OAS Concerned with Killings in Honduras

OAS Concerned with Killings in Honduras

By Brenda Lopez Romero
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The Organization of American States (OAS) expressed concern that three political activists have been murdered in the last month.  Since Zelaya was deposed there has also been kidnappings, arbitrary detentions, torture, sexual violations and illegal raids against the political resistance to the military.

In January there was a new President Porfirio Lobo Sosa elected, who must now handle the civil society and liberties issues in the country.  The commission indicated “Honduras must adopt urgent measures to guarantee the rights to life, humane treatment and personal liberty … All persons, without distinction, must be equally protected in the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and political participation.”

Minister of Security Oscar Arturo Alvarez Guerrero reported that “[w]e will strengthen our investigations aimed at clearing up these events, appointing a special squad that will produce the arrests of those responsible and the unrestricted application of justice.”

The recently murdered activists were 29-year-old Vanessa Zepeda Alonzo, union member Julio Funez Benitez, and Claudia Maritza Brizuela, daughter of union and community leader Pedro Brizuela; all participated against the coup.

The Commission wrote “with dismay that it appears that sons and daughters of leaders of the Resistance Front are being killed, kidnapped, attacked and threatened as a strategy to silence the activists.”  OAS has not faulted the new government but rather the previous political unrest.

For more information, please see:

CNN – Report condemns Honduras violence – 08 March 2010

Yemeni President Offers Talks to Separatists

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Yemen, under international pressure to quiet domestic unrest and focus its sights on al Qaeda, has offered to hold talks with southern separatists and hear their grievances, state media said on March 9.

The move by President Ali Abdullah Saleh follows an escalation in violence on both sides in south Yemen that has left a trail of dead and wounded in recent weeks even as insurgent violence elsewhere in the country fades.

North and South Yemen united in 1990, but many in the south – home to most of Yemen’s oil facilities – complain northerners have seized resources and discriminate against them.

“We say to them: Come talk with your brothers in the authority, and we will talk with you. We extend the hand of dialogue without having to resort to violence or blocking roads or raising the flag of separation,” Saleh said in an address at a military academy.

“I am certain the flags of separation will burn in the days and weeks ahead. We have one flag we voted on with our free will. We welcome any political demands. Come to dialogue,” he said, according to the Defense Ministry’s online newspaper.

Civil war between southern and northern forces shook Yemeni unity in 1994. A crackdown on separatists in recent weeks left several dead on both sides, though Sa’na claimed it arrested dozens of high-profile figures in recent weeks. Secessionist leaders in February called for an uprising against the government in Sa’na.

Yemen is dealing with looming presence of al Qaeda as well as threats from secessionist supporters. A truce with the Houthi rebel group in the north appears to be holding. However, Saleh said he would form a committee to have a dialogue with those who were interested in talks but stressed sustainable development required a strong stance.

“I don’t want the chair of presidency or Cabinet, I want to be a soldier to serve the nation and its unity,” he said.

For more information, please see:

 

Al-Jazeera – Yemeni Leader In Dialogue Call – 9 March 2010

AFP – Yemen President Warns Separatists But Offers Talks – 9 March 2010

Reuters – Yemen Offers Talks With Separatists As Unrest Flares – 9 March 2010

UPI – Yemen’s Saleh Open To National Dialogue – 9 March 2010

Russian Official Suggests Finger Printing for North Caucasus

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – A Russian official has suggested compiling fingerprints of the entire population of the North Caucasus as a measure to prevent and restrain crime in the region.

The North Caucasus an excessively problematic and violent region of the Russian Federation. The North Caucasus is also home to a large Muslim population, and ethnic tension has certainly contributed to the violence.

The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, Alexksandr Bastrykin, proposed on March 4 that the Kremlin compile a database of the fingerprints of all North Caucasus residents. DNA samples would also be submitted for inclusion in the database.

Mr. Bastrykin also suggested that Russia re-register all motor vehicles and issue new license plates for North Caucasus residents as part of a solution to “stabilize” the region.

Human rights groups criticized the suggestion, which appears to have some support at the federal level. For example, Lyudmila Alexkseyeva, a Russian human rights advocate, said that the fingerprinting plan is entirely “discriminatory”, calling such a practice “unacceptable in [any] civilized country.”

Tanya Lokshina, a human rights advocate for Human Rights Watch in Moscow, agreed, arguing that the proposed plan violated the European Convention of Human Rights. Ms. Lokshina also predicted that the progam would “antagonize people further in an already volatile region.”

Mr. Bastrykin suggested that the fingerprint and license plate programs would merely be pilots in the North Caucasus, and could later be extended to other parts of Russia where crime is prevalent. He suggested that the programs would not be used in a discriminatory matter, but instead would only be used “to centralize records and investigate crime”.

Chechen Republic spokesman, Alvi Kerimov, agreed with human rights groups and advocates. Mr. Kerimov stressed that if fingerprinting were to be introduced, it should not be used exclusively in the North Caucasus, but instead throughout the Russian Federation.

