Police Arrest Demonstrators at Independence Rally Days Before their Presidential Elections

October 3, 2011

By Carolyn Abdenour
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Police detained over 200 people at an independence rally in Southern Cameroon this weekend. Police arrested 126 people for defying public order after they arrested fifty activists from the Southern Cameroons National Council (“SCNC”) at a demonstrated in Buea on Saturday. Saturday was the fiftieth anniversary of the merger between British Cameroon and French Cameroon that created present Cameroon.

President Biya is expected to win the presidential election on 9 October. (Photo Courtesy of BBC)

SCNC seeks independence for the English-speaking minority in Cameroon. English-speaking separatist movements created the organization in 1995 to gain independence of their territory. The Council complains the authorities in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, politically marginalizes and neglects the English-speaking minority. SCNC did not receive permission to hold its rally in Buea on Saturday, and security forces dispersed the Anglophone separatist movement.

On Sunday, an anonymous source stated “As I am speaking to you, 150 of [the detainees] are held at (the mobile intervention unit), 30 at the central police station and 25 at the gendarmerie brigade.” The source asked for anonymity because he did not receive authorization to speak to the press.

Cameroonians will go to the polls for a presidential election on Sunday, 9 October. President Paul Biya has governed Cameroon since 1982. Biya is likely to remain president of this oil-producing country for another seven-year term. In 2008, Biya amended Cameroon’s constitution by removing presidential term limits. This amendment provoked unrest in the country.

This protest trials behind recent unrest related to the elections. On Thursday, 29 September, gunmen, wearing military uniforms, opened fire in Douala, Cameroon’s commercial capital, in an anti-government protest. They carried signs that read “Paul Biya Must Go At All Costs” and “Paul Biya Dictator”.

The gunmen blocked the mile-long Wouri Bridge as they protested against Biya. The gunmen and police shot at each other for hours, and one gunman fell off the bridge into the Wouri River. An eyewitness to the incident was unsure if he drowned. Residents continued to hear sporadic gunfire hours after the situation concluded.

Biya faces twenty-two candidates opposing the 78-year-old incumbent in the race. However, Biya’s critics suggest with Biya’s tight control of the electoral commission, Biya will rig the election.

The Social Democratic Front (“SDF”) denounced the organization of the election. SDF’s spokesman Evariste Fopoussi says, “There is a whole mountain of irregularities” because the election rolls have double entries and is missing candidate names.

For more information, please see:
Antigua Observer – Cameroon Arrests More Than 200 Separatists – 2 Oct 11
Cameron Online – Cameroon: 126 Arrested Over Independence Protest – 2 Oct 2011
Voice of America – Cameroon Separatists Arrested Following March in Buea – 1 Oct 2011
BBC – Cameron Shooting: Douala Gunmen Kill One – 29 Sept 11

ICTJ Welcomes Establishment of UN Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence

October 3, 2011

ICTJ Welcomes Establishment of UN Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Re…

Justice Eludes Children in Armed Conflict

October 3, 2011

By Lisa Schlein
Originally published on Voice of America 29 Sept 2011

Millions of children are victims of armed conflict. Many are killed, maimed, raped and psychologically traumatized for their whole lives. Many children are recruited to fight for governments and rebel groups. They are forced to commit atrocities and are often prosecuted for these crimes. A United Nations Study, called Children and Justice During and in the Aftermath of Armed Conflict, examines how children caught in wars can seek justice for the violations they have suffered and examines the extent to which children should be held accountable for crimes they have committed. A panel of experts met at U.N. offices in Geneva to discuss these issues.
Fear

The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina broke out in 1992. The siege of the capital, Sarajevo, lasted nearly four years. Almost 10,000 people were killed, including 1,500 children.

The U.N. Ambassador from Bosnia, Emina Keco-Isakovic, is haunted by these memories. She relives the anguish experienced by her son during this period.

“When the cannon firing was starting over the city, it was really every evening,” she said. “My 10-year-old son asked me whether he would have died that night. And, every night I answered ‘no, no, you shall not die,’ I said and touched him and held him while he was falling asleep. All children from besieged Sarajevo, still suffer from trauma in the form of waiting to die.”
Justice

While the study says children should be permitted to seek reparations for violation of their rights, Keco-Isakovic says the children of Sarajevo have never received justice commensurate with the crimes committed against them.

“When you kill a European in a car accident, you get 10 years in prison,” said Keco-Isakovic. “When you kill thousands of people in Balkans, Asia, Africa – you are in prison five, six years. The explanation-good behavior, the age and you are out.”

Messeh Kamara was a child during Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war.

