ISIS Tortures Child Hostages

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – Kurdish children from the besieged town of Kobani were tortured and abused while detained by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) Human Rights Watch Reported on Tuesday. Four children gave detailed accounts of the suffering they endured while they were held hostage by ISIS for four months with about 100 other children. , the four boys described how they were repeatedly being beaten with a hose and electric cable, as well as being forced to watch videos of ISIS beheadings and attacks.

A young Syrian Kurdish refugee carries an infant after crossing the Syrian-Turkish border, near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province September 23, 2014. Kurdish boys have been targeted by ISIS which has abducted children throughout the areas it controls. (Photo courtesy of The International Business Times)

The four abducted children were between the ages of 14 and 16. They were among 153 Kurdish boys whom ISIS abducted on May 29, 2014, as they traveled home from Aleppo to the town of Kobani after finishing their middle school exams. According to Syrian Kurdish officials and media reports, ISIS released the last 25 of the children on October 29. “Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising, children have suffered the horrors of detention and torture, first by the Assad government and now by ISIS,” said Fred Abrahams, special advisor for children’s rights at Human Rights Watch. “This evidence of torture and abuse of children by ISIS underlines why no one should support their criminal enterprise.”

ISIS reportedly allowed approximately 100 girls go home within hours of the May 29 abduction but the boys were kept as hostages. According to the four boys who shared their stories with Human Rights Watch the boys were kept at a school in Manbij, some 50 kilometers southwest of Kobani.

The boys said their living conditions were sparse: sleeping with blankets on the floor, bathing once every two weeks, eating twice a day. The boys said they were allowed occasional calls and visits from their parents. The boys talked about being forced to watch propaganda videos of ISIS beheadings and attacks, pray five times daily and memorize parts of the Quran.

If their captives decided they were not doing well enough with their religious lessons, if they tried to escape captivity or if they did anything that was construed as misbehaving they were beaten with hoses and even electric cables. According to a 15-year-old boy children who had relatives serving in the Kurdish militia known the People’s Protection Units (YPG) were treated the worst. According to the Human Rights Watch report the boys were often beaten for no reason at all. “They sometimes beat us for no reason,” a 16-year-old boy said.

According to one of the boys, ISIS threaten to kill the families of boys. “They told them to give them the addresses of their families, cousins, uncles, saying, ‘When we go to Kobani, we will get them and cut them up,'” the boy said.

The May 29th abduction was not an isolated incident. According to the Human Rights Watch Report, ISIS has abducted children in other villages as it has captured ground in Syria and Iraq.  In Minas village, also near Kobani, ISIS seized seven civilian men when it captured the village in the beginning of October. According to the Report,  A 40-year-old farmer from Ghassaniya village said ISIS had abducted four of his nephews, ages 16, 17, 18, and 27 or 28, in late February as they were driving through ISIS-controlled territory en route to Iraqi Kurdistan. The abductions have targeted children in Kurdish regions which have been under siege from the Islamic State militants.

For more information please see:

Al Arabiya – HRW: ISIS Abused Captive Kurdish Children – 4 November 2014
CNN International – Report: Children Say ISIS Captured, Beat Them On Way Home From Exams – 4 November 2014
Human Rights Watch – Syria: ISIS Tortured Kobani Child Hostages – 4 November 2014
International Business Times – ISIS Tortured, Abused Captive Kurdish Children: Human Rights Watch – 4 November 2014

E-Waste: Out Of Sight Out Of Mind and Into China’s Environment

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Managing Editor, Impunity Watch

BEIJING, China – Every year the newest high-tech “must haves” hit the stores. From tablets to smartphones these devices are updated constantly. Manufacturers add new features, often barley changing the design or functions of the device itself, to make the new product more desirable and the model design somehow obsolete. Consumers come in droves to buy the newest smart-devices in developed countries often never seeing what will happen to their discarded devices when they trade in the old for the new. The undesired electronics are called E-waste. The process of recycling E-waste in developing countries like china is extremely hazardous, putting workers, local residents and the environment at risk in towns where E-waste recycling is being carried out.

