Uncategorized

Hezbollah Attack on Convoy Prompts Israeli Response, U.N Peacekeeper Caught in the Crossfire

By Max Bartels 

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East 

 

Jerusalem, Israel 

Three causalities have been confirmed from an attack on an Israeli military convoy and the resulting retaliation by Israeli forces. Anti-tank missiles were fired at the convoy in the Sheeba farms area, an area where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet.. Hezbollah has claimed the attack is retaliation for the Israeli airstrike that killed six of its fighters as well as an Iranian Revolutionary Guards General in the Golan Heights Area. The Israeli military responded with ground and air operations including firing at least 50 artillery shells into Lebanon where they claimed Hezbollah operational positions were along the border.

Israeli artillery strikes open farmland past a village in Southern Lebanon. (Photo Curtesy of Yahoo News)

Two of the causalities were Israeli soldiers in the convoy as well as one U.N Peace Keeper. The U.N did not release the nationality of the peacekeeper however, the Spanish Prime Minister’s Twitter feed expressed sadness at the death of a Spanish Soldier in Lebanon. The Spanish Defense Ministry later confirmed that the peacekeeper was a Spanish soldier. A spokes person for the U.N force in Lebanon urged maximum restraint to prevent an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah. At this point it is unknown whether the Israeli military or Hezbollah killed the Spanish soldier, the IDF is reported to be investigating the incident. Some reports suggest that the peacekeeper was killed by the Israeli retaliatory strikes in Lebanon.

An hour after the attack on the convoy an Israeli military position on Mount Hermon came under mortar fire and Israeli authorities evacuated a nearby ski resort. Israel reports that none were harmed during the attack. Lebanese officials stated that to their knowledge none were harmed by the Israeli artillery strikes, which reportedly missed populated villages in Southern Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called the attack on the convoy a “criminal terror attack” and further stated that Israel will not hesitate to retaliate on all fronts. Recently Israeli aircraft bombed Syrian Army artillery positions after rockets were fired from Syria into the Israeli occupied Golan Heights region. These recent events have been the most deadly since the 2006 Hezbollah attack on an Israeli convoy that started a month long war in Lebanon. Both U.N and Israeli officials have expressed their hope that events do not escalate further.

For more information, please see:

BBC News — Three Killed as Israel and Hezbollah Clash on Lebanese Border — 28 January 2015

CNN News — 2 Israeli Soldiers, Peacekeeper Reported Killed in Israeli- Hezbollah Fighting — 28 January 2015

Aljazeera — Two Israeli Soldiers Killed in Missile Attack — 28 January 2015

Yahoo News — Lebanese Hezbollah Hits Israeli Convoy, Killing 2 Soldiers — 28 January 2015

 

Indonesia Executes Six on Drug Convictions, Including Five Foreign Nationals

By Max Bartels 

Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania 

 

Jakarta, Indonesia

On Saturday the Indonesian government executed six convicted drug smugglers by firing squad. Only one of the six was an Indonesian citizen, the other five were foreign nationals that had been convicted of drug smuggling in Indonesia. The five foreigners were Malawian,  Nigerian, Vietnamese, Brazilian and Dutch. Indonesian President Joko Widodo rejected the clemency appeals of all six of the convicted criminals as well as rejected pleas from international rights organizations and the national governments of the some of the convicts.

Ambulances transport the bodies of the six individuals executed in Indonesia on drug convictions. (Photo curtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald)

Both the Brazilian and Dutch governments reached out extensively to President Widodo to plea for the lives of their citizens. The Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff made a plea to Widodo saying she respected Indonesian sovereignty but she was pleading as a mother and a head of state for humanitarian reasons. Widodo was understanding of her concern but in the end said there was nothing he could do because the full process of the law had been followed. The Dutch government also reached out to Widodo in the form of Foreign Minister Bert Koenders,  as well as Prime Minister Mark Rutte and King Willem- Alexander. Foreign Minister Koender referred to the executions as a “cruel and inhumane punishment and an unacceptable denial of dignity and integrity.” Both the Brazilian and Dutch ambassadors have been recalled from Indonesia since the executions.

The Brazilian, 53 year old Marco Moreira was arrested in 2003 after police at the Jakarta airport found about 13.4 kilos of cocaine in his hand glider. Dutchman Ang Kiem Soe aged 52 was also arrested in 2003 when police in Jakarta found equipment that they estimated could produce 15,000 ecstasy pills each day for three years. The police also confiscated 8,000 pills and thousands of dollars from Soe. Currently, there is also a second Brazilian national  on death row in Indonesia for drug charges.

President Widodo took office in November and these six executions are the first of his term. The President has declared to take a hard stance on drug smugglers and intends the executions to act as a deterrent to combat Indonesians rising drug problem. The President has also refused to grant clemency for 64 other convicted drug smugglers currently on death row. The President has declared that a second round of executions will take place later this year. Currently one third of the individuals on death row, most for drug offenses are foreign nationals.

