UN Report Confirms ‘Large Scale’ Sarin Attack in Syria

By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – A team of United Nations chemical experts, led by Dr. Åke Sellström, has reported that there is “clear and convincing” evidence that sarin gas was used on a “large scale” during a 21 August incident outside of Damascus. The attack, which employed rockets equipped with sarin gas, killed many civilians including children.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses the media, on Monday, after briefing the Security Council on the confirmed use of chemical weapons in Syria. (Photo Courtesy of the UN)

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke to the media after briefing the Security Council on the team’s findings. Ban referred to the report as “chilling read” and stressed the significance of attack, the first of its kind “since Saddam Hussein used [chemical weapons] in Halabja in 1988.”

“This is a war crime,” the Secretary-General said, “The international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable and to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare.”

The purpose of the report was strictly to determine whether a chemical weapons attack occurred, not to assign blame for the attack. Ban told reporters that whether responsibility for the attack is determined is “for others to decide”, but stressed that whoever was responsible should be brought to justice.

The inspectors interviewed more than fifty survivors, many of whom reported suffering from telltale signs of exposure to sarin gas. Symptoms of the survivors often included difficulty breathing, eye irritation, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, and loss of consciousness. First-responders reported suffering from similar symptoms and observed that a large number of people were either unconscious or deceased upon arrival.

In addition to personal accounts of the incident, the chemical weapons team discovered a great deal of physical evidence that supported the existence of a chemical weapons attack. Eighty-five percent of blood samples taken from survivors tested positive for sarin or sarin indicators. The majority of rocket fragments and environmental samples tested positive for sarin or sarin indicators as well.

The report concluded that the attack occurred during the “early morning hours of 21 August.” Based on weather reports during this time, the conditions were favorable for maximizing the effect of sarin gas. The temperature on the ground was falling and would have created a downward draft of air, effectively preventing the gas from dispersing upwards, and therefore increasing exposure.

“The downward movement of air would have allowed the gas to easily penetrate the basements and lower levels of buildings and other structures where many people were seeking shelter,” Ban said, referring to the report.

The opposition and the Assad regime continue to blame each other for the attack. Certain details, including the high quality of sarin gas and the advanced rockets used, point to the Assad regime. However, Assad maintains the rebels are responsible in an effort to encourage Western military involvement.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – UN: Evidence of Syrian chemical attack ‘indisputable’  – 16 September 2013

BBC – Syria Crisis: UN report confirms sarin ‘war crime’ – 16 September 2013

NBC – UN report confirms chemical weapons use in Syria – 16 September 2013

UN News Service – ‘Clear and convincing’ evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria, UN team reports –  16 September 2013

UN – United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic – 13 September 2013

Philippine Security Forces Secure the Release of More Than 80 Hostages

By Brian Lanciault

Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine security forces rescued scores of hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern city Zamboanga. Rebels struck back, taking the local police chief captive early Tuesday morning. He was released several hours later.

A young hostage is reunited with his family at the Philippine National Police Camp in Zamboanga city. At least 80 other hostages were rescued as well. (Photo courtesy of AP)

Senior Superintendent Jose Chiquito Malayo was engaged in negotiations with the rebels for the release of more civilians Tuesday morning when he was abducted at gunpoint and held hostage by the rebel group.

He was captured in a coastal mangrove area near Zamboanga city, a major trading center that has been paralyzed for the past nine days by the chaotic hostage crisis. “Pursuit operations” were undertaken to rescue him according to a spokesperson for the Philippine National Police, but he was released a few hours later, accompanied by 23 other hostages.

The setback coincided with a pronouncement by Philippine authorities that significant progress was being made against the rebels. Military officials said more than 120 hostages had been freed in the past 24 hours.

It is unclear how many people remain captives.

The Philippine armed forces have been carrying out operations to try to “constrict” the rebels, who came ashore early last week and took some 180 hostages in several coastal districts. Military attack helicopters fired rockets at rebel positions Monday in an effort to curb the rebel offensive.

The recent violence has substantially disrupted life in Zamboanga, a largely Christian city in the southwestern region of Mindanao, the southernmost island in the Philippines.

The crisis has led to increased fears of instability in a region where the Philippine central government has been attempting to pursue a new peace plan after decades of unrest.

President Benigno Aquino III and other top Philippine officials are overseeing authorities’ response. Authorities estimate the violence has left more than 100 people dead, most of them rebels, and displaced more than 80,000 residents. Military officials say they have captured scores of rebels and handed them over to police.

The unrest has also caused schools and businesses to close. Hundreds of houses have been burned during the fighting. Philippine authorities accused the rebels of deliberately setting the fires.

The rebels are believed to be a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a separatist movement which was founded in 1971 by Nur Misuari. Their goal appears to be establishing an autonomous region for Muslims in the mainly Catholic Philippines. The MNLF signed a peace deal with the central government in Manila in 1996, but some of its members have diverged and continue a violent campaign.

