By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – At least thirty five people were killed and sixty four others injured after two female suicide bombers staged two separate attacks on the Moscow subway system this morning. At least twenty three people were killed in the first attack, which occurred in the Lubyanka metro station at 7:50 a.m. Forty minutes later another blast killed twelve people in a train carriage at the Park Kultury metro station.

Passengers streamed out of the stations, some reportedly panicking, running, and falling, and many in tears. One man exclaimed: “This is how we live!”

Aleksandr Bortnikov, head of  the Russian secret police, indicated that the act was likely carried out by a terrorist group with links to the Northern Caucasus. Valdimir Vasiliev, head of the security committee in the state Duma, said: “There is no doubt who stands behind these explosions. Recently there have been several anti-terrorist operations in the North Caucasus to liquidate ringleaders and terrorists of underground groups.”

These attacks follow a surge of violence in the North Caucasus region which began last summer after a suicide bomber drove an explosive laden car into a police station in Nazran, the capital of the autonomous republic of Ingushetia. Three autonomous republics, Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia, have been torn apart by a low-intensity civil war which has been ongoing in the region since the 1990s.

One militant leader thought to be hiding in the mountains of Chechnya, Doku Umarov, has publicly threatened terrorist attacks in Russia twice in the past four months. In an Internet video from February 14 he said:

“The Russians do not understand that the war today is coming to their streets, the war is coming to their homes, the war is coming to their cities, they do not think that the war is coming, the war does not concern them, but we plan, God willing, to prove to them that the war is coming to their homes.”

Umarov also claimed that his group was responsible for the November bombing of the Nevsky Express passenger train en route from Moscow to St. Petersberg, which killed twenty six people.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that those responsible would be punished. He said: “A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed . . . I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. Terrorists will be destroyed.”

The Time Online reported that the boyfriend of a woman seriously injured in this morning’s blast swore vengeance against all Muslims. He reportedly showed off blood on his hands to journalists gathered at Lubyanka Square, claiming it had come from punching a Muslim passer-by in the face.  He said:

“I am going to kill one of them. A Tajik, an Azerbaijani, it does not matter, they are all the same . . . War is going to begin.”

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that he has ordered senior officials to fight terrorism “without hesitation, to the end.” He said that Russia would act without compromise to root our terrorists, and that security would be boosted across Russia. A Kremlin spokesperson added that human rights would be respected during the police investigations.

Amnesty International released a statement condemning the attack, but stated: “The Russian authorities must also ensure human rights are respected in their response to the attack.”

More than eight million people use the metro system in Moscow each day.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Deadly Moscow Subway Bomb Attacks Condemned – 28 March 2010

Financial Times – At least 38 killed in Moscow metro blasts – 29 March 2010

Moscow Times –  2 Bombs Explode in Moscow Metro – 29 March 2010

Times Online – Screams in the smoke as Moscow rush hour turned to horror – 29 March 2010

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

TALLINN, Estonia – The leading newspapers of Estonia protested earlier this week the introduction of new national legislation, which would require that all journalists turn over the name of a source if ordered to do so by the government, by leaving the front page of their papers blank.

This legislation, entitled the Press Sources Protection Law, was introduced by the Ministry of Justice.  It requires not only the naming of sources by journalists but also establishes potential fines or imprisonment for those who refuse.  These new potential restrictions on journalists mark a stark shift from the nation’s tradition of strong freedoms of the press.  Reporters Without Borders currently places Estonia as the sixth most open nation in regards to press freedoms.

The editor-in-chief of Postimees, one of the newspapers that participated in the protest, explained the reasoning behind the paper’s actions.  “Estonia’s six major newspapers believe there is no alternative way to make politicians understand the draft legislation is not good.  It significantly inhibits the freedom of the press.”  In addition, the National Newspaper Association and the Journalists Union have announced their disapproval with the legislation.

Some newspapers also noted special concern regarding how this law would be applied when journalists were investigating the government itself, especially on matter of corruption.  If the bill is passed, journalists may be forced to turn over the names of sources to the very government officials who they are investigating for improper actions.

Journalists in Estonia are currently required by the Code of Ethics of the Estonian Press to keep confidential the identities of their confidential sources.

The government, however, has argued that the application of this bill would be narrow and not interfere with the broader rights of the press.  According to Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi, the legislation “is not about the freedom of word.  It is so that the court could acquire information from the press in case of a difficult crime.”

The final vote by the national parliament on the journalism source legislation is scheduled for April 7.

For more information, please see:

DAILY GEORGIAN TIMES – Estonian Newspapers Protest against Bill on ‘Defence of Source’ – 24 March 2010

BALTIC TIMES – Top Estonian papers leave front page blank in protest – 21 March 2010

BALTIC COURSE – Protest: Estonian newspapers publish blank pages – 18 March 2010

RIANOVOSTI – Estonian newspapers protest ‘loss of press freedoms’ – 18 March 2010

BBN – Estonian journalists fear for their sources – 16 March 2010

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – In a long overdue effort to upgrade antiquated prisons, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has ordered that career criminals be isolated from the general population of prisoners and placed in cell blocks instead than barracks.

Over 70 years ago, when Joseph Stalin ruled the USSR with an iron-fist, a penal system for prisoners was developed where inmates are arbitrarily separated into barracks with around 100 men regardless of the nature or severity of the crime committed.

Through today the vast majority of Russian prisoners are forced to live in these inhumane and over-crowded barracks or penal colonies often in remote areas in Siberia, no different from the prison camps instituted by Stalin in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Of Russia’s 862,000 prisoners, 724,000 today are housed in barracks.

