By Pearl Rimon
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LILLE, France –French authorities emptied two makeshift Roma camps that contained about 200 people near Lille and Lyon. No other living arrangements were offered to the deported Roma.

On the same day the camps were emptied, 240 Roma gypsies were flown from Lyon to Romania. This event was the biggest repatriation since Francois Hollande succeeded ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy in May. The 240 Roma flew back to Romania on a voluntary basis, $370 for adults and $184 per child. This policy was highly criticized because many believed that the Roma could easily use the money to return back to France.

“The French government is wasting huge amounts of money to give them holidays back in Romania,” said Valeriu Nicolae, founder of the Policy Centre for Roma and Minorities in Bucharest, an NGO which works to provide work and education opportunities to young Roma.

“What else do you think they’re going to do?”, he told left-leaning daily Libération. “After all, it is much more comfortable living in a French ghetto than a Romanian one. They stay a couple of weeks, then they go back to France.”

“What’s inconceivable for us is that people are thrown out without being told where they can go. We expected better after President Hollande’s words,” said Roseline Tiset of the Human Rights League. During his campaign, President Hollande promised Roma rights groups that if a camp were to be dismantled that alternatives would be offered.  Father Arthur, a priest who defends Roma rights and had planned to baptise six Roma children on Thursday afternoon, said he felt “deceived”.

“What will become of these families? Everything is being taken away – it’s a breach of fundamental human rights.”

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said that the camps were unsanitary and posed challenges for those living in the surrounding areas.

About 15,000 Roma live in improvised camps near major French cities. In 2010, under Sarkozy, France underwent criticism for gathering hundreds of Roma gypsies from illegal camps and sending them back to Romania.  The EU’s justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, compared this wave of deportation to the Word War II-era deportations.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera– France dismantles Roma camps in new crackdown—09 August 2012

Deutsche Welle — France expels first Roma under Hollande – 09 August 2012

France 24 — France dismantles Roma camps, deports hundreds – 09 August 2012

By Connie Hong
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ATHENS, Greece – Over the weekend, Greece has detained over 6,000 people in an effort to purge the country of illegal immigrants. While most of the detainees were eventually released, more than 1,600 of those arrested are scheduled to be deported.

The crackdown on illegal immigrants comes as a response to the country’s economic crisis and high unemployment rates. Public Order Minister, Nikos Dendias, defended the operation, stating that Greece could not afford an “invasion of immigrants.” Continue Reading

Emilee Gaebler
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MINSK, Belarus — On 3 of August, Swedish ambassador, Stefan Eriksson, was expelled from Belarus by President Alexander Lukashanko.  The action led to a number of outbursts.

According to the EU Observer, Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, tweeted that Eriksson was expelled for being “too supportive of human rights.”  Bildt ended his posting by stating, “Outrageous.  Shows nature of regime.”

The sudden departure of Eriksson is certainly questionable.  It comes suspiciously soon after President Lukashanko’s firing of two security chiefs, on 1 August, for allowing an invasion into the Belarusian air space during the “teddy bear incident.”

This “teddy bear incident” occurred on 4 July, when a Swedish PR firm air-dropped hundreds of teddy bears into Belarus with messages that called for freedom of speech.  For weeks following the incident Belarusian officials denied that such an event took place.

Once the incident was confirmed, the stunt’s organizer, Per Cromwell, made it clear that the Swedish ambassador was not a part of the plans and that he had not even been contacted.

President Lukashanko and his administration are adamant that Eriksson was not expelled, it was simply that his accreditation was not extended.  Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Andrei Savinykh, told Reuters, in a telephone interview, that Eriksson’s work was not strengthening the Belarusian-Swedish relationship but rather harming it.

Swedish foreign minister Bildt claims that the incidents cited by Belarus to show Eriksson’s negative effect on bilateral relations are ridiculous.  Bildt said those reasons included Eriksson’s meeting with opposition leaders and the fact that the Swedish ambassador donated books on human rights to a Minsk university library.

This is not the first time that Belarus has expelled foreign diplomats.  Earlier, in February, the EU and Polish ambassadors to Minsk were pushed out when the EU imposed sanctions on a close friend of President Lukashenko.

Back in 1998, President Lukashenko went so far as to cut off water and weld shut the gates to the US envoy’s residence.  At the time the residential compound was housing EU and US diplomats but Lukashenko wanted to reside there himself.  In 1999, the ambassadors returned once a pledge was made by Lukashenko to respect the rights of foreign diplomats.

For now, the Swedish government has stated that the Belarusian diplomats, currently in Stockholm, were asked to leave.  Further diplomatic envoys from Belarus to Sweden will also be turned away.  Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said that this action by Belarus will be referred to the EU Political and Security Committee for consideration as to what is “appropriate EU measures.”

