Catalan Demonstration Presses Spain to Cut Ties with the Region

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MADRID, Spain – Hundreds of thousands of Catalans demonstrated throughout the region in effort to separate from Spain. In Catalonia, many hope that Scotland will separate from the United Kingdom to promote similar referendums throughout European countries.

Demonstrators wave separatist banners as hundreds of thousands link hands along the Catalan coast. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)

Catalonia, a wealthy industrial region in Spain, generates a fifth of the country’s economy. Until King Philip V abolished Catalonia’s Generalitat in 1714, Catalonia managed its own affairs. Following a recession and cuts in Catalan public spending, many felt discontent toward Madrid.

“But this is about more than economics,” Al Jazeera’s Emma Hayward reported. “They feel their culture is very distinct from Spain’s and they want independence.”

On 10 September 2013, Catalan President Artur Mas said, ”The people of Catalonia should be consulted next year on their political future.”

11 September is Catalonia’s National Day. On that day for 2013, a poll revealed at 52% of Catalans would vote for a Catalan state separate of Spain.

At exactly 17:14 on 11 September 2013, approximately 400,000 demonstrators dressed in yellow and formed a human chain across 250 miles (400 kilometers) of the region—from the Pyrenees border with France in the north to the Valenica border in the south—to demand independence in “a Scottish-style referendum.” Several waved the regional flag and draped themselves in separatist banners.

The chain, deemed “the Catalan Way”, linked 86 communities in their push for political self-determination. By day’s end, organizers claim that 1.6 million people had participated.

Although a referendum is not permitted by the Spanish Constitution, Mas is determined to hold a 2014 referendum. Mas also stated that he is “firm” in promising “the right to choose their political future” for Catalans; and he is determined to use “all the democratic and legal measures available so that Catalans can decide their future as a country.”

“Today is a historic day,” said Carme Forcadell, President of the Catalan National Assembly, which organized the demonstration. “The Catalan people have reaffirmed their determination to be a free state.”

“We need to put an end to the economic and cultural suffocation we are suffering,” Forcadell further stated. “We have come to the streets in our hundreds of thousands to show in a democratic and inclusive way that we are capable of achieving any aim.”

Regional leader of the People’s Party, Alicia Sanchez Camacho criticized the independence movement: “There are millions of Catalans who feel like orphans because they don’t have a government because it has put all its focus on the separatism movement and the independence of Catalonia.”

While history echoes that “a house divided cannot stand”, Spain and Catalonia must determine whether they are people of and within one house. If they are one house, the European Union is best hearing one voice. However, one voice cannot always speak for two houses.

For further information, please see:

Catalan News Agency – The Majority of Catalan Parties Propose an Independence Vote in 2014 the Day after the Human Chain  – September 12, 2013

Wall Street Journal – Catalan Separatists Pull Off Protest but Referendum Is Harder  – September 12, 2013

Al Jazeera – Catalans Join Hands to Demand Independence – September 11, 2013

Euronews – Catalonia Celebrates National Day Amid Calls for Independence – September 11, 2013

The Telegraph – 400,000 Person Human Chain Stretching 250 Miles for Catalan Independence – September 11, 2013

Reuters – Catalans Form Human Chain to Press for Independence from Spain – September 11, 2013

Gang Rape Trial Sparks Scrutiny Over Indian Death Penalty Ambivalence

By Brian Lanciault

Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW DELHI, India– An Indian judge will announce Friday whether four men should hang after fatally raping a young woman on a bus last December. The case presents a major test for India’s paradoxical death penalty.

Protesters gathered outside of the court as the trial transitioned into the sentencing phase. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

 

Indian judges hand down an average of 130 death sentences per year; they have executed only three people in 17 years. Despite this seeming reluctance to carry out the sentences,India voted last year against a U.N. draft resolution which called for a global moratorium on executions.

