Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur Worsening Due to Recent Clashes

Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur Worsening Due to Recent Clashes

By Jared Kleinman

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Weeks of fighting in parts of Darfur have raised concern over the plight of civilians, as insecurity has prompted humanitarian agencies to suspend activities in some areas.

More than 10,000 are thought to be displaced as a result of the recent clashes, but the United Nations says the ongoing insecurity is preventing humanitarian aid from reaching much of the affected civilian populations.

OCHA spokesman Sam Hendricks commenting on the recent fighting said, “It’s been confirmed in our reports that there were clashes between government forces and rebel groups. And where we don’t have reliable information, there is really nothing that we can say at this stage,” Hendricks said.

In these recent clashes, the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, Abdel Wahid Nour faction (SLA-Nour), which refuses to join peace talks with the Sudanese government until a full cessation of hostilities is implemented, has accused government forces of attacking its positions east of Jebel Marra.

“There were random air attacks on villages,” Al-Sadeq Al-Zein Rokero, an official with SLM-Nour faction, said. “The situation is very tragic. This may be the most violent attack by the Sudanese armed forces.”

However, Sudan’s army spokesman, Al Sawarmi Khaled, denied there had been any government military action. “The armed forces are present in the area to preserve order. They did not clash with Abdel Wahid’s forces.”

The US State Department cast doubt on this denial in a statement expressing extreme concern “about reports that Government of Sudan forces are conducting offensive operations against … [SLA-Nour] positions in the Jebel Marra area of Darfur that have reportedly caused significant civilian casualties, displacement, and the evacuation of humanitarian organizations”.

The statement called on both parties “to refrain from further violence and to allow the Joint African Union-UN Mission in Darfur access to Jebel Marra to assess the humanitarian situation and restore stability”.

French aid group, Médecins du Monde (MdM), the only medical NGO in the Deribat area in eastern Jebel Marra, was forced to suspend operations after attacks last week. In the towns affected by the fighting – Marra, Kidingeer, Leiba and Fugoli, Feina and Deribat – three other NGOs suspended operations because of insecurity and fighting, Hendricks said.

“The situation is very bad. We are really concerned,” said Jerome Larche, head of MdM’s Sudan programme. The population no longer had access to any medical facility, Larche said.

Malnutrition, which the French aid group was addressing, and access to clean water were among the main problems for the population in the area, Larche said.

“After the fighting started, we had reports that six children died from malnutrition complications. The rate of acute malnutrition is going to increase if we cannot go back to the area soon,” Larche said.

In anticipation of urgent needs, the World Health Organization and NGO partners have pre-positioned emergency health supplies for transfer to Kulbus hospital.

To date, more than 300,000 are thought to have died in the Darfur conflict, although Khartoum rejects these figures.

For more information, please see:

Voice of America – Darfur Peace Talks Threatened; Clashes Continue – 3 March 2010

News 24 – UN: No Darfur disaster – 3 March 2010

All Africa – No Access After Darfur Clashes – 3 March 2010

ECHR Rules Poland Discriminates Against Homosexuals

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Wednesday March 3 that Poland discriminated against a homosexual man for denying him a right to succeed to an apartment in which he lived with his now deceased partner.

In accordance, the ECHR further prohibited Poland from discriminating against homosexual couples, despite a constitutional prohibition on homosexual marriage.

Piotr Kozak lived with a male partner from 1989 to 1998 in an apartment in Szczecin, Poland. The lease agreement was in the partner’s name.

When the partner died, Mr. Kozak applied to continuing living in the apartment, but his landlord refused to allow him to conclude a new lease agreement. The landlord denied the succession to the apartment despite Polish statutory law, which allows any “person who has lived in de facto cohabitation with the tenant” to succeed to the tenancy.

Mr. Kozak first brought suit in the Polish courts. However, Polish authorities courts and authorities consistently rejected the rights of homosexual couples.

Poland rejected Mr. Kozak’s claim on its understanding of Polish law on Article 18 of the Polish Constitution, which provides a definition of marriage as a “union of a man and a woman”. By analogy, the courts said that any cohabitation rights held in Poland apply only to heterosexual couples.

The European Court of Human Rights, however, rejected Poland’s arguments. The ECHR ruled instead that Poland violated Article 8 and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which give European citizens the right to private and family life and prohibits discrimination, respectively.

The Court ruled that “de facto marital cohabitation” rights must be applied to persons in same-sex relationship the same way it is applied to heterosexual cohabitants. In so ruling, the ECHR stressed that the Convention was a “living instrument”.

Polish human rights groups praised the decision. Yga Kostrzewa, a spokeswoman for Lambda Warsaw, predicted that “[t]here will certainly be many more cases like this because there are a lot of laws and regulations that do not treat people equally.”

For more information, please see:

FINANCIAL TIMES – Homosexuals win legal victory against Poland – 3 March 2010

PINK PAPER – European Court of Human Rights: Polish legislation discriminates – 3 March 2010

RIA NOVOSTI – Strasbourg rules Polish gays can inherit property from partners – 3 March 2010

Russia Considers Fingerprinting Entire Northern Caucasus Population

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – As part of a new anti-terrorism campaign, a Russian official has proposed that the entire population of the northern Caucasus region be fingerprinted.

