By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Activists and celebrities started campaigns against the Sochi Olympics, pointing to Russia’s prohibition on homosexual “propaganda” and pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva’s (Russia) apparent support of it. Amidst outcry, U.S. President Barack Obama and athletes rejected boycotting the Olympics.

 

In June 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a ban on homosexual “propaganda”. While the Russian Interior Ministry stated that the law would be enforced during the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said that it “received assurances from the highest level of government in Russia that the legislation will not affect those attending or taking part in the Games.”

Olympic athletes have expressed their support for the LGBT community. After all, speed skater Blake Skjellerup (New Zealand) and figure skater Johnny Weir (U.S.) stated that the Olympic Games in Russia is best place to stand against homophobia.

Going on record about his sentiments in a blog post for Runner’s World Magzine, Runner Nick Symmonds (U.S.) stated his support for the LGBT and his disagreement with Russia’s law. However, he also wrote, “I say this not out of fear of prosecution by the Russian government, but out of respect for the fact that I will be a guest in the host nation. Just as I would not accept a dinner invite to a friend’s house and then lecture them on how to raise their kids, neither will I lecture the Russian government on how to govern their people.”

On 13 August 2013, high jumper Emma Green Tregaro (Sweden) and 200m runner Moa Hjelmer (Sweden) painted rainbow colors on their fingernails before competing in Moscow.

On 15 August 2013, pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva (Russia) received criticism for defending her country’s laws. “We consider ourselves like normal, standard people, we just live boys with women, girls with boys,” she said. “It comes from the history. [The protests are] disrespectful to our country. It’s disrespectful to our citizens, because we are Russians. Maybe we are different than European people and people from different lands. We have our law which everyone has to respect. When we go to different countries, we try to follow their rules. We are not trying to set our rules over there. We are just trying to be respectful.”

To clarify her comments, Isinbayeva made a statement released by the local organizers of championships: “What I wanted to say was that people should respect the laws of other countries, particularly when they are guests. I respect the views of my fellow athletes, and let me state in the strongest terms that I am opposed to any discrimination against gay people.”

FIFA, which planned for Russia to host the 2018 World Cup, asked for clarification on the law because FIFA statutes “foresee zero tolerance against discrimination.” Qatar, which also prohibits homosexual activity, has been awarded the 2022 World Cup.

Amidst mounting tensions, creating unity remains the ultimate goal.

For further information, please see:

CNN – Nick Symmonds Blasts Russia on Gay Rights at Moscow Track Championship – August 16, 2013

Euronews – ‘I Was Misunderstood’ Says Gay Row Russian Athlete – August 16, 2013

RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty – As Gay Athletes Prepare to Take a Stand in Sochi, the Question Is How to Do It – August 16, 2013

Sky News – Yelena Isinbayeva: Respect Russia’s Gay Law – August 16, 2013

Washington Post – Russian Pole Vaulter Says She May Have Been Misunderstood When She Condemned Homosexuality – August 16, 2013

The Guardian – Isinbayeva Says Green Tregaro’s Gesture Was Disrespectful to Russia – August 15, 2013

Bloomberg Businessweek – FIFA Asks WCup Host Russia to Explain Anti-Gay Law – August 14, 2013

USA Today – Entertainment World Leads Olympic Outcry against Russia – August 11, 2013

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – The attempted arrest of a single rape suspect has snowballed into a massive citywide raid on immigrants across Russia, though the suspect was not an immigrant.

Khalimat and Magomed Rasulov, natives of Russia’s Dagestan region, were involved with an altercation with police on July 27 which lead to a fight, and a head injury to a police officer. Police had come to arrest one of the brothers on rape charges at a Moscow market in which they vended watermelons, when a relative of the brothers struck an officer with brass knuckles; gravely injuring the officer.

Two days later on July 29, Moscow police began raiding street markets, underground factories, and the subway system all across the city and arresting immigrants whom didn’t have requisite paperwork on their person. Russia’s Federal Migration Service has reported that nearly 1,500 immigrants have been detained thus far, with almost 600 of those individuals being held in a temporary tent camp that some have stated resembles a war zone.

“This is absolutely normal. In any society, in any country, if an emergency situation happens, then the government and society begin to act more harshly,” Moscow’s mayor, Sergei S. Sobyanin has stated.

The nearly 1,500 immigrants have included individuals from Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Syria, Morocco, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, and Egypt. The nearly 600 occupants of the tent camp were detained during a raid at an underground textile factory which had been shut down in 2009. According to Mayor Sobynin, counterfeit products were being made on three floors. There has been an inundation of the city’s detention centers due to all of the raids in the past few weeks, so the Emergency Services Ministries constructed the tent camp to accommodate.

The Ministries has claimed that the tent camp has the potential to accommodate over 900 individuals, however many have reported cramped conditions in too little tents, with only four outdoor showers and inadequate portable toilets.

Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s human rights ombudsman, has expressed concerns that the conditions at the tent camp “do not comply with government provisions.”