For more information, please see:

Associated Press via Aol News — Indonesia Executes 6 Drug Convicts, Including 5 Foreigners — 18 January 2015

BBC News — Indonesia Executions: Brazil and Dutch Envoys Recalled — 18 January 2015 

CNN — Indonesia Executes 6 for Drug Offenses, sets off Diplomatic Storm — 18 January 2015

NY Times — Indonesia’s Execution of Foreigners Prompts Diplomatic Storm — 19 January 2015

UNHCR Urges Support for Syrian Refugees in Jordan

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

AMMAN, Jordan – The United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees has called on the International Community to help alleviate the “desperate living conditions” of Syrian refugees now living away from Jordan’s main camps. According to a recent United Nations study, one in six refugees living outside of Jordan’s main camps is living in extreme poverty. UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres warned large numbers of Syrian refugees continuing to slide into abject poverty at an alarming rate, due to the magnitude of the crisis in Syria and insufficient support from the international community.

Syrian refugees rest in an emergency shelter after their tents collapsed when heavy snows lashed Za’atari refugee camp in northern Jordan. Hundreds of refugee families were effected by the extreme winter storm. (Photo courtesy of the UNHCR)

Commissioner Guterres made a statement on the crisis during the launch of the new UNHCR study, living in the Shadows, which reveals evidence of a deepening humanitarian crisis. The Commissioner made a two-day visit to Jordan, where met with refugees profiled in the UN study in Amman and others at the Za’atari refugee camp. “I am here to express my solidarity with Syrian refugees, as the impact of snowstorm Huda is still tangible and posing an even greater strain on their already dire living conditions,” he said.

Jordan has a registered Syrian refugee population of 620,000. 84 percent of its refugee population live outside of refugee camps.  “This represents a dramatic pressure in the economy and the society of the country not to mention the terrible security impact of the Syria crisis in itself,” Commissioner Guterres said. “The generosity of the Jordanian people and the Government needs to be matched by massive support from the international community – support for the refugees themselves and for the local populations hosting them, but also structural and budgetary support to the Jordanian Government for education, health, water and sanitation and electricity to enable it to cope with this enormous challenge.”

Commissioner Guterres emphasized that the Syrian Civil war and the refugee crisis it has created can be mitigated if the international community steps up efforts to alleviate the suffering of the refugee populations. He praised the efforts of the Jordanian authorities, UNHCR and its partners to address the urgent needs of refugees during the recent heavy snowstorm which threatened the health and safety of refugees.

Extreme winter weather in the region threatened the lives and safety of refugees living in the Za’atari refugee camp. The Za’atari refugee camp is the largest refugee camp in Jordan with a population of nearly 85,000 Syrians. In the camp dozens of families were forced to abandon their family’s tents and camped in emergency shelters after their tents collapsed under the weight of snow.

Fatima, a 20 year old Syrian refugee, and her husband Mohammed were trying to protect their three small children from the cold when the roof of their tent collapsed. “We had a small stove burning in the tent to keep warm, and it fell onto my son and burned his back,” she told visitors from UNHCR to the shelter where she and her children are living with seven other families.

For more information please see:

BBC News – Syria Refugees: UN Warns Of Extreme Poverty in Jordan – 14 January 2015

The UNHCR – UNHCR Study Shows Rapid Deterioration in Living Conditions Of Syrian Refugees in Jordan – 14 January 2015

The UNHCR – Winter Storms Bring More Hardship to Refugees in Jordan’s Za’atari Camp – 9 January 2015

U.S News and World Report – The Challenge of the Syrian Refugee Response – 8 January 2015

Weeks after Oil Spill Bangladeshi Government Response Draws Criticism

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladeshi civilians continue to attempt to clean massive amounts of oil from the waters of the Sundarbans where an oil tanker rammed a cargo ship during the early morning hours of December on the Sela River causing 66,000 and 92,000 barrels to spill into the pristine waters of the Sundarbans, which means “beautiful forest.” So far the government and the oil industry itself has largely failed to manage the cleanup operation in the region where civilians, even children, have been pulling toxic oil from the water by hand without any protective equipment.  The Bangladeshi government’s chief forestry official for the region, Amir Hossain, said on December 16 that “the catastrophe is unprecedented in the Sundarbans, and we don’t know how to tackle this.”

Villagers carry oil in a barrel after removing it from the river surface, after an oil tanker sank in one of the world’s largest mangrove forests. (Photo courtesy of Think Progress)

Even as fisherman and children from the local fishing villages have taken to the waters and mangrove forests of the region to clean the oil by hand Bangladeshi Officials said the damage had already been done. Rubayat Mansur, Bangladesh head of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, said most of the oil appeared to have already leaked out of the tinkered and surrounding area by December 12 and spread to adjoining rivers and canals where it spread to surrounding mangrove forests. “I visited the sunken trawler this morning. Only few hundred liters of oil remain inside, so almost all the oil has spilled into the Sundarbans,” he said.

