At least 451 COVID-19 patients in Indonesia have died in self-isolation, a civil coalition that provides a platform for citizens reported Monday.  

Ahmad Arif, the initiator of the coalition Lapor COVID-19 (Report COVID-19) said at a press conference that the fatalities were recorded in 12 provinces, 160 of which were confirmed in West Java.

The group collected data from citizen complaints, conversations on social media and local news outlets.

Arif noted that the number of patients who died outside health facilities was much higher than recorded data, saying "this is only the tip of the iceberg, since not everything is reported.”

Data from the Center for Indonesia's Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI) shows that 446 COVID-19 patients in West Java died while undergoing self-isolation from June 30 to July 6.

Also speaking at the press conference, Diah Saminarsih, the founder of CISDI and senior advisor on Gender and Youth for the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the data was collected directly by health workers at 100 facilities in the West Java region.

- Many patients unable to get beds at hospitals

Saminarsih said the majority of the fatalities in self-isolation occurred due to a sudden drop in oxygen saturation, which often occurs in elderly patients with comorbidities, including hypertension and diabetes.

“They also have difficulty getting treatment because health facilities continue to be full amid the crisis due to the current surge in COVID-19 cases,” she said.

Saminarsih said public health centers throughout villages have no capacity to provide emergency assistance due to the limited number of staff and insufficient medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators.

"This is heartbreaking. Imagine someone who is out of breath unable to access health facilities and can't be helped and finally dies," she added.

Report COVID-19 said critical patients had tried to go to hospitals but were refused, as they were fully occupied, forcing them to go home and die.

Meanwhile, according to Arif, some patients in rural areas refused to go to the hospital as they were afraid of testing positive for the coronavirus.

"Not all of them are too late to go to the hospital, but there are also those who don't want to go, as they are afraid of being diagnosed with COVID-19. This is related to public perception," he added.

- ‘Number of cases will start to decline next week’

The government has aimed for daily cases of the coronavirus to decrease and be under control starting next week.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said public mobility in Java and Bali islands had decreased by 10%-15% due to the stricter restrictions that have been imposed since July 3.

"Our target was 20% [decrease in mobility] or more," Panjaitan said Monday in a virtual press statement.

He said the government is trying to bring down the daily number of cases to below 30,000.

"From the last three days, it has ranged between 33,000, 34,000, 38,000, but the recovery rate has increased a lot," he said.

Panjaitan expressed hope that the decrease in mobility and the community’s discipline in following health protocols would reduce daily infections, adding the problems in handling the surge had begun to be resolved.

Coronavirus infections in Indonesia jumped to new highs over the past few weeks as the more infectious Delta variant drives a surge in the country.

Indonesia has so far reported 2.52 million coronavirus cases, including 66,464 fatalities./agencies

Canada will donate 17.7 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to help inoculate people in Third World countries, the government announced Monday. 

The announcement also included a commitment of CAN$10 million (US$8 million) that will match donations dollar-for-dollar to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) by individual Canadians.

The vaccines will be administered by COVAX, a joint vaccine-sharing program run by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

"This donation is a result of our proactive approach to securing hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccines in our initial contracts. With close to 55 million vaccines in Canada, and with the demands of the provinces and territories for this vaccine being met, we are now in a position to donate these excess doses," said Canada's Procurement Minister Anita Anand.

As well, donations to UNICEF by Canadians will be matched by the federal government up to CAN$10 million. If the donations and the federal government reach the goal of $20 million, it will provide funds to vaccinate four million people, Anand said.

The 17.7 million doses and CAN$10 million matching donor program are on top of Canada's CAN$440 million contribution to COVAX.

The doses come at a crucial time as global cases of the coronavirus rise and WHO officials warn that wealthier countries must do more to help lower- and middle-income countries that are struggling with skyrocketing cases.

US-based Johns Hopkins University, which keeps a running tally of global virus statistics, reported as of Monday over 187 million virus cases worldwide and more than four million deaths.

“While Canadians continue to lead the world in vaccine administration, we know the picture is very different in many parts of the world,” Anand said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Delta variant of the virus is "ripping around the world at a scorching pace."

