By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, European Union – Across Europe, war criminals were promised punishment regardless of the era in which their crimes were committed. The rest of the West has begun responding in kind.

 

In Bosnia, war crimes charges are sought against many from the Serb minority that armed themselves to expel and kill non-Serbs during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

In September 2013, the United States announced that it would extradite Almaz Nezirovic to face war crimes charges for his involvement in beating, humiliating, and traumatizing unarmed prisoners.

On 17 October 2013, prosecutors stated that eight men were arrested in Rogatica, where the alleged crimes occurred in September 1992. The men were suspected of participation in looting, expelling, and killing civilians. One suspect allegedly gunned down 20 Muslim civilians who attempted to hide in a barn from Serbian soldiers.

Based on a July 2013 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, on 9 October 2013, Bosnia’s war crimes court ordered retrials for three men convicted of war crimes related to the Bosnian War.

Their appeal successfully claimed that Bosnian courts improperly tried them under a criminal code that took force when the war crimes court was set up, about a decade after the crimes were committed. The retrials will be based on the 1976 criminal code, which was in effect during the Bosnian War.

In Hungary, for the first time, authorities charged former Interior Minister Bela Biszku with war crimes connected to the suppression of a 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, which threatened Moscow’s control of Eastern Europe for the first time since World War II.

The suppression of that rebellion caused the mass deaths and arrests of civilians, and impacted the world’s perception of communist rule in Eastern Europe. In their statement, prosecutors claimed 46 civilians were killed in Salgotarjan alone.

Prosecutors charged Biszku with abetting a Communist Party committee involved in ordering civilian deaths in December 1956, during Salgotarjan and Budapest protests. Further, in September 2012, prosecutors found cause for additional charges when investigators searched Biszku’s home and seized 11 pieces of ammunition that he kept without permission.

Biszku’s prosecution became possible through a 2011 law that stipulates war crimes and crimes against humanity do not lapse.

In Italy, authorities refused to allow convicted Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke to be buried in their country. Protesters at his funeral suggested a landfill. Since 1998, Priebke spent a life sentence on house arrest for his role in one of Italy’s worst wartime massacres, which involved the killings of 335 civilians.

Similarly, the Vatican issued an unprecedented ban on holding the funeral in any Catholic church—although a Catholic splinter group previously accused of anti-Semitism offered to hold the ceremony.

Although Priebke fled to Argentina after the war, that country refused to allow Priebke’s body burial beside his wife. The German embassy in Rome contacted the family’s attorney, but no details have been provided.

With further support from the world, Hungary’s law that strips war crimes and crimes against humanity of any lapse may become custom.

For further information, please see:

Associated Press – Bosnian Police Arrest 8 War Crimes Suspects – October 17, 2013

The Guardian – Nazi War Criminal Erich Priebke’s Family Demand Return of His Corpse – October 17, 2013

Budapest Business Journal – War Crimes Charges Levied against Former Communist Official – October 16, 2013

Reuters – Hungary Charges Former Top Communist Official with War Crimes – October 16, 2013

BBC News – Nazi War Criminal Priebke’s Funeral Halted Amid Protests – October 15, 2013

Reuters – Bosnia to Retry Three War Crimes Convicts after European Court Ruling – October 9, 2013

United Press International – Virginia Man to Be Extradited to Bosnia to Face War Crimes Charges – September 20, 2013

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Russian authorities have detained over 1,600 immigrants in Moscow, apparently in response to a protest lobbying for increase policing of ethnic immigrants all throughout Russia.

Roughly 200 Russians in the Biryulyovo district organized a protest to call for stricter policing of minority immigrants. This was the second day of protests in Russia after the fatal stabbing of a Russian citizen that many believe was conducted by an immigrant.

Yegor Shcherbakov, 25 years old, was stabbed in front of his fiancé last Thursday while they were on their way home in the Biryulyovo district of Moscow, according to police. Surveillance cameras in the area have been examined and suggest the suspect could either be from Central Asia or from the Caucasus region.

Sunday’s demonstration broke out with nationalist chants of “white power” and “Russia for Russians.” The protest quickly escalated into an attack on migrant workers at a vegetable stand in the Biryulyovo district. About 380 people were eventually arrested after demonstrators smashed windows and set fire to shops, and had beaten many migrant workers.

“We are scared to walk the streets at night. [The immigrants] are always attacking, stealing from and killing people. They don’t even abide by basic rules like stopping at a red light,” stated one protestor, Alexei Zhuravlyov.

