By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

TRIPOLI, Libya – A new UN report has stated that torture and ill-treatment, sometimes resulting in death, is “widespread” in Libyan jails. Dozens have been tortured to death, including 11 this year and 27 in two years, in prisons run by militias.

The militias that control these jails joined forces two years ago to overthrow leader Moammar Gadhafi. These are the militias that have triumphed in the eight-month civil war in 2011.

The UN estimates about 8,000 people are still being held in relation to the 2011 conflict which ended in the overthrow of Gadhafi.

The vast majority are being held without due process, the report claimed.

Torture is being used “as a means to extract confessions or other information”, the UN says.

The UN Report titled “Torture and Deaths in Detention in Libya” said the abuse of detainees persists despite the Government’s efforts. The report recommends swift action to transfer detainees held by armed brigades to State control, as well as renewed efforts to build the capacity of the criminal justice system.

“Torture is illegal, under any circumstance, with no exceptions,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

“The situation of detainees in Libya is alarming and while there has been some progress, there is an urgent need to renew efforts to prevent torture, investigate allegations of torture and prosecute those responsible,” Pillay further stated.

Libya’s central government has struggled to remove the presence of armed militias since Gadhafi’s death in 2011.

The report further presented information about the view on this torture from the armed brigade. It reported: “In some cases, members of the armed brigades freely admitted, and even tried to justify, the physical abuse of detainees.”

However, no one was immediately available for comment for the Libyan government.

The Libyan government had declared its commitment to ending torture and ensuring the proper working of the country’s criminal justice system, and praised its passage of a law making torture a criminal offense.

But both UN bodies feared that unless firm action was taken “there was danger that torture will become institutionalized within the new Libya.”

In government-controlled prisons run by trained police or prison officers, which UN staff have visited, conditions and treatment of detainees were better than those operated by the militia.

Conditions are improving, the report did say, for detainees held in prisons controlled by Libya’s Judicial Police. But it urged the government to speed up the takeover and the staffing of militia-run jails with trained police and correctional officers.

The report further recommends that Libyan authorities adopt a strategy to screen and, where appropriate, release or charge and prosecute conflict-related detainees, in implementation of the Law on Transitional Justice.

The report is based on information gathered first-hand during UNSMIL’s visits to nearly 30 detention centers over two years, including information from detainees, family members, officials and civil society, as well as documentation such as medical reports.

For more information, please visit:

BBC News – Torture ‘widespread’ in Libyan jails – UN report – 1 October 2013
Aljazeera – UN finds widespread torture in Libya jails – 1 October 2013
The New York Times – Libya: 27 Tortured to Death in Jails Run by Militias, U.N. Report Says – 1 October 2013
VOA News – UN Report: Torture Rampant in Libyan Jails – 1 October 2013
abc news – UN Finds Torture Widespread in Libya – 1 October 2013
UN News Centre – Despite Government efforts, torture widespread in Libya’s detention centres – UN report – 1 October 2013

By: Dan Krupinsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KHARTOUM, Sudan – Protests against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, representing the largest protests in the capital in years, are one of the most serious challenges yet to the president’s authority during his 24-years in office.

In the latest wave of protests that have persisted for over a week, national security forces fired tear gas in an attempt to break up a demonstration held inside a women’s university in the capital on Monday.

The Associated Press is reporting that two students, speaking only on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, told them in a phone call that hundreds of students were clapping and chanting in opposition of al-Bashir, until the building was inundated with tear gas.

“I saw students falling, fainting from the heavy gas. Ambulances rushed to the university,” said one of the students.

Protests, many of them deadly, have taken over several Sudanese cities since last Sunday, when the government lifted subsidies on gasoline, which resulted in a price increase that was almost doubled the price, and is expected to have a similar effect on other goods.

According to international rights groups, at least 50 protesters have been killed by government forces. Doctors and activists put the death toll higher, claiming that over 100 people have died so far. The government has acknowledged 33 deaths, including police officers.

“The protests will continue and will reach a general strike. This is our aim,” said Ghazi al-Sanhouri, a nephew of the dead protester, to The Guardian. “We will keep uncovering the regime’s brutal tactics in suppressing the protests by killings and atrocities.”

Additionally, journalists say that a media blackout has been imposed on them by the government, banning them from covering the actions.

“The government feels that its own existence is endangered and the press is playing a role in influencing public opinion…they want papers to turn into official gazettes that reflect only [the government’s] point of view with no criticism or negative feedback,” said Diaa Eddin Belal, editor-in-chief of al-Sudani newspaper, to The Guardian.

The government said on Sunday that it would give out payments to families in need, raise the minimum wage and boost public sector salaries, in an effort to please the frustrated and increasingly violent and irritable public.

Schools have been closed since for almost a week after high school students led protests against al-Bashir in different parts of the capital, and are expected to stay closed until late in October.

For further information, please see:

ABC News – Sudan Security Fires Gas at University Protest – 3o September 2013

Al-Jazeera – Sudan defends crackdown amid more protests – 1 October 2013

The Guardian – Sudan protesters call for president Omar al-Bashir to step down – 30 September 2013

New York Times – Sudan Erupts in Deadly Protests as Gas Prices Rise – 26 September 2013

By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

ABUJA, Nigeria – Roughly 50 students were killed as suspected Islamist gunmen attacked a college in north-eastern Nigeria.