"We need more [vaccines] and we need them now."/aa

Turkish gendarmerie forces arrested at least 14 people across eight provinces Monday who are suspected of having links to the Daesh/ISIS terrorist organization. 

The Chief Prosecutor's Office in northwestern Balikesir province issued arrest warrants for the suspects over their alleged affiliation with and financing of the terror group from 2018-2019.

Local gendarmerie forces in Balikesir, the capital Ankara, northwestern Bursa province and Istanbul, as well as western Izmir province and the central provinces of Konya, Nevsehir and Sakarya conducted simultaneous operations to arrest the suspects, said security sources who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

A large number of organizational documents along with digital materials were also seized by Turkish security units.

In 2013, Turkey became one of the first countries to declare Daesh/ISIS a terrorist group.

The country has since been attacked by the terror group multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed assaults.

In response, Turkey launched anti-terror operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks./aa

The president of Pakistan-administered Kashmir deplores the role of the international community, mainly the UN, in the long-standing Kashmir dispute, calling it "conspicuously disappointing.”

"The UN role in Kashmir has been conspicuously disappointing because practically it has taken a hands-off approach, though they realize Kashmir is the elephant in the room," Masood Khan said in an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency on the occasion of Kashmir’s national day, which is being commemorated on Tuesday across the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the region.

People across the dividing line are observing the 90th anniversary of the killings of dozens of Kashmiris in the city of Srinagar on July 13, 1931, when they were protesting against the Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh, then ruler of Jammu and Kashmir.

Commonly known as "Martyrs Day", the event is seen as the starting point of the current phase of Kashmiris' longstanding freedom struggle.

"The US wants the status quo, an option preferred by India, and the European Union is hamstrung. But the citizens of the world can be mobilized. Today, for the Kashmir cause, the streets are more promising than official chambers – bilateral or multilateral," he said.

By ignoring the Kashmir issue, Khan added, powerful nations which claim to be the custodians of international law are "underwriting impunity for crimes against humanity" in Jammu and Kashmir.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been the main ingredient in the long-simmering rivalry between Pakistan and India since the two nuclear-armed neighbors gained independence from the British Empire in 1947.

The picturesque Himalayan valley is held by the two countries in parts and claimed by both in full. Since 1947, the two neighbors have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have been killed and tortured in the conflict in the region since 1989.

Already heightened tensions between the two countries touched a further low after India stripped the longstanding semi-autonomous status of the valley in August 2019, prompting Islamabad to downgrade diplomatic relations with New Delhi and suspend bilateral trade.

India wants 'cosmetic' engagement

Khan, a veteran diplomat who served as Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN from 2012 to 2015, contended that New Delhi is looking for a "cosmetic engagement" with Islamabad for "good optics" following the scrapping of the valley's decades-long special status.

India “wants to give a false impression that Pakistan is ready to live with the changes India has made since Aug. 5, 2019. But Pakistan has not. Pakistan has made it clear that it would not hold any bilateral talks until it reverses its actions of August 2019.”

Replying to a question about the resumption of long-stalled peace talks India and Pakistan, Khan said bilateral talks in the past on Kashmir have never produced results because India’s sole purpose is to "bury the issue for all times to come."

"That’s not acceptable to Kashmiris. I see little utility of such talks if the Kashmiris, whose fate is at stake, are not sitting at the negotiating table. The official international community has no desire for playing a role to resolve the issue," he added.

Referring to the reaction of the international community to India's actions in August 2019, Khan said: "In the immediate aftermath of New Delhi's move, influential parliaments and international media called out India and castigated it for its illegal actions."

"India was held accountable. The UNSC [UN Security Council] also met informally to discuss the perilous situation in the region, and there was a groundswell of support for the besieged Kashmiris. But the momentum frittered away after three months," he said.

"Now the unfolding tragedy in Kashmir is buried under the heavy burden of the global geostrategic agenda."

The controversial move, he said, could not even get support from pro-India politicians in Kashmir, and has further bolstered the "legitimacy and appeal" of pro-freedom leaders.