Apparently in response to Sunday’s protest and attack, Russian police rounded up 1,200 immigrants on Monday at a wholesale vegetable market employing immigrants in Biryulyovo. An additional 450 immigrants were detained in northeastern Moscow, also near a vegetable market employing immigrant workers. Police said all the immigrants were detained in order to check whether they were involved in any wrongdoing, but they have not been accused of any specific crime.

Human Rights and Advocacy groups have warned immigrants from those Russian regions of an increased risk of attacks in the worst ethnic disturbance in Moscow in years.

“The nationalists are pursuing their political goals. This is clearly very dangerous. We are warning migrants to be careful for now in crowded areas and on public transportation,” said Mukhamad Amin, head of the Federation of Migrants of Russia.

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Russia Detains Scores of Migrants After Riots – 15 October 2013

BBC News – Migrants Arrested in Moscow Raids – 14 October 2013

NY Times – Moscow Police Round Up Targets of Riot at Market – 14 October 2013

Russia Tomorrow – Over 380 Detained After Anti-Migrant Riot in Southern Moscow – 13 October 2013

The Voice of Russia – Police Detain 380 People After Anti-Migrant Riot in Southern Moscow – 13 October 2013

 

 

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ROME, Italy – The Italian and Maltese governments have called for action from its partners in the European Union to put an end to a dangerous migrant crisis that has claimed the lives of dozens of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa recently.

Last Friday, a boat filled with 250 migrants sank in the Mediterranean, claiming thirty four lives, after individuals were en route to Europe from North Africa. Navy ships from Italy and Malta recovered the victims’ bodies and rescued 206 of the migrants.

Friday’s accident was the latest in a series of boating accidents in the Mediterranean with migrants attempting to escape adverse conditions in their former country.

“I don’t know how many more people need to die at sea before something gets done. The fact is that as things stand, we are just building a cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea. Until now we have encountered statements, words but little more than that,” stated Joseph Muscat, Malta’s prime minister.

Muscat stated that he would join Italy in demanding action at the next European Council meeting.

The latest boat sank about sixty miles south of Sicily; roughly two weeks after another boat carrying a larger number of migrants sank less than a kilometer from Lampedusa, a tiny island between Sicily and Tunisia. That accident killed almost 300 people.

The migration of individuals from North Africa to Europe has increased over the past twenty years, but this year has seen a significant rise due to the political unrest in Egypt, the Syrian crisis, and turmoil in Libya.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has urged for the crisis to be included on the European Council agenda at the October 24-25 meeting.

“We cannot continue like this. We’re in a situation where what’s happening in North Africa, Eritrea, Somalia, Syria presents us with a real emergency” Letta stated on Saturday.

According to estimations by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, roughly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Italy and Malta so far this year, about two thirds of whom have filed asylum requests.

On Monday, the latest ship carrying 137 people arrived in Italy from North Africa, just as the Italian government is planning to launch increased air and naval patrols to attempt to preempt these shipwrecks.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Italy Steps up Migrant Boat Patrols After Tragedies – 14 October 2013

Reuters – More Migrants Reach Italy, Government Prepares to Boost Sea Patrols – 14 October 2013

Al Jazeera – Migrant Deaths Prompt Calls For EU Action – 13 October 2013

New York Times – Days After Disaster, Another Migrant Ship Sinks Near Italian Island – 11 October 2013

 

 

 

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Reports demonstrate that Russian authorities waited until fights broke out before making arrests at a gay rights rally. Nevertheless, attacks on the Russian LGBT community remain high.

In June 2013, Russia’s law banning homosexual “propaganda” directed at minors sparked various protests by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights campaigners, who claim the law diminishes homosexuals’ rights to free speech and assembly. In the light of international attention, activists have called for Winter Olympics participants and sponsors to boycott the Sochi games next year as a form of protest.

For clarification, the International Olympics Committee requested more information on the law and its effects on the Winter Olympics. President Putin has prohibited all demonstrations and rallies for 10 weeks around the games.

In September 2013, police broke up a gay rights protest outside the Winter Olympics headquarters in Moscow.

On 12 October 2013, gay rights activists planned a rally in St. Petersburg at the “Field of Mars”, which allows demonstrations without special sanctions. However, nearly 200 opponents of gay rights arrived earlier than the scheduled rally time, dressed as Cossacks and Orthodox priests.

Many opponents sang hymns and recited prayers. Although heavily outnumbered by opponents, several dozen LGBT rights activists had gathered to celebrate “International Coming Out Day”.

The fights began when an anti-gay demonstrator tore a rainbow flag from a woman’s hands. Immediately, the police rushed in to arrest fighters. Russian authorities arrested 67 participants in fights between gay rights activists and opponents.

