News

Nine Lawyers Accused of Terrorist Affiliations

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

ANKARA, Turkey — Yesterday, a court in Istanbul ordered the pre-trial detention of nine human rights lawyers.  Turkish authorities had charged them under anti-terror laws, claiming that the lawyers were affiliated with the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party (RPLP), a banned terrorist organization.  The nine were among twelve lawyers arrested, eleven during early morning raids conducted on January 18, and one arrested on January 20.

Human Rights Lawyers who advocated those accused under anti-terror laws were charged and detained under such laws themselves. (Photo Courtesy of Hurriyet Daily News)

The RPLP, a pro-Marxist organization, is responsible for many assassinations and bombings since the 1970’s.  They have not been as active in recent years.  Nearly 70 people accused by the Turkish government for being affiliated with the RPLP were also detained for questioning.  Among those targeted in the crackdown, aside from activist lawyers, were journalists and musicians.

Opposition parties expressed their outrage to the arrests, including the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD), in which all nine lawyers were members of.  “Police raids against lawyers at 4 a.m., their arrest and imprisonment are part of a wider clampdown on those who oppose the government,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, the senior Turkey researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Mahmut Tanal, the deputy to the main opposition party, Republican People’s Party (CHP), said that he believed the attorneys were detained because of the part they played in advocating for those accused in some of Turkey’s most controversial human rights abuse incidents.  “This is an attempt to put lawyers on trial for artificial links with terror organizations.  This is intimidation for all lawyers and citizens.  Accusations and questions addressed to the lawyers show that there’s no legal protection for citizens in Turkey,” said Tanal.

Hasip Kaplan, a lawmaker for the Peace and Democracy Party, said that charging human rights lawyers under anti-terror laws prevent them from diligently defending people accused under anti-terror laws, or speaking critically of the Turkish government.  “The first message given to lawyers is that lawyers defending the suspects of [alleged terrorist] organizations could be put on trial for links with the same organizations.  The second message is that their participation in public demonstrations could be considered evidence of being a member of an illegal organization…,” said Kaplan.  Kaplan said that the Turkish government’s incentive in charging people under anti-terror laws is to spread fear in society from participating in protests, and, for lawyers especially, to not defend anyone accused under such laws.  “Those lawyers were detained just because of their professional activities…,” said Kaplan.

Human Rights groups frequently criticize Turkey for charging activists and journalists under their broad anti-terrorism laws.  The charges are often accompanied by prolonged pretrial detention.

For further information, please see:

Committee to Protect Journalists — Several Journalists Jailed in new Turkish Crackdown — 22 January 2013

Human Rights Watch — Turkey: Nine Human Rights Lawyers Imprisoned — 22 January 2013

Turkish Weekly — More Lawyers Arrested in Crackdown on Leftists — 22 January 2013

Hurriyet Daily News — Nine Lawyers Arrested on Alleged Terrorism Links — 21 January 2013

Washington Post — Lawyers Arrested in Turkey for Alleged Links to Leftist Militants — 21 January 2013

 

Religious Group Defends Exemptions in New Australian Human Rights Bill

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

CANBERRA, Australia — As the Australian government tries to overhaul anti-discrimination legislation, the Christian lobby is rejecting any effort to eliminate religious exemptions in the bill.

Australia’s Christian Lobby calls suggestions that a proposed law will allow religious groups to discriminate against sinners is overblown. (Photo Courtesy of the Herald Sun)

The draft of the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill integrates five current discrimination laws into one law, but it allows religious organizations to discriminate against certain groups lawfully when hiring or firing someone.

“Anti-discrimination laws should be about protecting those affected by discrimination, not protecting those who conduct the discrimination themselves,” said New South Wales independent MP Alex Greenwich, who has been a long-term campaigner for gay and lesbian rights.

Greenwich and others urged Prime Minister Julia Gillard to reconsider whether the religious exemptions should be allowed, especially when taxpayer money is involved.

“I hope the government seizes the opportunity of this review,” Greenwich told ABC News, “to make some real change to help those who are affected by discrimination on a daily basis.”

But Jim Wallace, head of the Australian Christian Lobby, said religious groups need to be able to hire people who share and reflect their values and philosophies.

“The church wants to reflect through its staff the philosophy of Christ,” he said to Sky News.

Wallace also downplayed the issue and described the effort to characterize the exemption as a “freedom” to discriminate gays and other people they consider sinners as “a complete beat-up.”

