News

Former Nazi Auschwitz Guard Not Fit to Stand Trial Due to Dementia

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BERLIN, Germany – A German court ruled that a former guard at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp is unfit to stand trial.

A gate to the Auschwitz Death Camp translates to “Work Sets You Free.” (Photo courtesy of the Washington Post

Hans Lipschis, 94, was determined to not be able to stand trial as he is suffering from dementia. Judges at the Ellwangen court in Germany ruled that Lipschis would not be able to understand the proceedings following the charges of being an accessory to murder during his time as a guard as Auschwitz.

“The court has refused to open the trial. The chamber is of the opinion that the 94-year-old is incapable of standing trial. It bases this judgment on its own personal impression and the opinion of a psychiatrist,” a court statement reported.

Lipschis was arrested last May. He had immigrated to the United States in 1956, but was deported in 1983 after he was accused of concealing his past as a Nazi officer. Lipschis avoided prosecution for over thirty years, as prosecutors were unable to link him to a specific crime or victim. However, the recent conviction of Ivan Demjanjuk, a death camp guard, provided a legal precedent for prosecution of Nazi war criminals without specific evidence. In 2011, a German court convicted Demjanjuk of playing a role in the murder of 28,000 Jews at a Nazi camp in Poland.

Lipschis worked as a Nazi guard at Auschwitz from 1941 to 1943, during which twelve prisoner convoys arrived at the extermination camp. Approximately 10,000 of those prisoners were determined unfit for work and executed in the gas chamber upon arrival.

The complaint against Lipschis alleged that he had been a member of the Waffen SS, a Nazi unit that specialized in “systematically exploiting and murdering people because of their race … and other characteristics.” The complaint further stated that Lipschis had been assigned to two different death camps during his tenure.

Lipschis admitted last year to the German newspaper Die Welt that he had been a cook at Auschwitz and stated that he later left the camp in order to fight on the Eastern Front, although he could not remember which he had been assigned to.

Roughly 1.5 million people were killed at Auschwitz. The deceased were mostly Jewish people, but also Roma, Poles and various other groups had been murdered as well.

For more information, please see:

ABC News – German Court Says Nazi Suspect Unfit For Trial – 28 February 2014

AP News – German Court Says Nazi Suspect Unfit For Trial – 28 February 2014

Chicago Tribune – Suspected Auschwitz Guard Found Unfit For Trial – 28 February 2014

Washington Post – German Court Says Nazi Suspect Unfit For Trial – 28 February 2014

 

Brazil Forcefully Evicts Residents Ahead of World Cup

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BRASILIA, Brazil – Many poor people have been evicted or are facing eviction from their homes as urban renewal efforts are being launched ahead of this year’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

Brazil Forced Evictions
Residents walk inside the Favela do Metro slum near Maracana stadium where people have been evicted and homes demolished in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo Courtesy of AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

More than 230 families were forced out of their homes in Vila Recreio II, a Rio de Janeiro slum that was demolished three years ago to make way for the Transoeste expressway connecting the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood that’ll be the main hub for the 2016 Olympics with the western outskirts of Rio.

Officials are using the events as reasons for expanded metro lines, roads, airport renovations and other works. Critics say poor residents are paying the price and estimate some 100,000 people have been evicted or face removals to make way for the projects.

“The city has become the object of the big business, the big interests behind the mega-events,” said Marcelo Chalreo, who heads the human rights commission of the Rio chapter of Brazil’s bar association. “In the name of the (sporting) events, now everything has to be pretty and nice looking,” he added.

These displaced residents were told to either accept a lump-sum compensation for their homes or walk away with nothing. According to many residents, the Brazilian government’s compensation and an apartment in a distant housing project are inadequate. The government’s compensation of just over $2,300 is not enough to cover some of the homes in many slums, where they are going upward of $50,000.

City officials have in the past acknowledged that some 15,000 families were resettled, but insist the moves were done to remove people from areas prone to deadly mudslides and had nothing do with the World Cup or Olympics. The office of Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes has said that it “is not and will not carry out any resettlements” connected to the World Cup.

However, city officials have said that for upcoming Olympic preparations, they plan to resettle 278 families living on land that’s part of the Olympic Village. Olympic organizers confirmed the removals near the Olympic village.

An advocacy group for affected slum residents, Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics, estimates that 100,000 have or will be moved.

“The city’s removal policy is disastrous because it’s taking these pockets of poverty and pushing them out to the furthest limits of the city, thus making vulnerable people that much vulnerable,” said Renato Cosentino, a member of the Popular Committee.

