Sudan Grants Amnesty to Political Prisoners

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KHARTOUM, Sudan – On Tuesday, Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir officially declared that all political prisoners will be freed.

Opposition leaders were arrested in January for allegedly planning to oust the government. (Photo courtesy of BBC News/AFP)

Described by the press as a “surprise move”, the President’s decision was carried out on the same day by releasing the first batch of political prisoners. This batch consisted of seven opposition leaders, six men and a woman, who were arrested without any formal charge last January. They were detained for three months at Khartoum’s Kober prison.

“Today, we announce a decision to free all the political prisoners and renew our commitment to all political powers about dialogue,” President Al-Bashir said during the announcement. “We confirm we will continue our communication with all political and social powers without excluding anyone, including those who are armed, for a national dialogue which will bring a solution to all issues.”

Last month, President Al-Bashir told a Qatari magazine that he will step down at the next election in 2015. He admitted that his 20-year rule was “more than enough” and Sudan finally needed “fresh blood”. Political analysts say that releasing the political prisoners may be the President’s attempt to salvage his reputation.

The International Criminal Court charged Al-Bashir for genocide and war crimes four years ago making him the only sitting president wanted by the ICC.

“He is considering his legacy having indicated he will not run in 2015,” said Alex Vines, head of the Africa program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. “This is about the redefinition of Sudan following the independence of the South. Bashir knows old strategies need to be reformed. It is also a clever way to respond to growing unified opposition.” Vines also mentioned that the President will stay true to his promise and will release more prisoners in the following weeks.

However, members of other opposition groups were not too impressed with the President Al-Bashir’s decision. According to Farouk Abu Issa, a leader of a coalition of 20 opposition groups, “hundreds” of other prisoners are still in police custody. “It is a step forward but we are waiting for many other steps,” he pointed out.

By Amnesty International’s calculations, at least 119 other political detainees remain incarcerated under “degrading and inhumane conditions.”

Amnesty International’s Jean-Baptiste Gallopin said that the measures taken by Al-Bashir to uphold and protect human rights are actually “very limited”. “A series of recent laws that allow Mr Bashir’s security forces great leeway in defining and clamping down on dissent must be repealed to show true commitment to reform,” he said. “If you look at this in the broader legal context that allows the authorities to carry out the repression that we see in Sudan, there is little sign that that is going to change,” Gallopin added.

 

For further information, please see:

BBC News – Sudan frees Abdul Aziz Khalid and other political prisoners – 2 April 2013

Global Post – First political prisoners freed under Sudan amnesty – 2 April 2013

Middle East Online – Amnesty underway in Sudan: First political prisoners freed – 2 April 2013

The Telegraph – Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir frees political detainees in surprise amnesty – 2 April 2013

Yahoo News – Sudan’s Bashir starts freeing prisoners, polishing up legacy – 2 April 2013

Putin Orders Ban on Foreign Adoptions to Homosexual Couples

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Russian President, Vladmir Putin, ordered a ban on foreign adoptions to homosexual couples.

Russian president, Vladimir Putin, wants to ban the adoption of orphans by foreign same-sex couples. (Photo Courtesy of RT)

The issue of same-sex couples adopting sparked in Russia when the French National Assembly approved a bill that legalized marriage and adoption by same-sex couples. As a result, Pavel Astakhov, a Russian children’s rights ombudsman, declared he believes Russian orphans should only be placed with heterosexual couples.

However, despite this movement, Nikolay Alekseyev, a Russian gay rights activist, believes Putin’s and Astakhov’s new ban will be unsuccessful. He states, “It’s purely a political move aimed to show that the government is consistent in its decisions.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry declared a planned to verify the possible “psychological damage” inflicted on Russian orphan, Yegor Shabatalov. An American woman, who lived in a same-sex marriage, adopted Yegor Shabatalov.

Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Konstantin Dolgov, believes that after the two women split, the son was drawn into a bitter dispute and the relationship is “rather questionable from the point of view of morality.”

Nadezhda Khramova, head of the ‘All-Russian Parents’ Assembly’ movement, says there should be a complete ban of foreign adoptions, as “it is technically difficult to verify the adoptive parents’ sexual orientation and their legal status can be a marriage of convenience”.

This recent foreign adoption ban accompanies an already implemented law that makes it illegal for Russian children to be adopted by Americans, regardless of sexual orientation.

