By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Newly freed Russian musicians Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have declared to shift their work from Pussy Riot to human rights.

 

Pussy Riot band members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova recently served 21 months of a two-year sentence for “hooliganism.” On 23 December 2013, Russia released both members on amnesty.

Except for prison-acquired cigarette habits, no signs suggest that the women’s spirits are broken from their time served. Together, they hope to abolish Moscow’s neo-Gulag prison system.

In a 27 December 2013 media conference, the women declared that they will not continue Pussy Riot’s music project. Instead, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova will become crusaders for prison reform, through their new human rights group, “Rights Zone.”

“For us, the punk prayer in the Christ the Savior Cathedral is not very important anymore,” said Tolokonnikova. “We are different people now. We lived through a long life in prison. It is a totally different reality from the one you live. And this common experience unites us now much more than our joint participation in the punk prayer in the Christ the Savior Cathedral.”

“Imagine,” said Alyokhina, “that at six this morning you were free: you could go where you want, say what you want, eat what you want. Then you were suddenly arrested; slung in a holding cell, and you were told to strip naked, bend over, then squat. So you’re standing there, naked, utterly helpless. And that’s how your journey to prison begins. It is the first thing you see. And it is legal.”

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova hope to create Rights Zone in close “ideological and conceptual” cooperation with other public figures were also released on amnesty, such as opposition leader Aleksey Navalny and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Indeed, in a statement that they want Russian President Vladimir Putin out of office, they backed Khodorkovsky for President.

“For us, [Khodorkovsky] is important, because he’s a very strong person, a very tough person, and an incredible human being who went through a much tougher and much longer prison experience than we did,” said Tolokonnikova. “And that’s why he’s very valuable for us. He will work in the field of human rights protection in prisons, and that’s why we have to count on him.”

Nevertheless, while the former band members do not have the funds to create Rights Zone on their own, they have refused to ask Navalny or Khodorkovsky for sponsorship. Instead, the women plan to raise money by crowdfunding, which is a fundraising method commonly used by activists and artists asking for public donations via the internet.

With several controversial public figures released from Russian prisons on amnesty, only time will tell how successful any of them can be in political reformation, or whether new attempts could place them back in Russian prisons.

For further information, please see:

Telegraph – We Still Want to Cast Vladimir Putin out, Say Freed Pussy Riot Members – December 28, 2013

RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty – Pussy Riot Members Want Khodorkovsky for President – December 27, 2013

Rolling Stone – Pussy Riot Unveil Plans for Human Rights Organization – December 27, 2013

RT – Pussy Riot Abandons ‘Brand,’ Will Form Human Rights Group – December 27, 2013

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Thousands of Swedish citizens gathered in the streets of Stockholm on Sunday in an effort to protest widespread racism, in response to a neo-Nazi attack on a similar rally held last weekend.

Last weekend, approximately thirty neo-Nazis attacked an anti-racism demonstration in the Stockholm suburb of Karrtorp by throwing bottles and firecrackers at the protestors. Scuffles quickly ensued, and two people were stabbed, while twenty-six of the neo-Nazis were detained by police officers.

Organizers of Sunday’s protest suggest that over 16,000 protestors participated in the rally. The protestors could be heard chanting requests for fellow citizens such as, “End racism now”, and “No racists on our streets.” Several Swedish musicians and politicians were on hand. The musicians performed on a stage assembled on a football field. The politicians represented both the current-ruling center-right coalition and the center-left opposition.

“I want to contribute to a broad revulsion against Nazism and racism. Last week’s attack was sad. The lesson learned is that the fight for the equal value of all humans must carry on, or we won’t manage the fight against xenophobia,” Swedish Integration Minister Erik Ullenhag stated.

Sweden has seen a rise in support for the far right Anti-Immigration party as immigration has grown. These Swedish Democrats have reached roughly ten percent in the polls ahead of a parliamentary election next year. Stockholm experienced the worst riots in years this past May in mostly-impoverished immigrant Stockholm suburbs, as youths threw rocks at police officers and set cars on fire for over a week.

Sections of Karrtorp, which does not have a particularly large immigrant population compared to other areas of the city, were sprayed-painted with swastikas and Nazi slogans in response to last week’s protest.

Similar lower-key anti-racism rallies were held in support at several other Swedish cities on Saturday and Sunday.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Thousands Rally Against Racism in Sweden – 23 December 2013

Haaretz – After neo-Nazi Attack, Thousands Rally in Sweden Against Racism – 23 December 2013

The Local – Anti-Racism Rally Attracts Thousands in Stockholm – 22 December 2013

Reuters – Thousands of Swedes Rally Against Racism – 22 December 2013

 

 

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – A Russian amnesty law will allow several, including the Pussy Riot band members and 30 Greenpeace protesters, to go free. The decision comes three months before the Sochi Winter Olympics.

On 19 December 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to free two Pussy Riot band members under an amnesty. The two band members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, have been serving a two-year prison sentence, which ends three months before their scheduled release. Their third band member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, has already been freed, following a successful appeal.

