By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LONDON, United Kingdom – In a report published on Friday May 14, Human Rights Watch criticized the United Kingdom’s treatment of terrorists and pressed for the new coalition government to undertake a judicial inquiry to uncover the truth about such abusive practices and officially break from past policies of torture and rendition.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said that such an inquiry and break from past policies is necessary to meet the UK’s domestic and international legal obligations and restore the UK’s reputation as a champion of human rights in the global community.

Just last week, the Tories and Liberal Democrats took power by forming a coalition in the United Kingdom, ending over a decade of Labor Party rule. Both parties ran on promises to end abusive counter-terrorism tactics, including kidnapping and torturing terrorist suspects, including several UK nationals.

Despite these promises, many believe that the new government will continue to allow M15 and M16 to work with overseas intelligence agencies to facilitate torture and illegal rendition for those alleged of terrorist activities.

The London director of Human Rights Watch, Tom Porteous, pressed the new government to end the impunity by “mak[ing] clean break with the previous government’s abusive approach to counterterrorism.”

Equally importantly, Mr. Porteous said a judicial inquiry to uncover the illegal techniques used by M15 and M16 during Labor rule would “strengthen the UK’s role in bringing to justice those responsible for international crimes at home and abroad.”

The inquiry, according to the Human Rights Watch report, should focus on identifying the members of the Labor Party government who specifically authorized torture and other illegal actions taken against terrorist suspects. The inquiry would also ideally uncover those M15 and M16 officers who tortured after being authorized by government officials.

While the new government has made public statements indicating its willingness to undertaken an inquiry into the actions, Tories and Liberal Democrats are extremely unlikely to prosecute M15 and M16 officers that undertook actions that government lawyers had deemed legal under UK law.

For more information, please see:

COMMON DREAMS – New Government Should Open Inquiry Into Allegations of Complicity and Torture – 14 May 2010

GUARDIAN – Human Rights Watch calls for inquiry into Britain’s role in torture – 14 May 2010

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH – UK: Make Rights a Priority at Home and Abroad – 14 May 2010

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia – Serbia announced today that it has unearthed a mass grave of Albanians killed in Kosovo during that region’s independence war in 1998.

The grave was found in the southern Serbian town of Raska during the early stages of construction on a new parking lot and building.  Based on the conditions of the ground where the grave was found, it is likely that the bodies were moved to their current location from another spot inside of Kosovo.  The grave was initially found as a result of efforts by the European Union Rule of Law Mission In Kosovo.

Bruno Vekaric, the Serbian Deputy War Crimes prosecutor, indicated that an investigation would be opened in the new grave site.  Vekaric estimated that there were somewhere between 150 and 350 bodies.  “Serbia is for the first time openly facing its bad past.”

Another prosecutor, Vladimir Vukecevic, also noted the importance the pending investigation held for Serbia in coming to terms with its role in the Kosovo war.  “This is more proof that Serbia does not shy away from its dark past and is ready to bring to justice all those who have committed crimes.”

Initial conclusions from investigators indicated that the persons found in this grave, mostly ethnic Albanians, were killed by Serbian soldiers during the war.  Slobodan Milosevic was President of Yugoslavia at the time of the killings.

The Raska location is not the first mass grave that can be traced to victims of the Kosovo war.  Five others were found in recent years, two in Kosovo and three inside of Serbia.

For more information, please see:

AP – Serbia plans to open mass grave – 14 May 2010

BOSNEWLIFE – Serbia Discovers Largest Mass Grave In Years – 13 May 2010

AFP – Serbia uncovers Kosovo Albanian mass grave – 10 May 2010

BBC – Mass grave find shows Serbia slowly facing up to past – 10 May 2010

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine – The body of a missing Jewish student from a Kiev Chabad yeshiva, who had been missing for over two weeks, was found yesterday.

The remains of Aryeh Leib Mizenson, 25, who had disappeared on April 20, were found in the Ukrainian capital.  The police had to used DNA testing to determine the identity of the body, which was found dismembered.

Antisemitic sentiment within the active Ukrainian neo-Nazi community is suspected to have played a role in Mizenson’s death.  Local law enforcement officials have detained a member of a local neo-Nazi gang in connection with his death.  The fact that the day of his disappearance, April 20, is the anniversary of Adolph Hitler’s death, is not believed to be a coincidence.  Acts of violence against Jewish targets have been carried out by neo-Nazi groups in the past in the area.

Yaakov Zilberman, a leading member of Kiev’s Jewish community believes that antisemitism played a role in the killing.  “Many Jews here are confronted by groups of skin-heads wearing Nazi uniforms at metro stations in central Kiev.  The skin-heads walk around without fear in the center of town and no one says a word.”

The chief Ukrainian rabbi, who was out of the country at the time that Misenzon’s body was found, announced that he would return to Ukraine for the student’s funeral.

