have been some of the wrong biggest since the 1979 revolution. but francis will meet with a family of the med veteran, al jazeera journalists, renewable at clay, and vatican city. she was targeted and shot dead by as ready, falls as while on assignment to the occupied west bank. in may the case the prime minister soon because officially taken office saying that he'll fix the mistakes of his predecessor jeremy hunt, continued the finance minister. well sir la braverman will return as home secretary is already full of ready the home of

a palestinian activist who is killed in august troops attack deborah here in the blue seas house in nablus and reportedly arrested. his brother is related to the series of operations, talking members of the palestinian group lines in the occupied west bank. at least 22 people are being killed and thousands left homeless after science clothing sit on, slammed into coastal regions of bangladesh authorities. and now working to health effected communities, but damage power lines hampering thereafter. you can follow the stories on the website it down to 0, dot come back to more news and half now inside story is next to stay with us. hello to the stories that we cover heidi complex. so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can do as many people as possible know about how much they know about a given crisis or issue with the smell of death is overpowering as al jazeera correspondence. that's what we strive to do. me and my army as

strikes on an ethnic group celebration, kill dozens of people, rights groups, call it a war crime. has the military intensified the fight against rebels and how have the countries many ethnic conflicts evolved since the code? this is inside story. ah. hello there and welcome to the program. i'm laura kyle. at least 60 people have been killed in a man mom, military air rate on a celebration by one of the country's most prominent ethnic rebel groups. as strikes target said the gathering in northern catch in state. those who died to be marking the anniversary of the foundation of the couch in independence on these political wing, as spokesman says, up to 500 people were attending a concert. when the attack happened. it was one of the biggest strikes on

a rebel group since the military crew in man my last year human rights watch called it a disproportionate an indiscriminate attack on civilians. a spokeswoman said injured people became trapped off to the military, blocked roads to the area. really, really need to speed the un security council step up. i mean, they really should be passing this resolution that enforces an embargo amendment. and at the very least risk there's the country situation to the international criminal court. i mean, just to be able to do that right now is like jumping through hicks and that really shouldn't be the case because it's very evident that will crime happening. that crimes against humanity happening that people have been blown up to the family rating their own identity. while mamma has suffered decades of conflict involving different minority groups, 21 the ethnic groups operate across the country. some of them such as they are, con, kitchen and korean,

have been fighting the military for years. these talks between the government and warring ethnic minorities have taken place in 2011, but not all groups have been involved. last years metric who disrupt to the negotiations, which had already stalled some ethnic rebel armies then announced they joined together to fight the agenda in may this year mostly the men on climb resumes talked with 10 of the 21 armed groups ah was bring in our gas now to talk further about this in london, schulman, the executive director of the burma human rights network. in chung my and thailand justin chambers, a post doctoral researcher at the danish institute. international studies how work focuses on or 30 and ethnic national conflicts and mand, mom. and also in london, chris began to the director of the min more accountability project. if i will welcome to all of you chillman, let's start by looking a little bit more at 5th caption attack at least 60 killed including civilians. why

did the military job to target this concept and what's been the kitchen response? but actually if i go back to clear clarity and clearly in knew about this, this is not the 1st time the targeting, the civilian target noncombatant targets the military has been using to type of strike. one is a helicopter gunship. the other one is the 5 digit latest, right, or just for a quote from russia. every time, if you get more than 200 times the s truck has been conducted across the country within the couple of years. and the targeted places carrying karinnee a chain chain, the guy and the 5 states, the heavy me fight against the military. and the, all the civilian target has been bombarded and they, using for the helicopter gunship to do is called the policy they're using to destroy all the villages to destroy the population killing the civilians. and just

