U.S. Navy Warns Ships Off Yemen Of Possible Al-Qaeda Attack

U.S. Navy Warns Ships Off Yemen Of Possible Al-Qaeda Attack

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

CAIRO, Egypt – The U.S. Navy is warning of possible al Qaeda attacks against ships off the coast of Yemen, where an offshoot of the terrorist network has established a significant base of operations over the past year.

Yemen became a focus of deep international concern in December when Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, showing the group based in an impoverished and unstable corner of the Middle East had global reach.

“Information suggests that al Qaeda remains interested in maritime attacks in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen,” said an advisory from the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence.

The warning said such attacks could be similar to the 2000 strike against the Navy destroyer USS Cole in Yemen’s Aden harbor that killed 17 American sailors. The attackers used a small boat laden with explosives to blow a hole in the side of the ship.

“Other more sophisticated methods of attack could include missiles or projectiles,” said the advisory, which was dated March 10. In particular, ships are at greatest risk while in or near ports or at anchor, it said.

Yemen, whose location at the southern rim of the Arabian Peninsula places it near one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors, is a long-standing base of support for al Qaeda.

Besides an al Qaeda threat, ships transiting the area have been beset by Somali pirates who have seized control of vessels ranging from fishing trawlers to oil supertankers in search of ransoms in the millions of dollars.

For more information, please see:

AP – US Navy Warns Al-Qaeda Threatens Ships Off Yemen – 23 March 2010

Otago Daily Times – US Warns Of Al-Qaeda Threat To Ships Off Yemen – 23 March 2010

Reuters – U.S. Warns Ships Off Yemen Of Possible Al-Qaeda – 23 March 2010

Militant Rebels Blow up Railway Tracks

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BIHAR, India- During a 48-hour strike Maoist rebels in India blew up sections of railway tracks in four eastern states.  These attacks have left two people dead.

Maoists began the strike on Monday in six states as a protest against a major offensive being executed by government troops.  The attack in Bihar state came during a two-day strike.  The rebels demanded that people stay home to join their protest against the government action aimed at flushing militant from their forest hide-outs.  One section of track destruction in Bihar caused an express train to derail, but no casualties were reported.

The Maoist rebels desire communist rule in large areas of India.  More than 6,000 have died in this 20 year-fight.  The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of the rural poor who complain they have been neglected by the government for decades.

Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister described the Maoists as the biggest threat to India’s internal security, and ordered a major offensive in November.

The major offensive, called Operation Green Hunt consists of nearly 50,000 federal paramilitary troops and an equal number of policemen, equipped with helicopters and unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles.

On Tuesday, law enforcement blamed the destruction of a 1.2m(4ft) section of railway tracks on the Maoist rebels.  This caused seven coaches and the engine of an express train to derail.  This occurred 15km from the town of Gaya, while the train was en route from the city of Bhubaneswar to the capital, officials said.  Samir Goswami, a railway spokesman said the rebels blew up tracks in three other places in Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa, leading to the cancellation of several services.

The government has proposed talks with the rebels, but only if they refrain from violence and place no preconditions.  On the other hand, the rebels demand that the government stop their offensive before they agree to talks.

In West Bengal, rebels were blamed for killing Hemant Pradhan, a school headmaster, who was said to be a supporter of the ruling Communist Party of India.  Police state that he was dragged from this home and shot dead.

For more information, please see:
Gulf Times- Maoists Blow Up Rail Track, Bridge– 22 March 2010

Samoa NGO Criticizes Government Discrimination of Choices for Commission of Inquiry

By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

APIA, Samoa – The Samoa Umberalla Group for NGOs says that the Samoan government has been discriminative with it’s choice of who will be part of the Commission of Inquiry into the freedom of religion.

On March 14, 2010, the Samoa government approved the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to review freedom of religion in Samoa. The freedom of religion is a fundamental human right safeguarded under an International Convention that is ratified by Samoa as well as in the country’s constitution.

The Commission’s primary responsibilities are: “to inquire into and report in detail on the working of Article 11 of the Constitution in relation to churches and other religious organizations in Samoa and to examine and report whether there is any necessity or expediency for further specific legislation related to this right.”

A U.S. State Department Human Rights report in 2009 points out that the government of Samoa generally respects the people’s freedom of religion and the Samoa constitution acknowledges an “independent state based on Christian principles and Samoan custom and tradition.” However, there is no official or state denomination.

The report went on to state: “The law grants each person the right to change religion or belief and to worship or teach religion alone or with others, but in practice the matai [villagers of Samoa] often choose the religious denomination of the extended family.”

According to the State Department’s International Religion Freedom Report of 2009, villages traditionally tend to have one primary Christian church, but now many larger villages have multiple churches serving different denominations. These newer, non-traditional groups face resistance when attempting to establish itself in a village.

The general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Samoa, Rev. Maauga Motu, says that “the Commission of Inquiry is a good move to stop more religions from coming to the country, as there are enough already…the church is already fed up with this many religious beliefs coming into the country and disturbing or moving people around…from one religion to another.”

Motu says that he does not have a problem with different religions already established in Samoa, like Bahai and Muslim faiths, but he does not want any more allowed in.

However, the government is concerned that the other religions, yet to arrive in Samoa, which strongly advocate beliefs that are contrary to Christianity, should be allowed since the freedom of religion gives the right to practice whatever religion a person wants to practice.

In a statement, the government says that freedom of religion has “posed a direct challenge to the autonomy of the village council.”

