3 UN Workers Killed in DRC Clashes

3 UN Workers Killed in DRC Clashes

By Jared Kleinman

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

KINSHASA, Congo — Three United Nations workers died during clashes between the Congolese military and a militia earlier this week, the U.N. said Tuesday.

Heavily armed rebels attacked the town of Mbandaka and overran the airport, UN officials said. Fighting between the U.N.-backed military and Enyele militiamen in northern Congo began Sunday and continued into Monday.

During the two days of clashes in northern Congo, a South African pilot and a U.N. peacekeeper from Ghana were killed. The U.N. said one of its subcontractors also died Sunday of a heart attack during the fighting. Several civilians were also killed in the attack. Dr. Alexis Isanzola told The Associated Press Tuesday that 26 corpses have been received at the local mortuary in Mbandaka since Sunday.

Col. Makengo, commander of the Congo army in northern Bandaka, told The Associated Press that the army re-seized the airport on Monday with the backing of the U.N. Mission in Congo after militia took it over Sunday. He said the army would continue pursuing the militia.

The Congolese army started battling Enyele militiamen in November after fighting started between the Enyele and Munzale tribesmen. The two rival ethnic groups have reportedly been fighting for local fishing rights. The local dispute is entirely separate from the fighting between numerous armed groups in eastern DR Congo, which has drawn the world’s biggest peacekeeping operation to the country.

Mbandaka is the capital of Equateur province, where at least 100 people were killed in clashes between the Lobala and Boba communities last year, displacing an estimated 200,000 people. Between 30 and 100 fighters were believed to have been part of the latest attack.

The UN is currently in talks with DR Congo officials on withdrawing its 20,500-strong peacekeeping mission, MONUC. The mission’s current mandate expires in May. UN officials say that this new fighting might put such a withdrawal in question.

For more information, please see:

AP – UN: 3 UN Personnel Killed in North Congo clashes – 6 April 2010

Rocketnews – UN Workers Killed in DR Congo Raid – 4 April, 2010

BBC – DR Congo Attack Kills Two UN Workers – 4 April 2010

 

 

Update: Rescuers in China save 115 Miners

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Reports and news generated almost immediately after China’s latest mining accident in Wangjialing mine,  located in northern China, grossly wrote off the lives of those trapped. However, after more than 190 hours of continuous hard work and rescue efforts, the operation to save the trapped minders proved fruitful. Approximately 115 of the 153 miners trapped have been removed from the mine.

 Photograph of rescue efforts at Wangjialing mine. Image courtesy of The New York Times.

News stories and captions read, that “from the start, China’s latest coal mine disaster likely to end as so many others: a failed rescue effort, grieving relatives, few if any survivors.”  But, on Friday, 2 April, rescuers became hopeful after hearing faint tapping noises even after lost miners had been missing for five days. After hearing signs of life, about 3,000 rescuers worked nonstop to pump water out of the Wangjialing mine. Government officials who investigated the site announced that the mine flooded after workers dug tunnels and caused an old shaft to break and fill with water.  

In an unofficial release of information, sources indicate that even days before the mine flooded, managers ignored water leaks that indicated trouble and danger. According to preliminary findings by the State Administration of Work Safety, miners had been ordered to step up the pace of construction to meet an October deadline to begin production at the mine, the agency said.

Survivors said they had strapped themselves to shaft walls with their belts to avoid drowning. Some claimed to have clung to the sides of the mine for days, and then when a mine cart floated by clung onto it for relief. Others said they ate bark from the pine pillars used to construct the mine. The rescue team’s chief medical officer told reporters that the survivors were weak, severely dehydrated, and suffering from hypothermia and skin infections. Some were in shock, though none were reported to be in critical condition.

Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, commented, “These trapped people have made it through eight days and eight nights — this is the miracle of life.” She went on to say that “[The] rescue plan has been effective. This is a miracle in China’s search and rescue history.”