2 days ago, i have a report from the ground doesn't software civilian has been killed and been alive. and all the villages have been destroyed and using the helicopter gunship. so this is a widespread and a very systematic crime against humanity committed by them. and just i can just see and i can see you nodding in response. why is the military targeting these civilian points? look, i think it's a fine of desperation. i think the military is using it most brutal and the hard tactics. again, the resistance and particularly in those areas where the resistance is so strong, such in those areas controlled by ethnic resistance. organizations like he could chin and korean and chin and guy. and you know, i think this is a show of the desperation that they don't have control over the conflict and that they are going to the dock as measures to input follow the communities and read fia

chris. what, what impact is it having, is it making people in these ethnic minority areas, cala and counts how to the military or is it boosting the resistance? well, it's certainly empowering the resistance because people are looking at these brutal tactics and realizing that there can be no accommodation. and the only answer is going to be some kind of parlance resistance. now, your question has to pump the humanitarian aspect. there is a strategic aspect on the humanitarian side. a 100000 people have been displaced by fighting in the kitchen state and report the i'm guessing is that the displacement is going on every day and that is reflected across man. not since the coo, 1300000 people according to the latest un estimates are internally displaced on the strategic from what we've seen since the qu,

in february last year is the dramatic fragmentation of this conflict. so not only is the army fighting the ethnic groups like the k o, they're also trying to control the civil disobedience movement, which is becoming increasingly a violent confrontation line fights to the violence in large part of the military. and also what we're seeing spring up across the country are the so called pdf, the people defense forces, and they are mounting extraordinarily brave guerrilla tactics ambushes. we hear them almost every day, but what we're not seeing is the pdf brought on the any really unified central command. so best thing, he knew back the lines, a very little situation which the army having to confront as, as i've just heard, the army has lost control. they are simply not in effective control across the

country, which is very important. when you come to talk about the diplomatic aspects of the pdf may not be under any central command, but sure. when to what extent are they being allied with these ethnic armed groups? went to the ethnic arms globe. they have because you see that the before that of illusion happened, the ethnic group have been fighting against a military long time. but right now, if you look at the map, is the guy and them agree where it is to the province before the main area place where the military recruit for the, for the ground troops. but these 2 locations are now fighting against the military . so they have a shortage of men power and the ground troop. if you look at the, all the strategy, the way the defending and taking their using more civil power rather than launching offensive attack on the braunfels, you know, for example, reason the, the to the few days ago there was kimberly and

a pdf joint offensive launch against a cd call cochran city. during that fight, they had the, the strategy of the, again and there was a hit and run because occupied for a few days. and they would roll. but the response from the late fee, instead of sending them more troops to push them back, they use at least an air power excessively. and they were heavy fighting, went on and ended up the last one, using at larry's and fighter jet and helicopter gunship. instead of funding gone troops, the what we see the, the controlling, the saving them and power to defend the major major area me to c, p and major towns and not wasting that men power to go. the shortage of mentor is very clear. so they're using the military power and all this is substitute against manpower. so all the cd and other ethnic groups,

if you look at the ethnic would like very nice and courageous and get in there. having been receiving ceilings of dozens of strikes every day and the civilians are in the, in the, in the, you know, fleeting to different different directions. and there are heavy cuz all of these are having, not only in the, the combatant is the old all on the militia, all the civilians. because when you look at the civilians are not trained to you know, counter this cannot just kind of attack what, what does the military, those will train, they know how to manage all just kind of a tech. so that is a big issue enough. the problem here right now is there is a huge lack of political world from international community to take effective action against that barbarous and murderous region to stop killing all the civilians. so this is the important point international committee. the need to take immediate action. it is, and i do have to get to that just a moment, christopher, when we look at this growing intensity of violence, some un experts, a cooling the current situation, a civil war. do you agree with that or do you,

as you said before, i think that it's more an our kick them not. i think that there is a situation of civil war. and the con, the significance of that is that the memo army is one faction in the civil war. it's not the government, the 2 has failed. they're not taking control. they don't have effect control over the vast majority of the country. so yes and to add to sure with has just said about ariel bombardment, a collective punishment for which international crime and collective functions. it's for which there must be accountability. we're also seeing the increasing use of mass often attacks. now just imagine this a government, a so called government which claims to be in control delivery service is actually burning down huge, huge areas. according to the latest you and report 28000 homes have been burned down. these are deliberate attacks on areas which the government

believes are under control of opposition groups. and as i say, that had a huge, huge impact. so yes, on a t, but also that is a civil war. it's no longer the traditional view, central government fighting against these pesky arms groups. that's not the paradigm the ethnical group groups have now got allied across the country, including of chose mistakes in some of the central areas which had previously been relatively peaceful. bomb up majority areas, areas which are largely the majority of the bomber people, the majority of people of emma. so it's a situation where the army simply lost control. and as we were hang earlier these tactics, they were seeing these masses because these mass bombings, these arrow bob and the mass of the tech, they are symptomatic of the fact that the army has lost control. desperate.

