By Greg Hall
Impunity Watch Reporter

ISTANBUL, Turkey – New arrests in Turkey represent a new low in the application of terrorism laws to crush freedom and expression.   An Istanbul court ruled to imprison a publisher and political science professor pending their trial on terrorism charges.  Tahsin Yesildere, head of the Association of Academics, called the arrests a blow to scientific and academic freedom.

This arrest is the result of a crack down on those engaged in legal political activity associated with the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democratic Party (KPDP).  Fifty people have been arrested since October 27.

The arrests appear to be in continuation of the October 4 police operation that resulted in around 100 more arrests.  Most of those arrested were involved in the Peace and Democracy Party’s Politics Academy, which provides courses and training to party activists and officials.

Emma Sinclair-Webb, a Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch, said, “[w]e are seeing the Turkish police casting the net ever wider in the crackdown on legal pro-Kurdish politics.  Unless there is clear evidence of people plotting violence or providing logistical support to armed groups, prosecutors and courts should throw these cases out.”

The Turkey anti-terrorism law defining terrorism is broad and ambiguous, giving the courts a difficult time with its interpretation and application.  Martin Scheinin, a UN rapporteur, has lobbied for reform in Turkey’s definition of terrorism.  He said that terrorism crimes should be confined to “acts of deadly or otherwise grave violence against persons or the taking of hostages.”   The European Commission has recently made similar suggestions.

Trials of KPDP have begun throughout the country.  The first, and main trial, began in October of 2010.  The trial consisted of 152 defendants and had a 7,578 page indictment.   The defendants were charged with crimes such as: (1) aiming to destroy the integrity and unity of the state; (2) being a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party ; and (3) aiding and abetting the  Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

Much of the evidence is in the form of emails, wiretaps, surveillance videos and testimonies from secret witnesses.  However, there is no evidence that any of the defendants’ actions have qualified as terrorist acts or activities defined by the international law.  In addition, there is no evidence that any of the defendants directly incited violence.

An October Interior Ministry statement put the number in pretrial detention of people believed to be associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party related charges at 605, though the figure has fluctuated considerably over the past two years.  More than 2,500 Kurds, including five lawmakers, mayors and elected local officials of the KPDP, are in jail on similar charges.

For more information, please see:

Ahram Online – Arrests of Turkish Intellectual  with Alleged Links to PKK Spurs Protest – 3 November 2011

Human Rights Watch – Turkey: Arrests Expose Flawed Justice System – 1 November 2011

Today’s Zaman – More Democracy is Antidote Against Rising PKK Terrorism – 23 October 2011

By Alexandra Halsey-Storch
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

In a comment issued on November 3, 2011, Thomas Hammarberg, the Commissioner on Human Rights for the Council of Europe, challenged politicians of the Balkans region and Europe to bring to justice those remaining war criminals who engaged in ethnic cleansing in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s, and to bring durable peace by appropriately and effectively aiding the remaining displaced persons.

During the 1990s, the countries which comprised the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia—including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, and two “autonomous provinces” Kosovo and Vojvodina = experienced a period of “intense political and economic crisis.” The entire Federation was at war with each other—the single worst atrocity having occurred in 1995 “when the Bosnian town of Srebrenica…came under attack by forces lead by the Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic.” During this particular act of genocide the Serbian military executed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

While the political crisis is technically over, the region remains in turmoil. According to Hammarberg, there are still about 438,000 refugees and displaced persons whose “legitimate claims have not yet been met, and for whom durable solutions have not been found.”  Furthermore, during the 1990s nearly 40,000 people went missing —of which an astonishing 14,000 so remain.

For example, more than 2,000 Roma (Gypsies) fled from Kosovo during the Balkan wars and still live in the Konik refugee camp near Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. In an article published by the BBC, a refugee named Veseb Berisa speaks about the living conditions in the camp:

“My family and I have nothing to eat, nothing to wear, nowhere to take a proper shower. We have been like this for ten years. I work all day every day scouring the rubbish tips for metal to sell and maybe, if I am lucky, to earn 200 euros a month to feed my family…I had a job in Kosovo. I ran my own business buying and selling fruits and vegetables…The worst thing about the camp is that it’s dirty. The hygiene here is terrible. It causes so many health problems. Everything we have is dirty. Nothing can stay clean here…a lot of people are sick in the camp…most have [sickness in their] lungs because the air here is so foul. Lots of others have problems with their hearts and blood pressure. But in ten years of living here, I’ve only seen the [United Nations] help one boy who was sick…No one helps us anymore. No one comes to see how we are or how we live…we are people too. We are humans. We need help from the [United Nations], from the Albanians and Serbs who put us in this situation. What do they think in America, in the UK? They are also responsible for the conditions we live in. They have done nothing to help us. “

Overlooking the appalling conditions in which refugees live, the mayor of Podgorica said that, “the refugees should go back to where they came from.” However, for many like Veseb Berisa, the refugee camps are “home.” Their houses in Kosovo have been burned, their lives there “destroyed.”

