Shutdown of nuclear facilities in North Korea

Shutdown of nuclear facilities in North Korea

Photo of a tanker leaving South Korea on Thursday, carrying 6200 tons of oil to the North.

After four and a half years of operation, North Korea is expected to begin shutting down its main nuclear facilities this week.  The United Nations have verified that North Korea has shut down its nuclear reactor already.  The director general of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei said the shutdown of five facilities in Yongbyon, North Korea should not be difficult, and should be completed within approximately a month.

This shutdown would halt North Korea’s only declared program for producing fuel that can be used in nuclear weapons.  Experts say these five facilities can yield more than thirteen pounds of plutonium a year, enough for one atomic bomb.

North Korea agreed to shutdown its Yongbyon facilities in an agreement with the United States, South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan.  The agreement called for shipping 50,000 tons of fuel oil to North Korea.  The North now says it is ready to permanently disable the reactor if the US lifts economic sanctions and strikes the North from a list of terrorism sponsors.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said progress on disarmament would depend on the measures the US and Japan would take to rescind their hostile policies toward North Korea.

After the freeze of the facilities, however, many questions remain.  These include whether North Korea will provide the agency with a complete inventory of its nuclear materials, how much plutonium it has produced thus far, and whether it may return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.  The North withdrew from the Treaty in 2003 after Washington accused it of running a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of a disarmament deal and stopped oil deliveries.

For more information, please see:

–http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHC5gM6whvMU&refer=home

–http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSSP1037320070716

–http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/world/asia/13korea.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

–http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3380339

Abbas appoints caretaker government

Following Hamas’s takeover of Gaza, Palestinian president, Abbas, declared a state of emergency.  He dismissed the then prime minister, Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and appointed Salam Fayyad as the emergency prime minister.  On July 13, Fayyad resigned as prime minister but then was re-appointed by Abbas as the interim government’s prime minister.  In addition, Abbas appointed three more ministers and decreed that this new government will remain in power until the next legislative or presidential elections.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s Basic Law, an emergency government may rule for 30 days without legislative approval.  However, as a result of the in-fighting between Fatah and Hamas and Israel’s arrest of Hamas lawmakers, the Palestinian parliament is dysfunctional and was incapable of giving approval.  Fatah and Abbas’s attempts to convene a parliamentary meeting to approve the new government have or will be boycotted by Hamas.  In addition, Hamas’s attempts to convene a parliamentary meeting to declare the new government unconstitutional will be boycotted by Fatah.  In either case, the parliament will lack the quorum necessary to make an official vote.

Palestinian lawmakers who drafted the Basic Law question the constitutionality of Abbas’s actions.  While most agree that Abbas had the right to dismiss Haniyeh as prime minister, many argue that Abbas does not have the necessary authority to appoint an entire cabinet without parliament approval nor the right to suspend parts of the constitution by decree.  Abbas seems to recognize these constitutional pitfalls but states that he will do what is necessary to keep the government functioning in Palestine.

The international community has shown support for Abbas in recent weeks.  Many western governments began sending aid to Abbas and the impoverished Palestinians.  Israel has released some of the withheld tax revenue that it collects for the Palestinian Authority and is set to release 250 Palestinian detainees. 

For more information please see:

Ha’aretz:  “Fatah to boycott parliament session convened by Hamas”  15 July 2007. 

The Media Line:  “‘Abbas to prevent Hamas’ participation in future elections”  15 July 2007. 

The Independent:  “Abbas to form new caretakers government”  14 July 2007. 

Reuters:  “Hamas rejects Abbas’s new government”  14 July 2007. 

Voice of America:  “Palestinian President Abbas rules out talks with Hamas”  14 July 2007. 

Washington Post:  “Abbas rejigs Palestinian government”  13 July 2007. 

Reuters:  “Framers of Palestinian constitution challenge Abbas”  8 July 2007.

Rwanda Continues to Seek Justice

By Myriam Clerge
Impunity Watch, Africa

Rwanda continues to take actions to seek out and prosecute those involved in the 1994 Genocide of Rwanda. The UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was founded in 1994 in Tanzania. Since then 28 genocide suspects have been convicted and five acquitted.

This past Friday, a former Rwandan mayor, Juvenal Rugambarara, plead guilty to committing crimes against humanity. Although Rugambarara, a Hutu, did not actively participate in the genocide, he admitted his failure to take measures to punish subordinates involved in the massacre of Tutsis in his community.

In response to Rugambarara’s guity plea, prosecutors of the Tanzania-based court have dropped eight of his nine charges and have elected to seek a reduced sentence of nine to 12 years.

Also on Friday, Interpol, the world’s largest police organization, held a conference in Arusha, Tanzania. The organization urged all countries to provide whatever assistance necessary to arrest the remaining fugitives of the Rwandan genocide. The request comes after the arrest of fugitive Isaac Kamali in France.

Rwandans and researchers have criticized France for supporting and training Hutu extremists involved in the genocide. President Paul Kagame, the Tutsi rebel leader that led the end of the massacre, has challenged France to study official documents that exposes the country’s involvement in the genocide.

