By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel – On August 5 the international human rights watch dog Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report that condemns the Palestinian Organization Hamas for rocket attacks that occurred predominantly between November 2008 and January 2009.

The report accuses Hamas, as the ruling organization of Gaza, of war crimes for these rocket attacks.  The report also implicates other militant groups in Palestinian territories.  However, HRW states that, as the governing group in Gaza, Hamas is responsible both for the attacks that it carried out, and for the attacks of other groups which could have been prevented by Hamas. Hamas has previously used its influence to stop rocket attacks by other groups in Palestinian territories.

The rockets used in the attack were made in Gaza with simple materials like pipes and fertilizer. Due the home-made nature of the rockets, they are nearly impossible to aim with accuracy. Using a rocket that is more likely to inadvertently harm citizens is more likely to violate the Geneva Conventions ban on the use of indiscriminate weapons.

The rocket attacks violate the first additional protocol to the 1977 Geneva Convention (Protocol I), and the 1907 Hague Regulations, as the attacks intentionally or indiscriminately targeted civilians.  According to HRW, these laws apply to non-governmental groups like Hamas, just as the rules apply to other nations. Intentionally targeting civilians is prohibited by both of these covenants, as well as general human rights principles. The 1977 Geneva Convention Protocol I Article 48 requires militants to distinguish combatants from civilians, and to avoid civilians while targeting only military objectives and other combatants if possible. Civilians can lose their immunity but only for the time which they participate directly in the hostilities.

The rockets unlawfully struck populated areas up to 40 kilometers inside Israel, placing roughly 800,000 Israeli civilians at risk. Rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel killed two girls and wounded others in Gaza during this period. Palestinian armed groups that launched rockets from densely populated areas also unlawfully put Gazan civilians at risk of Israeli counterstrikes.

“Hamas forces violated the laws of war both by firing rockets deliberately and indiscriminately at Israeli cities and by launching them from populated areas and endangering Gazan civilians,” HRW Program Director Iain Levine said.

HRW recognizes the much larger number of Palestinian casualties because of Israeli attack. However, they emphasize that one human rights e violation or war crime, does not justify another for retaliation.

HRW recommends that all such rocket attacks being conducted by Hamas should be stopped, and Hamas should prevent other organizations from continuing the attack. Additionally, Hamas should publicly denounce the attacks and conduct an investigation on the attacks, and stop perpetrating the acts from densely populated areas in Gaza which thereby put Palestinian civilians at greater risk. 

For more information, please see:

Haaretz – Human Rights Watch slams Hamas rocket fire as war crime – 9 August 2009

AFP – Hamas Rockets a War Crime: Human Rights Watch – 6 August 2009

Human Rights Watch – Gaza/ Israel: Hamas Rocket Attacks on Civilians Unlawful – 6 August 2009 

VOA News – Human Rights Watch Says Hamas Rocket Attacks are War Crime – 6 August 2009

Human Rights Watch – Rockets from Gaza Harm to Civilians from Palestinian Armed Groups’ Rocket Attacks – 5 August 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
 
TEHRAN, Iran – On August 8, a top judiciary official in Iran acknowledged that some of the protestors detained after the June 12 presidential election had been tortured.  This was the first such acknowledgement by a senior government official.
 
Qorbanali Dori-Najabadi, Iran’s prosecutor general and the official who made the acknowledgement, said that “mistakes” were made during the interrogations, and “those who were involved should be punished.”  Dori-Najabadi’s statement was made as the government held the second day of hearings for the approximately one hundred jailed protesters.
 
Protests broke out after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the presidential election.  Many Iranians believe the election was rigged, and that those who were jailed were tortured in attempts to elicit “confessions” implicating Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leading reformist presidential candidate, and Mehdi Karroubi, another reformist candidate, for trying to incite a “velvet revolution.”
 
Mousavi has gained the support of many of the country’s reformist clerics, including former president Mohammad Khatami.
 
After the first day of hearings on August 1, Khatami questioned the legitimacy and constitutionality of the trials, and said that the court erroneously relied on “confessions taken under certain circumstances which are not valid.”
 
Many of the arrests and interrogations were carried out by the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij militia.  In the past, the Iranian judiciary has been unable to hold members of either group accountable, and it is unclear whether it will be able to do so in this instance.
 
For more information, please see:
 
New York Times – Iranian Acknowledges Torture of Some Protesters – 8 August 2009
 
ABC (Australian Broacasting Corporation) – Iran Protesters Suffered “Medieval Torture” – 3 August 2009
 
Al-Arabiya – Iran Protesters Confessed After Torture:  Mousavi – 2 August 2009
 
BBC News – Torture Claim Against Iran Trial – 2 August 2009
 
The Guardian – Jailed Iran Reformists “Tortured to Confess Foreign Plot” – 26 June 2009

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

ALGIERS, Algeria– After a brief argument between a migrant Chinese worker and an Algerian store owner over the parking space in front of the Algerian’s store a brawl broke out between about one hundred Algerians and migrant Chinese.

Many people wielded knifes and bludgeons. The parties dispersed after the local police showed up with an ambassador. Ten people were injured in the dispute, and two Chinese stores were looted according to an unnamed official at the ministry of foreign affairs.

The attack took place in the Bab Ezzour district in the eastern part of Algiers. An estimated 35,000 migrant Chinese workers live in Algeria. An estimated 8,000 work in the building sector, according to Agence France Presse.

