News

U.N. Department of Safety and Security has Blocked Investigators from Heading to the Site of Chemical Weapons attack in Syria as International Community Demands and Investigation

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – Syrian opposition activists claim that the Syrian regime carried out a massive chemical attack in Ghouta, a suburb of the capital, Damascus, killing hundreds of people. Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh reported that videos capturing the alleged attack showed children and adults in field hospitals, some of them suffocating and coughing.

Hundreds of people were treated at the site of Wednesday’s alleged chemical attack in Syria for symptoms similar to those seen in victims of nerve gas attacks. (Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Chemical weapons experts have said that the symptoms of the victims shown on the footage could indicate the use of a nerve agent. Dina Esfandiary of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said, “By looking at the videos, you can tell that some of the victims are suffering from asphyxiation. They don’t have any external wounds, so it’s consistent with the use of a chemical agent.” She said that it is difficult to determine what actually happened at the site of the alleged attack without physical samples.

Leaders of the international community are demanding that the Syrian government immediately allow United Nations inspectors onto the site of the alleged chemical attacks, which have killed as many as 1,800 people.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for the Syrian government to allow the team of U.N. inspectors already in Syria to investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks at three unrelated sites. He has said that the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime should be investigated immediately. He also said there is “no time to waste” in getting an inspection team to Ghouta.

The Secretary-General said that the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad’s regime would constitute a crime against humanity. He warned the Syrian regime of “serious consequences” that will follow if their use of chemical weapons against their own people was proven.

Russia, which has maintained support for the Al-Assad regime, has called on the Syrian government to cooperate with the United Nation’s experts in Syria to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry after the reports first emerged Wednesday, that the “Russian side called on the Syrian government to cooperate with the UN chemical experts,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said that what has occurred in Syria “indicates that this is clearly a big event, of grave concern.” He said that the international community must determine more about whether a chemical weapons attack has occurred and has called for the al-Assad regime to allow for a full investigation.

The United Kingdom and France have also issued strong statements demanding U.N. investigators be granted access to the attack sites.

Despite the International community’s collective demands for an investigation, the U.N has yet to authorize investigator’s to go to Ghouta, Kevin Kennedy, acting head of the United Nations Department of Safety and Security told reporters at the U.N. headquarters on Friday that he has not yet given the inspectors a green light to visit the sites of the alleged attacks, citing extreme violence in the region. Kennedy said, “It’s an active war zone in Damascus.”

For further information please see;

Al Jazeera – Hundreds reported killed in Syria gas attack – 21 August 2013

Foreign Policy – Congress’ Doves Rethinking U.S. Intervention After Syria’s ‘Chemical’ Attacks – 22 August 2013

Al Jazeera – New footage emerges of Syria ‘gas attack’ – 23 August 13

Al Jazeera – Russia backs UN probe of Syria attack – 23 August 2013

CNN International – Official: US military updates options for possible strikes on Syria – 23 August 2013

CNN International – Syria under pressure to allow urgent probe of chemical weapons claim –23 August 2013

British Authorities Detain Partner of Snowden Journalist Under Terror Law

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LONDON, England – The decision of British authorities to detain the partner of a journalist who has reported on both United States and United Kingdom surveillance programs has come under fire, as opposition politicians and human rights lawyers are demanding an explanation.

Greenwald (left) and Miranda as Miranda finally reached Rio de Janeiro Airport following a nine-hour detention. (Photo courtesy of The Guardian)

David Michael Miranda, the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, who writes a column for the British newspaper The Guardian, was detained for nine hours before being released without charge.

Greenwald has written about the U.S. and U.K. surveillance programs based on the leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Miranda had met with Laura Poitras, an American filmmaker who has worked with Greenwald on the Snowden leaks, in Berlin and was in route to Rio de Janeiro. The Guardian has stated that Miranda, though not an employee of the newspaper, “often assists [Greenwald] in his work,” and the newspaper generally reimburses Miranda for his flights.

During Miranda’s nine-hour detention, the maximum allowed by law, he was questioned by many agents. “I stayed in a room; there were six different agents, entering and leaving, who spoke with me. They asked questions about my whole life, about everything. They took my computer, video game, cellphone, memory thumb drives- everything,” Miranda stated.

The police have stated that Miranda’s detention was lawful under Schedule 7 of Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000, which allows police to detain an individual at an airport, port or international rail station for up to nine hours for questioning about whether they have been involved with acts of terrorism.

“They completely abused their own terrorism law for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism,” Greenwald has written in a column.” He opined that his partner’s detention and questioning were “clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ.”

Britain’s official independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson, stated he has asked authorities to explain why Miranda was detained for the maximum allowable amount of time. Of the 69,000 people stopped pursuant to Schedule 7 between 2011 and 2012, less than 40 people have been held for over six hours.

As Miranda is a Brazilian national, Brazil’s foreign minister Antonio Pariota has sought reasoning from British Foreign Secretary William Hague, calling Miranda’s detention “not justifiable.”

