News

Roma May Be Dealt More Racism Than Rights in Europe

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ATHENS, Greece – Across Europe, Roma faced scrutiny amidst the finding of “Maria.” Some have compared notions of “baby snatching” to anti-Semitic stories from before World War II.

Across Europe, the Roma live nomadic lives with strong ties to their culture, which has made integration difficult and isolation easy. (Photo courtesy of the Independent)

During the week of 14 October 2013, authorities searching the Farsala Roma community for drugs and weapons found five-year-old “Maria.” The couple claiming to be her parents had none of her physical characteristics. DNA tests revealed that Maria is not either adult’s biological daughter.

The couple, Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, were charged with abducting Maria and falsifying documents. In speaking with police, the couple conveyed that a fair-skinned Bulgarian Roma woman gave them Maria because she could no longer care for her. However, police also report that both adults provided conflicting accounts of the child’s origin.

A fair-skinned Bulgarian woman has come forward as Maria’s biological mother to corroborate the couple’s story. A DNA test will be conducted.

“It is a racist presumption on behalf of the Greek authorities… to charge her family with abduction just because they are Roma and because it was proven that [she] is not their own natural child,” says Panayote Dimitras, spokesperson from the Greek Helsinki Monitor.

In Farsala, dozens who knew the family contended that the couple cared for Maria deeply and looked after her well. Currently, Maria—who speaks little Greek—is in a Greek charity hospital undergoing tests to determine her real age. Thousands of parents around the world have called and emailed authorities, hoping that Maria is their lost child.

While the global interest has centered on finding Maria’s biological parents, local interests center on the great divide between the Roma and other Greeks. Indeed, the European Court of Human Rights has found that Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Hungary have segregated their Roma communities.

Originally of India, the Roma are considered a subgroup of the Romani people. For centuries, the Roma have lived nomadically across Europe. Integration becomes difficult due to the Roma’s strong attachment to their culture, language, and habits.

Some media outlets have shown footage of Maria dancing to music with the implication that her parents forced her to dance for money. Enraged by the suggestion, the Roma community explained that the footage was taken after a baptism and religious celebration.

Admitting to some settlements known to have illegal activities, many Roma protest that criminality is a very small portion of their community.

In this case, Salis and Dimopoulou are an illiterate couple who registered their family in several towns, often claiming fourteen children—ten of whom are unaccounted for. Police stated that the couple received approximately €2500 ($3420) per month in child welfare subsidies from three different cities. However, among all Greeks, it is not uncommon to see such papers falsified.

In Ireland, authorities began taking for DNA testing Roma children, all of whom were confirmed as the biological children of their alleged parents.

Three score and ten years ago, the world saw what racism does, and the world said, “Never again.” Europe must remember that never means never.

For further information, please see:

CNN International – Bulgarian Woman Claims She’s Maria’s Mom: ‘We Gifted Her’ to Roma Family – October 25, 2013

Independent – Old Attitudes Resurface in Greece: Inside the Roma Camp Where Maria the ‘Blonde Angel’ Lived – October 25, 2013

BBC News – ‘Parents’ of Greek Roma Girl Maria Give DNA to Police – October 24, 2013

Huffington Post UK – Do Roma ‘Gypsies’ Really Abduct Children? — October 24, 2013

Irish Times – Shatter Seeks Report as Roma Children Returned to Families – October 24, 2013

Yemen: Father Burns 15-year-old Daughter to Death for Contacting Fiancé

By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen – A fifteen-year-old Yemeni girl was burned to death by her father after he caught her contacting her fiance before their wedding. Prosecutors intend to press charges against her thirty-five-year-old father, who was arrested in the remote village of Shabaa, in Taiz province.

Child brides are popular in Yemen and have attracted widespread criticism from international human rights groups. (Photo Courtesy of Corbis)

“The father committed this heinous crime on the pretext that his daughter had been keeping contacts with her fiance,” the police website said on Tuesday, giving no further details.

Local news websites have reported that the father had caught the pair talking on the phone.

In some parts of Yemen it is traditional tribal custom to prevent men and women from contacting each other before marriage. Tribal loyalties run deep in the impoverished Arabian peninsula nation and often take precedence over the writ of the central government.

Yemeni women are generally accorded a low status in the family and community. Women often find themselves subject to of various forms of violence, deprivation of education, early and forced marriages, sexual abuse, restrictions over freedom of movement, forced pregnancy, and female genital mutilation. Killings of daughters, wives or sisters to punish perceived breaches of family honor are not uncommon.

Last year, the UN Human Rights council raised concerns about so-called “honor killings” in the country. Perpetrators were not charged with murder, and faced only a six-month to one-year prison sentence, it found.