"Even before August 2019, pro-India politicians had completely lost their credibility. The bulk of the captive Kashmiri population saw them as henchmen of Delhi and in fact facilitators of the reign of terror in Kashmir," he said.

After August 2019, he argued, these leaders were "disparagingly dumped by their masters."

"India looked for their substitutes but had limited success. These pro-Indian leaders bent over backwards, their blackmailing caveats notwithstanding, to stage a comeback," he said.

"The Modi government wants to co-opt them for getting their support for illegal demographic changes in the state and delimitation of the constituencies to give more representation to the Hindus in a future legislative assembly."

On the other hand, he added, the "legitimacy and appeal" of the Hurriyat Conference leaders – Syed Ali Geelani, Yasin Malik, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Asiya Andrabi and Shabir Shah – remains "as strong as ever."

Kashmiris' participation

Khan said Kashmiris should be seated at every table that discusses the issue, and should be part of any political or diplomatic process that is initiated on Kashmir.

"Kashmiris should not be pushed to the sidelines as spectators when their fate is being decided. We know they want to join Pakistan. But until they do so, through a referendum, their voice is sovereign," he said.

Referring to the Ladakh standoff between China and India, Khan observed that the development has made a difference.

India’s “Lebensraum,” he added, has been stopped in its tracks and Kashmir has gained more visibility and prominence worldwide.

"It has, ironically, also accentuated the issue’s complexity and intractability, which suits India. Kashmiris want a solution, not a perennial status quo and the vicious cycle of violence to which they are subjected every day," he contended./aa

The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) on Monday said a convoy of 50 trucks with 900 metric tons of food as well as other emergency supplies have arrived in Mekele, capital of Ethiopia's restive Tigray region.

The region came under international spotlight after Ethiopia’s federal government launched a military operation on Nov. 4, 2020, a day after Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defense Forces, killing and maiming soldiers in addition to looting sizable military hardware.

In a statement, WFP said it was the first humanitarian convoy to reach Tigray since the UN food agency restarted operations in the region on July 2.

The statement said that double the number of trucks that arrived in Mekele on Monday needs to be moving every day to meet the vast humanitarian needs in the region.

"With almost 4 million people in need of emergency food assistance in Tigray, WFP needs to transport over 10,000 metric tons of food and 150,000 litres of fuel every week on behalf of the humanitarian sector," it added.

WFP Emergency Coordinator Tommy Thompson welcomed the clearance given by the Ethiopian government for the convoy’s safe passage into Tigray region.

However, Thompson said: “Our stocks of food and fuel are still at alarmingly low levels. WFP and other emergency responders need guarantees of regular and secure passage every day to save lives and livelihoods at scale across the region.”

“We are still operating hand-to-mouth. For fuel alone, we need 20 tankers to reach Tigray each month. At this rate, WFP cannot hope to scale up to reach over 2 million people in need of food assistance in Tigray," Thompson said.

Last month, Ethiopia announced a unilateral cease-fire to allow farmers to make use of the current main rainy season for harvesting./agencies

After 10 weeks of decline, COVID-19 deaths are increasing again with the virus “ripping around the world at a scorching pace,” the World Health Organization head said on Monday.

Tedros Ghebreyesus was speaking at a twice-weekly WHO webinar on COVID-19. He said that last week marked the fourth straight week of increasing virus cases globally.

“We continue to hear reports from all regions of the world about hospitals reaching capacity,” said the Tedros said, urging the more affluent countries to share their vaccines with poorer nations.

“In places with high vaccination coverage, the Delta variant is spreading quickly, especially infecting unprotected and vulnerable people and steadily putting pressure back on health systems,” he added.

He said that even countries that successfully managed to ward off the early waves of the virus, through public health measures, now face devastating outbreaks.

“Particularly in low-income countries, exhausted health workers are battling to save lives in the midst of shortages of personal protective equipment, oxygen, and treatments,” said the WHO chief.

Tedros said that vaccines had never been the way out of this crisis on their own, “but this current wave is demonstrating again just what a powerful tool they are to battle back against this virus.”

