Royce-McGovern Introduce Legislation on Sudan’s Involvement with the Lord’s Resistance Army

Royce-McGovern Introduce Legislation on Sudan’s Involvement with the Lord’s Resistance Army

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 3, 2011

Royce: Audra McGeorge
(202) 340-8147
McGovern: Michael Mershon(202) 225-6101

Royce-McGovern Introduce Legislation on Sudan’s Involvement with the Lord’s Resistance Army
Certification Must Come to Congress before Sudan can be Removed from Terrorism List

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), who have collaborated on past legislation on Africa, today introduced the “Sudan Cessation of Support for the Lord’s Resistance Army Certification Act of 2011.”

This legislation requires the Obama Administration to certify to Congress that the Sudanese government is “no longer engaged in training, harboring, supplying, financing, or supporting in any way the Lord’s Resistance Army, its leader Joseph Kony, or his top commanders” before Sudan could be removed from the state sponsor of terrorism list.

“Last year, bipartisan legislation was signed into law requiring the Administration to devise a strategy to end the LRA’s atrocities.  The strategy promises to ensure the LRA ‘receives no support or safe haven.’  I view this legislation as part of that effort,” said Royce, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade.

Historically, Sudan has backed the LRA with arms and supplies, making Khartoum the only documented state-supporter of the group, which is on the State Department’s “Terrorist Exclusion List.”  Joseph Kony, its leader, has been named a “specially designated global terrorist.”

“I’m very pleased to continue this important, bipartisan effort with Ed Royce,” Rep. McGovern said.  “The LRA and the Sudanese government need to know that the U.S. Congress – and the world – are watching.”

For over two decades, the LRA has terrorized northern Uganda and central Africa. Its followers have mutilated, abducted and forced individuals into sexual servitude, forcing as many as 65,000 children to fight as part of the rebel force.  Last Congress, McGovern and Royce led efforts in the House to pass the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, which was signed into law on May 24, 2010.

The “Sudan Cessation of Support for the Lord’s Resistance Army Certification Act of 2011” is supported by Resolve, Enough and Invisible Children, advocacy groups dedicated to ending the LRA’s atrocities.

International Community Condemns Deadly Protests in Syria

By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DERA’A, Syria – Syrian military troops opened fire on protestors who were demonstrating peacefully, killing a number of them.  This prompted tens of thousands of protestors in cities and towns around Syria to gather to challenge the government.

Since the protests began a week ago in the southern portion of Syria, 38 people have been killed by government forces and many more were killed on Friday.  Because the government refused to let reporters into the country, exact details about the incident are difficult to obtain.

Protestors apparently set fire to a statue of President Bashar al-Assad’s father, former President Hafez al-Assad.  Security forces then fired into the crowd and threw tear gas canisters.

A spokeswoman for the President stated that the government had not ordered the troops to fire on the protesters.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke out against the Syrian authorities’ actions and called upon them to refrain from the use of violence.  In a statement issued on March 23, he also stated that those responsible must be held accountable.

The U.S. has also expressed concern over the situation in Syria.  “We urge on the government of Syria what we have urged on the governments in other regions: that they pursue a peaceful course here, that they participate in a political dialogue with their people, because that is the better path,” stated White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Human rights organizations have also condemned the manner in which authorities responded to the protestors.

Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, stated, “The Syrian authorities must cease the use of excessive force to crush protests and immediately release all of those detained for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.”

Authorities also closed roads to the town of Dera’a and detained as many as 93 people, including a man who had been appointed as a community leader to negotiate with the authorities.  Recent reports indicate that almost all of these people, ranging in age from 14 to 45 and including students and journalists, have been released.

On Thursday, the government of Syria stated that it would consider reforms, including a possible end to the emergency law, which were passed in 1963.  This law permits the government to override the constitution and penal code statutes and also allows authorities to make preventive arrests.

According to a representative of Amnesty International, it is questionable as to whether the government will keep their promises to reform the law.  “The government has made similar statements before, yet the repressive state of emergency has endured with little tolerance for dissenting views for nearly half a century.”

Amnesty further called upon the Syrian government to stop the use of excessive force and to allow peaceful protestors to assemble freely.

