Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico Causes Concern

Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico Causes Concern

By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

LOUISIANA, United States-On April 20, 2010, an oil rig owned by oil company BP exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.  The explosion killed eleven workers and has caused great damage to the waters surrounding the rig.  The rig sank a few days after the explosion.  Since then, oil has been continuously streaming into the Gulf of Mexico causing great concern from environmentalists, industry, and citizens in the southern United States.

.  Since the explosion, approximately 1.6 million gallons of oil have flowed into the Gulf.  However, the exact amount of oil may never actually be known because it is difficult to measure how much oil actually came from the well. The well sits almost 50 miles off the coast the coast of Louisiana and 5,000 feet under the sea.  It may take those charged with the clean up a great deal of time to stop the well from leaking into the Gulf.  Early estimates stated that 210,000 gallons of oil can flow from the well per day until the leakage is stopped.

Many believe that the oil spill will be worst in the history of the United States.  Until the Gulf spill, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was the largest in the history of the United States.  Besides damage to the waters surrounding the oil well, many have become concerned with the oiled waters reaching the coastlines of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.  Environmentalists are concerned with the destruction of the habits of many fish and corral reef in the Gulf.  They are also concerned with the destruction of the marshlands around Louisiana.  The marshes around Louisiana protect the coast from violent storm surges. Fishermen are also worried about their economic future.

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen has been appointed by President Obama to lead cleanup efforts from the explosion.  He also is in charge of efforts to stop the spillage of the destroyed oil well.  President Obama will visit the oil spill on Sunday to assess the damage.  Also, President Obama has halted all new offshore oil drilling until the causes of the explosion and oil leakage are answered.

For more information, please see:

MSNBC-Gulf oil spill balloons, could move east-1 May 2010

NY TIMES-In Gulf Oil Spill, Fragile Marshes Face New Threat-1 May 2010

CBS News-Axelrod: No New Drilling Until Cause of Oil Spill Determined-30 April 2010

Egypt Rejects Claims It Gassed Gaza Tunnel

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian intelligence official on Thursday denied allegations leveled by Hamas that Egypt pumped gas into a cross-border tunnel used to smuggle goods into the Gaza Strip, killing four Palestinians.

Egypt has been under pressure to shut down the hundreds of tunnels that are a key economic lifeline for the blockaded Palestinian territory but which are also used to bring in weapons for the Islamic militant group.

The intelligence official confirmed that Egyptian security forces destroyed the entrances to several tunnels this week, but said that no gas was used in the operations. He said that Egypt routinely blows up the mouths to the tunnels to seal them off, and that the blast and an ensuing fire could quickly use up all the oxygen in the confined space, causing people caught inside to suffocate.

Egypt’s denial comes a day after Hamas accused Egyptian forces of killing four Palestinians by pumping gas into a smuggling tunnel. The Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement late Wednesday that the gas used to try to clear the tunnel was poisonous. It said six people were also injured.

It was not immediately clear what evidence Hamas was basing its allegations on.

Mohammed al-Osh, the medical director of the Abu Yusef al-Najar hospital in the Gaza border town of Rafah where some of the dead and injured were taken, could not confirm those killed had inhaled poison gas. He said the hospital did not have the equipment or specialists needed to conduct the necessary tests on lungs and clothing.

The United States and Israel have been pushing Egypt to do more to try to close the tunnels, which provide Hamas with a lifeline helping it to stay in power in Gaza. Weapons and other contraband regularly move through the tunnels.

But the 1.5 million residents of the impoverished Gaza Strip also rely on the tunnels to bring in food and commercial goods like refrigerators and clothing.

Many of the tunnels, dug with electrical drills and running side by side under the border, are just high enough to enable workers to move on all fours. Their entrances are covered by tents and they are equipped with motorized pulleys to haul goods and generator-powered lighting.

For more information, please see:

Press Trust Of India – Egypt Denies Pumping Gas Into Gaza Smuggling Tunnel – 29 April 2010

AP – Egypt Rejects Claims That It Gassed Gaza Tunnels – 29 April 2010

NPR – Egypt Rejects Claims That It Gassed Gaza Tunnels – 29 April 2010

UPDATE: 2 Ranchers Sentenced for Ordering the Murder of Nun Aiding Indigenous Farmers

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Photo Courtesy of the Dorothy Stang Center
Photo Courtesy of the Dorothy Stang Center

PARA, Brazil-A court convicted two ranchers for ordering the murder of a U.S. nun and environmental activist, Dorothy Stang in 2005. Prosecutors argued that the two men hired gunmen to kill the seventy-three year old nun because she blocked them from seizing land that the government had given to Amazonian farmers. Both men were sentenced to thirty years in prison.

Dorothy Stang had been working in the Amazon for thirty years to preserve the rainforest and protect the rights of rural workers against large-scale farmers. She was shot and left to die on the side of a muddy rainforest road where loggers and ranchers have deforested large sections of the rainforest.

Human rights groups protested a delay in the prosecution, which was widely viewed as a test of Brazil’s ability to combat impunity in the Amazon region. A court acquitted Vitalmiro Moura in 2008, an event President Lula de Silva called a “stain” on Brazil’s international image. The recent conviction is the result of a retrail. Judge Raimundo Moises Alvez Flexa told the AP that the conviction “sent a clear message that the law will be applied to everyone regardless of socioeconomic status.”

However, both the judge and Greenpeace have stated that more convictions for these types of crimes are necessary in order for activists to truly be protected.  The Pastoral Land Commission estimates that in the past ten years up to 2008, three hundred and sixty-five people were killed  over similar land disputes. Only around eighty gunmen have actually gone to jail for these murders.

Rebeca Spires, a nun who knew Dorothy Stang called the convictions a milestone victory given the “endless supply” of gunmen. Spires told the AP that “the verdict sends a strong message to other masterminds that the impunity is ending.”

For More information, please see:

AP-Brazil: Last Rancher on Trial for U.S. Nun’s Murder-1 May 2010

BBC-Second Brazil Rancher Jailed Over U.S. Nun’s Murder-1 May 2010

Washington Post-Second Brazil Rancher Sentenced in U.S. Nun Murder-1 May 2010