News

Russia Proposes Plan to Destroy Syrian Chemical Weapons; U.N. Chief Warns of Action

By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – Russia has proposed that Syria turn over all of its chemical weapons to the United Nations for destruction. The plan involves the creation of safe zones within Syria where U.N. chemical weapons experts can gather and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons supply. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressed the media regarding the plan.

United Nations chemical weapons experts take samples of sand near a part of a suspected chemical missile. (Photo Courtesy of AP/United Media Office of Arbeen)

“I am considering urging the Security Council to demand the immediate transfer of Syria’s chemical weapons and chemical precursor stocks to places inside Syria where they can be safely stored and destroyed,” Ban said.

Ban was optimistic at the suggestion of the plan, but took issue with the lack of action from a Security Council that has been suffering from “embarrassing paralysis”. He added that if Syria is found to have used chemical weapons that it would be an “abominable crime” that demands an international response, but did not elaborate on what exactly that response would entail.

U.N. chemical weapons experts are expected to present their report about an alleged August 21 chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government to the U.N. Chief later this week or next. The attack, reportedly carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad forces, killed one thousand four hundred people, many of whom were children.

The sudden twist in the chemical weapons saga was prompted by a comment by United States Secretary of State John Kerry when he responded to a reporter’s question asking how Syria could avoid U.S. military intervention. Kerry responded by suggesting that a potential strike could be avoided if Syria was to surrender all of its chemical weapons within a week.

Shortly thereafter, Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that he advised Syria that it should place its chemical weapons under international control if it would avert military intervention. Lavrov said that he expected “a quick and, I hope, a positive answer” from Syria.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem issued a statement responding warmly to Russia’s proposal, but refused questions and did not address any specifics of the proposal.

“Syria welcomes the Russian proposal out of concern for the lives of the Syrian people, the security of our country and because it believes in the wisdom of the Russian leadership that seeks to avert American aggression against our people,” said al-Muallem.

Meanwhile, President Obama expressed caution at the plan’s potential, stating that the plan could avert U.S. action “if it’s real”.

“It’s going to have to be followed up on,” he said. “And we don’t want just a stalling or delaying tactic to put off the pressure that we have on there right now.”

For further information, please see:

ABC – Russia, Syria Push for UN Chemical Experts Return –  9 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Syria welcomes proposal on chemical weapons  – 9 September 2013

CNN – Syria chemical arms plan promising ‘if it’s real,’ Obama says – 9 September 2013

Reuters – U.N. floats plan to destroy Syrian chemical weapons stock – 9 September 2013

Guatemalan Gunmen Kill 11 and Wound Others

By Brandon Cottrell
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – A group of unidentified men shot 29 people in the mountain town of San Jose Nacahuil just outside of Guatemala City this past Saturday.  The shooting left 11 dead and many of the wounded are in critical condition.  The majority of the victims were shot near the street as they patronized the local cantinas.

Bodies taken away by police after an attack in San Jose Nacahuil, on the outskirts of Guatemala City. (Photo Courtesy AP)

A local newspaper reported that prior to the shooting, a group of individuals were dismissed from one of the liquor stores that was attacked.  The individuals left but returned shortly wearing balaclavas and carrying guns.  They then began shooting at the people in the cantina, in the liquor store and in the street.

Guatemalan officials say that gang violence was the cause of the shooting and suggest that when the shooters could not buy alcohol from the cantinas, they opened fire in retaliation   Local residents, however, blame the shooting on the corrupted National Civil Police and cite the minimal gang presence in their town.  The NCP, which is frequently accused of corruption, extortion and is linked to local gangs, arrived Saturday night after receiving several anonymous calls reporting that an attack was imminent.  The NCP determined that no attack was imminent and left, but within an hour of their departure, the attack occurred.

Santos Peinado, a 28-year-old construction worker whose cousin, Santos Suret, was killed thinks that the NCP “had something to do with it, because they showed up and 20 minutes after they left there was the attack; why didn’t they stay and why didn’t they arrest the attackers?”  Another Guatemalan told reporters that the NCP threatened to shut a cantina down if the owner did not pay them a $60 bribe.  That owner, who was killed in the shooting, refused to pay.

Six years ago, San Jose Nacahuil residents who were dissatisfied with the NCP, set up a community police force to patrol the town with machetes.  The residents then expelled the NCP by burning down their police station. The community police force proved effective, as the town had some of the lowest crime rates in Guatemala, despite no official police force being present.

