News

Tunisian Opposition Leader Chokri Belaid Assassinated

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TUNIS, Tunisia — Chokri Belaid, a leading Tunisian opposition figure, and also, one of the leaders of the Popular Front coalition, was shot dead today as he was leaving his home in Tunis on Wednesday. A bullet had struck his neck and another hit his head.

Chokri Belaid, a leading member of Tunisia’s opposition party, was assassinated outside of his home on Wednesday. (Photo Courtesy of Tunisia Live)

His brother confirmed that he was pronounced dead at a Tunis hospital. “My brother was assassinated. I am desperate and depressed,” said Abdelmajid Belaid.

In a statement made after Belaid’s murder, the Unified Democratic Nationalist party confirmed that “Chokri Belaid was targeted as he left his house in the capital.” It is unclear what the motive for Belaid’s assassination was.

Belaid, the leader of the left-leaning opposition Democratic Patriots party, was a vocal critic of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, who currently controls much of the Tunisian government.
Belaid, a lawyer and human rights activist, was a constant critic of the government, calling it a puppet to the small yet wealthy Gulf state of Qatar. Ennahda denied any involvement in the assassination.

Government spokesman Samir Dilou commented on Belaid’s assassination, calling it an “odious crime.” Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who mentioned that the identity of the attacker is unknown, condemned the assassination, and called it “a strike against the Arab Spring Revolution.” Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said he would “fight those who opposed the political transition in his country.”

After Belaid’s assassination, 8,000 protesters amassed outside the Interior Ministry in Tunis, calling for the fall of the government. Thousands more held demonstrations throughout the cities of Tunisia, including Mahdia, Sousse, Monastir, and Sidi Bouzid, where Arab Spring demonstrators had originally gathered two years ago to call for the overthrow of the long-time dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

“This is a black day in the history of modern Tunisia… Today we say to the Islamists, ‘get out’… enough is enough,” said Souad, a teacher who took part in the demonstrations outside of the Interior Ministry. “Tunisia will sink in the blood if you stay in power.”

Omar bin Ali, a member of the Tunisian Trade Unions, believes that Islamists were responsible for Belaid’s murder. “This is what they have been calling for in mosques,” said bin Ali, who took part in the demonstrations in front of the Interior Ministry. Bin Ali does not believe that the orders for Belaid’s assassination came from another country. “Tunisia is a friend of all nations. It is hard to think of anyone from abroad to do this to us.”

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera — Leading Tunisian Opposition Politician Killed — 6 February 2013

The Independent — Tunisian Politician Chokri Belaid Shot Dead — 6 February 2013

Reuters — Tunisia Protests After Government Critic Shot Dead — 6 February 2013

Tunisia Live — Leftist Politician Chokri Belaid Assassinated — 6 February 2013

Queensland, Northern Territories Dismiss Warnings from Prime Minister on Indigenous Alcohol Bans

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

CANBERRA, Australia — Queensland and Northern Territories both said on Wednesday that they would move forward with their plans to deal with alcohol bans in indigenous communities, despite federal pressure to keep the policies in place.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman calls alcohol bans on indigenous communities “discriminatory” and plans to review whether the laws should continue, despite warnings from the Prime Minister. (Photo Courtesy of the Townsville Bulletin)

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said his state has no intention of backing down from a planned review of what he calls the “discriminatory” booze bans, while acting Chief Minister of the Northern Territories Robyn Lambley rejected a call to reinstate the bans that she helped lift last year.

“I simply say the policy of discrimination against Aboriginal people is not appropriate,” Newman told reporters on Wednesday in Ipswich, a community about 40 km outside the state capital of Brisbane.

The ban prohibits possession and selling of alcohol in indigenous communities, including the 19 in Queensland.  Violators face penalties including jail time.

Queensland’s review of the alcohol bans, a campaign promise in Newman’s election last March, would allow individual communities within the state to determine whether to keep the restrictions.  The review is expected to last 18 months.

In the Northern Territories, state leaders dismissed calls to reinstate its Banned Drinkers Register law.  Eliminated last year, the ban required indigenous alcohol buyers to have a photo ID scanned and checked against a list of repeat drunks.  A match would prevent the purchase.

Both states’ decisions come after a warning from Prime Minister Julia Gillard to reconsider.  During her annual Closing the Gap Address, aimed at improving opportunities for indigenous Australians, Gillard said the federal government would act against any state or territory alcohol policy that she deems irresponsible.

“I have a real fear that the rivers of grog that wreaked such havoc among indigenous communities are starting to flow once again,” she said.  Big Pond News reported that Gillard was referencing, in part, the Northern Territories lifting its BDR and five recent alcohol-related deaths in Alice Springs.