The book, Silent Accomplice by British researcher and author, Andrew Wallis, claims that French troops advised Hutu extremist how to hide the massacre of nearly one million people from spy satellites.

France has denied any involvement and refuses to apologize for its inactions even though many countries such as the United States have.

For more information please see:

AllAfrica – Rwanda: Interpol Steps Up Pressure on Genocide Fugitives – 16 July 2007

Yahoo – Rwandan Former Mayor Pleads Guilty to Genocide – 13 July 2007

Reuters – Rwanda Says France Must Probe ‘Genocide Papers’ – 10 July 2007

CNN – Amanpour: Looking Back at Rwanda Genocide – 06 April 2004

19 year old Sri Lankan Maid to be beheaded in Saudi Arabia

Rizana Nafeek is scheduled to be beheaded on July 16, 2007.  She is a 19 year Sri Lankan maid who migrated to Saudi Arabia seeking a better life through employment.  She was barely 17 when she immigrated to be a nanny in 2005, although her forged identification documents stated she was 23.  Eighteen days after she arrived in the country, the four month infant she babysat began choking. Nafeek tried to massage and stroke the child, while she screamed frantically to the child’s mom for help.  Despite all her efforts, the child still died.

Following the incident the child’s family pressed charges against the Nafeek claiming that she strangled the child to death.   The police arrested the girl and interrogated her without procuring a translator for her.  After much coercion the girl signed a confession admitting to strangling the infant to death.  However, when she was given access to a translator at a later time, through the translator she denied strangling the baby and tried to explain what had actually happened.  She also refused to sign a second confession to causing the child’s death.  However, when trying the case the court only contemplated the girl’s first confession to decide her verdict.  She was given no legal representation by either Saudi Arabia or Sri Lanka and was condemned to death by decapitation by the court. 

Nafeek is one of the many young South Asian girls who have migrated to the Middle East seeking employment.   These migrants have benefited their home nation greatly by sending money to family.  For example, there are about 400,000 Sri Lankans working in Saudi Arabia alone.  (UPI Asia Online.)   These workers ought to be protected in court, especially in capital punishment cases.  They need to be protected either by their home nation, or the home nation needs to pressure the sponsoring nation to represent these workers.  Otherwise, it will continue to create more situations where undeserving hired workers will die, and live in fear.

UPI Asia Online.  Commentary: Teenager’s beheading tests Saudi’s sharia law. 13 July 2007.

Des Moines Register. Basu: Tried without a lawyer, teen about to be beheaded. 13 July 2007.

Arab News. Initial Legal Fees Paid for Filing Sri Lankan Maid Appeal. 13 July 2007.

Arab News.  Lankans Appeal to Victim’s Father. 14 July 2007.

International Herald Tribune. Sri Lankan housemaid on death row highlights a surge in Saudi beheadings. 13 July 2007.

Born and raised in a North Korean gulag

On Nov. 29, 1996, in a North Korean prison camp, Shin Dong Hyok (14) and his father were made to sit in the front row of a crowd assembled to watch executions. They had already spent seven months in a torture compound, and Shin assumed they were also going to be executed. Instead, the guards executed his mother and brother. Shin was born in a prison camp and escaped in 2005.

Shin is the first North Korean who is known to have escaped from a prison camp. He was confined to a “total-control zone.”

According to the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul: “Prisoners sent to a total-control zone can never come out. They are put to work in mines or logging camps until they die. Thus the authorities don’t even bother to give them ideological education. They only teach them skills necessary for mining and farming.”

There are at least four other prison camps in North Korea. These others are far less known because so few have emerged to describe them.

According to Shin, the prison authorities matched his father with his mother and made them spend five days together before separating them. This is known as “award marriage,” a privilege given only to outstanding inmates. An exemplary worker might be allowed to visit the woman chosen as his wife a few times a year.

Young children lived with their mothers, who worked from 5 a.m. to midnight. Once they turned 11, guards moved the children to communal barracks but were allowed to visit their mothers if they excelled at their work.

Inmates were fed the same meal three times a day: a bowl of steamed corn and a salty vegetable broth.

Shin’s life changed in 1996, when his mother and brother were accused of trying to escape. Guards interrogated him in an underground cell. They stripped and hung him by his arms and legs from the ceiling, and held him over hot charcoal.

During the interrogations he learned that his father’s family belonged to a “hostile class” because his uncles had collaborated with the South Korean Army during the Korean War.

On Jan. 2, 2005, when Shin and his co-worker were collecting firewood near the camp’s electrified fence and could not see any guards, they ran.

In July 2005, Shin reached China. In February 2006, a South Korean helped him seek asylum at the South Korean Consulate in Shanghai. He arrived in Seoul last August.

For more information, please see:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/09/news/korea.php

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/born-to-a-life-in-n-korean-gulag-for-sins-of-unknown-ancestor/2007/06/21/1182019286590.html

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2679480.ece