Russian authorities have prepared a bill that would create an additional 83 detention centers across the country.

Some point to the rampant corruption among police and politicians who charge illegal immigrants high fees for legal documents. It is widely believed that the July 29 incident that spawned these raids escalated due to the Rasulov’s refusal to pay the officers a bribe.

Meanwhile, the citywide raids have continued almost every day, and they are supported by a majority of Russians who attribute most crimes to illegal immigration. Mayor Sobynin, who is up for reelection on September 8, has seen his poll numbers rise. His opponents have also taken on the issue.

“For me this isn’t just a number. For me it means one simple thing: that the women in my building are afraid to go out on the street at night,” stated Aleksei A. Navalny, the most prominent mayoral challenger.

But some do not support the raids with the same fervor that the mayoral candidates do.

“Everything about this massive sweep violates Russia’s obligations under international law. Prolonged detention without counsel, ethnic profiling, inhuman conditions-it should stop now,” stated Human Rights Watch’s director in Russia, Tanya Lokshina.

For more information, please see:

NY Times – Russia Steps Up Raids Against Migrants – 12 August 2013

RIA Novosti – Police Round Up Illegal Migrants Across Russia – 12 August 2013

The Atlantic – Behind Russia’s Migrant Raids, a Vast Network of Bribes and Opportunism – 7 August 2013

The Guardian – Russia Detains Immigrants in ‘Concentration Camps’ – 6 August 2013

 

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BUDAPEST, Hungary – At age 98, one of the few remaining suspected Holocaust war criminals, Lazlo Csatary died awaiting trial in a Budapest hospital. In so doing, he left many questions unanswered.

Born just south of Budapest in 1915, Csatary became a police officer throughout Hungary until settling in the city of Kosice. In March 1944, Germans occupied Kosice. As commander of the Royal Hungarian Police in the area, Csatary allegedly helped Gestapo round up and deport several Hungarian Jews in cattle wagons. According to witnesses at the trial of Csatary’s commanding officer, by May 1944, Csatary pursued and beat detainees with a dog-whip in the outskirts of Kosice. When cattle wagons, destined for Auschwitz, were packed tightly with people, witnesses claim Csatary forced even more detainees inside. By the end of the war, Csatary allegedly sent over 15,500 Jews to the death camp.

Following a 1948 in absentia conviction for war crimes in Czechoslovakia, Csatary fled to Canada, where he became a citizen and Montreal art dealer. Canada revoked his citizenship in 1997 for lying on his application, stating that he was a Yugoslav national.

In September 2011, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre of Los Angeles received a tip that led them to discover Csatary in Budapest in 2012.

On 18 July 2012, reports indicate that Csatary was taken into custody for questioning. While Slovakia wanted to try him in their courts and even changed his sentence from the death penalty to life in prison to make the verdict executable, Hungary indicted Csatary on 18 June 2013. Csatary denied the allegations against him.

On 8 July 2013, Budapest’s higher court suspended the case, stating that “Csatary had already been sentenced for the crimes included in the proceedings, in former Czechoslovakia in 1948”, and the court needed to determine whether that verdict was valid in Hungary such that Csatary could serve it.

However, on 10 August 2013, Lazlo Csatary died in a Budapest hospital. According to his lawyer, Gabor B. Horvath, his death was caused by pneumonia.

“This is a very unfortunate end to a saga that lasted far too long,” Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Israel Office, said Monday. “Csatary should have been brought to justice shortly after the war. … We gave the Hungarian prosecutors evidence two years ago, and this should have been taken care of months ago in Budapest.”

Zuroff further said, “The fact that a well-known war criminal whose Nazi past was exposed in Canada could live undisturbed for so long in the Hungarian capital raises serious questions as to the commitment of the Hungarian authorities to hold their own Holocaust criminals accountable.”

Absent an official trial and ruling on whether the decedent was the same man who committed atrocities during the Holocaust, the world will never know whether one of the last suspects was anything more than just that. Moreover, absent further search, Holocaust survivors will never know if justice was just in reach, or if justice still waits to be served.

For further information, please see:

BBC News – Lazlo Csatary: Holocaust Questions Go Unanswered – August 12, 2013

Bloomberg Businessweek – Hungarian Suspected Nazi-Era War Criminal Csatary Dies at Age 98 – August 12, 2013

CNN International – Nazi War Crimes Suspect Laszlo Csatary Dies at 98 – August 12, 2013

Euronews – Nazi War Crimes Suspect Laszlo Csatary Dies before His Trial – August 12, 2013

Jewish Telegraphic Agency – Hungarian War Criminal Laszlo Csatary Dies at 98 – August 12, 2013

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MADRID, Spain – Spain and France shut down gang operations that trafficked Chinese civilians into Europe and the US. Human-trafficking, especially child-trafficking, is a recognized problem worldwide that generates millions of dollars for ringleaders annually.