Even though the Chinese government has managed to significantly reduce the death rate at coal mines since 2002, the country’s safety record still remains among the world’s worst. If rescue efforts at Wangjialing mine failed, this would have been China’s deadliest mining accident in more than two years. 

For more information, please see:

People’s Daily – What survived from Wangjialing Mine disaster? – 7 April 2010

Today – Search continues for 31 still trapped in northern China coal mine – 7 April, 2010

New York Times – With Hope Dwindling, 115 Chinese Miners Are Saved – 7 April 2010

“COURTING” LEGITIMACY: Democratic Agency and the Justiciability of Economic and Social Rights

By Deval Desai
Courtesy of The Council for American Students in International Negotiations

The potential of Economic and Social Rights (ESR) as a tool to ensure the inherent dignity of all has been, to use a popular phrase, “detained for questioning.” Over the last sixty years, debate has centered on arguments denying the justiciability and judicial enforcement of Economic and Social Rights. However, the former UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Louise Arbour, recently stated that “[i]t is now widely recognized that there is nothing inherently non-justiciable about economic, social and cultural rights.” The enactment of an Optional Protocol on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, detailing an international “communications procedure” for violations of ESR supports Ms. Arbour’s contention. However, scholars, nation-states, and courts themselves still argue against the idea that ESR are justiciable rights capable of being adjudicated by courts. Even where objections to ESR’s justiciability are overcome, arguments are still made in favor of limiting the scope of judicial oversight, oft times by the courts themselves.

In this paper I reconsider scholarly approaches to justiciability. The language of legitimacy is miscast. The idea that the (nominally) elected government only, and not the courts, has the absolute and exclusive legitimacy to decide on questions of resource allocation is a sham: the worse off a polity, the less democratic agency its citizens exercise. The already delegitimated character of poor governments justifies judicial intervention in distributive questions in democratic terms as an exercise of the will of the people to serve the common good. Traditional arguments against the justiciability of ESR are based in a concept of democratic deficit; traditional arguments in favor of ESR are made in terms of a comparative analysis to civil and political rights (CPR). This is based in the concept of the indivisibility of rights, making such comparisons appealing. However, that conceptual framework cannot be applied in an effective manner to countries where there is insufficient democratic agency for meaningful democracy, whether due to poverty, mismanagement, or corruption.

In this paper I use the democratic legitimation argument to support judicial intervention and engage with the democratic deficit problem itself. Part I of the paper will sketch out the recent arguments for and against the justiciability of ESR from the point of view of scholars, governments, and courts. Parts II and III will examine the question of legitimacy of governments and courts to deal with this issue and argue that, if breaches of ESR affect polities’ ability effectively to participate in elections, a government’s legitimacy must be questioned. Part IV will look at the implications of this on governments, NGOs, and judiciaries, and argue that, this being the case, it is inappropriate to exclude the judiciary from a role in ESR enforcement (in the wide sense of the word), and, further, that they should have a positive role. Part V will conclude that, given the calculus of contrasted legitimacy between government and judiciary, this argument has implications for both poor countries and rich countries with a substantial poor population.

To read the complete article, please see:

Deval Desai, “Courting” Legitimacy: Democratic Agency and the Justiciability of Economic and Social Rights.

The Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law (IJHRL) is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal designed to address international human rights issues more broadly. The first volume of the IJHRL was ranked #8 among top international law reviews on ExpressO rankings. The journal explores political, philosophical, and legal questions related to international human rights from diverse perspectives. It strives to create a more thoughtful polity better able to make informed choices about ethical foreign policymaking.

Baghdad Rocked by Bombings

By Bobby Rajabi

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – On April 6, a number of bombings took place all throughout the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The bombings killed at least thirty five individuals. Additionally, over one hundred and forty people were injured in the attacks. The attack comes just two days after suicide near the foreign embassies in Baghdad killed over forty people. The bombings come at a time of political instability as the March 7 parliamentary elections left no single political group with enough votes to form a government.