 

For further information, please see:

Chicago Tribune — Belarus Expels Swedish Ambassador, EU Weighs Response — 3 August 2012

Euro News — Belarus: Teddy Bear Drop Claims Swedish Victim — 3 August 2012

EU Observer  — Belarus Expels Swedish Ambassador After Teddy Bear Fiasco — 3 August 2012

Ria Novosti — Belarus Denies Expelling Swedish Ambassador — 3 August 2012

Press Release
World Affairs — 2 August 2012

Two days before leaving for the August recess, the leaders of the US House of Representatives announced that the two interconnected Russia bills—the extension of permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) and the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which proposes to sanction Russian human rights violators by denying them US visas and freezing their US assets—will not be considered on the floor until September and, most likely, until the lame-duck session after the November election. One of the key reasons, according to several sources on the Hill, is the unwillingness of some Republican lawmakers to extend PNTR, which they consider “a gift to Vladimir Putin.” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested that PNTR would constitute “yet another concession to a regime that abuses the human rights of its citizens,” urging her colleagues to pass the Magnitsky Act on its own.

The reality is that the Magnitsky Act, opposed by the White House (in unison with the Kremlin) from the very beginning, can only become law if connected with PNTR. The choice, in this case, is both or neither. PNTR would not represent any kind of “gift” or “concession” to Putin. Russia is set to join the World Trade Organization on August 22nd regardless of what the US Congress does. After that date, the only ones who would be hurt by the lack of PNTR with Russia are US exporters. Furthermore, the retention of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendement, which deals with the (non-existent) emigration restrictions in the (non-existent) Soviet Union, does not in the least bother the Kremlin leaders. In fact, it allows them to portray the US as “anti-Russian” for maintaining sanctions that are no longer relevant.

What would be a gift to Vladimir Putin is the failure to pass the Magnitsky Act—a bill that directly addresses the very real (and very grave) problems with the rule of law in today’s Russia, and which establishes much-needed personal accountability for Kremlin officials complicit in corruption and human rights violations. The nervous reaction from Moscow shows beyond doubt how afraid the Putin regime is of this bill becoming law. In fact, Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, has publicly stated that, given this choice, the Kremlin would prefer to keep Jackson-Vanik. Conversely, the leaders of Russia’s democratic opposition (including Boris Nemtsov, Mikhail Kasyanov, and Garry Kasparov) have publicly advocated replacing the 1974 amendment with the Magnitsky Act. As Nemtsov and Kasparov argued in a recent article, “replacing Jackson-Vanik with [Magnitsky] would promote better relations between the people of the US and Russia while refusing to provide aid and comfort to a tyrant and his regime.”

The time is running out. Delaying consideration of the PNTR/Magnitsky package increases the likelihood not only of a lack of place on the legislative schedule, but also of a post-election White House veto. It would be ironic if those who do not want to provide any “concessions” to Putin would hand him the greatest victory of all.

By Pearl Rimon
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MINSK, BELARUS – Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko, fired two military officials who allowed Belarus’ airspace to be invaded by teddy bears.

On July 4, a Swedish advertising agency dropped 879 teddy bears wearing parachutes and carrying slogans in support of human rights.

Lukashenko fired air defense chief, Dmitry Pakhmelkin and head of the border guards Igor Rachkovsky due to “not properly carrying out their duties in safeguarding Belarussian national security.” Lukashenko said, “This plane was discovered in time, but why did the (air defense) authorities not intercept the flight? … Come on lads. We are all grown up. The guilty ones have to answer for this.”

Belarussian authorities have arrested a journalism student who posted photos of the teddy bears on his personal website and the real estate agent who offered an apartment to the advertising agency. The two can face up to seven years or prison due to being charged with assisting border violators.

Previously, officials denied that the July 4^th incident happened, up until last week where Luashenko called a meeting to reprimand authorities for allowing the event to occur.

Hannah Frey and Thomas Mazetti, the two coordinators behind the act said that it was to show support for human rights activists and to humiliate the country’s military. “Hopefully, we’ve made people more aware in the world and that there will be more people supporting Belarusian people,” Frey said.

Frey and Mazetti’s tedy bear stunt was inspired by similar protests by Belarussian activists, who have been known to arrange stuffed animals in a fashion that appeared to be protesting Lukashenko’s regime.

The teddy bear stunt cost €150,000 ($184,500). The plane took off and landed in southern Lithuana. The plane flew inside the borders of Belarus for 90 minutes.

Lukashenko has been in power since 1994 over the population of 10 million of the former Soviet state.

A similar event happened in the former Soviet Union in 1987. Matthias Rust from Germany took his place into Soviet airspace and landed next to the Kremlin. Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, fired the defense minister and other top military officials in response.

For further information, please see:

Huffington Post — Belarus Teddy Bear Invasion: Fluffy Bears Bring Bring Down 2 Generals – 02 August 2012

The Independent — Teddy bears defeat Belarus generals – 02 August 2012

Lubbock Online — Teddy bears swoop in with human rights support, bring down two Belarus generals – 01 August 2012