“I’m not aware of any Christian organization that has refused to hire anyone (based on their sexuality,” he told reporters.  “I’ve looked.”

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Australian Human Rights Commission received nearly two dozen complaints in 2012 from people claiming they were discriminated against at work based on their sexuality.  While the commission kept no record of whether the work was with a religious organization, its president said some of the complaints were against religious groups.

“We can and do receive complaints about discrimination in employment with faith-based organizations on the ground of sexual preference,” Gillian Triggs told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Some critics of the exemption also worry that faith-based groups, including schools and hospitals, will be able to refuse to hire women who are pregnant or potentially pregnant.

Anna Brown, the advocacy and strategic litigation director of the Human Rights Law Centre, called the bill a “missed opportunity” to narrow the broad exemptions available to religious groups.

Still, Triggs called the bill an important first step in creating a coherent federal human rights system.  But she added that more work needs to be done.

“In a secular society such as Australia,” she said, “one does not want to give any sort of particular priority to one freedom above the right of people to non-discriminatory employment.”

For further information, please see:

Sydney Morning Herald — Religious Groups Free to Discriminate Against Pregnant Women — 17 January 2013

Sydney Morning Herald — Review ‘Missed Opportunity’ to Separate Church and State — 17 January 2013

ABC News — Christian Lobby Rejects Push to Remove Religious Exemptions — 16 January 2013

Herald Sun — Sinners Story a Complete Beat-up, Says Australian Christian Lobby — 16 January 2013

Pakistan and India Agree to “De-Escalate” Tension in Kashmir After U.N.’s Request

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW DELHI, India – On Wednesday, India and Pakistan’s chiefs of operation along the Line of Control reached an agreement to “de-escalate” military tensions in Kashmir.  Tensions arose between Pakistan and India after the deaths of two Indian and Pakistani soldiers last week.

Soldiers paying respect to those who have been killed in the dispute. (Photo Courtesy of Aljazeera)

“An understanding has been arrived at between the two director-generals of military operations to de-escalate the situation along the Line of Control,” shared spokesperson Jagdeep Dahiya.

According to BBC News, the military operations’ director of the Pakistani army agreed to the de-escalation after calling his Indian equivalent to “protest strongly” a “ceasefire violation” by Indian soldiers that killed a Pakistani soldier along the Line of Control Tuesday night.

On January 10th, the U.N. urged both countries to ceasefire and initiate dialogue.  The United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) made the request even as it received a complaint from Pakistan.  In the complaint, Pakistan claimed that Indian troops had purportedly crossed the Line of Control and “raided” a border post on January 6th. In response, India denied the allegation.

For the past 60 years, Kashmir has been a territory in distress and therefore, violent exchanges are not uncommon. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their separation in 1947, two of which were over the region of Kashmir.

On Tuesday, India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, conveyed that the deaths of Indian soldiers last week, one of which included a beheading, were “unacceptable.”

In response, Pakistani’s Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, stated that India was “war-mongering” and this was “detrimental to the peace process between the two countries.”

According to The Tribune, on Monday, the Indian army’s chief of staff instructed his commanders to give an “aggressive” response to any shots fired by Pakistani forces along the Line of Control.

“We expect our commanders to be aggressive,” General Bikram Singh said prior to a meeting between Indian and Pakistani commanders.  “The orders are very clear: when provoked, I expect my unit commanders should fire back,” continued the general.

Nonetheless, an Indian military source conveyed to AFP that there has been no cross-border firing since the two director-generals spoke.

For more information, please see:

Aljazeera – India and Pakistan ‘to ease’ Kashmir tensions – 16 January 2013

BBC News – Kashmir crisis: Indian and Pakistan agree ‘de-escalation’ – 16 January 2013

The Tribune – Pakistan, India agree to ‘de-escalate’ border tensions – 16 January 2013

The Hindu – U.N. urges India, Pakistan to de-escalate tensions through dialogue – 16 January 2013

 

 

Deadly Wave of Attacks Strike Iraq

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq was struck with a wave of attacks last Wednesday, killing 29 people and injuring 235 people.  The attacks occurred within Baghdad and in northern Iraq.  The attacks are considered, so far, to be the deadliest of the year.

Kirkuk was the site of Wednesday’s deadliest attacks. (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Wednesday’s attacks were aimed at Kurdish targets within the north.  In Kirkuk, two suicide bombers targeted an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.  Another blast appeared to target a compound housing local offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish Regional President. Sadiq Omar Rasul, Provincial Health Chief of the region, said that  a car bomb killed at least 26 people and wounded 190 others.

