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.

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

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

LUANDA, Angola – Angolan police arrested rallyists who were holding a demonstration in the capital on Saturday.

 

18 activists were brought into police custody. Two of them were later released without charge while the others remain in prison.

Held near the Santa Ana cemetery, just meters away from the Luanda police headquarters, the protest aimed to pressure the government to recognize and uphold the “dignity and the right to life for those who think differently”. Protesters demanded answers over the disappearance of two government critics, Alves Cassule and Isaias Kamulingue, who have been missing since last year.

“We have already waited too long, Cassule and Kamulingue waited too long . . . and so many others that are being pushed into the limbo of oblivion, citizens who do not even enjoy the posthumous right of investigation to cast light on the events that led to their physical disappearances,” said one of the rallyists.

“We will continue to push until they reappear or the truth is told,” Adolfo Campos, another protester told AFP.

Saturday’s protest was also meant to express the public’s dissatisfaction towards the administration of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos who has been the country’s ruler since 1979. Activists at the rally accused the President of “mismanaging Angola’s oil revenues, suppressing human rights and doing too little to end corruption and poverty.”

According to Central Angola 7311, the organizers of the demonstration, they ensured that the rally met all legal requirements before carrying it out. “The protest, which fulfilled all legal requirements, was the target of the usual repression by the regime, using the Angolan police,” the youth protest movement posted on its Twitter feed.

In their defense, however, the police told the press that the protesters were causing “embarrassment and indignation” to those who were preparing for funerals at the nearby cemetery.

Nevertheless, local human rights groups denounced the way the police handled the situation. “It is sad to see the police use such violence against young people who are demonstrating peacefully,” said Jose Patricinio, the president of an Angolan human rights group. He added that staging a rally is a constitutionally guaranteed right which law enforcers must respect.

A few days before the protest, the U.N. Rights Committee expressed its concerns about reports of the disappearances of protesters in Luanda for the past two years, urging the government to “take practical steps to put an end to impunity by its security forces regarding arbitrary and extrajudicial killings and disappearances.”

 

For further information, please see:

Africa Review – Angola police break up protest over missing youths – 31 March 2013

Independent Online News – Angolan cops break up youth protest – 31 March 2013

Global Voices Online – Angola: Arrested and Disappeared for “Thinking Differently” – 31 March 2013

News 24 – Angolan police detain 18 – 31 March 2013

Global Post – Police break up youth protest in Angola – 30 March 2013

Reuters – Angola police detain 18 at rights rally: activists – 30 March 2013

TSF – Angolan police confirm arrest of 12 people organizing demonstration speech – 30 March 2013

By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

UNITED NATIONS — On Thursday, the UN Security Council approved the creation of a unique new combat force that will conduct “targeted offensive operations” to neutralize armed groups in conflict-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

By way of response, the Congolese government has welcomed the UN’s decision in hopes of subduing rebel groups along its border with Rwanda.  Spokesman Lambert Mende said the brigade of at least 2,000 troops would “bring some hope of peace.”

This is the first time any UN peacekeeping force has been given such an offensive mandate.  However, the ongoing conflict in the DRC has seen various armed groups creating havoc in the mineral-rich eastern region for two decades.

The brigade will be part of the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC.  At present, the UN has more than 17,700 peacekeepers and more than 1,400 international police in the DRC; however, they have been accused of not doing enough to stop the violence in the eastern provinces.  The latest rebellion, from 2012 to present, has displaced an estimated 800,000 people in the DRC from their homes.

The UN Security Council resolution stated that the new Intervention Brigade will “carry out targeted offensive operations” to “neutralize” armed groups. In July, forces will be deployed and will include troops from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi.

The resolution will give the brigade a mandate to operate “in a robust, highly mobile and versatile manner” to ensure that armed groups cannot seriously threaten government authority or the security of civilians.

UN peacekeepers were unable to protect civilians from M23 rebels, whose movement began in April 2012 when hundreds of troops defected from the Congolese armed forces.  Likewise, the resolution strongly condemns the continued presence of the M23 in the immediate vicinity of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, and its attempts to establish “an illegitimate parallel administration in North Kivu.

Moreover, the Resolution demands that the M23 and other armed groups, including those seeking the “liberation” of Rwanda and Uganda, immediately halt all violence and “permanently disband and lay down their arms.”  It also strongly condemns their continuing human rights abuses including summary executions, sexual violence and the continued conscripting and use of children.

But the resolution states clearly that it will be established for one year “on an exceptional basis and without creating a precedent or any prejudice to the agreed principles of peacekeeping.”  The resolution, sponsored by France, the United States and Togo, says the “intervention brigade” must have “a clear exit strategy.”

It says the Security Council will determine its continued presence based on its performance and according to whether the DRC has made sufficient progress in improving its security.  Moreover, the Congolese are set to form a “rapid reaction force” that can assume responsibility for neutralizing armed groups and reducing the threat they pose to civilians and the government’s authority.