Women work in a Guiyu warehouse stripping remote controls of their circuit boards. (Photo courtesy of The Khaleej times)

The town of Guiyu in China is perhaps the E-waste capital of the world. Mountains of discarded electronics, from remote controls and stereos to televisions sets and telephones, fill warehouses and spill out into alleyways. Workers strip the plastic devices of their circuitry to attempt to recycle the devices or retrieve the precious metals like gold and copper found within to resell. The industry comes at a high environmental cost for the community and the surrounding environment. Workers who burn circuit boards and plastic to attempt to retrieve precious metals suffer from a high degree of exposure to dangerous chemicals and heavy metals. Heavy metal contamination has turned the air and water toxic, and children have high lead levels in their blood, according to a study published in August by researchers at Shantou University Medical College. Plastic often ends up flooding the local watershed, polluting the water and destroying local ecosystems.

Over the past few decades, most of the e-waste entering Guiyu came from outside of china, often coming from developed countries in Europe and North America. However, in recent years western counties have been making a greater effort to recycle their own electronic waste. However, the Chinese domestic supply of e-waste is surging and much of it will continue to end up in Guiyu.

According to the United Nations University’s Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP) Initiative China currently generates 6.1 million metric tonnes of e-waste a year, compared with 7.2 million for the United States and 48.8 million worldwide. E-waste production in the United States has increased by 13% over the past five years while China’s has nearly doubled, at that rate China will surpass the Unlisted States as the biggest producer of e-waste as early as 2017.

“Before, the waste was shipped from other parts of the world coming into China — that used to be the biggest source and the biggest problem,” said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, one of China’s foremost environmental NGOs. “But now, China has become a consuming power of its own,” Ma said. “We have I think 1.1 billion cell phones used, and the life of our gadgets has become shorter and shorter.” “I think the wave is coming,” he continued. “It’s going to be a bigger problem.”

The environmental and health concerns of e-waste processing largely go ignored by the Chinese government and the industry remains poorly regulated. “From the government’s perspective, e-waste gathering and processing is important for the local economy,” said Lai Yun, a Greenpeace researcher. “Research has shown that 80 percent of households are involved in this work. So, if they don’t expand this industry, these residents will need some other kind of employment.” An estimated 80,000 of 130,000 residents Guiyu work in the poorly regulated industry.

“People think this cannot be allowed to go on,” said Leo Chen, 28, a financial worker who grew up in the town of Guiyu. While he said the situation is better today than a decade ago, the long-lasting impacts of environmental degradation remain. “In my memory, in front of my house, there was a river. It was green, and the water was very nice and clear,” he said. “Now, it’s black.”

For more information please see:

Salon – Fast, Cheap And Out Of Control: How Hyper-Consumerism Drivezs Us Mad – 2 November 2014
Business Insider – E-Waste Inferno Burning Brighter In China’s Recycling Capital – 28 October 2014
The Japan Times – Chinese Capital Of Recycling Electronic Waste Is Booming, But At A Cost To The Environment And Locals’ Health – 28 October 2014
Khaleej Times – E-Waste Inferno Burning Brighter In China’s Recycling Capital – 28 October 2014

WAR CRIMES PROSECUTION WATCH Volume 9 – Issue 16 November 03, 2014

Continued Russian Air Incursions are Becoming Increasingly Threatening

By Kyle Herda

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LISBON, Portugal – Russian jets, bombers, and fueling planes continue to violate the airspaces of many NATO countries, and the severity of the violations is increasing in number and intensity.

A Russian TU-95 bomber after being intercepted by the RAF. (Photo courtesy of Business Insider)

On October 21, 2014, a Russian Ilyushin-20, a spy plane, flew for about a minute in Estonian airspace before fighters from Denmark, Portugal, and Sweden intercepted. On October 28, 2014, seven Russian combat aircraft flew over the Baltic Sea and were initially intercepted by German fighters near Finland. Instead of turning back, the Russian aircraft pushed further, and were additionally intercepted by Danish, Swedish, and Finnish aircraft.

On October 29, 19 Russian aircraft in 3 separate formations were intercepted over the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and North Sea leading a chase into the Atlantic Ocean. Portuguese fighter jets intercepted seven Russian jets over the Baltic Sea, and at the same time Turkish fighters intercepted two Russian bombers and two Russian fighter jets over the Black Sea. Later that day, eight Russian aircraft were initially intercepted by English RAF over the North Sea, at which point some of the Russian aircraft returned to Russia but two bombers pushed towards the Atlantic. The final two bombers were once again intercepted over the Atlantic by Portuguese aircraft.

