Argentina Continues to Assert Ownership Over Falkland Islands

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Earlier this week Argentina officials passed a bill that required every piece of Argentinian transportation to have a sign that says “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” or “the Falkand Islands are Argentine”.

President Cristina Hernandez de Kirchner holding up a sign about Islas Malvinas or The Falkland Islands/ Image courtesy of BBC.com

A diplomatic source said Argentina’s choice to display the signs laying claim to the islands are “regrettable”.

The Argentine MP behind the initiative said it would “reflect our undeniable sovereignty” over the territory.  The idea was introduced along with a number of other public transportation reforms which were passed unanimously on Thursday.

Senator Teresina Luna, the member of Congress who proposed the new regulation, wrote to the president of the parliament to say: “It is directed not only at the foreigner who comes here as a tourist or visits our country, but also at the citizens in general, and will serve to reinforce our history, our culture and our identity.”

President Cristina Fernandez’s government has often raised the issue of sovereignty over the islands known in Spanish as Las Malvinas.

Argentina lays claim on the islands, which it calls Las Malvinas, but Britain maintains that it ha sovereignty and has accused Argentina of ignoring the wishes of its residents who desire to remain British.  Argentina lost a brief, bloody 1982 war with Britain over the South Atlantic archipelago and still claims the islands.  Argentina claims Britain has illegally occupied the islands since 1833.

Recently, an angry mob erupted when Jeremy Clarkson was spotted driving through Argentina with a number plate H982 FKL which some claimed a reference to the Falklands War.

The Top Gear cast and crew had to flee the South American country after they were attacked by an angry mob, which Clarkson described as ‘the most terrifying thing I’ve ever been involved in.’

Last year, Falkland islanders took part in a referendum, voting by 1,513 to three to remain a British overseas territory.  The island consists of about 3,000 residents.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said at the time that the result “could not have sent a clearer message” but Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has maintained that the islanders’ wishes are not relevant.

The source added: “No sign can change the rights of the Falkland islanders to their own identity and we are determined to uphold that right.”

The measure was approved by the lower house of congress after getting approval from the Senate.  It applies to all forms of public transportation whether rail, air, land or sea.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Falkland Islands are Argentine signs ‘regrettable’ – 21 Nov. 2014

news.com.au – Falkland orders for Argentine transport – 21 Nov. 2014

Daily mail – Argentina passes law stating that all public transport and stations must display the words ‘The Falklands are Argentina’ – 20 Nov. 2014

SanLuisObispo.com – Public transport to say ‘The Falklands are Argentine’ – 20 Nov. 2014

Magnitsky’s Mother Goes to the Russian Supreme Court to Overturn the Second Posthumous Case Initiated Against Her Murdered Son

21 November 2014 – Sergei Magnitsky’s mother has filed a complaint with the judicial collegium of the Supreme Court of Russia in relation to the second posthumous proceeding organized against her son by the Russian Interior Ministry.

Under this second posthumous case, Sergei Magnitsky has been named after his death as a “co-conspirator” in the $230 million tax refund fraud that he had in fact uncovered and exposed.

“…Investigator Urzhumtsev in violation of the principle of presumption of innocence, in violation of the constitutional right for defence, in the absence of a court order, in the absence of preliminary investigation, had stated in his decree [from December 2010] that Sergei Magnitsky who died a year before [in November 2009] in Matrosskaya Tishina detention center, committed a serious crime… the theft of 5.4 billion rubles [$230 million]… The conclusion itself must be qualified as slander in relation to knowingly innocent person,” says the complaint.

“He [Investigator Urzhumtsev] knew very well, that Magnitsky not only was not complicit in the theft of 5.4 billion rubles, but that Magnitsky was the first person who had uncovered the crime committed against the three companies of his client, and who had exposed the criminal activity of perhaps one of the largest criminal groups which specializes in unlawful tax refunds,” says the complaint.

Interior Ministry Investigator Oleg Urzhumtsev was included on both the investigative team on the case against Sergei Magnitsky under which Magnitsky was arrested and ill-treated in custody; and on the case to investigate the $230 million theft that Magnitsky had uncovered. The second investigation led by Investigator Urzhumtsev finished by exonerating all Russian Interior Ministry and tax officials from liability for the $230 million theft, and naming Sergei Magnitsky as co-conspirator posthumously and in secret from his relatives. Urzhumtsev also was responsible for assigning the blame for the crime to a “jobless” person named Vyacheslav Khlebnikov in a fast-track proceeding which ended with a lenient sentence of five years for the $230 million theft. As part of that proceeding conducted after Magnitsky’s death, Khlebnikov gave a false testimony against Magnitsky from detention.

“As member of the investigative group [on the case Sergei Magnitsky was detained], Urzhumtsev knew that Magnitsky was arrested soon after his testimony implicating officials in the theft of 5.4 billion rubles, and that some of those officials were included on the same investigative team,-  points out the complaint. – Magnitsky stated that his criminal prosecution was a measure of repression aimed to punish him for the assistance he provided to his client during the identification of circumstances of the theft of his client’s companies – Rilend, Makhaon, and Parfenion.”