There are still “a number of war criminals who have not yet been brought to justice—among them killers and rapists.” Furthermore, those who have yet to be captured have abused amnesty laws to “avoid accountability” for their “alleged acts of torture and other serious crimes.”  Unfortunately, the prosecutions have “not had full political support and there have been outright obstructions by some political parties,” leading to institutional difficulties of protecting witnesses and ensuring justice is administered to the victims and their families. Hammarberg went on to state that the trials are vital for “seeking the truth of the overall picture of what actually happened during the war years.”

Key political leader from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, are scheduled to meet next week in Belgrade to discuss “durable solutions for refugees and internally displaced persons.”

For more information, please visit:

Council of Europe – Only Genuine Justice Can Ensure Durable Peace in the Balkans – 3 November 2011

BBC – Living In Filth for Ten Years – 20 June 2009

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia – The Former Yugoslavia-Conflicts

By Terance Walsh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Russian television station NTV aired a report on October 30 covering gruesome cases of torture in Chechnya.  The station, which is owned by state-run energy company Gazprom, promptly removed the story shortly after it was introduced to the public.

The video was a 10-minute piece that addressed a topic that is typically taboo in Russia.  At one point it described Chechnya as a place that is “associated with the word ‘war’ and provoked elemental terror.”

It went on to accuse government agencies of “kidnapping Chechen citizens, torturing them, holding them incommunicado for months, and ‘disappearing’ them.”

The report was aberrational in its candor compared to typical Russian news reports.  The primary subject of the video was Islam Umarpashayev, a 26-year old.  Umarpashayev alleged that he was tortured, beaten, and told he would be killed for four months while held captive at the Chechen Interior Ministry.  At one point he says he was chained to a radiator at the police base.

He is currently seeking the help of rights organizations to sue the Chechen government while in hiding in Central Russia.

The report only aired in Russia’s eastern time zones.  Shortly after airing, the NTV headquarters in Moscow ordered that the video be removed before people in Russia’s more populous western portion had a chance to see the report.  Instead, Russia’s European regions received programming that included ballerinas dancing in the newly opened Bolshoi Theater.

The apparent impetus for NTV’s order to pull the report was a call from the Kremlin to NTV.  NTV’s spokesperson Maria Bexborodova, however, denies the Kremlin had anything to do with the decision to remove the report.  “Yes, the report was shown in the Far East, after which the network’s management decided to send it back for further work, for confirmation and clarification of facts,” Bezborodova said. “In general, this is a normal practice in the work of an editorial office that is an official registered mass-media outlet.”

The video has since surfaced on You Tube.

Human rights advocates point to this incident and an example of an impediment to curing Russia’s human rights problems.  Some say the removal of the report has implications on Russia’s ostensible counterterrorism struggle in the North Caucuses.

“We aren’t just talking about the kidnappings of people in Chechnya or about the kidnapping of people by the security forces or about the illegal methods of investigation but, essentially, about the falsification of the struggle against terrorism,” Memorial human rights group’s Aleksandr Cherkasov said.  “Kidnapped, held for several months at an Interior Ministry base, and there he was fed and allowed to wash but he was not allowed to shave or cut his hair….  That is – as we know from many other episodes, after a few months any person who is held God-knows-where might turn up as a dead terrorist in a forest.  It really is convenient.”

Cherkasov is also convinced that the Kremlin had a hand in getting NTV to remove the story.  In his account of how the report came and went he said, “For two weeks NTV didn’t put the piece on the air. They promised to, but they didn’t.  The two preceding Sundays it was supposed to appear on the same program, ‘Central Television,’ but it didn’t, because they didn’t want to release it without a comment from [Chechen President] Ramzan Kadyrov. But Kadyrov refused. So the channel overcame its own internal concerns and issued the story.”

The Russian government has relied on Kadyrov to rule with a heavy hand and maintain order in Chechnya, a troubled region that has seen two separatist wars since 1994.  Rights activists have criticized this approach to maintaining order in Chechnya, claiming it leads to human rights abuses and impunity.

NTV was handed to the state-run gas company Gazprom by court order in 2001.  Prior to the Gazprom takeover NTV was the only nationwide independent television station in Russia.  It was owned by Media-Most, run by tycoon Vladamir Gusinsky.  Gazprom was a creditor of Media-Most and received all control of NTV after the ruling by a Moscow court.

Gusinsky, who was exiled and charged in Russia with fraud and money laundering, maintains that the transfer of control of NTV to Gazprom was designed by the Kremlin.  It sought to exact revenge against Gusinsky because his journalists criticized the Russian government.