“What I am here to do is to represent the voices of the millions of children whose voice go unheard, who we cannot see in this small room,” said Kamara. “But, they are out there suffering from conflict.”
Children unheard

Kamara lost his parents. He learned to survive and eventually became a child-activist for children’s rights. He is now 24 years old and studying to become an international human rights lawyer.

He says it was most important for him and other children who lived through this brutal war to see those who created this havoc brought to justice.

“I was 11,” said Kamara. “I was thrown into a conflict I did not cause to happen, but I suffered the most. So for justice and accountability to us is very important. But, it is also mostly important when our rights are given back to us. Remember, what they did was they stole our rights from us and when they stole something from someone, it is most important that you return what they stole.”
Punishment

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is seen at the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in Leidschendam, Netherlands (File Photo – August 5, 2010).
Kamara regards the trials of suspected war criminals at the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the war crimes trial of former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, at the International Criminal Court at The Hague as very important. He says they are giving the children and young adults in Sierra Leone a sense of hope that justice will be done.

While children undeniably are victims of war, the U.N. study notes some children also are involved in committing crimes.

Radhika Coomaraswamy is Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and lead author of the study. She says children who are abducted and forced to commit atrocities by their military commanders should not be prosecuted and judged in the same manner as adults. She notes under international law, the recruitment and use of children under the age of 15 in hostilities is a war crime.

“We would prefer a process of, what we call, diversion, which is that children are diverted away from the judicial and prosecutorial system into some alternative mechanism, which can be either a truth and reconciliation commission, truth-telling, restorative justice or some kind of rehabilitation process,” she said. “And, what we are saying is if they have to be prosecuted, then it must be the absolutely last resort.”

The study notes countries increasingly are arresting and detaining children associated with armed groups on the grounds they are a threat to national security or because they have participated in hostility.

It contends children held in administrative detention during armed conflict are particularly vulnerable. It says few are granted access to lawyers or are given reasons why they are being detained.

The study argues states should not use administrative detention for children under 15 and detention conditions should comply with international standards and judicial guarantees. It says the United Nations should be allowed to monitor child detention centers.

First U.S.-Born Citizen is Targeted and Eliminated in the War on Terror

October 2, 2011

By Adom M. Cooper
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANAA, Yemen–Yemen’s defense ministry reported that Anwar al-Awlaki, a prevalent and controversial imam allegedly linked to al-Qaeda, was killed on Friday 30 September along with four other individuals. Tribal sources reported to the AFP news agency that al-Awlaki was killed early on Friday in an air raid that crushed two vehicles travelling through an al-Qaeda stronghold in central Yemen.

A drone armed with Hellfire missiles tracked al-Awlakis movements for days before striking. (Photo Courtesy of Graphic News) — A map of Yemen.(Photo Courtesy of Graphic News)

The 40- year-old U.S.-born al-Awlaki was a father of five children. Government officials reported that al-Awlaki was targeted 8km (approximately 4.97 miles) from the town of Khashef in the province of al-Jawf. Khasef is located just 140km (approximately 86.99 miles) from the capital of Yemen, Sanaa.

Another U.S. citizen, Samir Kahn, was also killed in the air raid. Kahn was the co-editor of al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine, a specialist in computer programming, and was also wanted by the American and Yemeni authorities.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the killing of al-Awlaki was a “significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al-Qaeda and its affiliates.”

“[A]l-Awlaki repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women, and children to advance a murderous agenda.”

The aircraft that carried out the mission to eliminate al-Awlaki was probably American, according to tribal sources. American aircraft had been patrolling the skies over Marib, a central Yemeni province, for the past several days.

Al-Awlaki had been targeted for quite some time. In May 2011, a U.S. drone aircraft targeted him but missed its mark. In July 2010, the Obama Administration placed al-Awlaki on its list of terrorism supporters, freezing his financial assets and banning any transactions made with him. On 24 December 2010, the Yemeni defense ministry had announced his death, saying that he had been killed in an air attack, only to admit later that he was still alive.

Hakim al-Masmari, the editor-in-chief of the Yemeni Post, shared these sentiments with Al-Jazeera about the targeting of al-Awlaki.

“He has been a target of US drones at least three times. The Yemeni government will face a lot of criticism, especially in the south, for allowing US drones to attack Yemeni civilians. But it will not be a blow to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from any perspective. We don’t feel they will suffer because al-Awlaki did not have any real role in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).”

U.S. President Obama’s counterterrorism advisor John Brennan has directly accused al-Awlaki of having links with Major Nidal Hassan. Hassan is suspected of shooting dead 13 people at Fort Hood military base in Texas in November 2009. Hassan is set to face a trial in a military court on 5 March 2012.

Also, according to Brennan, al-Awlaki may have had contact with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student accused of attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound aircraft on Christmas 2009. In a video posted on websites in May 2010 by AQAP, al-Awlaki urged Muslims serving in the U.S. military to follow Hassan’s example and defended Abdulmutallab’s actions.