Though no arrests have yet been made and a motive remains unclear, the shooters get away car was found abandoned just outside of the town.

 

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Guatemalan Bar Attack Leaves 11 People Dead– 8 September 2013

Global News – Gunmen Kill 11, Wound 18 In Poor Guatemala Town– 8 September 2013

Global Post – Drive-By Shooting Kills At Least 11 In A Rural Town In Guatemala – 8 September 2013

Washington Post – Gunmen Attack 2 Cantinas In Rural Guatemala Two, Killing 11 People And Wounding 18 More – 8 September 2013

Egyptian Military Conducts Assault against Militants Based in the Sinai

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – The Egyptian military has announced a full-scale military assault on militant groups in the Sinai Peninsula in response to militant attacks against the Egyptian state.

 

Egyptian Military launches attacks against militants based in the Sinai Peninsula. (Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Since July of this year, militant Islamist groups in Sinai have killed dozens of Egyptian officials in an insurgency sparked frustrations over the military coup that took Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi out of power, and in response to the military government’s treatment of pro-Morsi civilians and Islamist party members, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt’s judiciary has taken steps to declare an illegal organization returning the democratically elected former president’s party to the status it had under the Mubarak regime.

The military campaign comes in direct response to a failed assassination attempt carried out against an Egyptian government official last week. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a militant group based in the Sinai Peninsula whose name translates to “Supporters of Jerusalem”, has claimed responsibility for an attack last Thursday that targeted the Egyptian Interior Minister. The group promised more attacks in retaliation for the military government’s crackdown on Egypt’s Islamists.

The group issued a statement on its website that said, “God allowed us to break the security system of the minister of interior … through a suicide operation committed by one of Egypt’s lions that made the interior butcher see death with his eyes, and what is to come will be worse.”

Last week’s attack was carried out in broad daylight by a suicide bomber who detonated himself in a car next to Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim’s convoy as the minister left his home in Cairo. Two people were killed, including an unrelated passer-by, in the attack and 20 more were injured.

In response to the attack, the Egyptian military deployed several helicopters to the region on Saturday. The Egyptian military helicopters conducted several air strikes in the Sinai targeting the militants.

Israel has expressed support for the military campaign. Amos Gilad, a senior official in Israel’s defence ministry, who called the assault “impressive,” said in a speech that the airstrikes represent Egypt’s first ever serious counter-terrorism campaign in the Sinai region which borders the Jewish state. He said, “For the first time, we see a determined struggle against terrorism in Egypt’s Sinai, unrelated to the interests of Israel.”

Communications were jammed and internet access was blocked in the Sinai region on Monday as the Egyptian military resumed attacks against the militant groups in the region. On Monday, the military attacked the southern Sinai town of Rafah, which is allegedly a militant hideout.

So far, twenty people have been killed, and twenty more have been captured, since the Egyptian military began the operation. Since the operation began, people have begun fleeing villages in the region, heading to coastal villages and attempting to enter the Gaza strip though underground tunnels.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Egyptian Tanks, Helicopters Push Through Sinai – 9 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Egypt Military Strike Rebels In Sinai – 9 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Sinai Group Claims Attack On Egypt Minister – 9 September 2013

The Guardian – Egypt Announces Full-Scale Assault on Sinai Militants – 9 September 2013

Chilean Artists Who Challenged Pinochet’s Dictatorship

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile – The Brigada Ramona Parra (BRP) is an artistic collective that focuses on painting murals. The BRP was founded in 1968 by a group of young Chilean communists. The group was named after Ramona Parra, a nineteen-year old woman who was shot dead by Chilean police during a protest in the capital city of Santiago in 1946.

View of the BRP mural at the GAM in Santiago
BRP murals can be found all over Santiago and often feature the Chilean working class. (Photo Courtesy of Gideon Long/BBC)

Inspired by the revolutionary essence of the late 1960s, the members of the BRP would head out to paint in the streets of Santiago. They saw murals as a way of brightening up the city’s walls and as a way to encourage radical social change.

In 1970, BRP propaganda helped launch the Socialist presidential candidate, Salvador Allende, into power. However, in 1973 their movement suffered a huge blow. General Augusto Pinochet seized power in a military coup and the Communist Party was outlawed.