Alexander Bastrykin, the Chairman of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office Investigation Committee, declared that the program would aid the federal government in investigating continuing acts of violence that originate in the Caucasus region.  According to Bastrykin, approximately five Russian hundred police officers and military personal have been killed in that region in recent years.  The program would be a “mandatory fingerprint registration for all citizens living in the North Caucasus region.”

Bastrykin’s proposal also called for the issuing of new registration licenses for all automobiles in the north Caucusus.

Outcry in response to the fingerprinting proposition was immediate.  Some critics believe that such a program would only inflame the mistrust that the population of that region already holds towards the Russian central government.  “This is going to antagonize people further in an already volatile region,” said Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch.  She also suggested that the program could violate the European Convention of Human Rights, to which Russia is a signatory nation.

Lyudmila Alekseyeva, a Russian human rights advocate, declared the proposal as ‘discriminatory.’  The population for whom fingerprinting would be required are almost entirely ethnicity Chechen.

A lawmaker in Chechnya was also quick to condemn the fingerprinting program.  Ziyad Sabsabi noted that, in addition to it possibly violating the presumed innocence of those Russian citizens who are fingerprinted, the program would also be ineffective.  Criminals, Sabsabi argued, could easily leave the region to avoid the fingerprinting process.  Additionally, if the purposes of the proposed program is to combat crime, then “[logically] all Russian nationals living in the Russian Federation should be subjected to fingerprinting.”

If successful in implementing this program in the northern Caucasus region, Bastrykin alluded to the possibility of expanding the program throughout Russia.

For more information, please see:

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

RIANOVISTI – Chechen MP decries fingerprinting plan as human rights violation – 4 March 2010

Violence Feared After Both Parties Claim Victory in Togo Election

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter,  Africa

LOME, Togo – European Union has concerns over Togo’s presidential election regarding transparency in the collation of results.

Both the ruling and opposition parties are claiming victory in this election.  Because of this uncertainty, many fear renewed violence in the west African nation.

Togo’s independent electoral commission (CENI) said that the official results will be published on Saturday.

Jean-Pierre Fabre, Togo’s opposition presidential candidate, has alleged “irregularities” in the voting procedures, referencing such things as stuffing ballot boxes.  The ruling party as rejected these claims and is now accusing the opposition of trying to spark violence between the two groups.

The Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party has been ruling for over forty years while the opposition has been campaigning on a platform of change.  President Faure Gnassingbe is seeking his second five-year term.

Taxi driver and opposition supporter Felix Amelo warned, “People are tensely awaiting the results because if there is no change, there will again be destruction.”

Local police and the electoral commission have said that there were no incidents recorded during the polling process.

“In all, voting went very well.  There were more rumors than incidents,” said senior police commissioner Abalo Assih.

Looming fear is stemming from the violence that followed the election of Gnassingbe in 2005 that lead to hundreds of deaths, the United Nations putting the number between 400 and 500.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Togo’s Ruling, Opposition Parties Claim Victory in Vote – 5 March 2010

BBC – EU Observer Fears Over Togo Poll – 5 March 2010

Business Week – Togo’s Ruling Party Calls Opposition Win Claim “Unacceptable” –  2010

AP – Story of 2 Families at Heart of Togo’s Election – 3 March 2010

North Korean Executed Over a Mobile Phone

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea– A firing squad publically executed a North Korean factory worker for making a phone call to a friend in South Korea using an illegal mobile phone.

Although South Korea’s Unification Ministry stated that they could not immediately confirm the execution, the execution is said to have taken place back in late January in the North’s eastern coastal city of Hamhung.

The executed factory worker was accused of recounting rice price and other information concerning the current living conditions in North Korea to a friend who defected to South Korea several years ago.

Despite the introduction of an advanced network partnered with Cairo-based Orascom Telecom back in 2008, North Korea maintains tight restrictions on mobile phone uses.

Most North Koreans who do manage to make international phone calls do so by using networks in neighboring China.

There is an estimated 10,000 North Koreans living by the North Korea-China border who possess Chinese mobile phones, which is illegal.

North Korea has launched a crackdown in February on potential defectors and those who use Chinese mobile phones, a measure which made it harder for North Koreans to make calls abroad asking for help in terms of sneaking out of the country.

North Korea’s Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of State Security announced over a government-run television network that “[North Korea] possess[es] a world-class striking force and means to protect our security that have not yet been…made public” and that Pyongyang has the means to crush “reactionary forces.”

The joint statement by the Ministries also said that the main focus of the crackdown on defectors is so that “people [are] educated about the traitors to the nation,” adding that the defectors will be “mercilessly dealt with.”

North Korea is reportedly to have purchased expensive cell phone tracking and jamming devices and have installed the equipment in various cities like Shinuiju, Heysan and Hweryong, which all lie near the North Korea-China or North-South Korea borders.

The defector who received the North Korean factory worker’s phone call in South Korea may have been working for the South Korean government.

For more information, please see:

Eurasia Review – North Korea Cracks Down on Mobile Phones – 20 February 2010

The Press Associated – Korean executed for ‘illegal’ phone – 4 March 2010

Toronto Star – N. Korean man executed for cell phone call – 4 March 2010