“This catastrophe is unprecedented in the Sundarbans, and we don’t know how to tackle this,” Amir Hossain, chief forest official of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, told the press. The Bangladeshi government has come under fire for its response to the disaster. Critics have said that the government, which has allowed oil shipping and exportation in the region for more than a decade, should have had a plan in place to deal with such a disaster and protect the environment and fishing communities from the threat posed by spilled oil.

Oil from the tankers has created an environmental catastrophe in the waters of Bangladesh’s Sundarbans, the largest contiguous tidal mangrove forest in the world, which are home to several rare species of animals including the rare Irrawaddy and Gangetic dolphins and the highly endangered Bengal tiger. The Sundarbans are also home to fishing communities who depend on the rich waters of the region for economic survival. The Sundarbans delta is a UNESCO World Heritage site that encompasses some 3,850 square miles 1,000 square kilometers. The mangrove forests of the delta are a critical ecosystems, not only supporting thousands of unique species but also performing several important ecosystems functions including acting as one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, absorbing atmospheric carbon-dioxide which helps combat global climate change.

The Bangladeshi and Indian governments have come under fire for ongoing plans to expand fossil fuel exportation in the region, despite the threat to the mangrove ecosystem. Last year, Bangladeshi and Indian lawmakers initiated a plan to build a 1,320-megawatt coal plant 5.5 miles downstream from the Sundarbans. The plant would require a massive quantities of water to be desalinated, threating the region with an estimated half a million metric tons of “sludge and liquid waste” each year.

For more information please see:

Bangladesh News 24 Hours – BNP Probe Faults Government ‘Apathy’ For Sundarbans Oil Spill – 26 December 2014

Think Progress – Experts Arrive To Help Barehanded Children Clean Up Massive Bangladeshi Oil Spill – 24 December 2014

National Geographic – After Oil Spill in Bangladesh’s Unique Mangrove Forest, Fears About Rare Animals – 16 December 2014

Al Jazeera America – Bangladesh Oil Clean-Up Begins Amid Fears of Ecological ‘Catastrophe’ – 12 December 2014

Argentina Town Cancels ‘Sexist’ Beauty Pageants

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina– A small town in Argentina has banned beauty pageants, because they are considered to be sexist.  The Chivilcoy council, in the Buenos Aires region, said that the pageants encourage violence against women.  The Chivilcoy council further criticized the pageants for emphasizing and focusing on physical beauty.  The council also claimed that the beauty pageants concentration on physical image, encourages illnesses like bulimia and anorexia among the pageant contestants.

Miss Argentina/image courtesy of the Independent

The Chivilcoy council said the pageants are “a discriminatory and sexist practice”, that “reinforce the idea that women must be valued and rewarded exclusively by their physical appearance, based on stereotypes”.

Beauty pageants were also condemned for being “acts of symbolic and institutional violence against women and children.”

The competitions will instead be replaced with an event recognising “people of between 15 and 30 years who, in an individual or collective way, have stood out in volunteering activities aimed at improving the quality of life in neighbourhoods within the city or the district,” the council said.

Latin American beauty pageant winners often use their pageant experience to build careers in entertainment or television.

Beauty pageant competitions are getting a closer look after Julia Morley, the chairwoman of the Miss World pageant announced that the competition would no longer include a swimsuit round.  The swimsuit round was introduced to the competition 63 years ago.

“Miss World should be a spokesperson who can help a community,” said Ms. Wilmer, “She’s more of an ambassador, not a beauty queen.  It’s more about the outreach and what a woman could do with a title like Miss World.”

However, everyone does not agree with banning the pageants.

“If the only value is beauty, that’s bad, I don’t identify with that,” said Nadia Cerri, 41, director of Miss World Argentina and a former pageant contestant.  But she added that an all-out ban goes too far.  “We don’t oblige anybody to take part in the contests,” she said.

Ms. Cerri said that in recent years the Miss World Argentina competition had tried to place greater emphasis on factors besides physical appearance.  A winner must perform well in categories such as social responsibility, for which she may be required to show awareness of social issues like sex trafficking in her home province. Contestants must also demonstrate knowledge of general culture, including current events, and exhibit a talent, which can be a skill like acting, singing or painting.

For more information, please see:

The Independent – Town in Argentina bans ‘sexist’ beauty pageants for reinforcing idea ‘women must be valued on physical opinion’ – 25 Dec. 2014

The New York Times – Argentine City Takes Beauty Off Its Pedestal – 22 Dec. 2014

BBC News – Argentina town bans ‘sexist’ beauty competitions – 21 Dec. 2014

Jezebel – Town in Argentina Bans Beauty Pageants; Miss World Bans Bikinis – 21 Dec. 2014