In November, India ended what many human rights groups had perceived as a de facto moratorium on capital punishment after executing Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, a militant convicted for the 2008 attack on Mumbai. Three months later, however, India hanged Mohammad Afzal Guru  for a 2001 militant attack on parliament.

“In the past year, India has made a full-scale retreat from its previous principled rejection of the death penalty,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

She called for the complete abolition of the death penalty.

Prosecutors want the “harshest punishment” to be given to bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta, and unemployed Mukesh Singh for the rape and murder of the woman. The hope is to send a signal to society that such attacks would not be tolerated.

Comments on social media suggest that popular opinion favors executing the men, yet a survey by CNN-IBN-The Hindu newspaper in July showed Indians were divided on capital punishment.

The four men were found guilty this week of luring the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist onto a bus on December 16, raping and torturing her with a metal bar and then throwing her naked and bleeding into the street. She died two weeks later. Defense counsel A.P. Singh urged Judge Yogesh Khanna to ignore demands for the death penalty, which characterized as  “primitive and cold-blooded.

If the men are sentenced to death, a potentially multi-year appeals process lies ahead. The case will go the High Court and then the Supreme Court. If the courts confirm the sentences, the final decision will lie with the president, who has the power to grant clemency.

The death penalty should be imposed only in the “rarest of rare” cases, according to a Supreme Court ruling from the early 1980s. However opponents say the reality is quite different.

Indian courts sentenced 1,455 prisoners to death between 2001 and 2011, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. During the same period, sentences for 4,321 prisoners were commuted to life imprisonment.

There are 477 people on death row. Many have been there for years. Human rights groups are alarmed by the policy tendencies of President Pranab Mukherjee, who was sworn into office in July 2012. He has rejected 11 appeals for clemency, confirming the death penalty for 17 people.

Top politicians, including interior minister Sushilkumar Shinde, have said the death penalty is guaranteed in the case. Such comments could add pressure on the court to make a populist ruling to satisfy the public’s outrage.

For more information, please see:

Los Angeles Times — Indian police praised for handling of bus rape; other cases languish — 12 September 2013

Wall Street Journal — Rape Case: Sentencing Arguments — 11 September 2013

BBC — India Delhi gang rape four ‘deserve death penalty’ — 11 September 2013

Reuters — Delhi gang rape trial puts focus on death penalty paradox — 13 September 2013

Over 200 Protesters Arrested in Chile on Anniversary of 1973 Military Coup

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile – On September 11th, more than 260 people were arrested and 42 police officers were injured during protests marking the 40th anniversary of the 1973 military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.

Masked protesters at a demonstration in Valparaiso on 11 September 2013
President Pinera said those behind the violence should be severely punished. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

Police say six officers were listed in serious condition with gunshot wounds and burns from acid. Gen. Rodolfo Pacheco, one of the Chilean capital’s top police chiefs, was taken by helicopter to a hospital after being struck in the head with a petrol bomb.

The protests spread across Huechuraba, San Bernardo, Estacion Central, Pudahuel, La Reina, Peñalolen and Lo Prado, all located around Santiago. The protests started on September 11th, and ended in the early morning hours of September 12th.

Protesters set up barricades and attacked police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. Six buses and seven cars were set on fire by protesters armed with fire bombs. In Santiago, four businesses were looted, and electricity lines were severed, prompting power cuts in 200,000 homes.

“Last night was a violent night, but it could have been much more violent if it hadn’t been for the efficient response of police,” President Sebastian Pinera told reporters. Pinera called on judges to punish those behind the clashes “with severity.” Chilean protests are often infiltrated by violent anarchist groups and end with clashes between police and hooded vandals who throw rocks, firebombs and acid.

The government had deployed more than 8,000 police throughout the capital to prevent a repeat of the violence seen in previous years. Pinera recently said that in the last two years, “more than 700 police officers have been injured by the cowardly acts of hooded vandals, including recent victims who were burned with acid or Molotov bombs.”