Misuari issued a “declaration of independence” for the Moro nation — referring to Mindanao’s indigenous Muslim population — last month after complaining that the MNLF had been left out of a recent wealth-sharing agreement with another insurgent group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera — Offensive frees hostages in Philippine city — 17 September 2013

Gulf News — Dozens of hostages freed in Philippine city — 17 September 2013

Philippine Star — Captured Zambo police chief released by MNLF — 18 September 2013

CNN — Hostages freed in Philippines; Muslim rebels capture police chief — 17 September 2013

First Witness Testifies in Trial of Kenyan Deputy President Accused of Crimes Against Humanity

By: Dan Krupinsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The prosecution in the trial of Kenyan deputy president William Ruto at the International Criminal Court (ICC) called its first witness on Tuesday, a woman known only as Witness 536.

Witness 536 broke down during her testimony, describing an attack in January 2008 by a mob on a church in Kenya’s Rift Valley region. According to her, thousands of youths armed with machetes and sticks surrounded the church, which had become a place of refuge from attacks that were occurring in the area, and set the building on fire with people trapped inside. At least 28 people were killed in the incident, with some estimates putting the fatality count at 35.

William Ruto waits for the beginning of his trail in the ICC courtroom. (Courtesy: Reuters)

The church was completely full of women and children from the Kikuyu ethnic group, she said. Members of the rival Kalenjin tribe approached from two sides, singing.

“They were painted with white clay…some had matches, axes and sticks…they were singing,” said the witness, describing the mob. “We were all trying to find a way to escape. I was carrying my small child with me. The church was set alight.”

The mob used bicycles to block a main exit, while other members of the mob guarded other exits to prevent escape.

“When somebody tried to leave the church, they would grab the person and push them back inside,” said the witness. “I went mad.”

In court documents, the prosecution also claims that others who tried to flee were hacked to death.

The court rules that Witness 536’s identity will be kept secret, for her own protection. She is testifying from behind a curtain, and her image is pixilated and voice distorted on the court video. Ruto, present in the courtroom, cannot see her.

ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has voiced complaints of interference and threats against witnesses. In addition to four witnesses who withdrew just before the trail, several more have withdrawn in recent days.

Bensouda announced that accusations of witnesses being bribed to withdraw their testimony are being investigated, warning of tough penalties.

Some witnesses say they were under family and community pressure, according to Kenyan media reports, as the trial is severely embarrassing for Kenya’s government.

Ruto and his co-defendant, radio executive Joshua Arap Sang, face charges of crimes against humanity in connection with their alleged in a swarm of ethnic violence that followed Kenya’s 2007 election, where more than 1,100 people were killed. For more on the charges and accusation, please read earlier reports from Impunity Watch.

 

For further information, please see:

ABC News – Kenya’s William Ruto trial: ‘Baying mob trapped hundreds’ in Kiambaa church fire massacre – 17 September 2013

BBC – Kenya’s William Ruto trial: ‘Church victim’ testifies at ICC – 17 September 2013

Los Angeles Times – First witness testifies in Hague trial of Kenya’s deputy president – 17 September 2013

Voice of America – First Witness Called in Ruto ICC Trial – 17 September 2013

U.S. Judge Grants Freezing Order Over $23 Million of New York Assets in Lawsuit Brought by the U.S. Attorney in the Sergei Magnitsky Case

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Distribution

 

16 September 2013 – The New York District Court has issued a freezingorder for over $23 million in Manhattan property and bank accounts linked to the $230 million theft uncovered by Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The bank accounts are held at Bank of America.  The court order was made at the request of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which launched the first action in the Sergei Magnitsky case in the United States last week.

Presiding U.S. Judge Thomas Griesa said in the order:

“The Restrained persons, their attorneys, agents, employees and anyone acting on their behalf, and all persons or entities acting in concert or participation with any of the above, all relevant financial institutions, and all persons and entities having actual knowledge of this Order, shall not, directly or indirectly, transfer, sell, …or take, or cause to be taken, any action that would have the effect of depreciating, damaging, or in any way diminishing the value of property or other interests belonging to, or owed to, or controlled in whole or in part by the defendant, which property or other interests are subject to forfeiture.”

The United States commenced its action in New York on 10 September 2013 when the civil forfeiture complaint was filed by attorney for the SouthernDistrict of New York Preet Bharara. In granting the freezing order, the court referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office complaint:

“The Complaint further alleges, in part, that in 2007, a Russian criminal organization (“the Organization”) engaged in an elaborate tax refund fraud scheme that defrauded Russian taxpayers out of approximately U.S. $230 million; that the fraud proceeds were laundered through a series of shell companies in Russia and other countries; and that some of these fraud proceeds were transferred from shell companies in the Republic of Moldova to PREVEZON HOLDINGS, which then used those funds, commingled with other funds …, to purchase multiple pieces of real estate in the Southern District of New York, which were held by the other Prevezon Entities.”

The aim of the freezing court order is to preserve the assets from dissipation.

In 2008, Sergei Magnitsky, an outside lawyer for the Hermitage Fund, uncovered the criminal conspiracy involving Russian government officials and criminals, responsible for the theft of Hermitage Fund’s Russian companies and $230 million of their tax payments, and testified about it to Russian authorities. He was then arrested by some of the same officials he had implicated, ill-treated and tortured for nearly a year and killed in Russian state custody on 16 November 2009.

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia