by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

MINSK, Belarus–

Belarusian voters, in a seemingly rigged election, reelected incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko for a fifth term. Turnout to the election was high, with reporters saying 86.75% of citizens casting ballots. Lukashenko won by a profound margin, with 83.5% of the vote.

Lukashenko’s last reelection five years ago sparked massive protests and riots, ending with the imprisonment of leading opposition party members. Western countries have ostracized Lukashenko due to his human rights record and repression of political dissent, calling him “the last dictator in Europe.” However, Lukashenko criticized Russia’s activity in Crimea last year, and hosted peace talks during the Ukrainian crisis. In August, he pardoned six members of the opposition party he had previously imprisoned, with the hopes that his actions would soften his appearance to the West. For four months after the election, the European Union will lift sanctions on both Belarus and Lukashenko, barring any members from committing a last minute crackdown, as a result of his showing of good will.

“We have carried out everything the west wanted on the eve of the elections. If there is a desire in the west to improve our relations, nobody and nothing can prevent that,” Lukashenko commented while casting his vote during Sunday’s election. “The ball is now firmly in the west’s court.”

Belarus’ relations with Russia have shown signs of strain in recent months. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a plan to place a Russian airbase in Belarus, but by early October, Lukashenko stated that Belarus had no need for such a base. This is in addition to strains due to Belarus’ disapproval of Russian actions during the Ukrainian crisis.

Previous elections in Belarus have been monitored by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and they continued to watch the election on Sunday. The OSCE and other Western organizations have rated these elections as unfair, and are looking at Sunday’s vote as a showcasing of Belarus’ willingness to have free and fair elections. The official report by the OSCE will be released within the week of the vote.

For more information, please see–

BBC–Belarus president set to win fifth consecutive election— 10 October 2015

LA Times–Belarus election: Alexander Lukashenko will win, but by how much?— 10 October 2015

Al-Jazeera–Belarus poised to re-elect ‘last dictator in Europe’— 11 October 2015

The Guardian–Belarus election: Alexander Lukashenko wins fifth term with election landslide— 11 October 2015

by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

VATICAN CITY–

Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa, a senior priest at the Vatican, revealed he is gay on the eve of a synod on the Church’s family teachings. Monsignor Charamsa said he came out to challenge the Catholic Church’s “backwards” attitudes and traditions towards homosexuality. He also revealed that he was in a relationship, and was happy and proud of his decision. In reponse, the Vatican called his actions “very serious and irresponsible,” and subsequently stripped him of all responsibilities.

The official subject under discussion at the three- week synod is how to make sure that Catholic families will follow Church teachings. However, Monsignor Charamsa’s announcement all but confirms the existence of a “gay lobby” in the Catholic Church, and threatens to derail the synod. The undertone of the conference, nonetheless, remains whether the Church can relax its abhorrence to same-sex relationships and marriage while the Pope comments, “Who am I to judge?”

Monsignor Charamsa has not yet submitted his resignation to the Vatican, but hopes that his coming out will encourage others to push for change within the Church. During the press conference, he presented a ten-point “liberation manifesto” against “institutionalized homophobia within the Church,” which Monsignor Charamsa claims oppresses gay men in the Church, who allegedly make up a majority of the priesthood.

“I dedicate my coming out to all gay priests,” Charamsa said. “I wish them happiness even if I know that most of them will not have the courage to make the gesture I have made today. To my Church, I want to say that I reject and I denounce the current atmosphere of exasperating homophobia. Open your eyes to the suffering of gay people, to their desire for love.”

Monsignor Charamsa has been a member of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith since 2003. While his fate as a priest is up to the local bishop in his home country of Poland, the Vatican has said he will no longer be a member of the Congregation.

For more information, please see—

Al-Jazeera–Vatican fires senior priest who declares homosexuality on eve of synod— 3 October 2015

BBC–Vatican acts after Polish priest reveals homosexuality— 3 October 2015

DNA–Vatican sacks gay priest after highly public coming out— 3 October 2015

Irish Times– Holy See rocked as senior Vatican priest comes out as gay— 3 October 2015

by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France–

Last week, France opened the first criminal inquiry into allegations of torture under the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Based upon tens of thousands of photographs taken by Syrian defectors, the evidence of torture is quite convincing. However, the investigation is still in the early stages, as a French torture victim or the arrest of a Syrian official will be necessary to move the charges forward.

International human rights advocates have hailed the measure as necessary, despite the move being largely symbolic in nature. The problem, advocates state, is not the evidence, but rather the ability to get a live witness in front of a French courtroom.

“Faced with these crimes that offend the human conscience, this bureaucracy of horror, faced with this denial of the values of humanity, it is our responsibility to act against the impunity of the killers,” the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said while announcing the investigation to international press. Mr. Fabius asked prosecutors to move forward with the investigation on September 10^th, immediately after the French government authenticated the photographs taken by the defectors. A unit in the prosecutor’s office that specializes in mass crimes will be in charge of the investigation.

France, along with the United States, believes that Assad is part of the problem in Syria, and that he cannot be part of the solution in the Middle East. The French insistence on this is based on the photographs depicting mass torture taken by the defectors. These photographs, taken between 2011 and 2013, portray victims with eyes gouged out, starved, beaten and maimed, as well as corpses piled up by the thousands. The scale of the problem is believed to have grown, as more people have been killed by the Assad regime than by ISIS since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.