Despite Russia’s prohibition on homosexual “propaganda”, St. Petersburg sanctioned the rally.

While homosexuality has been legal in Russia since 1993 and un-labeled as a “mental illness” since 1999, reported attacks against homosexuals have increased sharply. Some attacks involve gay men being lured into meeting people who then attack them. Additionally, homophobia has been suspected in several homicides.

Recently, one group of anti-LGBT campaigners, “Occupy-Pedofilyay” began posting “sinister” videos online of teenagers it suspects of being gay.

Nikolai Alexeyev, the leader of LGBT-rights group Gay Russia, said that despite their frequency, attacks on homosexuals are almost never investigated as hate crimes. “Homophobic hysteria is being increasingly promoted in Russia.”

Citing to recent attacks on homosexuals, the United States Congress sent the U.S. Olympic Committee a letter requesting assurances of safety for athletes and spectators.

Unlike countries in which large portions of the population have come out in support of the LGBT community, with a large outcry against homosexuality, news from Russia suggests the June 2013 law will be difficult to overcome.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Russian Gay Rally Ends in Fights and Arrests – October 12, 2013

Associated Free Press – Orthodox Protesters Attack Gay-Rights Rally in Russia – October 12, 2013

International Business Times – Russian Gay Rights Activists Attacked in St Petersburg – October 12, 2013

RIA Novosti – Over 60 Detained at LGBT Rally in Russia’s St.Petersburg – October 12, 2013

Sky News – Russia: Arrests after Gay Rights Rally Attacked – October 12, 2013

USA Today – Russian Cops Wait for Clashes before Intervening at Gay Rally – October 12, 2013

RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty – U.S. Lawmakers Concerned about Russia’s Gay Law – October 10, 2013

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Russia incarcerated a political dissident in a psychiatric ward, in a move that many call a return to Soviet Era punitive psychiatry. Human Rights Watch has questioned both the charges and the sentence.

On 6 May 2012, over two dozen protesters allegedly rioted against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration, set for the next day to mark Putin’s new six-year term. One protester, Mikhail Kosenko was arrested for assaulting a police officer.

At trial, Kosenko denied the charges, and the police officer, Alexander Kazmin testified that he did not want Kosenko punished because he did not recognize Kosenko as the assailant.

In his refusal to identify Kosenko, Kazmin stated to the court, “I’m not Russian trash.”

Nevertheless, Judge Ludmila Moskalenko told the court that “at the time the action was committed by Kosenko…he was in a state of insanity.”

On 8 October 2013, Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court found Kosenko guilty of participating in the “mass disorder” and ordered the Putin critic to confinement and compulsory treatment in a psychiatric ward. As the court set no time for the sentence, critics claim the punishment is indefinite.

Kosenko met the verdict with silence, still locked in a cage. He had been held in pre-trial detention for 16 months.

Activists claimed that police detained nine protesters outside the courthouse as they chanted “Shame!” at the judge’s ruling.

While Kosenko had received outpatient psychiatric treatment prior to his arrest, human rights activists suggested the ruling was a return to the punitive psychiatry practiced against dissidents during the Soviet Era.

The condition, generally referred to as “sluggish schizophrenia”, was a mild form of schizophrenia routinely used during the Soviet Era to justify the incarceration of dissidents.

Kosenko’s family said his psychiatric condition was the result of trauma during military service, and he has remained both non-violent and without a police record.

In any event, the World Health Organization does not recognize “sluggish schizophrenia”.

“This is a clear case of a return to punitive psychiatry in Russia,” said Alexander Podrabinek, a human-rights activist and Soviet-era dissident. “This is the first such clear and obvious instance in the post-Soviet period.”

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director said, “To incarcerate Mikhail Kosenko forcibly in a psychiatric unit smacks of the worst excesses of the now defunct Soviet Era when dissidents were languishing in mental institutions, treated as mental patients only because they dared to speak their mind. Mikhail Kosenko is a prisoner of conscience put behind bars for peacefully exercising his right to protest and should be released immediately.”

For further information, please see:

Amnesty International – Russia: Abhorrent Use of Punitive Psychiatry to Silence Dissent – October 8, 2013

Reuters – Putin Critic Sentenced to Detention in Psychiatric Ward – October 8, 2013

RIA Novosti – Russian Protester Committed to Psychiatric Hospital Over Riot – October 8, 2013

Washington Post – Russian Protester Sent for Forced Psychiatric Help, Rights Groups Say Ruling is Soviet Style – October 8, 2013