by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France–

Last week, France opened the first criminal inquiry into allegations of torture under the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Based upon tens of thousands of photographs taken by Syrian defectors, the evidence of torture is quite convincing. However, the investigation is still in the early stages, as a French torture victim or the arrest of a Syrian official will be necessary to move the charges forward.

International human rights advocates have hailed the measure as necessary, despite the move being largely symbolic in nature. The problem, advocates state, is not the evidence, but rather the ability to get a live witness in front of a French courtroom.

“Faced with these crimes that offend the human conscience, this bureaucracy of horror, faced with this denial of the values of humanity, it is our responsibility to act against the impunity of the killers,” the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said while announcing the investigation to international press. Mr. Fabius asked prosecutors to move forward with the investigation on September 10^th, immediately after the French government authenticated the photographs taken by the defectors. A unit in the prosecutor’s office that specializes in mass crimes will be in charge of the investigation.

France, along with the United States, believes that Assad is part of the problem in Syria, and that he cannot be part of the solution in the Middle East. The French insistence on this is based on the photographs depicting mass torture taken by the defectors. These photographs, taken between 2011 and 2013, portray victims with eyes gouged out, starved, beaten and maimed, as well as corpses piled up by the thousands. The scale of the problem is believed to have grown, as more people have been killed by the Assad regime than by ISIS since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.

Earlier in the week, the U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, called for the Syrian civil war to be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation. France is the first country to act since this call has been made, and has since stated that their probe should not prevent other countries from acting, nor should the U.N. feel discouraged from beginning their own investigations.

For more information, please see—

The Telegraph–France ‘opens war crimes inquiry against Assad regime’ in Syria: UN debate— 29 September 2015

Economic Times– France opens probe into Assad regime for ‘crimes against humanity’: Judicial source— 30 September 2015

New York Times– France Opens Criminal Investigation of Torture in Syria Under Assad— 30 September 2015

Toronto Metro– France opens investigation into alleged crimes against humanity by Syria— 30 September 2015

Yahoo! News– France opens probe into Assad regime for crimes against humanity— 30 September 2015

by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine–

Rebel leaders in Crimea have expelled most of the humanitarian and non-governmental organizations from Eastern Ukraine as tensions escalate. At least ten different agencies, including the United Nations, World Health Organization, and Doctors Without Borders, have been affected by the recent change. Although the reason for the expulsion is not clear, the Ukrainian rebels have been suspicious of foreign agencies because it opens the possibility for international spying. The move also mirrors a law passed in Russia earlier in the year, forbidding citizens from interacting with foreign NGOs.

UN agencies were given until Friday to evacuate the area, while other international NGOs were given until Saturday. The “de facto” rebel leaders based in Luhansk refused to reregister 10 out of the 11 UN organizations present in the region due to “violations.” The violations center on unsafe medical practices and illegal storage of medicine, although the banned organizations deny such practices. The only organization that is unaffected by the new measures, the Luhansk rebel government announced, is the Red Cross. “We have our rules and our laws,” said rebel official Vasily Nikitin stated in a pro-rebel video post on Thursday afternoon. “This isn’t some piratical African country where you can just set up a tent and start doing operations.”

The ban sparked widespread condemnation among Western nations, and international organizations, as it was a clear violation of the peace treaty signed between the rebel and pro-Ukrainian forces in February of this year. A provision of the peace treaty required that both the Ukraine and the rebels provide humanitarian aid to the war torn region, and safe access for noncombatants. According to experts, at least 150,000 people will lose access to food distribution once the ban is in full force.

The move comes after the Ukrainian government in Kiev banned Russian journalists from entering the country. It is unclear whether Luhansk’s policy was in retaliation for disallowing pro-Russian coverage of events.

For more information, please see—

AP–UN: Russia-backed rebels in Ukraine expel aid agencies— 25 September 2015

BBC–Ukraine crisis: Rebels order UN agencies to leave Luhansk— 25 September 2015

Wall Street Journal–Russian-Backed Separatists Ban Foreign Aid Workers in Eastern Ukraine— 25 September 2015

Al-Jazeera–Ban on foreign aid agencies by Ukraine’s rebels— 27 September 2015

by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

BERLIN, Germany–

A portion of the former Nazi concentration camp Dachau in southern Germany is now being used as housing for refugees seeking asylum in Germany. The reconfigured apartment building, located on the camp’s herb garden, houses around 50 formerly homeless people, most of which are refugees from the Middle East. Although the building is not located on the main camp location, the watchtowers and barbed wires are clearly visible from inside the apartments.

In Dachau, as in many other small German towns, the recent influx of refugees has placed an enormous strain on resources. Improvised temporary housing, such as beer tents, military barracks or exhibition centers, are common, but long term housing for those who have been granted asylum or are waiting on processing has proved much more difficult. Housing the refugees in Dachau’s herb garden has been one of many controversial measures to provide more permanent housing.

Earlier in 2015, the German towns of Schwerte and Augsburg also considered housing refugees in the external sites of former concentration camps, but were forced to cancel those plans due to public outrage.

Gabriele Hammermann, director of the Dachau concentration camp memorial site, does not believe that the camp should be used to house refugees. “For me, it’s not very welcoming to house refugees in a place that symbolizes torture and death…Fundamentally, we think that other places are more appropriate in order to house people, especially since integration is a major goal. So I think it makes more sense to house people in the centers of towns, not on the outskirts. But at the moment it is a very tense housing situation,” she said. However, Hammermann is willing to compromise and keep most of the current housing available for that purpose, as long as the rest of the space is used for exhibitions and seminars. Conversely, the mayor of the town of Dachau, Florian Hartmann, said it was the duty of the town to find long-term housing for the homeless in a time when affordable housing is scarce. In an email, he writes, “[The current tenants are] the more vulnerable members of our society. In that way, the buildings with their historical burden can be used for a socially meaningful purpose.”

The Nazis opened Dachau in March 1933 to house political prisoners, a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had risen to power as Chancellor. Other camps used Dachau as a model for their operations and setup, until many of those were converted into extermination camps. It was the longest running camp, as it was operational from March 1933, until April 1945, when Allied troops liberated the site.

For more information, please see–

The Washington Post– Germany is housing refugees within Holocaust-era concentration camps— 30 January 2015

The Guardian– The refugees housed at Dachau: ‘Where else should I live?— 19 September 2015

Business Insider– A part of this former Nazi concentration camp is now a homeless shelter— 22 September 2015

International Business Times– Migrant crisis: Dachau concentration camp being used to house refugees— 23 September 2015

by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

ZAGREB, Croatia–

Thursday, Croatia closed 7 of its 8 borders to Serbia after more than 10,000 refugees attempted to cross over the weekend. The country has been overwhelmed by the arrival of refugees, failing to provide adequate transportation to migrants hoping to cross into Slovenia. Initially, Prime Minister Zoran Milanović said that the country was willing and able to help refugees reach northern Europe by providing safe passage. However, it quickly became clear to the Croatian government that they had underestimated the challenge they agreed to take on.

The shift of the flow of refugees through the Balkans has changed the dynamic of the refugee crisis in Europe, as it threatens to reopen old wounds and international mistrust. The migrants are traveling through the countries that once made up the country of Yugoslavia, which still harbors racial tensions in the region. These smaller countries, such as Croatia and Serbia, have small economies and weak welfare states, meaning they are more susceptible to reopening tensions. Those additional factors are making it more difficult for the Balkan region to respond to a crisis that wealthier countries have struggled to tackle.

The Balkan nations were initially very welcoming to the refugees, as they had received aid when the Yugoslav wars were occurring. However, these countries have struggled with building and maintaining a strong economy, leaving a majority of their populations in poverty. The governments of Croatia and other Balkans nations, upon realizing how many refugees wished to travel through, became reluctant to have an open border policy. “Countries across the region are poor, their institutions are not yet developed, and most states can barely deal with the daily problems of government, never mind a migration crisis,” said Sead Numanovic, from Avaz, a reputable Bosnian newspaper.

The situation in the Balkans is already so tense, Germany has had to declare Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Albania “safe nations” so refugees from those countries can be automatically denied. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of refugees coming from Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq, many others are arriving in Germany from Serbia, Albania and Kosovo.

For more information, please see–

BBC–Migrant crisis: Croatia closes border crossings with Serbia— 18 September 2015

Budapest Business Journal–Hungary extends state of emergency as Croatia shuts borders— 18 September 2015

The Guardian–More than 2,000 refugees stranded at Croatian border town— 18 September 2015

New York Times–17,000 Migrants Stranded in Croatia by Border Crackdown— 18 September 2015

TIME–Croatia Closes Its Border Crossings With Serbia as Thousands of Refugees Enter the Country— 18 September 2015

by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

ATHENS, Greece–

Greek voters returned former Prime Minister Alexi Tsipras, leader of the left-wing Syriza party, to the head of the Greek government after a strong win by the party on Sunday morning. The leader of the conservative New Democratic Party conceded defeat, congratulating Tsipras on the win. Early exiting polls showed that while the Syriza party did not win outright, a coalition government with the Independent Greeks party would create a slim majority.

However, any elation felt over the win has been eclipsed by the harsh reality of the Greek economic crisis. Opinion polls before Sunday’s election showed that millions of Greek voters were unsure who to vote for, due to the country’s economic collapse. Although Tsipras won on an anti-austerity ticket during the elections in January, he was forced to accept economic reforms in exchange for a 96 billion euro bailout from international creditors. Despite 61% of Greek citizens voting no to bailouts in July, Tsipras agreed to the bailouts to keep Greece in the Eurozone. The austerity measures that came with the new terms were seen as harsher than previous measures, and included new taxes, privatizations, and spending cuts.

Whatever coalition forms the new government, it is sure to become a headache for Tsipras, as many of the Syrzia party are angry about the bailouts. “This is a fragile party, although one third of the members broke off there are still radical elements left who can create problems for Tsipras,” said Marco Vicenzino, a Greece expert at the Global Strategy Project, an international risk consultancy. More than two dozen of the Syrzia party has broken off in defiance of the austerity measures, claiming that Tsipras has abandoned his principles.

The new Greek government will have only a couple of weeks to pass the legislation necessary to confirm to international creditors that Greek is serious about continuing with the bailouts. This government will also have to deal with the growing influx of migrants. Greece has been used as a main route into the European Union, with tens of thousands arriving by sea. Although many of these migrants leave quickly, the flow is becoming increasingly overwhelming to the already unsteady Greek government.

For more information, please see–

Al- Jazeera–Left-wing Syriza party wins Greek snap polls— 20 September 2015

BBC–Greece election: Conservative New Democracy admits defeat— 20 September 2015

Reuters–Greek voters return Tsipras to power with strong win— 20 September 2015

The Telegraph-Alexis Tsipras emerges as clear winner in shock election result— 20 September 2015