Tensions have existed since the migrant workers came to Algeria. During the recent economic downturn, many Algerians blame the migrant workers for taking jobs that would otherwise go to Algerians, increasing tensions.

Additionally, the June 26 brawl between Uighur Muslim Chinese and ethnic Han Chinese stirred more negativity against the Chinese. Al Queda in the Islamic Mahgreb, or AQIM threatened revenge for their fellow Muslims that were injured in that attack. After this threat the Chinese embassy encouraged it’s citizens living in Algeria to exercise caution.

China is hoping that this attack is an isolated incidence, and is waiting for Algeria to take any necessary action. Given China’s extensive economic interests in Algeria, with multiple engineering contracts, and a stake in Algeria’s eleven billion dollar highway project, they will be hesitant to tell their citizens to abandon their jobs and come home.

For more information, please see:

Afrik- Xenophobia against Chinese on Rise in Africa – 5 August 2009

China Daily- 10 Chinese Injured in Clash with Algerians – 5 August 2009

BBC – Chinese Migrants in Algiers Clash – 4 August 2009

Reuters- Factbox: China’s Economic Interests in Algeria – 4 August 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
 
MOSCOW, Russia – Tensions in the South Caucasus are rising as the one-year anniversary of the war in South Ossetia and Georgia approaches.
 
On August 1, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Georgia of “aggressively rearming” and trying to incite violence in South Ossetia. The Ministry vowed that Russia would “use all means and resources available to protect the citizens of the republic of South Ossetia and the Russian servicemen.” The statements came after the South Ossetian government reported that two rounds of mortar fire entered from Georgian territory earlier that day.
 
Last summer, tensions between separatist government in South Ossetia and President Mikheil Saakashvili’s government in Georgia erupted into a five-day armed conflict that began on August 7, 2009. Georgia attacked the Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, in response to reports that South Ossetians had attacked ethnic Georgian villages in the province. Since French-brokered ceasefire, the region has been home to 240 members of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM), which monitors signs of aggression between Georgia and the breakaway provinces.
 
Even with the EUMM observers, tensions have remained high. Russia has refused to fully withdraw its troops, as called for in the ceasefire agreement, and has said it plans to maintain its force of 7,000 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia indefinitely. Small skirmishes continue to plague the border regions, though the EU special envoy has downplayed the violence, vaguely calling the hostilities “more virtual” and posed little threat that any substantial violence would erupt.
 
In response to the Russian Defense Ministry statement, Georgia accused Russia of restarting “with enhanced vigor its information war against Georgia” on the eve of the anniversary of last year’s war.
 
On August 6, Russian Defense spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said that Georgia could not regain the trust of its regional neighbors until it signed a non-aggression treaty with South Ossetia and Abkhazia. After the August 2008 war, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent republics, while the majority of the international community continues to recognize the areas as Georgian provinces.
 
For more information, please see:
 
China View – EU Envoy Dismisses Tensions in S Ossetia as “Virtual”– 6 August 2009
 
RIA Novosti – NATO’s Eastern Expansion Has Stopped Short– 6 August 2009
 
Al-Jazeera – Georgia Not “Aggressively Rearming”– 5 August 2009
 
Voice of America – Russian FM Lashes Out at Georgian President– 5 August 2009
 
New York Times – Russia Accuses Georgia of Raising Tension After Report of Attack in South Ossetia– 1 August 2009

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East Photo:   A Palestinian woman confronted Israeli riot police as she was evicted from her home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Sunday.  Courtesy New York Times.

EAST JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Early on the morning of August 2, Israel security forces evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem.  The Ghawi and Hanoun families, with thirty-eight and seventeen members, respectively, had lived in the houses for generations.

The evictions came after a drawn-out legal battle over the title to the land in the Sheikh Jarrah district, a wealthy, predominantly Arab neighborhood.  Witnesses reported that as soon as the Palestinians were forcibly removed, Israeli nationalists moved in.

The evictions have drawn heavy international criticism from the United States, United Nations, and European Union.  A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State stated that the moves in East Jerusalem are not in “keeping with the Israeli obligations under the Roadmap,” referring to the 2003 “Roadmap for peace” plan.

Saeb Erakat, the Senior Palestinian negotiator with Israel, said he was outraged by the Israeli actions.

“Israel is once again showing its utter failure to respect international law,” Mr. Erakat said.  “Now settlers from abroad are accommodating themselves and their belongings in the Palestinian houses and nineteen newly homeless children will have nowhere to sleep.”

Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesperson, attempted to downplay the controversy, describing the dispute as a legal one between two private parties who had title to a property in East Jerusalem.  In the suit filed by the Israeli settlers, the Palestinians had allegedly violated an agreement under which they were allowed to live in the houses.

Mr. Regev further denied that the evictions were part of a systematic effort to cleanse Palestinians from East Jerusalem and replacing them with Israeli settlers.

Maher Hanoun, head of one of the evicted families, was on the street following the removal.

“I do not need a tent or rice,” Mr. Hanoun said.  “What I need is to return to my house, where I and my children were born.”

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – US Criticizes Israeli Eviction Move– 4 August 2009

Jerusalem Post – EU Protests Evictions of Palestinians from East Jerusalem– 4 August 2009

CNN – Israel Defends Jerusalem Evictions-3 August 2009

BBC News – Israel Condemned Over Evictions– 2 August 2009

New York Times – Israel Evicts Palestinians from Homes– 2 August 2009