While the death of al-Awlaki may be considered a U.S. victory in the War on Terror, the legality of the action has not been settled at all.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which had previously brought a challenge in federal court to the legality of the authorization to initially target al-Awlaki in Yemen, condemned the killing and called into question the existence of such practices. The organization’s media office released the following statement on 30 September, the same day the killing was reported.

“The assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki by American drone attacks is the latest of many affronts to domestic and international law. The targeted assassination program that started under President Bush and expanded under the Obama Administration essentially grants the executive the power to kill any U.S. citizen deemed a threat, without any judicial oversight, or any of the rights afforded by our Constitution. If we allow such gross overreaches of power to continue, we are setting the stage for increasing erosions of civil liberties and the rule of the law. ”

In addition, Pardiss Kebriaei, a CCR senior staff attorney, shared these words in addition to the general statement.

“In dismissing our complaint, the district court noted that there were nonetheless ‘disturbing questions’ raised by the authority being asserted by the United States. There certainly are disturbing questions that need to be asked again, and answered by the U.S. government about the circumstances of the killing and the legal standard that governed it.”

The news of al-Awlaki’s death comes amongst daily reports of new violence in Yemen. The impoverished Arabian Peninsula country has witnessed demonstrators staging protests, demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. President Saleh has been in power since 1978.

For more information, please see:

Ahram – Killing of American in Yemen Raises Legal Questions – 1 October 2011

BBC – Anwar al-Awlaki Killing Sparks US Travel Alert – 1 October 2011

The Guardian – How US Tracked Anwar al-Awlaki to His Death in Yemen – 1 October 2011

Al-Jazeera – Anwar al-Awlaki Killed in Yemen – 30 September 2011

Washington Post – Anwar al-Aulaqi, U.S.-Born Cleric Linked to al-Qaeda, Killed in Yemen – 30 September 2011

Center for Constitutional Rights – CCR Condemns Targeted Assassination of U.S. Citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki – 30 September 2011

NYT – Two-Year Manhunt Led to Killing of Awlaki in Yemen – 30 September 2011

Independent Candidates Facing Harassment and Detention in China

October 1, 2011

By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Activists who attempted to register as independent candidates in district legislative elections, which are generally dominated by the Communist party, are being held under house arrest and detained by Chinese authorities.

Chinese authorities have been harassing and detaining independent candidates attempting to run for the People's Congress (Photo Courtesy of The Guardian).

Reportedly, dozens of activists across China have filed applications to campaign despite receiving official warnings that there is “no such thing” as an independent candidate in China. As of Friday, there were thirteen candidates who had been detained for several hours after meeting to discuss the upcoming election in Beijing.

Although the capital generally has only a few independent representatives, Li Fan of the World and China Institute Think tank estimates that there are now tens of thousands independent candidates prompting unease among the Communist Party. Li attributes this increase to an awareness of civic rights, an increasingly worse relationship between the government and citizens, and social networking that allows for information to be transferred quickly.

Han Ying, who planned to run for election for the National People’s Congress, described her inability to pursue political office when she explained that, “[t]here are a lot of plainclothes officers near my house, and the police come to my home everyday to stop me from campaigning and to stop me from meeting with journalists.” Han also stated that barriers had been set by the police to prevent journalists from approaching her and that they took her cell phone away when she attempted to make a phone call.

Ye Qingchun, another independent candidate, was held at her home by authorities who intended to prevent her from campaigning in the elections.

In addition, three other potential candidates were detained and given fifteen days detention for “obstructing public servants in the course of their duties.”

Other candidates have reported being detained until after the polls were closed, having their name excluded from the ballot, enduring threats against them self and their family, having their business investigated and being told that males were not allowed to campaign against the communist party.

As a result of government opposition to independent candidates, some were forced to resort to refusing donations and avoiding public campaigning opportunities in order to avoid conflict with Chinese authorities.

The election for the People’s Congress, the lowest level of China’s parliamentary system, seats delegates to represent the townships and urban districts across the country. Elections for the People’s Congress are conducted every five years and are the only elections in which citizen’s can directly vote for their legislatures.

Chinese law allows anyone over the age of eighteen years old to be an independent candidate if they are endorsed by at least ten people although elections are tightly controlled by Communist Party officials who choreograph the outcome of elections.

For more information, please see:

Radio Free Asia – Election Candidates Held in Beijing – 30 September 2011

CNN – Independent Candidates Test China’s Election Experiment – 23 September 2011

NTD Television – China’s Independent Candidates Face Detention, Harassment – 20 September 2011

The Guardian – China’s Boom in ‘Citizen Candidates’ Sparks Backlash – 19 September 2011