However, although many Russians are opposed to the American ban, Russians hold a firm stance against homosexual behavior. For example, last August, Moscow’s highest court upheld the city’s ban on homosexual pride parades.

Public polls from 2010 showed that 38% of Russians believed that homosexuality is a “bad habit” and 36% said it was “a sickness or result of a psychological trauma.” Nevertheless, 41% of Russians believe that laws should not “discriminate” against homosexuals.

Putin’s recent bans on foreign homosexuals from adopting Russian children has sparked various reactions.

One commenter stated, “I challenge anyone on here to cite a single scientific study that shows that gay adoption has any negative effects compared to straight adoption, and no, the Bible doesn’t count, because we don’t live in a theocracy. Go to Saudi Arabia if that’s what you want.”

Another stated, “This is best for the children. They must be kept safe even if it hurts some feelings. Putin is smart.”

The Ministry of Education and Science, which deals with issues concerning orphans and adoptions, will fulfill the adoption ban. However, the ministry has not received instructions.

For further information, please see:

RFE/RL – Russians March Against Foreign Adoptions – 4 April 2013

The Advocate – Putin Wants to Stop Foreign Gay Couples From Adopting Russian Children – 1 April 2013

Christian News – Russian President Orders Ban on Foreign Adoptions to Homosexuals – 30 March 2013

RT – Putin Orders Ban on Adoptions By Foreign Same-Sex Couples – 28 March 2013

Tamil Newspaper Office Attacked by a Group of Unidentified Men Causing Injury to at Least 5 Employees

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – An unidentified gang attacked the office of a local Sri Lankan newspaper run by individuals previously associated with the Tamil separatist group who fought a bitter civil war with the current central government.

A vehicle outside the newspaper office that was damaged during the attack. (Photo Courtesy of BBC)

The office publishes a Tamil-language newspaper that routinely runs stories that are highly critical of the current regime in Sri Lanka.  This episode of violence occurred merely two weeks after the United Nations passed a resolution asking the Sri Lankan central government to investigate and remedy the human rights violations redolent in their country which includes intimidation of journalists.

The attack was carried out against the Uthayan newspaper office located in the northern portion of the country where the former civil war was waged.  This marks the fourth attack on a Sri Lankan media outlet since January.

Six unidentified, masked individuals stormed the office causing damage to the building, vehicles, computers and other property.  Five of the employees at the newspaper office, including the manager, we injured during the attack.  Three of the workers were reportedly hospitalized, and the remaining workers suffered minor injuries.

The publisher of the Uthayan newspaper is E. Saravanapavan, a legislator for the Tamil National Alliance party and has strong ties to the former separatist rebels.  The local police and government officials could not be reached to provide a statement on the attack against the Tamil newspaper.

Saravanapavan released a statement to the media suggesting that the attack was directly linked to stories that the newspaper had recently run which criticized the paramilitary forces and their actions in the former northern war zone.

Though politically motivated violence has significantly dwindled since the current Sri Lankan regime stamped out the Tamil rebellion four years ago in 2009, pundits in the international human rights community believe that violence against reporters and other subversives are still are problem.

Rule of law, human rights groups say, has yet to be firmly established in the tumultuous aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war.  There have been no arrests in relation to the attacks that occurred against the media earlier this year.  Authorities and internal administrators that should be conducting these investigations have yet to be full restored after the civil war.

Sunil Jayasekara, a spokesperson for the Media Movement in Sri Lanka (a freedom of press group), released a public statement stating that these attacks are not only a threat to the freedom of the media, but a threat to the entire country of Sri Lanka.  Jayasekara called for the government to take more responsibility for these types of attacks against the media.

For further information, please see:

BBC – Tamil paper Uthayan attacked in northern Sri Lanka – 3 April 2013

Breitbart – TAMIL NEWSPAPER SAYS STAFF ATTACKED IN SRI LANKA – 3 April 2013

The Global Times – Tamil newspaper office attacked in Sri Lanka – 3 April 2013

Reuters – Sri Lanka newspaper office attacked, five workers hurt – 3 April 2013

Shanghai Daily – Tamil newspaper office attacked in Sri Lanka – 3 April 2013

Syrian Revolution Digest: Tuesday 3 April 2013

Exits Assad!

Syrian Revolution Digest – April 2, 2013 

In case of Assad, a proof of life is no longer sufficient to make him relevant. Indeed, there is a difference between being “calm under fire” and being “disconnected from reality,” while Assad attempt to project the former image, his actions indicates that, at heart, he fits the latter mold. More importantly, both the revolution and the crackdown will proceed irrespective of his presence or absence. There is no longer any need for an exit strategy for a man who has imperceptibly exited the scene.

 

Tuesday April 2, 2013

 

Today’s Death Toll: 113 martyrs, including 7 women, 5 children and 2 martyrs who died under torture. 58 in Damascus and suburbs; 16 in Aleppo; 11 in Qunaitera; 10 in Homs; 7 in Idib; 6 in Daraa; 2 in Hama; 1 in Raqqa and 1 in Deir Ezzor (LCCs).

 

Points of Random Shelling: 301 points. Warplanes bombed 9 points. Regime forces launched 8 surface-to-surface missiles, most of which targeted the Yarmouk refugee camp and Hajar Aswad neighborhood in Damascus. Explosive barrels were used in 4 points, and mortars in 105. 108 points were shelled with artillery, and 67 points were shelled with rocket launchers (LCCs).

 

Clashes: 119. Successful rebel operations included shooting down a warplane that was shelling the area of Maaret Al-Numan in Idlib, and shelling Wadi Dayf and Khazanat Camp using locally-made Grad rockets. In Hama, rebels targeted the checkpoints of Breideej, Tal Othman an Al-Mughir using mortars, in addition to hitting Hama Military Airport with two rockets. In Daraa, FSA rebels shelled Air Defense battalion using rocket launchers. In Damascus and its Suburbs, the FSA liberated the checkpoint of Ibn Sina Hospital and Masah Walid in Adra; they also targeted loyalist militias positions in Abbasiyeen Square (LCCs).

 

News

Syrian forces pound opposition strongholds in Damascus Damascus has become a key battleground in the civil war. From their strongholds in the suburbs, rebel fighters are trying to slowly push their way into the heart of the capital. Assad has deployed his most loyal and best equipped troops there, trying to insulate it from the violence.

Israel Says Its Tanks Responded to Shots Fired From Syrian Side There were no injuries on the Israeli side, but Tuesday’s tank fire represented the second time in 10 days that Israel had responded to fire from Syria, a sign of increasing spillover from Syria’s bloody civil war. On March 24, the Israeli military said it destroyed a Syrian machine gun post after two Israeli patrols came under fire from across the decades-old cease-fire line, which is monitored by the United Nations. Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, toured the Golan Heights frontier on Tuesday morning, where he was briefed by the chief of staff and regional commanders.

Syria: UN food agency convoys increasingly caught in conflict “It has become a struggle now to move food from one area to the other with our warehouses and trucks getting increasingly caught in the crossfire,” said Muhannad Hadi, WFP Regional Emergency Coordinator for the Syria crisis. “We are sometimes left with the difficult decision of calling off the dispatch of food to a place where we know there is dire need for it.”

Syria’s crisis: The extent of the suffering A new report on the northern city of Aleppo goes some way to showing how dire the situation is. Researchers funded by a group of humanitarian agencies, including Britain’s Department for International Development, spent two weeks surveying 52 of 125 neighbourhoods in the city, Syria’s most populous, which has been stuck in a tug of war between regime and opposition forces since July 2012. The findings are some of the most detailed yet.

Rape and sham marriages: the fears of Syria’s women refugees As well as the fear of attack , there is another more insidious assault on the women and girls of Zaatari. Men – usually from Saudi Arabia and other gulf states – are given free rein at the camp. Coming in the guise of benefactors offering charity, in return many want a wife. But these are marriages of convenience – for the men at least. So called “pleasure marriages”, they give cover – a sheen of respectability – to what is often wealthy men exploiting vulnerable women for sex.

Disease stalks Iraqi camps for Syrians: UNHCR “Pressure to accommodate refugees is growing,” said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “The crowding is in turn having an impact on sanitation, which is already below humanitarian standards. Congestion and warmer temperatures are increasing vulnerability to outbreaks of diseases as well as to tension between camp residents,” he told reporters in Geneva. As of the end of March, a total of 121,320 Syrian refugees were registered in Iraq, Edwards said, with 90 percent of them hosted in the country’s Kurdistan region. The situation at a camp at Domiz, in northwestern Iraq, is particularly worrying, he noted.