Two years ago, investigators began probing the ring, which police described as “intricately structured, divided into independent and virtually isolated cells to avoid detection.”

Spanish authorities say that, for approximately $60,000, trafficking victims are typically offered a better life, and later subjected to prostitution or harsh working conditions in “clandestine factories.” In this instance, the gang gave the migrants instructions on blending in with tourists, and used “travel enforcers” to ensure the migrants’ passage through airports, across borders, and into cities. When security changes endangered their operation, the smugglers changed quickly to a more lenient destination. After delivery, the smugglers returned to China and Malaysia, where they avoided Western police until instructed further.

While the final destination was typically the UK or US, some were also sent to Ireland, Spain, France, Turkey, or Greece.

Barcelona served as the main European hub, where Chinese migrants awaited falsified documents. Raids recovered 81 fake passports from South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan in addition to fake immigration stamps, Chinese and European currencies, and weapons. In Spain, there were 51 arrests; in France, 24. The ringleaders were arrested in Barcelona.

In a statement, police said, “The composition of this perfectly structured, hierarchical organisation, with its kingpin in China and independent cells operating in different countries, completely shut off from each other, complicated the investigation.”

In March 2013, Spanish authorities busted two Romanian human-trafficking rings. While Spain has acted particularly strong to protect women and children, the US and EU consider human-trafficking in and through Spain an increasing problem.

Recently, the EU warned Thailand about its unrelated human-trafficking record, stating that Europe may impose a ban on importing seafood from Thailand if its record did not improve.

“The European Union has an index for nations whose fishing industries are corrupted by human trafficking. Under the system, Q1 is Good, Q2 is Medium and Q3 is Bad,” Marine Police Region 8 Deputy Superintendent Lt Col Prasert Srikunrat explained to his officers. “Right now Thailand qualifies as -Q2, but that might drop to Q3 in the future. That will affect our fishing product exports because Europe will say no to them if the situation worsens.”

In mid-July 2013, British authorities arrested members of yet another human-trafficking ring, which moved people from Eastern Europe into Derby, UK.

Global problems require global solutions, and human-trafficking gives no exemption. While authorities bring traffickers to justice, people from and visiting all countries and cultures must work together carefully and cautiously to prevent the spread of abduction and the centers of abuse.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Spain and France Bust People-Smuggling Ring – August 10, 2013

BBC – ‘Human Trafficking Ring’ Broken Up – August 10, 2013

CNN – Human Trafficking Roundup Nets 75 in Spain, France – August 10, 2013

International Business Times – Chinese Human Trafficking Ring Busted in Spain and France – August 10, 2013

Phuket Gazette – Phuket Warned Human-Trafficking Record May Result in European Ban on Seafood – August 9, 2013

Derby Telegraph – More Held over Human Trafficking – July 16, 2013

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

UNITED NATIONS – The International Criminal Court made over 2,200 documents of the United Nations War Crimes Commission available online in early July following an agreement with the United Nations.

The unrestricted records, which document thousands of cases against accused World War II criminals in Europe and Asia, are available to academics, researchers, lawyers and activists for the first time since the events themselves.

British academic Dan Plesch, who had been pushing for greater access to the archive for years, spurred the transfer of the documents to an online database.

Plesch, a researcher at the U.N. archive in New York, gave a guest lecture on the War Crimes Commission at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in March 2012. Hans Bevers, the head of the prosecutor’s research office, told Plesch that the ICC might be interested in obtaining the archive and Plesch put him in touch with the U.N. office that manages the archives.

“Our goal is to make available as widely as possible open archives of the organization. The collaboration with ICC adds to the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal the historical record in international criminal justice,” said U.N. chief archivist Bridget Sisk.

The War Crimes Commission was established in October 1943 by 17 allied nations to issue lists of alleged war criminals and examine the charges against them and try to assure their arrest and trial.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said putting the unrestricted part of the archive online “will greatly enhance the availability of these materials to those engaged in research into the development of international criminal law, as well as to researchers from other academic disciplines.”

The International Criminal Court said more than 2,240 documents, totaling 22,184 pages, with search data for each document, have been added to the ICC Legal Tools Database.

The documents added to the archive relate to more than 10,000 cases.

“These files contain details of many charges of crimes that are not being prosecuted extensively today, including rape and forced prostitution, and crimes by ordinary soldiers,” Plesch said.

In 1949, the U.N. Secretariat drew up rules making the archive available only to governments on a confidential basis. In 1987, limited access was granted only to researchers and historians.

Plesch continues to seek access for researchers to the still- restricted sections of the files, which he said contain some 30,000 sets of pre-trial documents submitted to the commission by national and military tribunals to judge whether a given case should be pursued.

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Over 2,220 World War II Documents Now Online – 3 August 2013

The Himalayan Times – Over 2,200 World War II Documents Now Online – 3 August 2013

The Huffington Post – Over 2,200 World War II Documents Now Online – 3 August 2013

Military News – UN Puts 2,200 World War II Documents Online – 3 August 2013