Taylor Denies Everything

Taylor Denies Everything

By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

THE HAGUE,Netherlands-This week Charles Taylor responded to a number of allegations by prosecutors, that included Taylor jailing journalists, lying to United Nations Panel of Experts and his involvement in plans to attack Sierra Leone.

Taylor although admitting to jailing journalists, denied prosecutors allegations that he jailed them for investigating diamond smuggling. Taylor said he jailed the foreign journalists because they were trying to assassinate him, not because they were investigating his alleged involvement with diamond smuggling in Sierra Leone. While Taylor was President, he says a foreign television crew was detained for being part of a plot to assassinate him with a “cancer-causing” laser beam. The journalists were later released after security officers could not determine who was behind the plot.

Taylor also responded to allegations that he supported plans to attack Sierra Leone while he was in Libya. The prosecution questioned Taylor about his associations in Libya where rebel forces were being trained to eventually invade Liberia and Sierra Leone in 1989 and 1991. Taylor has repeatedly asserted he never knew about the formation of the Sierra Leonean rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and that he never met the group’s leader, Foday Sankoh, in Libya. Taylor insists he only met the leader of Sierra Leone’s Pan-Africanist Movement, Ali Kabbah, who was a former student leader.

The prosecution also questioned Taylor about testimony that he was not honest with the United Nations Panel of Experts (UNPE). The prosecution pointed out that in 2000, when Taylor met with the UNPE, he lied to them about the whereabouts of notorious Sierra Leonean rebel commander Sam Bockarie. According to witness testimony, Bockarie, after falling out with the leadership of the RUF, was invited by Taylor to relocate in Liberia. Taylor refuted these allegations. Taylor insisted he was honest in his response to the UNPE, saying that he was never directly asked where Bockarie was.  “I was never asked precisely where he was. I was being honest with the UN because as president of Liberia, I needed to be sure of where he was. I told them the official position of my government that he was escorted to the Ivorian border,” he said.
For more information please see:


Charles Taylor Trial – Charles Taylor Denies Supporting Plans To Attack Sierra Leone While In Libya – 18 November 2009

Charles Taylor Trial – Charles Taylor Was Not Honest With The United Nations Panel Of Experts, Prosecutors Say – 19 November 2009

VOA – Taylor Denies Jailing Journalists For Investigating Diamond Smuggling – 19 November 2009

Israel Begins Construction in East Jerusalem

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

EAST JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Israel began demolition of several Palestinian houses on November 18 in East Jerusalem, making way for new Jewish houses in the neighborhood. Seven Palestinians were reportedly injured, according to Ma’an News Agency, and several more assaulted by Israeli police, who threw tear gas into the crowd of Palestinian protestors.

The protests followed a decision by the Jerusalem municipal planning committee to approve the construction of nine hundred new housing units in the East Jerusalem Arab Gilo neighborhood, which is part of the occupied West Bank. Under international law, any new Israeli settlements in occupied territory are illegal.

There was a rapid outpouring of dismay from international leaders, surrounding the decision to allow new construction. The Swedish EU presidency reiterated its position that it had never recognized Israeli control over East Jerusalem, and that the actions of the Israeli government “contravene repeated calls by the international community, … and run counter to the creation of an atmosphere conducive to achieving a viable and credible solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.”

United States President Barack Obama told Fox News that Israel’s actions do not “contribute to Israel’s security,” and that it “embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous.”

Although the Jerusalem municipal planning board has approved the new construction, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that the Israeli prime minister has the ability to freeze all construction in East Jerusalem, following a precedent set by then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, who froze settlement construction in Sarfat, a neighborhood in northern East Jerusalem. Israel has rejected the characterization of the new construction in Gilo as a settlement, saying it is a neighborhood of Israeli East Jerusalem and therefore available for expansion under international law.

Jackie Rowland, a reporter for Al Jazeera in East Jerusalem, stated that the new construction was part of a larger effort by Israel to differentiate East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied West Bank:

“We have seen the government repeatedly claim that Jerusalem is its so-called united capital and the government said just today that whereas it planned to exercise what it called maximum restraint in the West Bank, it claimed that Jerusalem was a different case.”

For more information, please see:
 
Ha’aretz – Rabin Precedent Allows Freeze on Construction in E. Jerusalem – 20 November 2009

Ma’an News Agency – Clashes Erupt as Israeli Forces Raze Two More Homes in Jerusalem – 19 November 2009

Palestinian News Network – EU “Dismayed” By Israel’s Decision to Build New Houses in Gilo – 19 November 2009

Al Jazeera – Israel Defends Settlement Expansion – 18 November 2009

Christian Science Monitor – Obama Raps Israel Over New Jerusalem Settlement Plan – 18 November 2009

New Bagram Facilities Open

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – U.S. military officials in Afghanistan recently afforded international journalists the opportunity to inspect the newly refurbished Bagram Air-Base.  The air-base currently serves as the largest U.S. hub in Afghanistan, holding over 24,000 U.S. military personnel and private, contracted personnel working within the facility.  Although the air-base was already almost inundated with the immense forces of U.S. troops, the base, utilized as a make-shift prison by the U.S. army, had been undergoing significant refurbishment to accommodate for an increase in armed forces occupying the area. As the base stood before the adjustments, approximately 65,000 American troops and 45,000 allied troops held station at the Bagram Air-Base.  The new Bagram is supposed to be able to hold an estimated 80,000 troops in addition to those already there.  The new prison facilities cost about $60,000,000 to construct.  The U.S. military suggested that the new Bagram will represent a progressive step towards more transparent practices in the treatment of detainees.