Law enforcement officials have requested that the Misenzon’s family delay his burial until the investigation can be completed.

For more information, please see:

HAARETZ – Body of Ukrainian Jew missing since Hitler’s birthday found in Kiev – 9 May 2010

INDYPOSTED – Dismembered Body of Ukrainian Jew Found In Kiev – 9 May 2010

JERUSALEM POST – Yeshiva student murdered in Ukraine – 9 May 2010

YNEWSNET – Jewish man murdered in Kiev; Chabad: Anti-Semites did it – 9 May, 2010

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

VILNIUS, Lithuania – On Friday May 7, a Lithuanian appellate court approved a gay pride parade scheduled for Saturday May 8 in the country’s capital of Vilnius.

The Supreme Administration Court of Lithuania, located in Vilnius, overturned a decision earlier in the week by a lower court in anticipation of Saturday’s parade. The Baltic Pride Parade 2010 is expected to draw hundreds of Lithuanian participants, as well as persons from other countries.

That decision, on Wednesday May 5, banned the protest in anticipation of violence.  The lower court’s decision was based on its determination that national and local authorities would be unable to guarantee the safety of the participants in the parade.  More than a thousand protesters and opponents of the parade are now expected to attend.

After the decision, a number of human rights groups protested what they perceived to be an intolerable disregard for gay rights, but did not expect a reversal on appeal.  Those human rights group accused the lower court judge and the Lithuanian Attorney General of masking homophobia with illegitimate public safety concerns.

However, the Supreme Administration Court, perhaps surprisingly, held that the rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression trump safety concerns.  The Court declared that “those who share unpopular points of view or are members of minority groups” must be protected.

The Court also ruled that the lower court decision ban on the parade would have violated multiple articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This decision was surprising to many Lithuanians, given the country’s spotty record of protecting the rights of its gay citizens.  It was especially unexpected given the people of Lithuania’s, and its government’s, overwhelmingly negative attitudes towards gay rights issues.

73 percent of respondents to a recent poll opposed the planned parade in Vilnius.  Also, more than 80 percent of Lithuanians consider homosexuality to be a disease according to a 2006 poll.  Moreover, the Lithuanian government has been criticized by human rights groups and the European Union, of which Lithuania is a member, for endemic disregard for sexual minorities within the country.

No major gay pride event has been permitted in the country since its inception in 1991, so Saturday’s parade will be the country’s first ever. Moreover, the Lithuanian Parliament in 2009 tried to pass a bill that would prevent public officials and educators from providing information about homosexuality from children.  The bill ultimately failed, but nevertheless showed the officially sanctioned disinformation plaguing the former Soviet republic.

For more information, please see:

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – Lithuania’s Baltic Pride March Gets Green Light – 7 May 2010

ASSOCIATED PRESS – Lithuanian court reverses ban on gay pride parade – 7 May 2010

CARE2 – Lithuania’s Gay Pride Gets a Boost as Baltic Pride 2010 March is Reinstated – 7 May 2010

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

NOVARA, Italy – Italian police stopped a Muslim woman in the city of Novara in north-western Italy for wearing an Islamic face-covering veil.  The police told AFP that the woman, who was visiting the post office with her husband, was issued a 500 euro fine for wearing the veil. This marks the first application of a by-law instituted by the city in January banning the wearing of clothing preventing immediate identification in public.

Mayor of Novara, Massimo Giordano, said that the by-law was designed to deter women from covering themselves with the veil in public. He said:

“There are still some people that refuse to understand that our community in Novara does not accept and does not want people going around wearing the burka.”

According to the BBC, the city of Novara is run by the anti-immigration Northern League.  The Northern League is a powerful junior coalition partner in Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi’s national government, and currently has a bill before parliament which would outlaw the wearing of Islamic face veils in public.

The twenty-six-year-old woman stopped by police was described as a Tunisian national. After her husband refused to allow her to be identified by male officers, a female police officer was called in to make the identification.

Since 1975, the Italian government has had national anti-terrorism laws which prohibit the wearing of any mask or clothing that makes identification of the wearer impossible.  However, the law permits exceptions for “justified cause”, which has been interpreted by Italian courts to include the wearing of facial coverings for religious purposes – including the wearing of Islamic veils. Novara, and two other municipalities in northern Italy, have used the 1975 laws as the legal basis upon which they have banned Islamic veils.

The Novara by-law reflects similar efforts to ban veils which have been taking place across Western Europe. A ban on wearing masks and veils in public has recently passed the Belgian lower house and is set to go before the Senate. If approved, it would be the first national measure to ban Islamic facial coverings in Europe.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Italy Fines Muslim Woman Over Veil – 4 May 2010

BBC International – Police stop Muslim woman wearing veil in Italy – 3 May 2010

The Guardian – Muslim woman fined for wearing burqa in northern Italy – 3 May 2010