Assad offers kidnappers amnesty deal Kidnappers who do not release victims within the 15 days will be sentenced to “a life of hard labor,” or executed if their victims have been killed or sexually abused, state news agency SANA reported. “Anyone who has kidnapped a person for a ransom and deprived him of his liberty for political, financial or sectarian reasons will be sentenced to a life of hard labor,” said the decree, according to SANA.

In north Syria, eating herbs to survive “We eat herbs and collect stagnant rainwater to drink and wash in,” says 24-year-old Hisham, his head covered in a red and white chequered keffiyeh scarf. Hisham, who sports a budding blonde beard, was about to enter university when the fighting that has engulfed Syria erupted in 2011. Now he has joined the wave of his compatriots displaced by the conflict.

Syria crisis: Lebanon struggles with influx of refugees An estimated 400,000 Syrian refugees have crossed the border into Lebanon since the start of the fighting. However the influx of people is challenging for such a small country – and creating tension with local people.

Conflict dents loyalties of Golan Druze The Golan’s native Druze have remained fiercely loyal to Damascus through 46 years of Israeli occupation but as the Syrian war draws ever closer, it is dividing the tight-knit community. With the sound of fighting between Damascus troops and rebels booming from just across the armistice line that separates them from their compatriots, some among the Golan’s 20,000 Druze are beginning to question their longstanding devotion to the Syrian regime.

By the numbers: Syria deaths Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in Syria since unrest began in the country two years ago, according to the latest estimate from the United Nations. And that might actually be an underestimate. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Syria’s raging civil war has made it “increasingly challenging” to collect accurate and reliable data. But even if that number is on the low side, it does provide a way to put Syria’s conflict in historical context.

 

Special Reports

Sorting out the Syrian opposition Even though the rebels have only loose coordination, they have become a potent force. They have seized control of most of Aleppo and northern Syria, and they are tightening their grip on Damascus, controlling many of the access routes east and south of the city, according to rebel sources. Free Syrian Army leaders believe that the battle for Damascus will reach its climax in the next two to three months.

Amid Syria’s Atrocities, Kurds Scratch Out a Home: Will the minority group succeed at creating a flourishing, autonomous region after Assad? The Syrian Kurds are determined to preserve their fragile autonomy, but rebels, backed by the Turkish government, are equally committed to nullifying it… if Syria is to split, the Kurdish part of it stands a fair chance of emerging as the most stable, peaceful part of the country. The most one can perhaps legitimately hope for is that the PYD ascendancy in northeast Syria will secure a way for Syria’s Kurds and the other minorities that live among them to avoid the worst atrocities of the civil war in Syria, for as long as it lasts by securing their area of control, and continuing to deny entrance to regime and rebels alike.

A Black Flag In Raqqa For the next few hours, the men engaged in a combative and highly charged discussion. It was about the black banner, but more than that about the direction the Syrian uprising has taken. The men of the house feared that it had been hijacked by Islamists, led by Jabhat al-Nusra, who saw the fall of the regime as the first step in transforming Syria’s once-cosmopolitan society into a conservative Islamic state. All four men said they wanted an Islamic state, but a moderate one.

U.S. restraint in Syria could aid Iran nuclear talks President Barack Obama’s reluctance to give military aid to Syrian rebels may be explained, in part, in three words: Iranian nuclear weapons… “You can argue it either way, but in the end I think the collapse of Assad makes a nuclear deal more likely, because the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) will feel more isolated, under greater pressure, more likely to make tactical concessions in order to relieve further isolation and pressure,” Samore said Monday. “Of course, that is not going to change his fundamental interest in acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. I think it will confirm for him that the best way to defend himself against countries like the United States is to have that capacity.”

Portrait of an Activist: Razan Ghazzawi, the Syrian Blogger Turned Exile Despite her outspokenness, Ghazzawi is also self-effacing to a fault, and she has been uncomfortable with the international attention that came with her arrests. She is critical of the way the international media elevates the voices of English-speaking activists like her. “I was not fearless. I am still not fearless. I wrote in English because they [the regime] don’t read English. Those who are fearless are those who write in Arabic, and they write in their real name,” she says, bringing up bloggers like Hussein Ghrer, who has been jailed for over a year after writing under his own name.