The resolution extends the mission’s mandate until March 31, 2014, and the brigade will be headquartered in Goma.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – UN Approves DR Congo “Intervention Brigade” – 29 March 2013

BBC – DR Hails UN Attack Force – 29 March 2013

Reuters – U.N. Approves New Combat Force to “Neutralize” Congo Rebels – 28 March 2013

The New York Times – U.N. Approves New Force to Pursue Congo’s Rebels – 29 March 2013

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BAMAKO, Mali – New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement on Tuesday urging the Malian government to look into allegations that soldiers tortured several detainees.

In a study conducted by the group, it is revealed that seven men who are suspected members of rebel groups were “beaten and kicked, burned, injected with a caustic substance, and threatened with death” while in the custody of Malian troops.

From March 11 to March 23, HRW gathered testimonies from detainees about the harsh treatment they received from the army. Tuareg in ethnicity, all seven detainees recalled being taken from Léré to an ad hoc military headquarters in Markala where they were questioned about their suspected affiliation with rebel groups. After denying such accusations, one detainee recounted how they were hogtied and hurled onto the ground “like [they] were bags of rice”.

According to the report, the soldiers also injected two detainees with an unknown caustic substance which damaged their skin. One of the detainees said, “I came to[,] while being dragged along the ground after my hands had been bound with my turban. The next day near sundown a soldier came in, took my arm and injected a substance. I thought it might have been for the pain. . . . I didn’t speak his language so couldn’t ask him. Then he injected my friend who was sharing the cell with me. It started blistering and by the next morning had eaten my skin. I felt as if I would die from the pain. . . . All I want is to return to my village.”

Another detainee described how he was subjected to “waterboarding”. “They told me to crouch down, slammed my head hard against a wall, pulled it back then grabbed a bucket of water and poured it down my nose and into my mouth. . . . While doing this they asked me, ‘Tell us what job you were doing with them and why you had money on you,'” he explained.

HRW’s Senior West Africa researcher Corinne Dufka told the press that the army’s use of torture will only exacerbate the crisis in the country unless the government does something about the issue. “The Malian government should promptly and impartially investigate these and other allegations of abuse or face an increasingly unaccountable military and deepening communal tensions,” she advised.

Last week, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to appoint an independent monitor for Mali which was met with partial criticism from HRW. According to the human rights group, this resolution fell short of addressing reports of abuses by Malian troops. “While we welcome this resolution, the Council’s failure to clearly condemn serious violations recently committed by members of the Malian army is a disservice to the Malian people,” HRW said in a statement.

 

For further information, please see:

Global Post – Malian soldiers get human rights training – 27 March 2013

Human Rights Watch – Mali: Soldiers Torture Detainees in Léré – 26 March 2013

The Windsor Star – Human Rights Watch: Malian soldiers inject suspected extremists with acid – 26 March 2013

Daily Maverick – UN Condemns Mali Rights Abuses, To Step Up Monitoring – 22 March 2013

By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese warlord known as “the Terminator” who evaded arrest on war crimes charges for seven years, denied guilt when he appeared for the first time at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday.

Ntaganda shocked the international community when he entered the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda last week, removed his disguise, and asked to be sent to the ICC.  Within days he was put on a plane to The Hague.

Ntaganda allegedly led rebels who terrorized eastern Congo in brutal fighting from 2002 to 2003.  Moreover, he is accused of various war crimes over a fifteen-year period of fighting in Rwandan-backed rebellions in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The litany of charges includes ten counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, accusing him of conscripting and using child soldiers, using rape as a weapon of war, keeping women as sex slaves, and massacring at least 800 people in 2002 and 2003.

Dressed in an ill-fitting dark blue suit, blue shirt, and tie – attire most likely provided by the court – Ntaganda appeared uneasy in the courtroom on Tuesday.  He hunched forward and kept his eyes downcast as the hearing began.

Judge Ekatarina Trendafilova asked Ntaganda to state his profession.  He responded simply: “I was a soldier in the Congo.”

After a court official read out the charges against him, Ntaganda confirmed his name, stated his age of thirty-nine and said, “I was informed of these crimes, but I plead not guilty.”

Judge Trendafilova interrupted Ntaganda, stating that the purpose of the hearing was inform Ntaganda of the pending charges and to inform him of his rights.

The judge said that on September 23 the ICC will hold a hearing to assess the strength of prosecutors’ evidence.  After that hearing, the judges will decide whether the case should go to trial.

While many of the Court’s suspects, including Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, remain at large and beyond its reach, Ntaganda’s arrival was especially welcome to prosecutors and activists.

International commentators remain hopeful that Ntaganda’s appearance before the ICC after years of impunity will lead to justice for victims of war crimes perpetrated in the DRC.  Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner of Human Rights Watch said, “Ntaganda’s detention in The Hague shows that no one is above the law.”

For more information, please see:

BBC – DR Congo: Bosco Ntaganda Appears Before ICC – 26 March 2013

The Huffington Post – Bosco Ntaganda Pleads Not Guilty to War Crime Charges Before ICC – 26 March 2013

The New York Times – War Crimes Suspect Tells the Court He Was Just “a Soldier” – 26 March 2013

The Telegraph – Bosco Ntaganda in the ICC: Profile of the Terminator – 26 March 2013