For more information please see:

RYOT — Brazil Forcefully Demolishes More Than 100,000 Homes to Make Way for the World Cup and Olympics – 28 February 2014

Think Progress – Brazil Relocates More Than 15,000 Families Ahead Of World Cup – 28 February 2014

ABC News – Critics Blast Rio’s World Cup, Olympic Evictions – 28 February 2014

Associated Press – Critics blast Rio’s World Cup, Olympic evictions – 28 February 2014

 

Ukrainian Accuses Russia of Invading, West Warns Russia against Military Intervention

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KYIV, Ukraine – Ukraine accused Russia of beginning an invasion, stating that the eastern European country can defend itself. Western powers called on Russia to pull back.

Armed men who appeared at two airports in Ukraine have been the basis for accusations that Russia began an illegal invasion. (Photo courtesy of Haaretz)

On 28 February 2014, Russian officials issued a statement, which outlined President Vladimir Putin’s orders on Ukraine. That statement announced Putin ordered Russia to work with Ukrainian and foreign partners to find a financial package to shore up Ukraine’s collapsing finances.

In the statement, Putin had ordered his government “to conduct consultations with foreign partners, including the International Monetary Fund, on the provision of financial aid to Ukraine.” However, there are doubts that Russia will provide $15 billion in bailout monies to Ukraine, which was first discussed when Russia convinced Yanukovich to spurn the November 2013 trade deal with the EU.

Also, at that time, armed men, believed to be Russians, appeared in a local parliament in Ukraine’s Crimea region. Within hours, against Moscow’s denial, Ukraine accused Russian forces of overrunning two Black Sea airports. Later, reports indicated that ousted President Viktor Yanukovich was seen in Russia. Yanukovich is wanted on accusations of mass murder.

Ukrainian U.N. Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev further accused Russia of illegally sending military planes and helicopters into the country. He then said, “We are strong enough to defend ourselves.”

While Sergeyev wrote to Lithuanian Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite about the power of the 15-nation council to investigate disputes or “international friction” to determine whether international peace and security is in jeopardy, a call to the council resulted in no formal action. Russia is a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council who can block any actions proposed by Member States, including Ukraine.

In battling Western nations for influence over Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policy has been to allow his lieutenants to arouse passions in its “brotherly nation” while he watches over them.

Alexei Pushkov, a Putin loyalist and a senior member of parliament said, “No matter what Russia does, Kyiv will be firmly pro-Western. The only question left is are we prepared to pay more for this course or not?”

Yanukovich told reporters, “I think that Russia should act and is obliged to act. And knowing Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin’s personality, I am surprised that he is still saying nothing.”

While Yanukovich claimed that he had spoken to Putin since Kiev a week ago he denied any meeting with Russia’s president.

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said “the United Kingdom believes that any newly deployed troops that do not answer to the Ukrainian government should withdraw.”

Washington was “gravely disturbed by reports of Russian military deployments into the Crimea,” said U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power. “The United States calls upon Russia to pull back the military forces that are being built up in the region, to stand down, and to allow the Ukrainian people the opportunity to pursue their own government, create their own destiny and to do so freely without intimidation or fear.”

U.S. President Barack Obama affirmed that stance, warning Russia against military action.

For further information, please see:

Haaretz – Obama warns Russia: There will be costs to any military intervention in the Ukraine – March 1, 2014

Reuters – Conciliatory Words Hide Putin’s Anger over Ukraine – February 28, 2014

Reuters – Ukraine’s U.N. Envoy: ‘We Are Strong Enough to Defend Ourselves’ – February 28, 2014

Washington Post – Ousted Ukraine President Says He’s Surprised by Putin’s Silence – February 28, 2014

Former Guantanamo Bay Detainees Allege Torture

By Brandon R. Cottrell
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America 

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – Two former Guantanamo Bay detainees, Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchallali, who filed a lawsuit alleging torture and mistreatment while at Guantanamo, have asked that retired major general Geoffrey Miller, who was the commander of the prison, be subpoenaed.

Retired Major General Geoffrey Miller, who was a commander at Guantanamo Bay, is alleged to have overseen “a systematic plan of torture.” (Photo Courtesy RNW).

In an expert report that accompanied their lawsuit, Sassi and Benchallali say that Miller “authorized a systematic plan of torture and ill-treatment on persons deprived of their freedom . . . [and] the basic rights of any detainee.”