Reports also came out recently about a simulated Russian attack in June 2014 of the Danish island Bornholm. This simulated attack occurred while 90,000 people were attending a political festival, and the Russian aircraft were equipped with live missiles. On March 29, 2013, a similar run was performed with two Tu-22M3 Backfire Russian heavy bombers and four SU-27 Flanker fighter jets around Sweden.

U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, the supreme allied commander in Europe, has called the more recent Russian incursions “a larger, more complex formation of aircraft carrying out a little deeper, … more provocative flight path.” Breedlove believes that these incursions have been a message from Russia to NATO that Russia is “a great power”.

As long as these incursions continue, and especially the more intense flight patterns and flight paths, relations with NATO and countries around the world will remain low with Russia and becoming increasingly pressed.

For more information, please see:

Business Insider – Here Are The ‘Complex’ Russian Air Incursions That NATO Is So Concerned About – 3 November 2014

Reuters – NATO commander: Russia’s incursions in European airspace ‘more provocative’ – 3 November 2014

The Examiner – World War 3 trial run: Russia simulates attack on Denmark, stimulates war fears – 2 November 2014

The Inquisitr – World War 3: Russia Simulated Attack On Denmark, Could Be Preparing European Invasion – 31 October 2014

 

Australia Deports Refugees Back to Afghanistan and Taliban Persecution

By Max Bartels 

Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania 

 

Canberra, Australia

Australian immigration policy has again, come under scrutiny as they prepare to deport a young Afghan man from Australia back to Afghanistan. The news is concerning to many, in light of the results of past deportations of Afghani refugees back to Afghanistan. In September of 2011 Zainullah Naseri was deported from Australia back to Afghanistan when his refugee application was rejected by Immigration Department. Upon returning to Afghanistan Naseri was reportedly abducted and tortured by the Taliban for two days. He somehow escaped from the Taliban using a rock to break his chains, upon his escape he was picked up by Afghan police, who interrogated him and threatened him by firing shots at his feet. Naseri claims that he was targeted because of his connection to Australia,  he now lives in hiding, in fear of contact with both the Taliban and Afghan Police.

IW #23 Afghan Refugees
Naseri photographed while in Taliban Custody (Photo Curtesy of The Guardian)

Scott Morrison, the Australian Immigration Minister, has ordered an investigation into the kidnapping of Naseri and a broader inquiry into the safety of Afghani- Australian Refugees returning to Afghanistan. Morrison has stated that he has been advised that there are reports suggesting that the kidnapping of Naseri was purely opportunistic and therefore, not related to a a fear of prosecution, which would trigger Australia’s protection obligation. In light of these findings Australia will continue the deportations until the protection obligation is triggered. There is growing concern in Australia of the consequences of deporting these refugees back to Afghanistan and the safety concerns that go along with it. A motion in the Senate proposes calling an immediate moratorium on the deportations.

Now Australia has deported its second Afghani refugee from Australia back to Afghanistan, Australia has not disclosed the name of the individual, he is simply referred to as R. R is from the same province of Afghanistan as Naseri and there is a concern that he will also be at risk of kidnap or even death from the Taliban. Adding to the concerns of R is the deportation charge given to him by the government of Australia. The government is charging him a $25,000 bill or his deportation, $1,000 for his flight and $24,000 for the estimated seven Australian officials who will accompany him on his flight. There are further reports that seven more Afghani-Australian refugees are in custody in Australia and set to be deported back to Afghanistan as well.

For more information, please see:

ABC News — Calls for Moratorium on Deportation on Asylum Seekers to Afghanistan after Abduction, Torture Claims — 27 October 2014

The Guardian — Afghan Hazara Asylum Seekers to be Forcibly Deported to Afghanistan — 7 October 2014

The Sydney Morning Herald — Government to Investigate Torture Claims of Deported Asylum Seeker Zainullah Naseri — 27 October 2014 

The Guardian — Australia Forcibly Returns Second Afghan Hazara, Despite Fears Over Safety — 28 October 2014