Human rights and activist groups have long chastised the U.S. military for its history of subjecting Bagram detainees to harsh mistreatment.  Numerous allegations of torture and violent interrogation methods have arisen since the U.S. military’s utilization of the Bagram Air-Base in 2003.  Bagram Air-Base has even earned the infamous title of “Guantanamo II”, or the “evil twin of Guantanamo.” Numerous investigative reports have released throughout the U.S. military’s years of using Bagram Air-Base have revealed consistent information suggesting that the mistreatment of Bagram prisoners far superseded the abuse Guantanamo detainees endured.  

Additionally, Bagram Air-Base detainees apparently received less process rights than Guantanamo prisoners, raising human rights issues besides torture and abuse.  Many Bagram inmates were apparently denied legal representation altogether and held without knowledge as to why or for how long.

Ex-employees of Bagram have expressed skepticism towards the purported purposes and policies of the refurbished facility.  Many believe that the new developments will do nothing to alter the practices of Bagram personnel.  Ex-guards described situations in which inmates lived every moment in continual fear of being abused or even killed, as gunmen stationed themselves at high points within the confines of Bagram walls.      

Reporters were not allowed to correspond with the inmates in the new Bagram facility to ascertain their perspective on the supposedly new, more rights-based policies.  Without these first-hand accounts, the truth of that matter remains to be seen.

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – US unveils extended Bagram prison – 16 November 2009

Yahoo! News – Already the main Afghan war hub, Bagram is growing – 1 November 2009  

Zimbio – Bagram Air Base To Under $60 Million Expansion – 2 November 2009 

Indigenous Political Prisoners Tortured in Chile

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CONCEPCIÓN, Chile-Imprisoned Mapuche activists told members of the press that they were torture, framed, and discriminated against by police and persecuted by prosecutors. The activists were arrested under a national security and anti-terrorism law adopted during the period of military dictatorship in Chile.

Charges against the activists range from “terrorist association” to attempted homicide against the prosecutor and two detectives who formed part of a team that entered a Mapuche community in 2008. One prisoner claims that the prosecutor tortured him to make him confess that he was the leader of the ambush where the two detectives were killed.

The Chilean government denies all allegations of wrongdoing. President Bachelet, who lived in exile during the military dictatorship said, “nothing, absolutely nothing justifies violence in the region of La Araucania.” The Mapuche has staged land seizures, burned vehicles, and agricultural machinery in protest of what they consider to be unauthorized land use. One government official pointed out that the violence has resulted in a significant decrease in foreign investment.

Since center-left government of Michelle Bachelet took office, thirty five percent of the disputed land has been returned to the Mapuche. However, many say that not enough progress has been made in the restoration of the ancestral land, which was taken in a government offensive that began in the late 19th century.

A 2007 international mission by the Observatory for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights found dozens of complaints of abuses, such as violent raids of Mapuche homes where police destroyed household goods and objects of cultural value, mistreated elderly people, women and children, and made racist epithets. This was allegedly done in search of activists wanted by the justice system. The Mapuche gave UNICEF the names of thirty-seven children they say were asphyxiated by tear gas.

There are nearly one million Mapuche living in Chile. Non-governmental organizations estimate that there are more than fifty Mapuche political prisoners in different prisons in Southern Chile. In September the Ethical Commission Against Torture put that number closer to 100.

The Mapuche resisted over 300 years of Spanish rule and then oppression by the Chilean state, until they were defeated militarily and cornered in the South. In the last few months, conflict has increased between the Mapuche communities and the state. This was primarily fueled by a new wave of land occupations, leading to confrontations with police.

For more information, please see:

Mapu Express-Hablan Presos Mapuche Desde la cárcel del Manzano, Concepción-19 November 2009

IPS-CHILE: Mapuche Voices from Prison-16 November 2009

Univision-Chile Utiliza Ley de la dictadura para juzgar a mapuches-16 November 2009

Supreme Court Declines to Hear “Redskins” Logo Case

18 November 2009

Supreme Court Declines to Hear “Redskins” Logo Case

By Brenda Lopez Romero
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Supreme Court declined without comment to hear the case Harjo v. Pro-Football, Inc, ending a two-decade long legal battle. Even if the advocates had won, the legal grounds were decided on a procedural issue and therefore the team would have only lost trademark protection, but would not have been forced to change its name. The team is firm in its stance that it will not and would not change the team name.

The Petitioners only asked the Supreme Court to review whether the claim could be barred by laches when a suit is brought too late, and not whether the nickname was offensive. They cited a written decision by Justice Alito that supported the view that offensive trademark claims could be brought at any time, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The petitioners argued that the “Redskins” logo and mascot was not worthy of trademark protection, because it was very racially offensive and discriminatory. The Petitioners hoped to have a lower court’s procedural ruling that barred their suit based on time limitations.

Robert Raskopf, attorney for the Native American legal team, said “Obviously, we’re quite pleased; it’s been a long road. We’re not surprised the court didn’t see any issue worthy of review.” However, the advocates are disappointed. Speaking  about the new challengers of the same trademark issue but with slightly different circumstances, Raskopf said “I think we’re very confident with our likelihood of success.”

Redskins-logox(PHOTO: Courtesy of the Washington Post)

The respondent, the sports team, have defended the use of the logo, stating that Native Americans should feel honored and not disparaged. In its legal brief, the team wrote that the name was “in honor of the team’s head coach, William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz, who was a Native American.”

Nonetheless, in an amicus brief Native American associations wrote that the Redskins name is “patently offensive, disparaging, and demeaning and perpetrates a centuries-old stereotype.”

For more information, please see:

Associated Press – Court Won’t Hear Complaint About Redskins Name – 17 November 2009

Wall Street Journal – Get Rare Win Over Name in Court – 17 November 2009

Washington Post – Court Won’t Hear Redskins Case – 17 November 2009