For more information please see:
AFP – US condemns new Syria violence – 25 March 2011

Amnesty International – Syria Death Toll Climbs As Protests Spread – 25 March 2011

UN News Centre – Syria: UN human rights office voices concerns about situation – 25 March 2011

Amnesty International – Spiralling Syria Death Toll Reports ‘Disturbing’ – 24 March 2011

UN Secretary-General – Secretary-General Condemns Violence in Southern Syria, Urges Investigation – 23 March 2011

Students Sew Lips Shut During Hunger Strike

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela—A hunger strike in Venezuela has escalated as four university students sewed their lips together while demonstrating to demand more funding for public universities.

The initial hunger strike began on February 23; it was started by five students and quickly grew to about 55 protesters.  The hunger strikers argue that Venezuelan universities are in danger of shutting down and that the government should give satisfactory funding to keep them in operation.

Administrators from various universities in the country have announced that by early next month, over two dozen public universities may be financially unable to continue operating cafeterias or buying supplies.

Government officials have responded by denying the claims.  They have stated that the protesting students are being influenced by President Hugo Chavez’s political opponents.

During a program televised in Bolivar state, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said: “If they want to walk naked through the street, let them do it.  If they want to sew whatever they want to sew, let them sew it, but . . . we’re going to keep working for our homeland.”  Maduro went on to attribute the hunger strike to the Venezuelan right wing, which “continues with its madness.”

One protester, 18-year-old Gabriela Torrijos, took the hunger strike to an alarming level on Friday as she and other students demonstrated near the United Nations Development Program office in Caracas.  Torrijos, a political science student at the Central University of Venezuela, sewed the left corner of her mouth shut.  Following her example, three other students partially stitched their mouths shut as well.

Enduring the pain of the improvised stitching, Torrijos told the Associated Press, “After seeing my friends take this action, I did it in solidarity with them.”

28-year-old Villca Fernandez had a more sever reaction to his stitching: his face ballooned out and remained puffy for three days.  He said he had not eaten solid food for 30 days and would not resume regular eating habits until the government increased the universities’ budgets.  “I’m willing to die for my university,” he declared.  “I’m willing to die for my country.”

On Tuesday, President Chavez stated that he would increase students’ stipends and review universities’ budgets.  The striking students, however, have not yet taken those promises seriously.

For more information, please see:

Press Association-Students stitch lips in protest-26 March 2011

AP-4 Venezuelan students partially sew lips together demanding university funding-25 March 2011

Seattle Times-Venezuelan students stitch lips in protest-25 March 2011

Jerusalem Bombing Kills One, Injures Dozens Amid Escalating Tension

By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel – A bomb planted near West Jerusalem’s Central Bus station was detonated, killing one person, and injuring three dozen others, earlier this week.  The attack has been described as the “worst attack in Jerusalem in four years” and has prompted international criticism.

The bomb, weighing between two and four pounds and packed with ball bearings to increase damage, detonated just as two buses arrived at the bus station.  The U.S. State Department has announced that six Americans were injured.  Some of the victims were as young as 15.

Investigators believe the attack was the work of Palestinian terrorists, though no one has taken responsibility as of yet. Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian organization, and the Popular Resistance Committees, another militant group that is close to Hamas, praised it.

The bombing came as the tension between Israelis and Palestinians has escalated.  In the last week, stray fire from the response of Israeli troops to a rocket attack killed a sixty year old man and three Palestinian children.  The Israeli Air Force also killed four members of Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian organization, in Gaza.  According to the Israeli military, these men planned to launch rockets at Israel.

These recent bouts of violence may have discouraged any prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, “We will act vigorously, responsibly and prudently in order to maintain the quiet and the security that have prevailed here over the past two years.”

The Palestinian Authority has also denounced the bombing, as well as Israel’s actions in Gaza.  On Wednesday Prime Minister Salam Fayyad stated, “I condemn this terrorist operation in the strongest terms, regardless of which party stands behind it.”

Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, characterized the attack as “cowardly” and noted that residents should continue to live their daily lives such that it gives the impression that terrorists cannot win in the end.  “It’s important to return to our regular routines as quickly as possible. When terror attempts to disrupt our way of life, the best solution is to get back to normal as quickly as possible. Events in Jerusalem will not be cancelled and Jerusalem will not stop running.”

Human Rights Watch has called the bombing of civilians “a despicable crime that should be promptly investigated and prosecuted”.