On 21 February 2012, all three members of Pussy Riot were arrested for the crime of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred or hostility” after performing Punk Prayer: Mother of God Drive Putin Away from Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral. While releasing the imprisoned band members, Putin continued to describe their protest as disgraceful.

At a news conference, Putin said, “I was not sorry that they ended up behind bars. I was sorry that they were engaged in such disgraceful behaviour, which in my view was degrading to the dignity of women.”

The “punk prayer” took place at Moscow’s main cathedral, and antagonized both Putin and his ties to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Since their arrest, both women have gone on hunger strikes, and Tolokonnikova disappeared for 21 days when she wrote an open letter in protest of prison conditions. Tolokonnikova re-appeared in a Siberian prison hospital.

President Putin’s promise to release the prisoners became possible through a new Russian amnesty law passed earlier in the week of 19 December 2013. Under that law, amnesty from imprisonment is granted to prisoners “who haven’t committed violent crimes, first-time offenders, minors and women with small children.”

Both women are expected to be released as mothers of small children.

While the new law also frees 30 members of a Greenpeace protest from trial, President Putin urged that the amnesty was not granted with either Greenpeace or Pussy Riot in mind. Rather, he stated that it was passed to mark the 20th anniversary of Russia’s post-Soviet constitution.

News reports have noted that releasing both groups removes “two irritants in ties with the West before Russia hosts” the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Another prisoner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is another prisoner whose detainment was said to exemplify Russia’s abuse of its prison system. Khodorkovsky was once Russia’s richest man and oil tycoon. He was arrested in 2003 on tax evasion and fraud charges, and is expected to be released under the new amnesty law.

Regardless of motive, the world can be pleased to see some justice done in Russia.

For further information, please see:

Jerusalem Post – Putin to Pardon Jailed Jewish Tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky – December 19, 2013

Reuters – Putin: Amnesty to Free Punk Band Duo Despite ‘Disgraceful’ Protest – December 19, 2013

USA Today – Pussy Riot Members Freed from Prison – December 19, 2013

Guardian – Arctic 30 Protesters and Pussy Riot Members Set to Walk Free – December 18, 2013

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France – At age 95, Paul Aussaresses died on 4 December 2013 of causes not released by the French veterans’ association that announced his death. Former-General Aussaresses became disgraced in France for defending torture.

Paul Aussaresses enlisted in the French secret services and founded the counter-espionage unit during the 1954-1962 Algerian war for independence. Later, he achieved the French military rank of general.

In his 2001 book about the Algerian war, Aussaresses became the first senior French officer to admit torturing and killing prisoners of war. Aussaresses defended the use of torture because “it became legitimate when the situation demanded it.” He claimed that, at the time, the French government “ignored, if not openly recommended” the use of torture; and he did not suffer sleepless nights.

“Once you have seen with your own eyes as I did,” Aussaresses said, “civilians, men, women, and children quartered, disembowelled and nailed to doors [by the rebels], you are changed for life. What feelings can anyone have towards those who perpetrated such barbaric acts and their accomplices?”

In a 2001 interview, Aussaresses said that he expressed regrets. “But I cannot express remorse. That implies guilt. I consider I did my difficult duty of a soldier implicated in a difficult mission.”

“Am I a criminal?” Aussaresses asked. “An assassin? A monster? No. I’m but a soldier who did his job and who did it for France because the country demanded it.”

“The methods I used were always the same: beatings, electric shocks, and, in particular, water torture, which was the most dangerous technique for the prisoner,” Aussaresses wrote. “It never lasted for more than one hour and the suspects would speak in the hope of saving their own lives.”

Aussaresses admitted that many deaths were concealed as suicides.

Aussaresses described his unit as a “death squad” that carried out night raids, torture, and removed certain detainees. Following the war, he lectured U.S. special forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on techniques used; particularly in the Battle of Algiers. Analysts have claimed that many of those techniques were later used in the Vietnam War.

During the war, both sides committed atrocities, although torture was a shocking revelation to the French.

Louisette Ighilahriz, who a National Liberation Front member who served in the war, said that Aussaresses should have shown remorse.

“He was honest. He admitted torturing Algerians… But he didn’t go all the way. He should have expressed regret,” Ighilahriz said.

Having also served in Algeria, President Jacques Chirac expressed horror at Aussaresses’s actions. President Chirac ordered that Aussaresses be stripped of his military rank and medal.

After his book appeared, France stripped Aussaresses of one of the country’s top merit awards, the Legion of Honour. In 2002, a French court convicted Aussaress of “complicity in justifying war crimes.” However, under the terms of a post-war amnesty agreement, Aussaresses could not be tried for war crimes.

No individual can hide behind the guise of a State authority to act with impunity. This, France made clear.

For further information, please read:

FRANCE 24 – Disgraced French General and Algeria Torturer Dies – December 5, 2013

BBC News – Algeria Torture: French General Paul Aussaresses Dies – December 4, 2013

Telegraph – French General Paul Aussaresses Reviled for Algeria War Crimes Dies at 95 – December 4, 2013

Washington Post – Paul Aussaresses Dies at 95; French General Defended His Use of Torture Techniques – December 4, 2013