Because of the huge controversy over the matter, a Commission of Inquiry was established to give advice to the Cabinet in handling this.

The first inquiry that the Commission is responsible for handling is whether freedom of religion is being exercised too widely and whether there is a need to institute corresponding laws or regulations.

The head of the Samoa Umberalla Group for NGOs, Vaasiliifiti Moelagi Jackson, says that to take away the freedom of religion is against human rights. She criticizes the government for being discriminative in its choices of who will be a part of the Commission.

She commented: “We are very very disappointed that [in] the commission that [the government] has selected there has been an absence of women…they are very discriminative, other churches are not included and they should all be there and voice their own values and why they are here and why there is a need of a new church.”

Jackson says that only the major churches, like the Christian Congregational and Catholic Church, are part of the Commission.

She further stated that the Commission should look at having guidelines where the churches must be registered and their books audited.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – Samoa NGO criticises govt’s commission of inquiry choice – 23 March 2010

Samoa News – Samoa gov establishes commission to investigate freedom of religion and matai titles – 21 March 2010

Islands Business – Samoa reviews freedom of religion – 17 March 2010

Samoa Observer – Commission reviews freedom of religion – 16 March 2010

Radio New Zealand International – Commission of Inquiry in Samoa to review Freedom of Religion – 14 March 2010

Former Nazi Soldier Convicted for Killing Dutch Civilians

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BERLIN, Germany – On Tuesday March 23, the trial of an ex-Nazi soldier accused of war crimes ended in the maximum conviction of life in prison.

A trial court in Aachen, Germany (near Bonn) convicted Heinrich Boere, now 88 years old, to life in prison for killing three Dutch civilians in 1944.

Mr. Boere killed the civilians, including two Dutch business owners, in response to an attack on Nazi soldiers by Dutch resistance fighters. Prosecutors demonstrated that Mr. Boere willingly joined the infamous Feldmeijer death squad in 1940 after Nazi forces took over the Netherlands.

During the trial, which began in October 2009, Mr. Boere admitted to killing the civilians, but insisted that he was forced to follow orders from Nazi leaders in carrying out the murders. Mr. Boere was quoted by the press as saying: “I always regarded these assignments as military orders which I had to carry out.”

Presiding Judge Gerd Nohl scolded the killings, describing them as “murders that could hardly be outdone in terms of baseness and cowardice.”

Mr. Boere has been stateless since being stripped of his citizenship by the Netherlands in the 1950’s.

Tuesday’s verdict was not the first time Mr. Boere was convicted and sentenced for the murders. A Dutch court in 1949 found Mr. Boere guilty. He was then sentenced to death, but the penalty was commuted to life in prison. But Mr. Boere fled the Netherlands from his POW camp.

Mr. Boere has lived in Germany since. An attempt by the Netherlands to extradite Mr. Boere in the early 1980’s was denied when a German court determined that he had a potential German citizenship claim because he was born in Aachen.

Mr. Boere’s attorneys have said they will appeal the decision, pressing to dismiss the conviction because it did not comply with EU due process regulations. In the mean time, doctors will examine Mr. Boere to determine whether he is medically fit to serve a prison term.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Former Nazi SS member convicted of Dutch murders – 23 March 2010

JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY – Former SS soldier sentenced to life – 23 March 2010

NEW YORK TIMES – Ex-Nazi Guilty in Wartime Murders – 23 March 2010

Mass Grave Unearthed During Construction of Hotel in East Timor

By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

DILI, East Timor – A number of bodies were unearthed from the construction site of a luxury hotel seven miles outside of Dili.

A Singaporean company began construction on the foundation of a five-star, beach front hotel when, last month, workers uncovered nine bodies on the site.  Experts believe they are East Timorese freedom fighters who were blindfolded and buried in a mass grave during the early years of the Indonesian occupation.  When they were uncovered, not only were all the bodies wearing what appeared to be remnants of blindfolds, but two of the bodies also had Portuguese military uniforms.

In 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor, which had been a Portuguese colony for more than 400 years.  It occupied East Timor until 1999, when it achieved its independence.  This twenty-four year period was a particularly brutal one in East Timor’s history.

During the occupation, freedom fighters wore the military uniforms and later on also used stolen Indonesian equipment.

A professor of international studies at Deakin University in Australia also believes that the bodies are those of freedom fighters who had been captured by the Indonesian army (also known as TNI), brought to Dili for interrogation, and then executed.  TNI would only bury such individuals if they had been executed.  On the other hand, freedom fighters who died in combat were often hung from trees to deter locals from taking up arms.

East Timor has appointed a government commission, which is responsible for searching for victims of the period in which Indonesia occupied the nation.

A representative of the government commission, Gregorio Saldanha, called the nine “heroes of our country”.  The commission continues to search for additional victims.

An estimated 180,000 individuals died during Indonesia’s occupation. After Indonesia left East Timor, many unmarked graves were unearthed, including a mass grave holding eighteen individuals at Dili’s airport runway.  Archeologists continue to search the area for more unmarked graves.

Hotel construction has been postponed due to archeological work on the site.

For more information please see:
Daily Commercial News – Bodies found during building of hotel in East Timor – 23 March 2010 http://dcnonl.com/article/id38072

The Age – Mass grave halts Timor hotel work – 14 March 2010 http://www.theage.com.au/world/mass-grave-halts-timor-hotel-work-20100313-q52c.html

Associated Press – Grave likely holds East Timorese freedom fighters -12 March 2010 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hIiPYCqSMHJerbFKlj-ofEEO5KNQD9ED2H180