According to the lawyers for Sassi and Benchallali, the acts performed “constitute[d] torture and violate, at a minimum, the Geneva Conventions prohibition on coercive interrogations.”  As such, Miller “bears individual criminal responsibility for the war crimes and acts of torture inflicted on detainees in US custody.”

Sassi and Benchallali, who were detained from 2001 to 2004 likely suffered from the “enhanced interrogation techniques” that the Bush administration had approved.  Such techniques included “placing detainees in stress positions, stripping them, isolating them for extended periods of time, and exposing them to extreme heat and cold.”  Miller allegedly continued to use these techniques even after then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld withdrew permission to use those techniques.

The United States has not responded to this subpoena.  Additionally, in January 2012, Sophie Clement, the investigating magistrate, requested access to relevant documents and for permission to interview those who had contact with Sassi and Benchellali—that request has yet to solicit a US response.

Katherine Gallagher, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said, “that high-level US officials alleged to bear responsibil[ity] for torture continue to enjoy impunity domestically is a stain on the US system of justice.”  She also praised France as a “venue that is willing to investigate torture and assist in providing some measure of justice to the torture survivors.”

Reports of torture at Guantanamo Bay were first brought to the international community’s attention when the International Committee of the Red Cross carried out an investigation, that including interviewing over five hundred individuals.  Their report voiced concern over the lack of a legal system for the inmates and the excessive use of isolation and steel cages and ultimately concluded that the prison had “too much control over the basic needs of detainees.”

 

For further information, please see:

FIDH – Former Guantánamo Detainees Urge French Judge to Subpoena Former Guantánamo Commander for Role in Detainee Torture – 26/2/14

Global Post – Ex-Guantanamo Detainees Ask French Judge To Probe Torture – 26/2/14

Huffington Post – French Judge Asked To Continue Investigation – 26/2/14

Russian Times – Former Gitmo Inmates Urge French Judge To Probe Systematic Torture – 27/2/14

Chinese Police Rescue 382 Babies from Child Trafficking Ring

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China–China has put an end to at least four child-trafficking rings and arrested more than a thousand people.  The culprits were apprehended for using websites and instant messaging groups to trade babies, Chinese authorities said Friday.

Chinese police have rescued 382 babies and arrested over 1,000 individuals in an online sting that has shutdown a massive human trafficking ring. (Photo Courtesy of AFP).

On February 19, police from 27 provinces across China rescued 382 babies and arrested 1,094 people suspected of buying and selling infants online, China’s Ministry of Public Security said in an online statement posted to its website earlier this week.

The sting was part of a six-month operation launched after police in Beijing and Jiangsu in eastern China received multiple reports of a suspicious website promoting “private” adoptions. Further investigations uncovered a virtual black market — involving four websites, online forums and some 30 groups on a popular Chinese messaging platform — that connected traffickers with potential buyers, and functioned as the gruesome equivalent of stock exchange.

The ministry said that at least a handful of the people arrested confessed to using the trafficking sites.

According to local media reports, 27 suspects were arrested in the country’s southern Sichuan province.  Thirteen babies were also rescued in the area. Another 43 suspects were arrested and eleven babies rescued in Anhui province, in eastern China.

A woman arrested by police in Leshan, Sichuan admitted to buying two baby girls from Wuhan and Chengdu, in August 2013 and January 2014, respectively, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Another couple in their mid-30’s told CCTV they used a Chinese website to buy a baby from an expectant teenage couple in Chengdu. They paid 20,000 Yuan (US$3,250) for the child.

Reports have yet to indicate where the other arrests took place.

Child trafficking has become a major issue for the Chinese government, as traffickers seek to profit off a mounting demand for healthy babies from potential adoptive parents both in China and beyond.

Last month, a Chinese doctor received a suspended death sentence for selling babies to a trafficking ring. The woman, an obstetrician at a hospital in Shaanxi province in central China, sold seven babies in six separate transactions.  She prompted the exchanges after persuading her patients that their newborns were sick and should be given up, according to statements posted on the local court’s official microblog account.

The ministry said its investigation into the online baby-trading networks is still ongoing. It did not indicate whether charges have been brought against any of the suspects, or if the trafficking extended beyond China.

For more information, please see:

CNN–Chinese police save hundred of babies from online trading racket–28 February 2014

Times of India–Chinese police crush online trafficking, rescue 382 babies–28 February 2014

US News and World Report–Chinese Babies Saved From Human Trafficking Ring–28 February 2014

Global Times–Police save 382 babies in trafficking crackdown–28 February 2014