yes, i also endorse, will show. and is that the, the, the mobile that the international community is adopting to look to as and so called 5 point consensus. it's 5 point piece, but that is simply out of date, they're not the diplomacy in smash reports. they're sports both in terms of the diplomatic responsible. so the human it's hair in response which we should talk about is just not keeping pace with reality. and i believe that the malaysian foreign ministers already said that that plan is out of days and they will be meeting am in indonesia on thursday, wednesday the as the am southeast asian forum is to discuss this further. just before we get on to that, justine against this backdrop of anarchy of violence, of, of huge attacks of fragmentation. where does men or clangs than that the senior general? where does his peace plan fit with all this? because only in may, he held face to face piece talks with 10 of the ethnic groups. what was the outcome

of that? was there any head way made think it's really important not to categorize all ethnic groups in the same light, have much stronger capabilities than others. and then those a lot of those groups that did participate in the pace talks actually quite small. and you know, some of the strongest resistance organizations like the current national union, like the dependent organization and even the are an army they are not engaged, may face talks. and, you know, the national face fire agreement, which was, you know, composed and the period of reform that is no longer feasible . you know, because those ethnic organizations signed an agreement with the government and not with me on my military. and the me on my military is coming up with this sham piece process to try and court f meet resistance organizations as i have done

in the past. and they are using, you know, a cart and stick approach where they are offering, you know, various contracts to access to natural resources, mining, confessions, etc. as i have always found, the last city is since they 1st started entering negotiation with if they are going to i, they sions, and you know, they try to do that again. but it's actually not working for the majority of the organization to actually back in the resistance. i just want to say that, you know, this is actually not just the civil war, it's a revolution. and what makes it so revolutionary is the ideas that are coming out of that. and the reason that foreign, many of these pow whole f make resistance organizations backing the revolution, including the parallel national unity government is because there is this process to try and create a general, genuine federal democracy which is part of the key demand. if me resistant

organizations have been fighting for more than 70 years, i want to bring that up as well. so thank you for her sake weighing as in because this national unity government is not straightforward either. is it? the groups may not want to be talking to the military, but they certainly didn't have a better time under unsung suge in the national league for democracy. and many of the national unity government members are and l. d members. so, chore men, how, how much trust have these ethnic groups, goss in this political process, how much faster they have in the national unity government that they're going to offer a genuine federal democracy? i don't think it is. you know, the view of the ethnic minorities that we are looking at. the energy is not as inclusive, and you can see that the end you see few which is initial unity of a console which, where, you know, the main policy will meet and then there's

a major part about withdraw now. and also the like, muslim groups also not allowed to join their so it is very much monopolized by the former and then the members. and that is what the up on the fund with the new g. but it is not the time we divide among and giving the opportunity the military. we have to focus on that of illusion. but at the same time we need to makes, make sure, and you should not repeat the same mistake that emily did. and the international community should not repeat the same mistake that did with the energy. so that is the important point here is very, we need to be very pragmatic, very realistic. and the policy making in the government forming and every aspect of the future. i need government should be all inclusive, all inclusive. mean we need to involve all the ethnic leaders and ethnic representative from the scratch, not just from the government and telling them we put some on some,

some people from your community that's not inclusive. that is to showcase so we need to be very clearly clear here. and another point here is international community need to take pragmatic approach, which is now that is no and c i, c j o i c c case could protect us from the a rate s strike. we need defense, we need protection civilian william. so civilian environment, now victim of a strike, the weapon to acquire from the russia. we need protection for international community need to do something. not just at the very, very frustrated un agencies which is shaking hands with the, with the, with the military. and this is all carry of la madison, the jury of the staff, those who want to continue their job, but is not the time to giving the military any, any can offer recombination and giving them. these are the criminals. these are the barbaric criminals. there should they are supposed to be behind the bar, not in the table do do, do you know,

deciding that the culture of our christopher says and when, even because your organization interchange for victims of atrocities doesn't it? and so how common do you find these sorts minster incidents and how can victims of these kind of incense fine justice? well, that's a very sequestered or important question. as you say, we me, i'm accountability project one simple way. i mean, there's been some talk about the international criminal court, and it's very easy as happened with ukraine. by the way, for members states of the room, part state parties to the rome statute, which is the document which sets up the international criminal court. they could simply make a referral in the case of ukraine, they were dozens over 40 that referred ukraine to the international criminal court . there was absolutely no reason why the situation of men on the lying and his military songs should not be referred to the international criminal court. the nationally, the democracy has made