Though the United States government has stated it was given a “heads up” regarding the planned detention, it has stated that the decision for the detention was independent from them.

Greenwald now plans to “write much for aggressively than before” about the U.K.’s surveillance programs. “I’m going to publish many more things about England as well. I have many documents about the system of espionage of England, and now my focus will be there, too. I think they will regret what they’ve done.”

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Snowden Journalist to Publish UK Spy Secrets – 20 August 2013

The Independent – Snowden Affair: US Was Given ‘Heads-Up’ on Detention of David Miranda at Heathrow – 20 August 2013

BBC News – US Given ‘Heads-Up’ on David Miranda Detention – 19 August 2013

The Guardian – David Miranda: “The Said I Would be Put in Jail if I Didn’t Cooperate” – 19 August 2013

New York Times – Britons Question Whether Detention of Reporter’s Partner Was Terror-Related – 19 August 2013

Yahoo News UK & Ireland – Use of UK Terror Law to Detain a Reporter’s Partner ‘a disgrace – 19 August 2013

 

 

 

 

 

North Korea Resumes Reunions for Families Separated During Korean Civil War

By Brian Lanciault

Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PYONGYANG, North Korea– North Korea has agreed to South Korea’s proposal to resume reuniting families that were separated during the Korean Civil War (1950-53). Observers take this as a sign of encouragement that the otherwise bitter and flaring relationship between North and South is beginning to cool down.

A hugely emotional affair, family reunions are set to resume after North Korea finally accepted the South’s proposal. (Photo courtesy of BBC)

The reunions are expected to take place on September 19, during the elaborate Chuseok harvest festival, according to reports released on Sunday by KCNA, a major North Korean news agency.

North Korea set off months of unsettling tensions with a long-range rocket launch in December followed by an underground nuclear test in February. The North’s menacing rhetoric against the United States and South Korea hit its apex between March and April amid U.S.-South Korean military drills in the region, and a vote by the U.N. Security Council  to impose even tougher sanctions on the Pyongyang regime, in hopes to quell the swelling tide of nuclear threats.

The KCNA reported that both North and the South, following an agreement to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Zone, will soon discuss the possibility of resuming cross-border tours at Mount Kumgang.

The Kaesong Industrial Zone, a massive complex, located in the North but shared by the two nations, has been closed since April. Kim Jong Un’s regime began blocking South Koreans from entering the manufacturing complex, which sits on the North’s side of the heavily fortified border and houses the operations of more than 120 South Korean companies. Pyongyang then removed the more than 50,000 North Koreans working in the zone’s factories, saying it was temporarily suspending activity in the area. The decision to halt operations surprised some observers, since Kaesong has long been considered an important source of hard currency for Pyongyang.

Mount Kumgang is a North Korean resort where a South Korean tourist was shot by a North Korean soldier in 2008 after allegedly walking into an off-limits area. The reunion will take place at the resort.

“The Kaesong Industrial Zone and the tours to Mt. Kumgang resort are valuable works common to the nation which should not be delayed as they are symbols of reconciliation, unity, reunification and prosperity,” the KCNA reported.

The tragedy of divided families dates to the 1950-1953 Korean War, when the Cold War’s division of the peninsula into two nations became a permanent state of affairs. Amid fighting, millions became refugees — either fleeing violence or fearing political repercussions from either side. In the winter of 1950, some 650,000 refugees left North Korea as U.N. forces retreated after a surprise Chinese offensive.

There is no direct contact between the two Koreas, but a few families in the South have managed to establish voice and written contact, albeit in secrecy, with their relatives in the North in recent years. Most such communications are a result of North Korea’s border with China, which has become easier to overcome, not to mention the prominence of illegal cell phones that have penetrated the otherwise insulated state.

The first family reunions took place following a landmark summit between the two Koreas in 2000. Since that time, 17,100 people representing 3,500 families have been reunited on more than 18 separate occasions.

The meetings are bittersweet, as the chances of any of the divided family members meeting again are slim. The last such reunion took place in 2010.

According to a report at the time, approximately 80,000 South Koreans registered  to join one of the few reunions, but 40,000 people are believed to have since passed away or given up hope, according to the South’s Ministry of Unification. Figures from north of the demilitarized zone remain unknown.

For more information, please see:

BBC — North Korea Agrees to Family Reunions with South — 18 August 2013

Reuters — North Korea accepts South’s proposal to resume war-torn family reunions — 18 August 2013

Bloomberg — North Korea Agrees to Reunion Talks After Gaeseong Accord — 18 August 2013

Deutsche Welle — North Korea agrees to resumption of family reunions — 18 August 2013

CNN — North Korea agrees to family reunions with the South, report says — 18 August 2013

Peruvian Security Forces Kill Two Shining Path Leaders

LIMA, Peru – Two top commanders of Peru’s Shining Path group were killed during a clash with government troops in southeast Peru according to President Ollanta Humala.