For more information please see:
The Epoch Times – Israel Promises ‘Tough Reaction’ for Jerusalem Bombing – 25 March 2011

ABC News – British Woman Killed, Six Americans Injured in Jerusalem Bombing, Palestinian Terrorists Blamed – 24 March 2011

Human Rights Watch – Israel: Jerusalem Bombing an Indefensible Attack on Civilians – 24 March 2011

Globes – Bomb Explodes near Jerusalem bus – 23 March 2011

The Epoch Times – Jerusalem Bomb Kills One, Injures Dozens More – 23 March 2011

New York Times – Jerusalem Blast Raises Fears of Growing Violence – 23 March 2011

U.S. War Crimes of Korean War 2/2

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – The Pentagon’s interest in No Gun Ri was released in January 2001. The Pentagon’s conclusion and investigation acknowledged the killing of civilians at No Gun Ri by US forces, but it limited its conclusion, interpreting the “killings that took place as accidental attacks, an unfortunate tragedy inherent to war” reported BBCs Jeremy Williams.

No Gun Ri filmed in 2006 to spread the anti-US mythology surrounding the tragedy that happened at No Gun Ri
No Gun Ri filmed in 2006 to spread the anti-US mythology surrounding the tragedy that happened at No Gun Ri

Air Force Colonel Turner Rogers wrote a memo the day before killings at No Gun Ri. The memo stated, “[t]he Army has requested we blitz all civilian refugee parties that are noted approaching our positions.”

The memo went on to confirm the instructions which were acted upon. The memo concluded that, “[t]o date, we have complied with the army request in this respect”.

After 50 years, “the only major American investigation into the killing of refugees focused exclusively on the activities of the US Army over a small geographic area during one month of a conflict that lasted three years”, stated BBC reported Jeremy Williams.

Bruce Cumings, Department of History chair at the University of Chicago, wrote the book “The Korean War”  which depicts how little the U.S. knew about who it was fighting, why it was fighting, and even how it was fighting.

Though the North Koreans had a reputation for viciousness, according to Cumings, U.S. soldiers actually engaged in more civilian massacres. This included dropping over half a million tons of bombs and thousands of tons of napalm, more than was loosed on the entire Pacific theater in World War II.

Hanson Baldwin, the military correspondent for The New York Times was interviewed by Lawrence Velvel, Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, described “North Koreans as locusts, like Nazis, like vermin, who come shrieking on. I mean, this is really hard stuff to read in an era when you don’t get away with that kind of thinking anymore.”

Cumings adds, “Rapes were extremely common. Koreans in the South will still say that that was one of the worst things of the war, [acknowledging] how many American soldiers were raping Korean women.”

Cumings believed that Douglas MacArthur, the General who commanded U.S. forces in Korea was prejudiced against Asians and badly underestimated their fighting capabilities.

He went on to say that, “[o]n the day the North Koreans invaded the South in force on June 25, 1950, MacArthur boasted, according to Cummings, ‘’I can beat these guys with one hand tied behind my back’. This stated even after the CIA had warned MacArthur that 200,000 Chinese troops were crossing the border into North Korea, MacArthur said, “I’ll take care of it, don’t worry about it, Chinamen can’t fight.”

In the end it was the Chinese who advanced U.S. forces, clearing them out of Korea in as little as two weeks.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission charged with investigating wartime atrocities has found that American troops killed groups of South Korean civilians on 138 separate occasions during the Korean War. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is led by operations President Lee.

“We welcome the efforts of the Republic of Korea to investigate abuses of human rights and efforts to correct any possible inaccuracy in the historical record,” said Mark C. Toner, a State Department spokesman.

Lee Chang-geun, 77, whose parents were among an estimated 300 South Korean soldiers, railway officials, students and other civilians killed on July 11, 1950, when American aircraft bombed the train station in Iri, a southern town many miles behind the front line said:

“I want to ask the Americans: Is it O.K. to bomb civilians by mistake?” Mr. Lee said. “I want to ask: Just because their military came to help South Korea, is it O.K. to kill South Korean civilians and keep mum about it?”

An estimated 855 refugees were killed, including 200 crammed inside a cave and suffocated by fires set off by air attacks; 100 huddled on a beach and shelled by an American ship; and 35 attacked by American aircraft in Kyongju, a town behind the lines in the south, reported Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times.

“They have so far uncovered just a tip of the iceberg,” said Oh Won-rok, 70, who said his father was killed without trial by the South Korean police in July 1950. “So many victims did not come forward [during tribunal hearings], out of fear he said.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Kill ’em All: The American Military in Korea – 17 February 2011

Global Research – The Korean War: The “Unknown War”. The Coverup of US War Crimes – 16 March 2011

New York Times – Korean War Panel Finds U.S. Attacks on Civilians – 9 July 2009