In 2010, the Yemen Social Affairs Ministry released a report that stated more than 25 percent of the country’s females marry before the age of fifteen. It is a traditional tribal belief that younger brides are more easily molded in desirable and obedient wives.

The country previously required individuals to be at least fifteen-years-old before they could be married, but in the 1990s the law was annulled. The current policy is that parents should decided when their daughters are to be married. This scenario allows impoverished families to marry away their daughters at young ages for compensation sometimes reaching into the hundreds of dollars.

For further information, please see:

Al Arabiya – Yemeni 15-year-old girl burned to death for ‘meeting fiance’ – 23 October 2013

BBC – Yemeni ‘burns daughter to death for contacting fiance’ –  23 October 2013

Daily Mail – Yemeni father burns his daughter, 15, to death for keeping in touch with her fiance –  23 October 2013

Reuters – Yemeni burns daughter to death for contacting fiance: police – 23 October 2013

White House Assures German Chancellor the U.S. Not Spying on Her Phone

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BERLIN, Germany – The White House released a statement on Wednesday indicating that the United States has not been spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel by tapping into her cell phone.

Merkel called Obama after receiving a tip, which Germany has not elaborated on. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)

Merkel had called U.S. President Barack Obama after reportedly receiving information that the United States may have tapped in conversation on her mobile phone.

“The United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor,” White House Spokesman Jay Carney stated on Wednesday.

Merkel’s spokesman stated that the Chancellor “views such practices… as completely unacceptable”. Germany demanded “an immediate and comprehensive explanation” from the U.S. about what it stated “would be a serious breach of trust”.

Germany also issued a statement, stating, “Among close friends and partners, as the Federal Republic of Germany and the US have been for decades, there should be no such monitoring of the communications of a head of government.”

The United States has been receiving anger and skepticism from allies regarding spying allegations based on sources believed to originate from intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

During a visit in June, President Obama assured Chancellor Merkel that German citizens were not being spied upon. At the time, Merkel was criticized by political opponents for not being more skeptical.

The German government did not elaborate on how it received the tip about the alleged U.S. spying. However, German news magazine Der Spiegel, which has published stories based on material from Edward Snowden, claimed that the information had come from its investigations.

Carney told reporters that the U.S. was examining concerns over U.S. intelligence practices from several American allies, including Germany and France. Carney did not address whether Merkel’s phone had indeed been monitored in the past.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff recently cancelled a visit to the U.S. this month in protest at alleged electronic espionage by the NSA against her country, including of communications at her office. Rousseff rejected U.S. claims that the interception of information was aimed at protecting nations against terrorism, drugs trafficking and other organized crime, in a speech at the United Nations.

The Mexican government has called the alleged spying on the emails of its former and current presidents, Enrique Pena Nieto – the incumbent – and currently Felipe Calderon, as “unacceptable”.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Merkel Calls Obama About “U.S. Spying on Her Phone” – 23 October 2013

Deutsche Welle – Merkel Calls Obama for Answers Over Reports That the U.S. Spied on her Phone – 23 October 2013

Reuters – Germany Says U.S. May Have Monitored Merkel’s Phone – 23 October 2013

Washington Post – Merkel Calls Obama About Alleged U.S. Monitoring of Her Phone – 23 October 2013

 

‘No Need’ to Hang Iranian Criminal for a Second Time

By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi ruled that there is “no need” for a man who survived a hanging to be hanged a second time. Lawyers and human rights activists lobbied the head of the judiciary to prevent a repeat hanging after the man was found alive in a morgue.

Human rights groups believe that Iran is behind only China in the number of people it executes each year. (Photo Courtesy of AFP)

Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi reasoned that executing the man would have negative repercussions against Iran’s image, the ISNA news agency reported. Iran’s government had no direct control over the decision as the power fell directly with the judiciary.

One senior judge, Nourollah Aziz-Mohammadi, argued that the law required that the convict must die.

“When a convict is sentenced to death, he must die after the sentence is carried out,” Aziz-Mohammadi said. “Now that he is alive, we can say the sentence was not carried out and must be repeated.”

The 37-year-old convicted drug smuggler, named as Alireza M, was hanged at a jail in the north-eastern city of Bojnord last week. He had been left to hang for 12 minutes and was declared dead by a doctor. It was not until the next day that he was discovered alive in the morgue when his family came to retrieve his body. Alireza was taken to a Bojnord hospital, where he is reportedly in a coma and under armed guard.

Last week, Amnesty International and other human rights activists urged Iran to spare Alireza based upon international laws against cruel and unusual punishment. Amnesty International estimates that Iran has executed at least 508 people this year alone and has called for a moratorium on all executions in Iran.