 

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

 

Quickly Noted

 

* Bashar Al-Assad has reportedly given an exclusive interview to a Turkish channel that will be aired this Friday, this is the promotional clip that the channel is currently airing http://youtu.be/_L4n3edvQYA In it, Assad is commenting on the assassination of Sheikh Ramadan Al-Bouti, saying that he was a key figure in combating the sectarianism of the rebels and that he was not the only religious figure to be assassinated by them.

 

Video Highlights

 

Damascus City: the pounding of Jobar Neighborhood continues http://youtu.be/xPFKSs38ZnE , http://youtu.be/JierDtw81aU , http://youtu.be/mec4CyRFZbM And Yarmouk Camp http://youtu.be/9xExxT7O9jQ Tadamon http://youtu.be/esz5xCDvHz4 , http://youtu.be/binCBlXmdB4 Assaly http://youtu.be/G8KwR-caing , http://youtu.be/SE6afY-friQ

 

MiGs take part in bombing Eastern Ghouta: Saqba http://youtu.be/5ZQ4cjONwvA , http://youtu.be/gh9ufLDvBw4

 

To the west, the suburb of Daraya comes under fire http://youtu.be/gh9ufLDvBw4 Tanks continue to operate at the outskirts of the suburb http://youtu.be/zWiEU1Fr9bk

 

Homs City: the pounding of rebel strongholds continues http://youtu.be/K4TNPCQ6E9s , http://youtu.be/FpbXvcVF6-4

 

Scenes from rebel operations around Raqqa City http://youtu.be/xwbi3wLLNhU , http://youtu.be/ERwD5ahHN6M Operations near Tabqa City in Raqqa province http://youtu.be/hPtDZx3OVm4 But as this 6-minute tour of the city of Raqqa shows, life is very much back to normal there and rebels groups do not seem to maintain any overt presence there http://youtu.be/lyKJkpSE1G8

Report Says that Air Pollution Causes Over 1 Million Premature Deaths in China each Year

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – A report released to China’s central government in Beijing theorizes that over one million Chinese die prematurely each year due to poor air quality in the rapidly industrializing nation.

A woman in Beijing rides through the streets with a protective mask. (Photo Courtesy of Yahoo News)

The report was first presented in the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study and published in a British medical journal.  The report mainly focuses on statistics from India and China which has some of the most densely populated and polluted cities in the entire world.

The 2010 report estimates that air pollution ranked as the fourth leading killer in China behind dietary problems, high blood pressure, and tobacco smoking.  Air pollution ranked as the seventh leading risk factor contributing to premature deaths worldwide, killing roughly 3.2 million people in 2010.

Ambient particulate matter pollution, tiny pieces of solid matter floating around in the atmosphere, is what causes the deaths after it is inhaled by people who live in the densely populated Chinese cities.  Barbara Finamore, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council to China, warns that if you travel to Beijing you immediately feel the effects after getting off the plane in the form of stinging eyes and sore throats.

The air pollution in Beijing, and all over China, routinely gets so poor that citizens will walk through the streets wearing protective masks.  Young children are also not allowed to play outside in the streets.  There are certain days when the ambient particulate matter levels are so high in the cities that it is impossible to see the buildings across the street.

Robert O’Keefe, researcher at the health effects Institute in Boston, states that China’s rapid growth is causing the dramatic decrease in air quality.  Cars and trucks are hitting the urban streets in major cities at an alarming rate, and the power plants all over the country are burning large amounts of low-grade coal.

The Chinese government has been pressed by the international community to control the environmental impact of their explosive growth and energy consumption.  Though officials are under severe pressure, a study released last Thursday suggests that the information on pollution in Chinese cities has gotten less accessible in recent years.

An official report released last week by a Chinese news source states that the reversal of some of the environmental degradation in China would cost roughly $230 billion.  The report only focuses on the 2010 figures.  The estimate came from research that was conducted in 2004 by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

For further information, please see:

International Business Times – Airpocalypse In China: Air Pollution Linked to 1.2M Deaths, Study Says – 2 April 2013

NPR – China’s Air Pollution Linked To Millions Of Early Deaths – 2 April 2013

Yahoo news – Air pollution linked to 1.2M deaths in China in 2010 – 2 April 2013

The New York Times – Air Pollution Linked to 1.2 Million Premature Deaths in China – 1 April 2013