For more information, please see:

MOSCOW TIMES – Investigators Propose Fingerprinting in Caucasus – 9 March 2010

ITAR-TASS – Investigation Committee suggests total fingerprint/DNA registration in Russia – 5 March 2010

RADIO FREE EUROPE – Russian Official Suggests Fingerprinting Entire North Caucasus – 5 March 2010

REUTERS – Russia proposes fingerprinting for volatile N.Caucasus – 5 March 2010

ICC Postpones Bemba’s Trial

By Kylie M Tsudama

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo’s war crimes trial has been postponed.

Bemba faces charges for murder, rape, and pillaging that occurred from October 2002 to March 2003 in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced Monday that the trial, scheduled to start April 27, has been pushed back to July 5.  Last month, Bemba’s lawyers challenged the admissibility of his case in the ICC based on the complementarity principle.  The ICC only has authority to try cases when it does not interfere with any national proceedings.

Bemba’s defense team also called the ICC proceedings “an abuse of process in the case against Mr. Bemba,” and questioned the ICC’s “lack of the requisite level gravity,” believing that the case is not serious enough to be heard in the ICC.

The Office of the Prosecutor and victims’ legal representatives have until March 29 to make submissions to the Court and the CAR and DRC authorities have until April 19 to respond.  A status conference is scheduled for April 27 where the trial chamber will consider all submissions alongside oral submissions made at the conference.  The trial chamber will then issue a decision.

Last summer, the ICC pre-trial chamber found that Bemba had the “necessary criminal intent” when he ordered the Movemenr de Liberation du Congo (MLC) into CAR.  It also determined that the MLC armed group committed war crimes and crimes against humanity under Bemba “acting as military commander” during that mission.

Bemba was arrested in Belgium and transferred to the ICC in July 2008.  Last September, the Court reversed a decision granting Bemba a temporary conditional release, deciding that he would remain in the custody of the Court until the trial’s commencement.

This is one of four cases being investigated by the Prosecutor of the ICC.  Bemba is the most senior political figure in the Court’s custody.

For more information, please see:

AP – Bemba War Crimes Trial Delayed – 08 March 2010

Relief Web – Commencement of the Trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Postponed Until 5 July 2010 – 08 March 2010

UN News Centre – ICC Postpones Trial of Former Congolese Leader Charged with War Crimes – 08 March 2010

Slovak Village Builds Wall to Keep Roma Out

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe Desk

OSTROVANY, Slovakia – In the eastern Slovak town of Ostrovany the town council approved and built a 150 meter long and 2.2 meter high wall out of gray concrete slabs to separate the Roma community from the rest of the village.  Officials in Ostrovany say that the wall was necessary to protect Slovak homeowners whose gardens bordered the Roma settlement.

The wall was built with €13,000 of public funds in a community where two-thirds of the population are Roma.

The wall dividing the eatern Slovakian village of Ostrovany from the Roma encampment. / Source: BBC
The wall dividing the eastern Slovakian village of Ostrovany from the Roma encampment. / Source: BBC

Stanislav Daniel of the European Roma Rights Center said of the wall:

“It has very high symbolic value. We could not object to the owners building their own wall and paying for it. But this is the first time that a municipality in Slovakia is using public money to protect the property of a few people.”

The village council first agreed to build the wall in 2008 after concerns were expressed over rising criminality in the village, primarily in the form of  fruit theft by Roma children. The wall was supposed to have become part of a community complex including a kindergarten, primary school, and community center –  which have yet to materialize.

The building of the wall has caused outrage among the Roma and human rights activists.  Peter Kaleja, a twenty-one-year-old Roma man who lives with his wife and nineteen-month-old baby daughter in a shack made of mud and wood, said:

“Nobody told us that this was happening – they just came one day and started building . . . The mayor should not have spent that money on the wall, but should have built houses for us.”

The Kaleja’s  live on €170 a month, and have no running water, gas, or sewage connection in their shack. 

Cyril Revak, mayor of Ostrovany, said that the Roma shacks are built illegally on private land.  He said:  “The Roma are also citizens of this country. They deserve all the help they can get, but they must obey the law.” Revak remarked that the municipality was trying to purchase the land the Roma are living on, and planned to build houses for the Roma.  He also said that the village had launched a program to help Roma children graduate from high school.

“I’m not a racist,” Revak said, “I know that there are many decent people living among our Roma. But on the other hand, I do not wish for anyone to go through hell everyday, like the people living in the neighbourhood of the settlement.”

Štefan Šarközi of the Institute of Roma Public Policy criticized the wall, which he said effectively categorized all of the residents of the settlement as thieves.  Šarközi also said that the money would have been better spent on social workers and guards to prevent crime.  He said:

“If someone steals, he or she should be punished for that, but we shouldn’t punish the whole community . . . Where does that leave those who live in the settlement behind the wall now and who never stole anything?”

 There are roughly 350,000 Roma in Slovakia, which is approximately seven percent of the nation’s population. The Roma of Slovakia, and in the rest of Eastern Europe, have a shorter life expectancy, are more likely to be unemployed, and have a higher infant mortality than their non-Roma neighbors.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Slovakia’s separation barrier to keep out Roma – 9 March 2010

The Sofia Echo – Slovak town raises concrete wall around Roma ghetto – report – 18 February 2010

Times Online – Slovakian council in Ostrovany funds wall to isolate Roma community – 18 February 2010

The Slovak Spectator – A wall to keep out Roma – 26 October 2009