But leaders from both states dismissed the Prime Minister’s comments.

“For Julia Gillard to start dictating from Canberra how we should implement alcohol policies and what they should be is an absolute nonsense, Lambley told ABC radio.  “I think that she should be listening to us more than we should be listening to [her].”

Newman said Australia as a whole needed to reconsider how to best address the problems related to alcohol because they are not limited to the indigenous populations.

“We need to tackle alcohol abuse issues across the board,” he said.  Newman added that the laws have not worked in reducing alcohol-related violence.

But Queensland’s minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Glen Elmes disputed that claim, saying the bans were effective in reducing crime and improving school attendance.  Elmes added that under the review, any community wanting to lift the ban will have to show it can ensure public safety and not reverse the school attendance rates.

For further information, please see:

The Australian — Abbott, Gillard United on Grog Bans — 6 February 2013

Big Pond News — Butt Out of NT Grog Decisions – CLP — 6 February 2013

Brisbane Times — Alcohol Bans Discriminatory: Newman — 6 February 2013

Townsville Bulletin — Alcohol Bans Discriminatory: Newman — 6 February 2013

Herald Sun — Aboriginal Alcohol Ban Not Solution, Says Member for Cook David Kempton — 10 October 2012

Courier Mail — Indigenous Councils to Rule on Liquor Bans — 3 October 2012

Israel Arrests Palestinian Lawmakers, Activists

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel — Last Monday, Israel arrested 23 Hamas members in the West Bank. Three of them were lawmakers.

At least 23 Palestinians, including 3 legislators, were arrested by Israeli military last Monday. (Photo Courtesy of Palestinian News Network)

The three lawmakers, Ahmed Attoun, Hatem Qafisha, and Mohammed Al-Talhad were arrested during the early hours of Monday morning. The three men are part of the Change and Reform Bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, a Hamas backed organization. At around 5 A.M., during morning prayers, Israeli forces in military Jeeps raided several cities throughout the West Bank and arrested the political leaders.

“It is a criminal act that will not succeed in stopping their struggle,” Hamas said in a statement made shortly after the three men were arrested. “We in the Hamas movement strongly condemn the campaign of arbitrary arrests that took in dozens of Hamas leaders.”

An Israeli military spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied that any lawmakers were arrested. “25 Palestinians were arrested, 23 of them belonged to Hamas,” she said. In confirming that arrests were made last Monday, she did not disclose the names of those arrested nor gave any reason as to why they were arrested.

Senior Palestinian Official Hanan Ashrawi denounced the arrests, describing them as “deliberate Israeli plans to destabilize the internal situation, interfere in Palestinian institutions… and deal a blow to national reconciliation” between Fatah and Hamas, who govern the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, respectively.

Hamas also reports that 21 well known activists were additionally among the arrests made in the West Bank.

A Hamas affiliated website stated that detainees’ family members recounted that “soldiers broke into their homes with dogs, arrested activists and took them to Israeli security facilities.”

Palestinian sources also reported that Israeli soldiers broke into the headquarters of Tul Karm, a charitable organization, and confiscated papers and equipment, including computers.

Like Ashrawi, Hamas and the Ramallah-based Ahrar Center for Human Rights believe that the arrests are intended to “undermine Palestinian reconciliation efforts between the radical Islamist movement ruling Gaza and its main rival, President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.

Hamas, a vocal critic of the security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and Israel, condemned the arrests but refrained from making any criticisms about the Palestinian Authority at the moment.

The recent arrest raises the number of lawmakers held in Israeli jails to sixteen. of those imprisoned, thirteen members represent the Change and Reform Bloc, and out of the remaining three, two are from the ruling Fatah party. Ahmad Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is also in an Israeli prison, serving several life terms.

For further information, please see:

Al Arabiya — Israel Arrests Hamas Lawmakers in West Bank — 4 February 2013

Gulf News — Israel Arrests 25 Hamas Members in West Bank — 4 February 2013

Haaretz — Israel Arrests Dozens of Hamas Activists, Lawmakers in West Bank — 4 February 2013

JTA — Israeli Security Forces Arrest Hamas Lawmakers — 4 February 2013

Palestine News Network — Sixteen Lawmakers Held in Israeli Jails, Says Group — 4 February 2013

Reuters — Israel Arrests 23 Hamas men Including Three Lawmakers in West Bank — 4 February 2013

 

EU Exposes Gang’s People-Smuggling Network Scheme

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe 

LONDON, United Kingdom – European police arrested 103 people who are suspected of participating in a “major people-smuggling criminal network.” The network smuggled people primarily from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey.