a declaration that it accepts the jurisdiction of the court matter of commissions. and we've published a legal opinion endorsed by some of the great legal minds on the planets, including justice, which gilson of south africa. john do got some of the most respected jurisprudential scholars on the planet to all say that the court could in to be bought. it takes is full member road statute policies to the state part of the room statute to refer the case. so that's one thing that could happen quite easily. we've also got cases spring up around the world. there is a move in jakarta petitioning the constitutional court to allow cases to be brought there. that would be very interesting because it's of as the member states, of course it needs to become the chair of next year. there's been a hinge a case in, in argentina, the universal jurisdiction cases among member states. there's a jurisdictions of nations around the world. those are possible, but we've also got the icy c process. we need to have a referral of any state policies, any foreign minister of justice,

or listening and they care about their interest. they care about what's happening in memo, these terrible international crimes being committed. they can be referred to the international criminal court in the hague, and we urge those referral to where is britain? the pen holder at the united nations security council, britain could make your fellow not bother the kids counselor, have to go that route with. obviously, china and russia would be to a direct referral can be made to the court. whereas by the dash, there are plenty of other member states who could refer to see more universal jurisdiction cases. thank you. jeff steven, man, i've always struggled to find the national identity that reflects all these ethnic diversity is in these extraordinary times. you find that the majority people have more empathy with these ethnic minority struggles. is this a real turning point from the mall? yeah, i mean look, i see there is a lot of reason to not have hope for the current context. and, you know,

i think there's also still a lot of division, you know, these grievances, not just going to go away overnight. but i see what, give me hard and you know, amongst my friends, including a lot of ethnic, friends and activists, is that they use these processed where there is recognition of violence experienced by ethnic communities for decades. and i think there is a real collective recognition that the, you know, the military has basically lied to people for, for many years in popping themselves up as the father of the so called father of the nation. and you know, i think that there, you know, there is, increasingly, people coming out notable late is coming out and apologizing for, you know, not recognizing those experiences, particularly again, communities like the ranger and, you know, more broadly minorities all over the country. and, and i think the fact that there are all these processes taking place, you know,

even though they're used to vision and contestation, of course, there's going to be no contestation based things to, you know, don't just, you know, change overnight. but, you know, even this week i was chatting with the correct me, activists, and she's part of a, a, a person that's coming out with a policy on transitional justice. i think that's just like so incredible. but you have the people coming together and coming up with, you know, a plan and a concrete plan to hold the military accountable. but it's also not just for the military to be accountable for also, you know, all, you know, actors in this process in this, in this revolution to be accountable for crimes against humanity. till when you got people in mamma fighting for democracy. you mentioned before you want to see more international involvement. we've got this meeting of southeast asian nations on thursday. what would you like to see out of it?

how we got to great it is that of illusion or civil war? whatever we grice it is. accountability is not the major respond to describe this. accountability is a side response, but the important thing is we need to save life. we need in order to safe life, we need to take the proper action on the ground. and i'm not suggesting to, you know, fighting to, to spread the fighting but the, or how we are going to stop this murderous regime from butchering civilian every day with using fighter jets. there must be some solution. when russia is killing civilian in ukraine, we never go to an international company to go to to other city council to stop this. we doing every country is taking their role, playing their role to protect the civilian. that's why not in burma why it is double standard. why people obama treated less human being or not that deserve to be protected. so that is very important point here. coming to the as the and often

if divided like militia like indonesia, they are very strong countries, tech support, the human right in burma. but this action cannot deliver 5 points because of the division we need international company to take some serious action. not just passing the bucket to the r c and just staying all right. most serious problem here . now ok, we are hearing the please. from you and from christopher to international leaders for more assistance. let's hope they're listening to thank you very much. all of you for joining us today. sure. when justin chambers and crest of a gun it and thank you to for watching, you can see the program again any time by visiting our website as al jazeera dot com. and for further discussion, do go to our facebook page at facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story. it goes to join the conversation on twitter or at ha, inside story from me laura kyle and the whole team here apply for now. ah.

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