In the town of Tuz Khurmatu, located north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed five people and wounded 40 others.  The attack happened near the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi President.

In Baghdad, officials said that five attacks killed six people, while bombings in the towns of Baiji, Hawija, and Tikrit, all north of Baghdad, killed three people and wounded seven others.

According to an AFP tally, Wednesday’s overall death toll was the highest since December 17.

The attacks occurred a day after the killing of Eifan Saadoun Al-Issawi, a Sunni member of Parliament.  He was killed by a suicide bomber who pretended to meet him and then blew himself up.  The assassination occurred in the Anbar Province west of Baghdad, an area of Iraq which has seen heavy protests by the Sunni minority against the Shi’ite-led government.  “The moment he stepped out of the car to check out this road between Fallujah and Amiriya, at this moment there was a man,” said Sohaib Haqi, an aide to Al-Issawi.  “He came to him, hugged him, said ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘God is great’), and blew himself up.”  The attack also killed two bodyguards, while several other people within the vicinity of the blast were injured.

On Wednesday, hundreds of mourners attended Al-Issawi’s funeral outside of the predominately Sunni town of Fallujah.  A spokesman for the Anbar Provincial Council said that officials declared a three day mourning period in Al-Issawi’s honor.

The violence follows a political crisis which has pitted Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki against several of his ministers in provincial elections, which measures support given to the ministers respectively in the run up to the general election which occurs next year.  Anti-government demonstrations have also swept the Sunni-majority areas of the nation.  Demonstrators believe that Sunnis have been targeted and arrested by the Shi’ite led government under anti-terror law.

For further information, please see:

Al Arabiya — Wave of Iraq Attacks Kill 29 — 16 January 2013

Al Jazeera — Deadly Suicide Blasts Strike Iraq’s North — 16 January 2013

Al Bawaba — Iraq’s Protest Region Faces Suicide Bomb Attack — 15 January 2013

BBC News — Iraq Sunni MP Killed by Suicide Bomber — 15 January 2013

France Joins Malian Army Against Militant Rebels

By Heba Girgis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BAMAKO, Mali—French troops have just launched their first ground operation attack against Islamist rebels today, Wednesday, after six days of air strikes. Officials have noted that these air strikes, however, have raised the risk of revenge attacks on French citizens in other parts of Africa. The French ambassador Christian Rouyer told journalists yesterday that, “French interests are threatened all over. Yes we are worried that our interests in Bamako could be targeted by attacks.”

A French army officer talks to his new Malian counterpart. (Photo Courtesy of Voice of America)

This first direct operation involving Western troops brought French soldiers to a desert village in central Mali. The Malian colonel said that his own army’s ground troops have now joined the French forces and encircled the village of Diabaly which had been seized by Islamist fighters the day before. Now, the colonel said, the French-Malian group is engaged in trying to extricate the rebels who had taken over homes in the village.

French President Francois Hollande has about 1,700 troops committed to the mission in Mali, with 800 troops already in the country. Hollande’s goal is to destroy or capture the militants who split the country in two last year, and just last week began moving south toward the capital of Bamako. “Our goal is that when we leave, there will be security in Mali, a legitimate government, and no terrorists threatening the security of Mali,” Hollande said two days ago in Dubai. Hollande also noted that the French forces would remain in Mali until stability returned.

France is not the only country coming to Mali’s aid. West African military chiefs said that the French troops would soon be supported by about 2,000 more troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and several other regional powers. Ivory Coast General Soumaila Bakayoko, who presided over a meeting on the regional force in Bamako said, “they are coming to fight and not for a parade. We are coming for battle and that is clear.”

The military conflict in this region broadened as Islamist militants seized a foreign run gas field near the Algeria-Libya border, taking at least 20 hostages, including Americans in order to retaliate against the French intervention in Mali and Algeria’s cooperation in the effort. The French expect that this kind of retaliation will not end here.

 

For further information, please see:

The New York Times – French and Malian Ground Troops Confront Islamists in Seized Mali Village – 16 January 2013

Reuters – France Launches Ground Campaign Against Mali Rebels – 16 January 2013

San Francisco Chronicle – French Ground Forces Move North to Attack Mali Islamist Rebels – 16 January 2013

Voice of America – Africa’s French Citizens Take Islamist Threats in Stride – 16 January 2013