President Medvedev, who went to law school, has ordered a gradual, three-stage plan to rid Russia of its barracks housing system. Ultimately, all 755 penal colonies will be abolished as a result of these reforms.

The first stage involves moving recidivists, the so-called “career” or “hardened” criminals, to separate colonies in order to isolate the general prison population. According to one press account, 64,000 of the 149,000 recidivist prisoners have already been transferred.

The second stage, which will not be complete until 2016, involves separating petty criminals from violent first-time offenders.

Finally, by 2020, the third stage will be completed when recidivists are moved into newly constructed prisons that have cell blocks.

All of these changes replace a system where prison wardens and guards used social groupings within the barracks to self-enforce order in the barracks.

Human rights groups praised the decision. The Deputy Director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform, Lyudmila Alpern, expressed pleasure at getting rid of penal colonies where conflicts were “resolved through a crude hierarchy” and where prisoners lived like “male tribe[s]”.

For more information, please see:

THE CRIME REPORT – Russian Prison Upgrade to Take Career Criminals Out of Barracks – 24 March 2010

SCOTSMAN – Stalin’s Gulags facing reform – 24 March 2010

NEW YORK TIMES – Russia to Alter System of Penal Colonies – 22 March 2010

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MINSK, Belarus – Belarus executed two prisoners earlier this week who had been sentenced to death this past year, continuing that nation’s distinction as the only remaining country in Europe to practice capital punishment.

Last year, Vasily Yuzepchuk, 30, had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the killings of six women.  Andrei Zhuk, 25, was convicted of armed robbery and murder.

Their executions marked the first uses of the death penalty by any European state in over a year.  The response by human rights activists and the European community was immediate.  By carrying out these executions, Belarus ignored a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling that ordered all signatory countries to cease the use of capital punishment.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned the executions, calling on Belarus to re-establish the stay on executions that it had previously had in place.  Halya Gowan, a regional leader of Amnesty International, stated that “the death penalty is the ultimate cruel and inhuman punishment.  It violates the right to life and should be abolished.”

The leaders of other European nations voiced similar concerns regarding Belarus’s decision to go forward with the executions.  A statement from a number of national parliaments declared that “the Belarussian authorities should be aware that their cannot be political dialogue without shared values.”

These executions may damage Belarus’s continued efforts to become better assimilated in the economic and political circles of 21st century Europe.  Despite its questionable human rights record, the former Soviet Republic, which continues to rely heavily on Russia for political and economic support, has attempted in recent years to improve relations with the rest of Europe and distance itself from the control of Moscow.  The Council of Europe had recently proposed to allow Belarus a ‘special state status’, which it lost in 1997, if in exchange it established a stay on its use of the death penalty.

For more information, please see:

EPOCH TIMES – Two Men Executed in Belarus, EU Death-Free Zone Ends – 26 March 2010

NAVINY.BY – Two convicts executed in Belarus – 26 March 2010

REUTERS – Belarus Execution Draws European Protests – 25 March 2010

AFP – Amnesty condemns Belarus executions – 23 March 2010

DEUTSCHE WORLD – Amnesty condemns execution of two prisoners in Belarus – 23 March 2010

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – Belarus carries out two executions – 22 March 2010

Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France –  On Tuesday, March 23, 2010, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to eradicate all Eta bases in France. The remarks were made as Sarkozy attended the funeral of French police officer Jean-Serge Nérin, who was killed by alleged Eta members last week. Sarkozy was joined by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the ceremony, which took place in Melun, south-east of Paris. Sarkozy said:

“We will eradicate, one by one, all Eta bases in France. We will flush them out one by one. We will dismantle all of the support networks of this terrorist organization.”

Nérin, a fifty two-year-old father of four, was killed near Paris in an exchange of fire with Eta members. Sarkozy stated that the killing would not go unpunished, and the French police force would be “completely mobilized” in its efforts to arrest the gunmen.

The shootout, which took place in Dammarie-lès-Lys, a municipality in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, began after police apprehended individuals suspected of stealing automobiles. One person at the shootout, an unidentified twenty seven-year-old man, has already been arrested in connection with Nérin’s death, and the police are still searching for five others.

French police have frequently arrested Eta suspects in south-west France, and Eta’s  suspected military leader, Ibon Gogeascotxea, was arrested in Normandy last month with two other terrorist suspects.  The suspects, driving a car with false license plates, were detained in a joint French-Spanish sting near the village of Cahan.

Although Eta has used bases in France during much of its existence,  Nérin is the first French police officer to be killed by Eta.  Sarkozy said:

“This crime will not go unpunished . . . France, more than ever, stands side by side with democratic Spain . . . We will not allow French territory to serve as a base for terrorists and assassins.”

Eta is believed to be responsible for more than 800 deaths since the late 1960’s. The Basque separatist group has engaged in acts of violence in the effort to acheive an independent Basque state. Classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, Eta resumed attacks in June of 2007 after a fifteen month truce ended.

Eta released a statement earlier this week indicating that it was willing to take steps towards politice change in the Basque region, but did not call for an end to the armed struggle.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Sarkozy says France to ‘eradicate’ Eta bases – 23 March 2010

Irishtimes.com – Sarkozy pledges to eradicate Eta as policeman buried – 23 March 2010

Radio France Internationale – Sarkozy vows to eradicate Eta bases in France – 23 March 2010