There were at least seven bombings that struck residential areas throughout the Iraqi capital. According to Iraqi military spokesman, Major General Qassam al-Moussawi, the types of bombs were inconsistent, varying from homemade bombs to a vehicle packed full with explosives. The blasts targeted residential buildings that were in a mix of both Sunni and Shi’ite areas.

In the Shula district, an area located in western Baghdad, a car bomb exploded. The explosion caused an number of buildings to collapse. The collapse of the buildings, according to Iraqi security sources, killed a number of people. Zeina Kohr, a correspondent for Al Jazeera, explained that Shula “is a mostly Shi’ite neighborhood. It used to be a former stronghold of the Mahdi Army.” The Mahdi Army refers to the army of the supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shi’ite leader.

In addition to the car bomb in the Shula district, there were two car bombs that exploded in Chkook, Kahdamiya district. These bombings killed five people. Additionally, three blasts in northern Baghdad targeted apartment buildings filled with people. Another black targeted a building located in the south western part of the Iraqi capital. According to the BBC’s Jim Muir, some of the buildings targeted by bombs collapsed under the force of the blast, burying resident under the rubble.

The Iraqi elections resulted in former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi having a slim lead, but the country lacking certainty in who will form the next government. Bahaa al-Araji, a member of the Iraqi parliament spoke of the effect of the uncertainty on Iraq’s security. Araji said that the security forces lack direction as “they don’t know what will become of them.” Araji explained that the forces are “scared they will their position if government changes.”

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Multiple Explosions Rock Baghdad – 6 April 2010

BBC – Baghdad Shia Areas Hit By Blasts Killing At Least 35 – 6 April 2010

New York Times – Iraq Bombing Raise Fears of Resurgent Violence – 6 April 2010

Scores of Indian Police Killed in Ambush

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

CHHATTISGARH, India- Maoist rebels have killed at least 75 Indian police in a jungle ambush in central India yesterday in their bloodiest attack on security forces since their uprising began more than four decades ago.

Maoist rebels numbering up to 700 participated in the early morning attack on 82 members of the Central Reserve Police Force patrolling forests in the central state of Chhattisgarh.  Also known as Naxalites, the rebels used automatic weapons and land mines to attack the patrol, surrounding the reinforcements who rushed to the scene in the Bastar region, which is home to India’s largest iron ore mining company.

From his hospital bed, one of the seven troopers who survived with severe injuries said “It was a flash attack…I saw scores of my colleagues in a pool of blood.  Maoists were spraying bullets on us.”  Police said at least 17 soldiers were killed when the Maoist rebels blew up an armored anti-mine vehicle sent to retrieve the wounded.

P. Chidambaram, the Home Minister who last year launched a campaign against the Naxalites said, “Something has gone very wrong. They seem to have walked into a trap…I’m deeply shocked.  I’m sorry for those who’ve lost their lives.  This shows the savage nature of the [Naxalites].”

The Naxalites, who claim to be fighting for the hundreds of millions of poor farmers and landless labourers left behind by India’s recent economic growth have become a growing threat in the region, highlighted by this recent attack.  From their beginnings in 1967, they have grown into a force of about 20,000 permanent armed cadres and 100,000 militia.

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, has described the Naxalites as the largest internal threat to India’s security.  Chidambaram vowed to defeat the rebels within three years by using paramilitary forces to help state police in Operation Green Hunt.  Critics say the campaign is futile because of chronic lack of training, equipment, personnel and reliable intelligence.

The rebels however, already appear to be stepping up their activities against the government offensive.  Last year, violence claimed 908 lives, the highest total since 1971.

Before yesterday, the rebel’s bloodiest attack was one that killed 55 policemen in March 2007, also in Chhattisgarh.

For more information, please see:

BBC News- Scores of Indian Soldiers Killed In Maoist Ambushes– 6 April 2010

TimesOnline- Jungle Ambush Leaves 75 Police Dead In the Bloodiest Day in Maoist Insurgency– 6 April 2010

Guardian.co.uk- Maoist Rebels Kill 75 Indian Police– 6 April 2010