President Sebastian Pinera submitted a bill to Congress earlier this year that strengthens penalties for those who insult or physically harm police and makes it a crime to attack police headquarters or vehicles.

Approximately 40,000 people suffered human rights abuses in Chile under Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship from 1973 to 1990. The government estimates more than 3,000 were killed or forcibly disappeared during Pinochet’s rule. More than 1,000 human rights cases are still ongoing in Chilean courts.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Chile Coup Anniversary Toll: 264 Arrests – 12 September 2013

The Washington Post – Chile’s toll from coup anniversary violence, arson: 42 police officers wounded, 264 arrests – 12 September 2013

BBC – Hundreds arrested in Chile clashes on coup anniversary – 12 September 2013

Fox News Latino – Hundreds arrested, scores hurt in disturbances in Chile – 12 September 2013

BBC – Clashes in Chile on anniversary of 1973 military coup – 11 September 2013

 

 

A Bipartisan Group of Congressmen Has Introduced a Resolution Calling for the Immediate Establishment of a Syrian War Crimes Tribunal

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Middle East

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America — A resolution has been introduced to the United States House of Representatives calling for the immediate establishment of a Syrian War Crimes Tribunal. The resolution was introduced on 9 September 2013 and referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where it will be considered before moving to the House or Senate for a vote. The resolution has bipartisan support and has been cosponsored by eight Republican and two Democratic members of Congress.

New Jersey Republican Chris Smith has introduced a resolution to Congress calling for the establishment of an ad hoc tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes in Syria (Photo courtesy of NJ.com)

The Resolution, H.CON.RES.51, calls upon President Barack Obama to use the “voice and vote of the United States” at the United Nations to promote the immediate establishment of an ad hoc court to prosecute the perpetrators of serious crime committed during the civil war in Syria, including Bashar Al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people. The chemical attack killed more than 1,000 people in Ghouta on 21 August 2013, including more than 400 children.

The Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s human rights panel introduced the resolution on Monday. Smith wrote in an editorial for the Washington Post that “there is a non-lethal way to help ensure that Bashar al-Assad and other perpetrators of atrocities in Syria are held to account—not someday far in the future—but beginning now.” Smith believes a war crimes tribunal can be an effective alternative to the use of force and can offer justice to the Syrian people without putting the lives of innocent Syrian civilians at risk.

Congressman Smith argued that country-specific ad hoc courts may offer a more effective means of holding those responsible for atrocities accountable; especially in a case like Syria because Syria is not a party to the Rome Statute or a member of the International Criminal Court—which has jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes—which presents a challenge for prosecuted the perpetrators of atrocities during ongoing civil war in Syria. The resolution acknowledges that ad hoc tribunals established by the international community in the past, including the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, “have successfully investigated and prosecuted war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”

Congressman Jared Huffman of California, a Democrat, is cosponsoring the resolution. Huffman said, “I don’t think anyone should get away with killing children with chemical weapons.” He believes the establishment of an ad hoc tribunal can offer the possibility of justice to the Syrian people without the use of military force.

Virginia Republican Congressman Scott Rigell, who led the calls for President Obama to seek congressional authorization before using force in Syria to punish Syrian Bashar al-Assad for the using chemical weapons against innocent civilians, voiced his support for the resolution. “Assad should spend every day for the rest of his life paying for the crimes he has committed against humanity,” Rigell said.

For more information please see:

The Washington Post – Establish a Syrian War Crimes Tribunal – 9 August 2013

The Press Democrat – North Coast Congressmen Pleased Vote Delayed On Syria Strike – 10 September 2013

NJ.com – N.J. Congressman’s Bill Creating Syrian War Crimes Tribunals Gains Bipartisan Support – 11 September 2013

Richmond Times-Dispatch – Rigell Backs War Crimes Tribunal For Syria – 11 September 2013

 

[scribd id=167497637 key=key-1pd63fgqrwtx7vjpnbpw mode=scroll]