Criminal gang created a network that smuggled illegal migrants into the European Union. (Photo Courtesy of DailyMail)

Europol, a joint law enforcement agency in the Union, conducted searches in 117 houses that involved more than 1,200 police officers. Laptops, mobile phones, cash, bank statements, semi-automatic weapons and ammunition were just some of the memorabilia seized.

The exposed smuggling emphasized a problem of migrants who are desperate to escape poverty and conflict in their home countries. As a result, illegal immigrants pay criminal gangs £1,500 to smuggle them out of Britain via Turkey and the Balkans.

Europol reported that the smuggled individuals were transported in “inhuman” conditions. Moreover, “the migrants were often smuggled in inhuman and dangerous conditions, such as in very small hidden compartments in the floor of buses or trucks, in freight trains or on boats.”

The smuggle network originally was exposed when journalist, Paul Kenyon, claimed to be a Moldovan illegal immigrant named “Chris”, and recorded a meeting with a man he accused of being a fixer for the group. The man explained that the gang would smuggle groups of illegal immigrants across the Channel in the back of a lorry.

According to the International Police Organization, “People-smuggling syndicates are drawn by the huge profits that can be made, while benefiting from weak legislation and the relatively low risk of detection, prosecution and arrest.” The International Organization for Migration (I.O.M.) determined that smuggling individuals could garner profits from $3 to $10 billion a year.

The I.O.M. clarifies that smuggling indicates individuals obtaining entry into a state of which the individual is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident, for financial or material gain.” Conversely, “Trafficking, on the other hand, occurs for the purpose of exploitation, often involving forced labor and prostitution.”

Although the illegal immigrants willingly traveled in search of a better life, people-smuggling is, nevertheless, not a victimless crime. The I.O.M. said, “Numerous other crimes are oftentimes linked to people smuggling – human trafficking, identity fraud, corruption and money laundering – creating shadow governance systems that undercut the rule of law.”

For further information, please see:

The New York Times – Europeans Dismantle People-Smuggling Ring – 31 January 2013

BBC – Europe Police ‘Smash People-Smuggling Ring’ – 30 January 2013

The Independent – Criminal Ganges Are Smuggling Immigrants Out of the UK – 21 January 2013

DailyMail – Illegal Immigrants Pay £1,500 to Be Smuggled OUT of Britain: Fears Gangs Are Helping Foreign Criminals Flee the Country – 20 January 2013

DR Congo Faces New Armed Rebel Group

By Heba Girgis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KINSHASA, DR Congo—The Democratic Republic of Congo has already been struggling to stem unrest in its eastern region. Now another challenge arises. A newly formed armed rebel group has just announced its goal of seeking to topple President Kabila’s government regime.

Thousands of people flee from their homes following the fighting in the eastern region. (Photo Courtesy of PressTV)

This group claims to have the support of other civil society members as well as political figures from South Kivu and North Kivu. The group also claims to be striving for justice “for high treason” by the President. This group has entered a busy arena. DR Congo has already been trying to contain rebels from the M23 (Movement of March 23) group that have been fighting the DR Congo army since last May in a neighboring North Kivu province.

The new rebel group said that it wants the United Nations to help it organize “democratic elections and rapidly reinstate political order capable of reducing the misery of Congolese people, and build the foundations of a real republic with proper participatory democracy.”

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Franz Rauchenstein, noted that “many people have had to flee out of fear for their safety. Civilians have also suffered violence, looting and extortion,” he added.

Laetitia Courtois, the head of the ICRC sub-delegation in the province, also commented on the violence: “Violence between armed groups is now on the rise again in South Kivu. The fighting is getting closer and closer to the city of Bukavu. At the same time, clashes are affecting remote areas, such as the Kahale territory to the north of Bukavy, and the Walungu and Shabunda territories to the southwest.

During the month of January, the ICRC has transferred dozens of people wounded in the fighting from Walungu to nearby hospitals in Bukavu. The ICRC has also moved six severely malnourished children from the Kabare territory to Bukavu.

Over the past few decades, the DR Congo has faced many problems including extreme poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east that has continued since 1998 and that has also left 5.5 million people dead.

In response to this violence, the United Nations have agreed to add another 2,000 soldiers to its already in place peace keeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This, what they call an “intervention brigade,” will help to tackle the armed group that have continued to prolong conflicts in the eastern part of the country.

 

For further information, please see:

The New Age – New Rebel Group Forms in DR Congo – 3 February 2013

PressTV – Humanitarian Situation Worsening in DRC – 3 February 2013

AllAfrica – Civilians Suffer Amid Shifting Centers of Violence – 1 February 2013

Political Analysis South Africa – UN Increases Commitment to the Democratic Republic of the Congo – 29 January 2013