MONUC Troops Pushed Out of DRC

MONUC Troops Pushed Out of DRC

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

DAKAR, DR Congo – With after a new wave of violence and instability sweeping through the central African nation, Congolese government is oddly pushing for a swift withdrawal of United Nations (UN) peacekeepers.

UN peacekeepers (MONUC) have been in Congo for eleven years.  Their numbers now reaching over 20,000, making them one of the largest peacekeeping missions in the world.

Even though the UN peacekeepers have been faulted in the past for backing down in the face of certain rebels, many fear that a hasty withdrawal may be dangerous.   President Joseph Kabila does not share this fear and is wiling to risk Congo’s return to the brutalities that plagued them during their four years of civil war.

“For the moment, as you know, the situation remains extremely fragile.  So we have to do it right rather than do it quickly,” said Gerard Araud, France’s permanent representative to the UN.

“MONUC won’t leave if we are not sure that the Congolese authorities are able to do the job.  That’s the discussion we should have with the Congolese authorities,” added Araud.

Tomorrow ambassadors will travel to Kinshasa for talks with the Congolese officials who want MONUC to clear out of the country by September 2011.

According to The National, human rights groups have been warning officials that Congo is still racked “by violence, with massacres, rape and looting commonplace as armed ex-rebel groups profit from the mining of gold, coltan and other valuable minerals.”

For more information please see:

Independence Online – UN Mission Accused of Inaction – 15 April 2010

The Economist – Unloved for Trying to Keep the Peace – 15 April 2010

The National – UN Envoys Prepare for Battle Over Congo Peace Troops – 15 April 2010

Reuters – UN’s Congo Trip Dominated by Peacekeepers’ Exit – 15 April 2010

Police Did Not Act On Al-Qaeda Linked Sermon In Australia

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

SYDNEY, Australia – Alleged Al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been described as America’s number one terrorist threat, is reported to have been engaged by a Sydney youth group to address hundreds of young people in one of Australia’s largest mosques from Yemen last year.

According to a Sydney Morning Herald report, Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been charged with masterminding the killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, was approached by the Sydney Muslim Youth group, to deliver a sermon to young Australians.

The New South Wales (NSW) counter-terrorism squad knew about an al-Qaeda-linked sermon delivered at a Sydney mosque but did nothing because it did not believe that the radical imam who gave it was a threat.

The unit has no transcript of the sermon, delivered by an al-Qaeda recruiter described as the No.1 terrorist threat to America, but says the speaker, Anwar al-Awlaki, has now become a ”significant threat” to Australia.

According to US authorities, about the time of the sermon Mr Awlaki was transforming himself from radical cleric to trainer and recruiter for al-Qaeda.

Last week, Mr Awlaki became the first US citizen added to the CIA kill list. He is considered a military enemy of the US and faces assassination by special forces.

“The danger Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words,” a US official told The New York Times. “He’s gotten involved in plots.” The chairwoman of the US house subcommittee on homeland security, Jane Harman, called Mr Awlaki “terrorist No. 1 in terms of threat against us”.

The bomber who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day last year reportedly described him as his trainer and recruiter.

And Awlaki was said to be advising the extremist who was later charged with killing 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in November last year.

For more information, please see;

The Sydney Morning Herald – Police Did Not Act On Terrorist Sermon – 16 April 2010

One India – Al-Qaeda Recruiter Addressed Sydney Mosque Youngsters From Yemen In 2009 – 15 April 2010

Herald Sun – Anwar Al Awlaki Considered The Number One Terrorist Threat To The US, Delivered Sermon At Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque – 15 April 2010

The Sydney Morning Herald – Al-Qaeda At City Mosque – 15 April 2010

Settlers Vandalize Mosque, Uproot Trees in Palestinian Village

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

HAWARA, West Bank – More than three hundred olive trees were uprooted during the night between April 13 and April 14 in the West Bank village of Hawara, reportedly by Jewish settlers. Two cars were also set on fire, and Stars of David and racist slogans in Hebrew were sprayed on buildings, including on the walls of a mosque in the village south of Nablus. An Israeli army spokesman told Army Radio that the Israeli military believed settlers were behind the destruction, possibly as part of a response to the Israeli government’s construction freeze on settlements in the West Bank.

Brigadier General Nitzan Alon, the Commander of the Israeli Defense Forces Judea and Samaria division, has reportedly launched an investigation into the incident, condemned the attacks, and has promised that “those responsible should be brought to justice,” according to an official statement. The statement also noted that the Israeli Civil Administration removed the graffiti from the mosque’s walls during the morning after the incident.

Hawara is also near the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar. In December 2009, settlers from Yitzhar were accused of setting fire to a mosque in the Palestinian village of Yusuf. A rabbi from Yitzhar was arrested in connection to the incident, but no charges were filed.

Some hard-line Jewish settlers have called the attacks on Palestinian villages the “price tag” for the construction freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank, put in place by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In response to news of the incidents in Hawara, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a spokesman for the right-wing Jewish National Front, said:

“We are talking about a hostile village that has been the source of a large number of violent attacks against the residents of Yitzhar…The time has come for the Arabs to understand that Jews are not suckers and that Jewish blood will not be shed without consequence.”