The complaint says that Investigator Urzhumtsev has concealed the real perpetrators by blaming the $230 million theft on Sergei Magnitsky, and two other deceased individuals (Mr Gasanov and Mr Korobeinikov), neither of whom were alive and could be questioned at the time of the investigation.

“The evidence in the case file objectively demonstrates that Investigator Urzhumtsev acted in the interests of persons who perpetrated the theft of 5.4 billion rubles [$230 million], and who using his own terminology, “found” two deceased individuals in order to put on them the liability for the theft of budget funds, and in order to provide the service of concealment for the real perpetrators of the crime,” says the complaint.

It was since uncovered that Mr Gasanov died on 1 October 2007, two months before the $230 million was committed. Mr Korobeinikov died in September 2008, “falling of a balcony” of a building under construction, according to the Russian investigation.

Ms Magnitskaya asks the Russian Supreme Court to examine the lawfulness of investigator Urzhumtsev’s actions and annul previous decisions by lower-level Russian courts who rejected her complaints.

“The court must check the lawfulness and the justification for the Investigator’s decree… The previous rejection violates the constitutional principle of the presumption of innocence because deceased Magnitsky was named by Investigator Urzhumtsev as a co-conspirator in a crime,” says the complaint.

“The court had an opportunity to check the arguments using the criminal case files, and by inviting investigator Urzhumtsev to give testimony, but it failed to do so…As a result, the conclusion of the court [of lower instance] is not supported by the factual circumstances, which is … the ground to cancel the court decision,” says the complaint in conclusion.

Previous complaints from Ms Magnitskaya addressed to lower instance courts have been rejected by Moscow district judge Tatiana Neverova, and Moscow city court judges Andrei Titov and Lyubov Ishmuratova

In the United States, 26 Russian officials and private individuals involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s detention and ill-treatment in custody and in the criminal conspiracy Magnitsy had uncovered have been sanctioned under the US Magnitsky Act. The list includes several colleagues of Investigator Urzhumtsev on the Russian Interior Ministry’s investigative team in the Magnitsky case.

For more information, please contact:

Magnitsky Justice Campaign

+44 2074401777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

lawandorderinrussia.org

Colombia Peace Talks in Cuba to Resume Following Release of FARC Kidnapped General

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia — President Juan Manuel Santos suspended peace talks in Cuba this week, which are quickly approaching their second year, amid the kidnapping of General Ruben Dario Alzate.

FARC lead negotiator Ivan Marquez in Cuba / Photo courtesy of Reuters

Today, Colombian Marxist rebels agreed to release General Alzate.  Colombians hope that this will diffuse the situation and resume the peace talks to end conflict that has spanned over five decades.  The rebel forces, also known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) also agreed to release four other captives, that have been captured in the past two weeks.

President Juan Manuel Santos’s office responded immediately to the announcement, pledging to resume talks as soon as the hostages are free.

Alzate and two others were seized on Sunday by a FARC patrol as they left a boat in the poor and crime-ridden coastal region of Choco, prompting Santos to halt talks and throwing into doubt the two-year peace process under way in Cuba.

Just days earlier, the rebels had kidnapped two soldiers in eastern Arauca department.

“The government will give its total collaboration to guarantee the safe return of these people to their homes, which we hope will be in the shortest time possible,” Santos’s office said in a brief statement.

“Once they are all free, the government’s delegation will return to Havana.”

The FARC’s decision to release the captives may counter critics of the peace process who say the rebels are not serious about ending Latin America’s longest-running war, which has killed more than 200,000 people since it began in 1964.

The suspension of talks is the most serious setback to peace efforts after months of complicated discussions resulted in partial accords on three out of five agenda items.

Wednesday, the FARC defended the negotiations aimed at ending the half-century conflict. A FARC commander best known by his alias Ivan Marquez said the biggest achievement so far is a growing sense of reconciliation among Colombians.

The two sides have already reached agreements on agrarian reform, political participation for the FARC and how to jointly combat illicit drugs in what was long the world’s largest cocaine producer.

But the remaining issues, including how the FARC will lay down their arms and whether commanders will face prosecution for atrocities and drug-trafficking, are some of the thorniest.

The most recent peace process with the FARC collapsed in 2002 after the group used the breathing room of a demilitarized zone to build its fighting force, intensify its cocaine trafficking, and take hostages.

The final straw came when the FARC boarded a commercial plane and seized a senator, who was held captive for six years.