The Delta variant is now in more than 104 countries, and WHO expects it to be soon the dominant COVID-19 strain circulating worldwide.

“My message today is that we are experiencing a worsening public health emergency that further threatens lives, livelihoods, and a sound global economic recovery,” Tedros said.

Separately, responding to a question by Anadolu Agency, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said that the health agency had designated a new variant of Interest: Lambda.

“WHO has been monitoring this variant for a while. The earliest sequenced samples of Lambda were reported from Peru in August 2020,” said the WHO spokesman.

“There is increasing evidence that this variant is overtaking other virus variants in some countries that are seeing an increase in cases,” and the variant is believed to be in 29 countries./agencies

Dr. Hamza Karcic*    

SARAJEVO

In Bosnia and beyond, 11 July has become synonymous with Srebrenica.

Twenty-six years ago, Bosnian Serb forces led by Ratko Mladic overran the UN-declared safe zone of Srebrenica.

What followed were mass executions of Bosniak men and boys, rapes of Bosniak women and deportations.

The atrocities committed in and around Srebrenica were the most brutal phase of the three-and-a-half-year genocide that Bosnian Serb forces perpetrated against Bosniak Muslims from 1992 to 1995.

Every year on 11 July, Bosniaks commemorate the genocide victims of Srebrenica.

Domestic and international dignitaries pay their respects and promise that Srebrenica will never happen again. Remains of victims found in mass graves are buried in the Srebrenica Memorial Cemetery.

On this July 11, remains of nineteen genocide victims were laid to rest.

With Mladic's final guilty verdict last month, the top leadership of the Bosnian Serb rebels of the early 1990s has now been found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes without exception.

Despite overwhelming evidence of genocide, international court verdicts, and historical studies by international scholars, the political elite of Republika Srpska, including the supposedly moderate opposition, all engage in genocide denial and even genocide glorification.

Countering the growing genocide denial is the task of Bosnian and international scholars, activists and politicians.

One of the avenues is to redouble efforts aimed at international commemoration of the genocide. It is through international commemoration that the truth about the genocide in Bosnia will be further codified.

International commemoration has taken different forms over the past two decades.

Particularly important are legislative resolutions, declarations of 11 July as Srebrenica Remembrance Day in countries across the globe and 11 July commemorative events.

A number of parliaments have adopted resolutions commemorating Srebrenica.

In the United States, both the Senate and the House adopted landmark resolutions in 2005, which placed both chambers on the record as reaffirming the genocide in Bosnia. The European Parliament adopted Srebrenica resolutions in 2005 and in 2009.

Several national parliaments including those in Croatia, Montenegro, Canada, Australia and Kosovo have adopted resolutions on Srebrenica.

While this is significant, it is very critical that this trend continues and legislative resolutions are adopted in the parliaments of great and regional powers, as well as all NATO and European Union member states.

In addition to adopting legislative resolutions, it is also important that 11 July be declared as Srebrenica Remembrance Day in countries outside the Balkans.

Several American states and cities with significant Bosnian-American populations have done this.

By issuing such declarations, these states and cities have kept alive the memory of the genocide far beyond the borders of Bosnia.

As the American example demonstrates, national legislatures can make such decisions, but so can other levels of government, such as states, cities, and towns.

In other words, city councils and mayors in friendly countries, as well as those with a significant Bosnian population, do not need to wait for national legislatures to designate 11 July as Srebrenica Remembrance Day.

A number of cities and towns outside Bosnia have held commemorative events to mark the 11 July over the past years.

These cities and towns in the US and western Europe usually have a significant Bosnian diaspora.

Cities in Turkey have also held commemorations remembering Srebrenica. This is a very positive development and efforts should be made to extend this to other cities and towns.

Adopting resolutions in national parliaments, declaring 11 July as Srebrenica Remembrance Day, and holding annual 11 July events to commemorate the genocide in Bosnia should be undertaken by major and regional powers, as well as all NATO and European Union member states.

These commemorative practices will keep alive the memory of the genocide while serving to minimize the influence of genocide deniers./aa

*The author is an associate professor at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Sarajevo

** Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Al-Mujtama.