Alejandro Borda Casafranca, and Martin Quispe Palomino were killed by a covert force formed to track down top rebel leaders. “The intelligence sources that have participated in this action have confirmed that the dead terrorist criminals are the number one and number two of the Shining Path’s military structure,” Mr. Humala said, referring to Mr. Borda Casafranca and Mr. Quispe Palomino, respectively.

Shining Path leaders killed
The bodies of two leaders of the guerrilla group Shining Path are brought into an air force base in El Callao, Peru. (Photo Courtesy of Rau Garcia/EPA)

After a firefight, their bullet-riddled and burned corpses were found in a house in an isolated township of Ayacucho, south of Lima. President Humala said a third rebel believed to be Casafranca’s close colleague was also killed in the military operation.

The announcement is a victory for Humala’s administration, which has struggled to combat remnants of the Shining Path in the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valley, or VRAEM. President Humala has made bringing peace to the VRAEM one of his top priorities since coming to office in July 2011. He has pledged to root out the Shining Path and increase the state’s presence in the region.

The VRAEM, the most densely planted coca-growing region in the world, is the last remaining stronghold of the Shining Path. The group is believed to still have 300 to 500 members in the area located in southern Peru.

Peru’s terrorism and security analyst Jaime Antezana said that the killing of the two rebel leaders was the government’s first successful blow in recent years at the top military ranks of the group. Antezana said the two men were deeply involved in the rebels’ management of coca leaf cultivation, as well as the processing and transport of cocaine.

Last year, security personnel captured one of the group’s original leaders in the Upper Huallaga Valley, Peru’s other major cocaine producing region located north of the VRAEM. He was sentenced to life in prison in June.

Shining Path’s insurgency began in 1980. Inspired by Maoism, the rebels tried to lead a “People’s War” to overthrow what they called “bourgeois democracy” and establish a communist state. They took control of Peru’s rural regions and some urban areas by the early 1990s, raising fears in the U.S. government that it might someday take power. However, its founder, Abimael Guzman, was captured in 1992 and subsequently sentenced to life in prison. The conflict resulted in some 70,000 deaths.

The group has largely been crushed by the army, but remnants of the group remain, and they often attack military patrols in jungle areas. Security forces say the group has allied itself with drug traffickers and now finances itself by growing and smuggling coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera– Peru says Shining Path leaders killed – 14 August 2013

Los Angeles Times – Peru commandos kill two Shining Path leaders – 13 August 2013

The Wall Street Journal – Peru President Says High-Ranking Shining Path Members Killed – 12 August 2013

Reuters – Peru says top two Shining Path rebels killed in jungle shootout – 12 August 2013

BBC – Peru’s security forces kill three Shining Path rebels – 12 August 2013

 

 

Cross-Dressing Jamaican Teen Murdered

By Brandon Cottrell 
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America 

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Dwayne Jones, age 16, was murdered on July 22, when he attended a street party dressed as a woman.

Dwayne Jones. (Photo Courtesy CBS News)

Prior to attending the party, Jones confided in a girl from his church that he would be attending dressed as a woman.  Upon his arrival, the girl’s friends asked Jones if he was a man or a woman; once the group determined that Jones was a man, they began verbally assaulting him.  Jones attempted to run from the group, but was unable to escape.  He was then beaten for several hours, stabbed, shot and run over by a car.  The group also beat two of Jones’ friends who attended the party with him.

Annie Paul, a blogger at the Jamaican University of the West Indies said that, “Judging by comments made on social media, most Jamaicans think Dwayne Jones brought his death on himself for wearing a dress . . . in a society that has made it abundantly clear that homosexuals are neither to be seen nor heard.”

Jamaica is often portrayed as one of the most hostile countries for gay and transgendered people.  Just last year alone, two homosexual men were murdered and thirty-six others were victims of mob violence.  Homosexuals are also often victim to arbitrary detention and harassment by police.  Due to such hostility, much of the gay community keeps their sexual orientation secret.  In addition, many of their parties and church services must be held in secret locations.

Some believe that much of the homophobia in Jamaica stems from centuries-old laws that ban sodomy.  Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, however, vowed during her election campaign that the anti-sodomy law would be evaluated and potentially repealed by Parliament.  Additionally, Simpson-Miller said she was open to appointing homosexuals to her cabinet, a stark contrast to former Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s stance.

Meanwhile, Senator Mark Golding condemned Jones’s murder and called on police to “spare no effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice.”  Additionally, leading human rights groups in Jamaica have called on the government to condemn the killing and investigate the crime.  Prime Minister Simpson-Miller and many other prominent leaders, however, have been silent.

To date, the investigation of Jones’ murder has not revealed any suspects and no arrests have been made.

 

For further information, please see:

Jamaica Gleaner – Gov’t Shouldn’t Let Dwayne Jones’ Death Go In Vain – 13 Aug 2013

International Business Times – Jamaica: Transgender Teenager Dwayne Jones Murdered by Homophobic Mob – 12 Aug 2013

CBS News – Transgender teen stabbed, shot and run over by Jamaican mob – 11 Aug 2013

Human Rights Watch – Jamaica Cross-Dressing Teenager Murdered – 01 Aug 2013