For their own part, Palestinian residents of Hawara have promised to re-plant their trees, some of which are hundreds of years old and have been tended for generations. Some grove owners have estimated that the damage to their trees will cost them thousands of dollars. Yet despite frequent disruption by Jewish settlers, the grove owners have said they will re-plant.

“If they uproot five acres of trees, we’ll plant six,” said Abu Hussein, a grove owner. “They won’t break us.”

For more information, please see:

Ma’an News Agency – Israel Army Condemns Mosque Vandalism – 15 April 2010

BBC News – Jewish Settlers Suspected in West Bank Mosque Attack – 14 April 2010

Ha’aretz – Mosque Vandalized as Settlers Attack Palestinian Village – 14 April 2010

Ha’aretz – No-one Saw, No-one Heard: 300 Palestinian Olive Trees Uprooted – 14 April 2010

Charles Taylor Trial Update

By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Africa Desk

THE HAGUE, Netherlands-“All the atrocities committed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) are not the concerns of Mr Taylor. They did happen but it doesn’t concern Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor has no hands in it.” This statement was made by a witness for Charles Taylor this past week. The witness claims that the atrocities that were committed by Sierra Leonean rebels during their 11-year civil conflict should not be attributed to Charles Taylor, and that he had no role to play in them.

 The witness, Charles Ngebe, was a Sierra Leonean national, and formerly a part of the Revolutionary United front.  His entire testimony was premised on his insistence that the allegations of Charle’s Taylor’s support for the RUF are not true. He said an exception existed in 1991 when the conflict first began in Sierra Leone, and Taylor provided minimal support to the rebel forces in his neighboring country. Taylor has also admitted to providing support to the RUF in  1991, and he justified it by saying it was necessary because the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy rebels were attacking his positions in Liberia with support from the government of Sierra Leone.

 Another witness, Fayia Musa, a Sierra Leonean national and former spokesperson for the RUF, also testified on the circumstances surrounding fallout between the RUF and Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia rebel group in 1992. The fallout has been stipulated by prosecutors and Taylor’s attorneys. The disagreement is around the length of the fallout. Taylor contends it was permanent, while prosecutors say it was quite temporary.

 Fore more information please see:

Charles Taylor Trial – Atrocities in Sierra Leone… – 13 April 2010

Charles Taylor Trial – All Atrocities Committed… – 13 April 2010

Charles Taylor Trial – Relationship Between Taylor… – 14 April 2010

Argentine Plaintiffs Seek Judicial Inquiry into Franco Era Crimes

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Human rights activists are supporting a lawsuit filed April 13, 2010 by two Argentine residents seeking a judicial inquiry into the deaths of their Spanish relatives during Spain’s civil war between Francisco Franco and  the republican government from 1936-39. The plaintiffs are hoping to implement the principle of universal justice in genocide and crimes against humanity in the case. Commentators are calling the move a “turning of the tables,” as victims of Argentina’s Dirty War first sought justice through European Courts, which have convicted human rights abusers in absentia.

Argentines are especially incensed by the recent proceedings against Baltasar Garzón for trying to launch a judicial inquiry into Franco’s crimes in Spain.  Garzón is known for his investigations into human rights abuses in Latin America, where he unsuccessfully sought the extradition of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.  A prominent human rights lawyer told Earth Times that Garzón “did the most to pursue crimes committed by dictatorships. One Argentine plaintiff called the lack of Spanish response to the Franco crimes as “a kind of silence of accomplices.”

The Argentine plaintiffs are receiving support from numerous human rights associations their quest for investigations into whether any of those responsible for the deaths of their family members are still alive. Binusz Smukler, an Argentine human rights lawyer told the Spanish daily El Pais that “the idea is to widen the probe into a general investigation into Franco’s crimes.”

Garzón had success in Argentina citing principles of international law such as the inapplicability of the statute of limitations to crimes against humanity; that such crimes cannot be amnestied; and that universal jurisdiction is appropriate where crimes are not tried in the country where they were committed. Garzón’s probe into forced disappearances in Spain was not as successful, as most potential defendants were dead. However he transferred the investigation of mass graves and missing people to regional courts.

The regional courts have not moved forward with the case and Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that the case against Garzón for “overstepping his jurisdiction” could go ahead. Carlos Seploy, the lawyer representing the Argentine plaintiffs told Reuters that the suit intends to force Spain to produce a list of ministers and military leaders from the Franco era who are still alive, in the hopes that they can be put on trial.

Seploy called the suit “very auspicious for an Argentine tribunal in the same way that we applauded the fact that a Spanish tribunal looked into the crimes committed in the Americas.”

For more information, please see:

EarthTimes-Argentinians Want to Investigate Franco’s Crimes-15 April 2010

Reuters-Victims of Spain’s Franco Dictatorship Seek Justice in Argentina-15 April 2010

IPS-Franco Era Crimes Reach Courts in Argentina-14 April 2010