The students were shot dead while they were asleep in their dormitories at the College of Agriculture in Yobe state. The gunmen also torched the college’s classrooms.

The attack is blamed on the Boko Haram extremist group, even though there has been a four and a half month old state of emergency covering three states and one-sixth of the country.

“They attacked our students while they were sleeping in their hostels, they opened fire at them,” Provost Molima Idi Mato of Yobe State College of Agriculture said.

Mato further said he could not give an exact number for death toll because security forces are still recovering bodies of students mostly aged between 18 and 22. The Nigerian military has collected 42 bodies and transferred 18 wounded students to a local hospital.

In addition, Mato reported that about 1,000 students had fled the scene.

Most of those killed were Muslims, as is the majority of the college’s student body.

The college is roughly 25 miles from another school that suffered from a similar attack around Damaturu town. There are no security forces stationed at the college despite the attacks.

Two weeks ago, state commission for education Mohammed Lamin urged all schools to reopen and promising protection by soldiers and police.

In June, Boko Haram carried our two attacks on schools in the region. At least nine children were killed in a school on the outskirts of Maiduguri, while 13 students and teachers were killed in a school in Damaturu.

In July in the village of Mamudo in Yobe state, Islamist militants attacked a school’s dormitories with guns and explosives, killing at least 42 people, mostly students.

Boko Haram regards schools as a symbol of Western culture. The group’s name translates as “Western education is forbidden.”

Some of Boko Haram’s fighters have trained with al-Shabab in Somalia.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has said in video addresses that his group wants to end democracy in Nigeria and allow education only in Islamic schools.

Its uprising poses the biggest security challenge in years to Nigeria which is Africa’s biggest oil producer and its most populous nation with more than 160 million people – almost equal numbers of which are Muslims and Christians.

Boko Haram militants have killed more than 1,700 people since 2010.

For more information, please visit:

BBC News – Nigeria attack: Students shot dead as they slept – 29 September 2013
Scottish Express – Gunmen massacre Nigeria students – 29 September 2013
Kuwait Times – Militants storm Nigeria college, kill 50 students – 29 September 2013
Yahoo! News – Nigeria College Attacked: At Least 40 Killed – 29 September 2013
Sky News – Nigeria College Attacked: At Least 40 Killed – 29 September 2013
The Globe and Mail – Boko Haram blamed after attack on Nigerian college leaves as many as 50 dead – 29 September 2013

 

By: Dan Krupinsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Judges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone denied the appeal of former Liberian president Charles Taylor on Thursday, confirming his 50-year sentence for war crimes.

Taylor was found guilty of 11 counts of war crimes, including murder, rape, torture and the enslavement of child soldiers, on April 26, 2012. The atrocities in Sierra Leone were carried out by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a guerrilla army. Taylor supplied them with guns, training and recruits in return for diamonds, actions that the Court determined amounted to “aiding and abetting” the crimes.

In addition to aiding and abetting, Taylor also planed some of the attacks carried out by the guerrillas.

“Their primary purpose was to spread terror. Brutal violence was purposefully unleashed against civilians with the purpose of making them afraid, afraid that there would be more violence if they continued to resist,” said Presiding Judge George Gelaga King.

Taylor is the first head of state to be convicted of war crimes by an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War Two.

“This verdict shows no person, no matter how powerful, is above the law,” said the court’s prosecutor, Brenda Hollis.

The reaction in Sierra Leone was understandably positive.

“It’s a victory for me against tyranny,” said Edward Conteh, whose hand was cut off by rebels, according to Reuters. “I’m happy Charles Taylor is behind bars for 50 years because I’m a victim of the war.”

The ruling means that Taylor, 65, will more than likely spend the rest of his life in a high security prison cell. A final decision will be made next week on where we will serve his sentence, but the UK is currently the only country that has publicly offered to accommodate him.

“The sentence is fair in the light of the totality of the crimes committed,” said Judge King. “The defense failed to demonstrate any discernible errors in the trial chamber’s sentencing.”

Taylor’s lead defense attorney, Morris Anyah, said Taylor took the verdict with great stoicism and also added that Taylor would not have been convicted if he had had a powerful ally.

“If Charles Taylor had had a friend among the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, this case would not have had the traction it has had,” he said.

Thursday’s ruling is the final judgment at the court, which indicted 13 of the main facilitators of the violence in Sierra Leone. Two died before trial and one more remains unaccounted for and possibly dead. Another died before hearing a verdict. All of the others were tried and convicted.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Judges uphold Charles Taylor’s jail sentence – 26 September 2013

The Guardian – Charles Taylor’s 50-year sentence upheld at war crimes tribunal – 26 September 2013

Reuters – Liberia’s Charles Taylor loses appeal against war crimes conviction – 26 September 2013

The Telegraph – Charles Taylor to spend rest of life in British jail for Sierra Leone war crimes – 26 September 2013