Little has been said about the removal of the Chechnya report and few want to criticize the Kremlin or the heavily state-run media in Russia.

For more information please see:

RFE/RL — Gazprom’s NTV Airs Contraversial Report on Chechnya Abuses, Then Pulls It — 1 November 2011

The Moscow Times — NTV Censors Report — 1 November 2011

Index on Censorship — Russia: Report on Russian Torture of Chechen Man “Censored” by State Television — 31 October 2011

Reuters Africa — Russian TV Pulls Report on Chechnya Kidnappings — 31 October 2011

BBC — Russian NTV Handed to Gazprom — 4 May 2001

By Alexandra Halsey-Storch
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – London-based human rights organization INTERIGHTS the International Centre for Legal Protection of Human Rights, and a team of United States-based lawyers filed a complaint on Thursday, October 27, 2011 against Lithuania on behalf of alleged al Qaeda terrorist, Abu Zubayadah at the European Court of Human Rights.

The complaint sets forth that Lithuania failed to protect Zubaydah against various human rights abuses that occurred in a secret CIA detention facility on Lithuanian territory. The complaint also contends that the Lithuanian Prosecutor General “prematurely” closed a “superficial criminal investigation” which could have led to evidence showing Lithuania’s role in the human rights violations.

According to The New York Times, a statement issued last week stated that Lithuanian prosecutors have declined to reopen an investigation despite new information on the Zubaydah’s case provided by the rights groups.

Zubaydah was captured in March 2002 in Pakistan, where he was initially interrogated. Later, he was moved to a secret CIA detention facility in Thailand and thereafter to Morocco. Eventually, in February 2005, Zubaydah was relocated to Lithuania. Today, he is held at Guantanamo Bay where he “continues to languish in a legal vacuum” even though the United States has “no intention of initiating any legal action” against him.

A 2002 legal memorandum issued by Jay S. Bybee, the Justice Department’s head of the Office of Legal Counsel, describes Zubaydah as one of al Qaeda’s leaders, being a senior lieutenant to Osama bin Laden. He “managed a network of training camps” and was involved in every major terrorist operation carried out by al Qaeda before his capture. At the time of his capture, it was alleged that he was the most senior al Qaeda member to be caught since the September 2001 attacks.

Interestingly, according to INTERIGHTS’s press release on October 27, 2011 “all such allegations were formally withdrawn after Abu Zubaydah was finally afforded legal counsel.” The release goes on to say that, “the U.S. no longer even alleges that Abu Zubaydah was a member of al Qaeda or that he supported al Qaeda’s radical ideology. It no longer alleges that he was Osama bin Laden’s senior lieutenant. Nor does it allege that Abu Zubaydah had any role in, or knowledge of, any terrorist attack planned or perpetrated by al Qaeda, including the attacks of 11 September 2001.”

In 2009, a Justice Department memorandum from April 2005 was released detailing Zubaydah’s prolonged incarceration. It describes Zubaydah, upon being captured, was stripped of his clothes and held in a cold cell. Thereafter, Zubaydah revealed important information pertaining to al Qaeda, including information that led to the capture of Ramzi Binalshibh. Despite officers’ beliefs that Zubaydah had revealed everything he knew, CIA officials demanded that waterboarding be used to coerce more information. Zubaydah experienced waterboarding 85 times, yet he came forth with no new information.

The CIA’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program (“RDI”) consisted of a world-wide network—something like a “spider’s web”—of disappearances, secret detentions, and otherwise illegal inter-state transfers of detainees suspected of having knowledge of or being an active member of terrorist groups, and in particular, al Qaeda. Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for the Council of Europe” has maintained that the RDI program has deeply violated the systems of justice and human rights protection.  There is “no doubt,” Hammarberg said, “that all 3 elements of this program have entailed systematic violations of human rights” for which the United States and European countries should be held accountable.

Danny Silverstone, the Executive Director of INTERIGHTS commented on Thursday, saying, “This is a unique case, shedding light on how the CIA’s extraordinary rendition, detention and interrogation programme operated. Although created by the U.S., this programme could not have been implemented without the active collaboration of numerous other countries around the world. This case is about Lithuania’s responsibility for its participation in serious violations of human rights, including torture, enforced disappearance and secret detention, and for its failure to conduct effective investigation into the existence of a secret CIA prison on its soil.”

 

For more information, please visit:

The New York Times – Lithuania: Terrorism Suspect Files Case Over C.I.A. Rendition Claim – 27 October 2011

INTERIGHTS – Abu Zubaydah, Victim of CIA’s Extraordinary Rendition, Seeks Accountability at the European Court of Human Rights – 27 October 2011