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Colombia Rebel-Held General a Bookish Strategist – 20 Nov. 2014

BBC News – Colombia kidnap: Farc agrees conditions for release – 19 Nov. 2014

ABC News – Colombia, Rebels Agree on Steps to Free General – 19 Nov. 2014

Reuters – Colombia rebels to free general, opening door to resume peace talks – 20 Nov. 2014

Endemic Corruption in the Solomon Islands Raises Concerns over Elections

By Max Bartels 

Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania 

 

Honiara, Solomon Islands

Corruption is endemic in the Solomon Islands, the small island nation is in the process of an election and there are concerns that there is no cure to suppress the rampant corruption. A High Court Judge in Australia has stated that the country is in desperate need of a special taskforce to tackle the corruption. According to the Judge it is so prevalent that there is no debate about its existence and no attempt to hide any corrupt practices. Corruption dominates every aspect of society, from government, politics, the police, to private industry and business. There is a call for an international and independent commission; the corruption would immediately taint any commission formed domestically.

IW#25 Solomon Islands
Local and international election monitors observe the election process in the Solomon Islands. (Photo curtesy of Radio Australia)

The Current election in the Solomon Islands is the first since an Australian led peace keeping force has scaled down operations in 2013. The operation was deployed to stop systemic ethnic violence and restore order. An anti-corruption watchdog called Transparency Solomon Islands has asked all candidates to sign an anti-corruption pledge. The pledge simply states that if the candidate is voted into office the candidate promises not to accept bribes or give bribes. So far 73 out of the 400 candidates for political office have singed on.

At present, Transparency Solomon Islands is concerned about the integrity of the election process and election fraud is a major concern. There is not the same international support for the election in the Solomon Islands as there was a few months ago for the Fiji election but Transparency states that the concern is just as pressing. Transparency claims that part of the problem is that education is not advanced in many of the rural areas of the islands, and that there is a lack of awareness that corruption, such as vote buying and selling is counterproductive to the democratic process.

Many voters will take days and even weeks to get to the nearest poling station, arriving by foot and by boat. 280,000 voters are registered for the election from across the many islands that make up the Solomons’. This final number was reached after 160,000 fraudulent registrations were screened out by an audit. The election is being conducted according to a biometric voter registration system. Registered voters receive a individualized biometric registration card, in an effort to cut down on fraud and keep others from voting in someone’s stead. However, once the cards were issued many were sold and exchanged as currency for money or gifts.

For more information, please see: 

ABC News — Independent Commission Needed in Solomon Islands to Tackle Endemic Corruption: Outgoing High Court Judge Says — 19 November 2014 

Reuters — Solomon Islands Stages First Election Since End of Peacekeeping Intervention — 18 November, 2014

BBC News — Solomon Islanders Vote in First Post- Ramsi Election — 19 November, 2014 

ABC News — Polls Close in Solomon Islands’ Genreal Election — 19 November 2014

Peru Activists Killings at the Forefront of Climate Talk

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru — In less than two weeks Peru will host a key global climate conference.  However, the country has again come under fire for failing to protect activists who were murdered in an attempt to save the country’s quickly diminishing rainforest and other ecosystems.

Illegal loggers in the Amazon / Image courtesy of BBC.com/Felipe Aberu

According to the NGO Global Witness, the South American country has become the fourth most dangerous state in the world for environmental and land defenders.  The NGO also accused Peru’s government of placing too much emphasis on exploitation of the land opposed to conservation.

In a recent report at least 57 activists have been killed in Peru since 2002, where more than 60% of the deaths have been within the last four years.  The other three most dangerous countries are Brazil, Honduras and the Philippines.

The report, with the updated death toll comes just in time as Lima prepares to host ministers from around the world for the United Nations climate conference, even though the host nation hasn’t been spot on addressing green issues.

Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon – which accounts for about half of the country’s carbon emissions – nearly doubled in 2012, as farmers, miners and illegal loggers sawed deeper into the forest.  The World Bank estimates that almost 80% of the country’s timber exports were felled illegally.

Sources detail that most of the activist murders were related to conflicts over land or resistance to mining projects or illegal logging operations.  A large number of the victims were from indigenous tribes who had been granted reserves or applied for land titles, but receive little to no protection or enforcement from the government.

In a recent case, anti-logging campaigner Edwin Chota and three other Ashéninka leaders were killed in Ucayali in September over land they had spent a decade trying to secure for their community.  The community planned to use the forest sustainably.

Chata asked for protection before he and his colleagues were murdered.  He told the police he was receiving death threats from illegal loggers, and sent them photographs of the suspects.  Currently many of the suspects have been arrested, but the authorities are being accused of negligence.

“The murders of Edwin Chota and his colleagues are tragic reminders of a paradox at work in the climate negotiations,” said Patrick Alley, co-founder of Global Witness. “While Peru’s government chairs negotiations on how to solve our climate crisis, it is failing to protect the people on the frontline of environmental protection … The message is clear, if you want to save the environment, then stop people killing environmental defenders.”

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Widows: Probe Into Peru Activist Killings Stalled – 17 Nov. 2014

the guardian – Spotlight on murders of activists as Peru prepares for Lima climate talks – 17 Nov. 2014

Yahoo news – Peru activist killings condemned ahead of climate talks – 17 Nov. 2014

herald online – Widows: Probe into Peru activist killings stalled – 17 Nov. 2014