As the coup unfolded, the BRP split. Several young communists wanted to take on the military in open combat while others thought it was too dangerous. The BRP and thousands of other Chilean leftists went underground moving between safe houses to avoid detection, but continued to paint in defiance of the dictatorship. BRP activists were tortured and driven into exile, and the military government painted over their murals.

“We worked clandestinely,” says Juan Tralma, a founding member of the BRP. “It was impossible to paint big murals so we would just paint a simple letter R, ringed by a circle with a star next to it. The R stood for resistance, the circle was a sign of unity and the star a symbol of the BRP.”

Reflecting on the coup now, Mr. Tralma says the BRP was right to retreat rather than confront General Pinochet’s forces. “It was a powerful, brutal dictatorship,” he says. “It would have been a massacre. We would have sent kids out onto the streets with paint brushes to confront men with machine-guns.”

“We had to keep our eyes peeled all the time,” recalls Beto Pasten, another veteran member of the BRP. “The police could turn up at any moment. They’d come and kick over our paint pots, throw paint on our murals and arrest us. We’d do a mural at the weekend and by Monday they’d painted over it in black. Then the following week we’d come back and paint again, on top of their black paint.”

With the return to democracy in 1990, the BRP came out of hiding. Presently, the BRP still paints murals in Chile, supporting contemporary causes such as workers’ and indigenous rights and the campaign for education reform. Striking murals of the BRP can be found at the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center, the main cultural center in Santiago, and at the headquarters of the Worker’s United Center of Chile, the country’s main trade union federation.

On September 11th, Chile will mark the 40th anniversary of Pinochet’s military coup.

For more information please see:

El Commercio – Los muralistas chilenos que desafiaron a Pinochet – 8 September 2013

MSN Latino – Los muralistas chilenos que desafiaron a Pinochet – 8 September 2013

BBC – The Chilean muralists who defied Pinochet – 5 September 2013

More Than 160 Anti-Islamist and Counter-Protesters Arrested in London

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LONDON, England – Over 160 protestors were arrested in East London on Saturday after police officers sought to prevent clashes between hundreds of anti-Islamist activists and thousands of counter-demonstrators near a large Muslim community.

Police managed to deter any major clashes between the two groups. (Photo courtesy of Reuters UK)

Roughly 3,000 police officers were deployed to segregate the two groups in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. The police formed barriers across the streets to keep the anti-racist counter-demonstrators in assigned areas while attempting to enforce restrictions on the anti-Islamist activists.

The English Defence League (EDL), which focuses on the perceived threat of radical Islam to traditional British values, had been denied permission to march through the neighborhood, as many feared a threat to public order in the Muslim-heavy community.

The police attempted to implement geographic and time restrictions on the EDL, after the group lost a court battle to overturn the restrictions on Friday.

Around 150 counter-protesters were arrested when a group broke away and headed toward the Tower Bridge, where the march was supposed to end, according to a police spokesman.

Another 14 protestors, mostly from the EDL, were arrested for violent disorder and possession of knives and fireworks. The EDL’s leader, Tommy Robinson, has been arrested for incitement, according to the group’s Twitter page.

Despite the number of arrests, the police spokesman said there were no serious clashes. “The police presence did manage to keep the two groups apart,” the police spokesman stated.

Local members of Parliament had written to the police department, requesting a ban on the march, as many feared a repeat of violent clashes in 2011 between the EDL, the police and anti-fascist groups in Tower Hamlets.

The counter-demonstration was organized by Weyman Bennett, joint national secretary of Unite Against Facism. Bennett was pleased with the turnout, and ultimate results of the counterdemonstration. “They [EDL] didn’t come up with enough numbers and they really depended on the police to be able to escort them in an area where they were not really wanted. It really was like outsiders trying to cause trouble,” Bennett said.

Chief Superintendent Jim Read, a senior officer involved in the policing effort, said there were minor clashes during the day, but only 5 people injured.

“Our intention was to prevent violence and show support to the local communities and we believe we achieved this today. We want to thank the local communities for working so well with us on what has been a difficult day. The key point is the two groups did not meet.” Chief Supt Read said.

For more information, please see:

The Independent – More Than 160 Arrested at EDL Tower Hamlets March – 8 September 2013

Reuters UK – More Than 160 Anti-Islamist and Rival Protesters Arrested in London – 8 September 2013

The Times of India – UK’s Far-Right Leader Tommy Robinson Charged Over London Protest – 8 September 2013

NY Times – Rival Protests in London Over Islamists – 7 September 2013