Earlier in the week, the U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, called for the Syrian civil war to be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation. France is the first country to act since this call has been made, and has since stated that their probe should not prevent other countries from acting, nor should the U.N. feel discouraged from beginning their own investigations.

For more information, please see—

The Telegraph–France ‘opens war crimes inquiry against Assad regime’ in Syria: UN debate— 29 September 2015

Economic Times– France opens probe into Assad regime for ‘crimes against humanity’: Judicial source— 30 September 2015

New York Times– France Opens Criminal Investigation of Torture in Syria Under Assad— 30 September 2015

Toronto Metro– France opens investigation into alleged crimes against humanity by Syria— 30 September 2015

Yahoo! News– France opens probe into Assad regime for crimes against humanity— 30 September 2015

by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine–

Rebel leaders in Crimea have expelled most of the humanitarian and non-governmental organizations from Eastern Ukraine as tensions escalate. At least ten different agencies, including the United Nations, World Health Organization, and Doctors Without Borders, have been affected by the recent change. Although the reason for the expulsion is not clear, the Ukrainian rebels have been suspicious of foreign agencies because it opens the possibility for international spying. The move also mirrors a law passed in Russia earlier in the year, forbidding citizens from interacting with foreign NGOs.

UN agencies were given until Friday to evacuate the area, while other international NGOs were given until Saturday. The “de facto” rebel leaders based in Luhansk refused to reregister 10 out of the 11 UN organizations present in the region due to “violations.” The violations center on unsafe medical practices and illegal storage of medicine, although the banned organizations deny such practices. The only organization that is unaffected by the new measures, the Luhansk rebel government announced, is the Red Cross. “We have our rules and our laws,” said rebel official Vasily Nikitin stated in a pro-rebel video post on Thursday afternoon. “This isn’t some piratical African country where you can just set up a tent and start doing operations.”

The ban sparked widespread condemnation among Western nations, and international organizations, as it was a clear violation of the peace treaty signed between the rebel and pro-Ukrainian forces in February of this year. A provision of the peace treaty required that both the Ukraine and the rebels provide humanitarian aid to the war torn region, and safe access for noncombatants. According to experts, at least 150,000 people will lose access to food distribution once the ban is in full force.

The move comes after the Ukrainian government in Kiev banned Russian journalists from entering the country. It is unclear whether Luhansk’s policy was in retaliation for disallowing pro-Russian coverage of events.

For more information, please see—

AP–UN: Russia-backed rebels in Ukraine expel aid agencies— 25 September 2015

BBC–Ukraine crisis: Rebels order UN agencies to leave Luhansk— 25 September 2015

Wall Street Journal–Russian-Backed Separatists Ban Foreign Aid Workers in Eastern Ukraine— 25 September 2015

Al-Jazeera–Ban on foreign aid agencies by Ukraine’s rebels— 27 September 2015

by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

BERLIN, Germany–

A portion of the former Nazi concentration camp Dachau in southern Germany is now being used as housing for refugees seeking asylum in Germany. The reconfigured apartment building, located on the camp’s herb garden, houses around 50 formerly homeless people, most of which are refugees from the Middle East. Although the building is not located on the main camp location, the watchtowers and barbed wires are clearly visible from inside the apartments.

In Dachau, as in many other small German towns, the recent influx of refugees has placed an enormous strain on resources. Improvised temporary housing, such as beer tents, military barracks or exhibition centers, are common, but long term housing for those who have been granted asylum or are waiting on processing has proved much more difficult. Housing the refugees in Dachau’s herb garden has been one of many controversial measures to provide more permanent housing.

Earlier in 2015, the German towns of Schwerte and Augsburg also considered housing refugees in the external sites of former concentration camps, but were forced to cancel those plans due to public outrage.

Gabriele Hammermann, director of the Dachau concentration camp memorial site, does not believe that the camp should be used to house refugees. “For me, it’s not very welcoming to house refugees in a place that symbolizes torture and death…Fundamentally, we think that other places are more appropriate in order to house people, especially since integration is a major goal. So I think it makes more sense to house people in the centers of towns, not on the outskirts. But at the moment it is a very tense housing situation,” she said. However, Hammermann is willing to compromise and keep most of the current housing available for that purpose, as long as the rest of the space is used for exhibitions and seminars. Conversely, the mayor of the town of Dachau, Florian Hartmann, said it was the duty of the town to find long-term housing for the homeless in a time when affordable housing is scarce. In an email, he writes, “[The current tenants are] the more vulnerable members of our society. In that way, the buildings with their historical burden can be used for a socially meaningful purpose.”

The Nazis opened Dachau in March 1933 to house political prisoners, a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had risen to power as Chancellor. Other camps used Dachau as a model for their operations and setup, until many of those were converted into extermination camps. It was the longest running camp, as it was operational from March 1933, until April 1945, when Allied troops liberated the site.

For more information, please see–

The Washington Post– Germany is housing refugees within Holocaust-era concentration camps— 30 January 2015

The Guardian– The refugees housed at Dachau: ‘Where else should I live?— 19 September 2015

Business Insider– A part of this former Nazi concentration camp is now a homeless shelter— 22 September 2015

International Business Times– Migrant crisis: Dachau concentration camp being used to house refugees— 23 September 2015