“The horrific prospect of this man facing a second hanging, after having gone through the whole ordeal already once, merely underlines the cruelty and inhumanity of the death penalty,” said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa program.

For further information, please see:

ABC – Iran Minister Says No Need to Re-Hang Convict – 22 October 2013

BBC – Iran minister says ‘no need’ to hang criminal again –  22 October 2013

Washington Post – Iran says ‘no need’ to finish off convict who survived his hanging –  22 October 2013

Reuters – Hope for Iranian who survived botched hanging as sharia expert doubts ruling – 19 October 2013

China’s Human Rights Record Comes Under Scrutiny Before the UNHRC

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China– China’s human rights record under President Xi Jinping has come under formal international scrutiny for the first time since Xi took power. The main U.N. rights forum is set to hear accusations that the government has aggressively expanded a crackdown on dissent.

China’s envoy, Wu Hailong, has acknowledged that China still has a ways to go to live up to the pledges made the last time its policies were scrutinized by the UNHRC. (Photo Courtesy of AFP)

The United Nations Human Rights Council, which reviews all U.N. members every four years, will give concerned countries a chance to challenge the administration of Xi, who many experts believed would be less hardline than his predecessors.

Instead, critics say Xi has instituted a clampdown that has moved far beyond the mere targeting of dissidents seeking political change. Just recently authorities have detained at least 16 activists who had demanded that government officials publicly disclose their wealth. Dozens of other people, accused of online ‘rumor-mongering”, have also been detained.

“Xi Jinping has definitely taken the country backwards on human rights,” prominent rights lawyer Mo Shaoping told Reuters. “Look at the number of people who are being locked up and the measures that are being taken to lock them up.”

China will open the debate in Geneva with a presentation. Non-governmental organizations are not permitted to address the council but can submit reports, often reflected in statements offered by concerned countries.

The council has no binding authority. Its rotating membership of 47 states does not include China, although Beijing is expected to run for a spot next month. The hearing will be the second time China has been assessed under the process since it began in 2008.

Diplomats are likely to raise questions over China’s crackdown on dissent, the death penalty and the use of torture among other topics, reported Maya Wang, an Asia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Of special concern, Wang said, is the arrest in August of prominent activist Xu Zhiyong, who had called for officials to reveal their wealth. Wang also cited the September disappearance of Cao Shunli, who had helped stage a sit-in this year outside the Foreign Ministry to press for the public to be allowed to contribute to a national human rights report.

China sent a large delegation to Geneva to engage in dialogue with an “open and frank attitude”, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday at a news conference.

“If there are some criticisms, some constructive criticisms, the Chinese government will listen with an open mind and accept them and will give them serious consideration,” she said. “As for malicious, deliberate criticisms, of course we will uphold our own path and our own correct judgments.”

In 2009, China rejected requests from Western and some Latin American nations to end the death penalty but agreed to suggestions from Cuba that it take firm action against “self-styled human rights defenders working against the Chinese state and people”.

The rise of Xi as Communist Party chief last November gave many Chinese hope for political reform, encouraging citizens to push officials to disclose their wealth in several movements throughout the country.

But the detention of activists making those calls is a strong indication the party will not tolerate open challenges to its rule, even though it boasts more transparency. These activists now face trial on charges of illegal assembly.

Hundreds of microbloggers, people who post short comments online, have also been detained. Beginning in August, a campaign against “rumor-mongering” was implemented to root-out and shutdown critical blogs. Most have been released, but some are still being held on criminal charges.

On Sunday, Chinese police arrested Wang Gongquan, a well-known venture capitalist. Wang had helped lead a campaign for the release of another activist. Chen Youxi, Wang’s attorney, did not answer calls to his mobile phone.

“Before, officials used a selective form of suppression, which is to say, they mainly suppressed rights lawyers and dissidents,” said Huang Qi, a veteran rights activist. “But in the past few months what the government used to allow some people to say online – things that violated or exceeded the official view – has now been suppressed.”

Li Fangping, a prominent rights lawyer, said China would likely win a seat on the council given its strong international influence.

“I don’t believe that China is ready for that,” Li said. “There are still a huge number of citizens for whom a lack of human rights is a growing problem.”

For more information, please see:

Herald Sun– China defends record at UN rights inquiry — 22 October 2013

BBC News– China before UN for human rights review — 22 October 2013

SwissInfo– China crackdown to come under scrutiny at U.N. rights review — 22 October 2013

AFP– China defends record at UN Human Rights Council — 22 October 2013

USA Today– China’s human rights abuses under scrutiny at United Nations — 22 October 2013