By Nykoel Dinardo
Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations (UN) concluded an inquiry into parts of the Gaza offensive and found that Israel is responsible for damage to seven UN facilities.  The inquiry covered damage to nine facilities total.  Of the other two, Hamas was determined to be responsible for the damage to one, and it is unsure who is responsible for the damage to the last facility. 

The investigation was led by Ian Martin, former head of Amnesty International.  The damage was done to UN clinics, schools and offices.  UN staff and other civilians were also injured or killed in the incidents.  The investigation’s scope was limited only to damage to UN property and injury or death of staff; however, the investigatory staff stated that the other injuries should be investigated under international humanitarian law.

The investigatory committee found that Israel’s conduct was negligent or reckless. It further found that the Israeli military failed to take adequate precautions to protect the UN premises.  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said that he would seek damages from Israel for the damage.  The damage rendered by Israel has been estimated at approximately $11 Million.  Damage by Hamas has been estimated at $29, 000. 

Israeli has responded to the investigations by claiming that they were “patently biased.”  Israeli Defense Force officials claim that the UN fails to consider the fact that they were fighting against a terrorist organization.  Furthermore, they claim that many of the UN facilities were hit after Hamas used them as bases and fired rockets at Israel.  The UN investigatory committee has rejected this argument in several cases.

For more information, please see:

Haaretz – UN Demand For IDF Compensation in Gaza Could Reach $11 Million – 6 May 2009

Times – UN Report Condemns Israel over Gaza War – 6 May 2009

The Washington Times – U.N. seeks Israeli ‘reparations’ – 6 May 2009

Guardian – UN accuses Israel of Gaza ‘Negligence or Recklessness’ – 5 May 2009

Reuters – UN Report Accuses Israel of Recklessness in Gaza – 5 May 2009

Voice of America – UN Report Slams Israel for Damages During Gaza Offensive – 5 May 2009

By Lauren Mellinger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria  – On January 27, Human Rights Watch released a statement reporting that the  status of inmates at Sidnaya military prison is still unknown.  The prison has been at the center of controversy since July 2008, after prison guards were accused of using lethal force in order to put down a prison riot.   

At least 1,500 inmates are imprisoned in Sidnaya, located northwest of Damascus.  Syrian authorities maintain that prison guards “quickly restored” order after the riot began, and publicly blame Sidnaya inmates convicted on charges of terrorism and religious extremism for instigating the riot.  According to Syrian human rights organizations reports, at least 25 inmates have died as a result of the prison guards use of lethal force in quelling the riots, although HRW reports indicate that ten people died in the riot, including one police officer.

In October 2008, after several attempts to obtain an update on the status of the prisoners from the Ministry of Justice failed to produce any information, 17 mothers of prisoners detained in Sidnaya publicly appealed to the Syrian government, in particular to Syrian President Bashar al-Asad.  They urged the government to provide them with information on family members detained at the prison.  According to the statement released by the mothers, they were aware of “the burial of bodies in [the town of] Qatana at night,” on the order of the Syrian security services and they were concerned their relatives may have been among the dead.

Since July, the fate of the inmates has been unknown, as government authorities have prohibited any outside contact with the prisoners, “imposing a complete information blackout,” including banning the use of cell phones around the perimeter of the prison. 

On December 18, residents of the town of Sidnaya reported seeking smoke emerge from the prison and the sound of gunshots.  One resident reported to HRW that after smoke was seen emerging from the prison, Syrian authorities closed the road leading from the town to the prison in order to accommodate military trucks en route to the prison but that the road was reopened the following day.

According to Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa Director at HRW, “Syria’s long blackout on the fate of at least 1,500 detainees is nothing less than scandalous…The lack of information about Sidnaya has caused enormous anguish to the families and fueled fears and rumors…The Syrian authorities need to come clean and allow families and lawyers access to Sidnaya.” 

HRW urged the Syrian government to reveal the status of the inmates, and to begin an allow lawyers to begin an independent investigation into the fate of prisoners who were injured or killed as a result of lethal force used by prison guards in the July riot. 

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Syria: Reveal Inmates’ Conditions – 27 January 2009

Reuters – Reports of More Trouble at Syria Jail-Rights Group – 27 January 2009

Taiwan News – HRW: Syria Must Speak Out on Prison Riot Victims – 27 January 2009

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

MADRID, Spain – On January 29, a Spanish High Court judge, Fernando Andreu, announced that the court will launch an investigation of seven Israelis over an attack on July 22, 2002.  The investigation relates to the decision to drop a one ton bomb on a housing block in a raid targeting Salah Shehada, a Hamas commander.  The attack killed 14 civilians, including nine children, and injured over 150 others.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights brought the case before the Spanish courts on behalf of the families of the victims.  Main targets of the investigation are then-Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Dan Halutz, the then air force commander of the Israeli army.  Other persons of interest include: Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, former GOC Southern Command Doron Almog, former National Security Council Head Giora Eiland and Brigadier-General (Ret.) Mike Herzog.

Not surprisingly, Ben-Eliezer strongly criticized the Spanish court’s announcement; claiming that Spanish law is siding with terrorist organizations.  “This is a ridiculous decision and, even more than ridiculous, it is outrageous,” Ben-Eliezer said. “Terror organizations are using the courts in the free world, the methods of democratic countries, to file suit against a country that is operating against terror.”

Ben-Eliezer said he does not regret his decision to bomb Gaza.  “Salah Shehadeh was a Hamas activist, an arch-murderer whose hands were stained with the blood of about 100 Israelis,” he said.  Shehadeh was the leader of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, and Israel claims that he was responsible for attacks against hundreds of Israeli civilians.

Current Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, also criticized the Spanish court’s investigation.  Barak stated, “Anybody calling the liquidation of a terrorist a ‘crime against humanity’ is living in an upside-down world. All senior personnel in the military establishment acted appropriately, in the name of the state of Israel, through their commitment to ensure the security of Israeli citizens.”

Spanish law permits universal jurisdiction for certain crimes; such jurisdiction allows the prosecution of foreigners for such crimes as genocide, crimes against humanity and torture committed anywhere in the world.  On January 30, Israeli Foreign Ministry Tzipi Livni stated that she spoke with her Spanish counterpart.  According to Livni, “Spain has decided to change its legislation in connection with universal jurisdiction and this can prevent the abuse of the Spanish legal system.”

However, Spanish state television TVE quoted government sources as saying the possibility of a legal “adjustment or modification” would not be retroactive and would not affect the case before the courts.

For more information, please see:

Jerusalem Post – “We’ll Amend Law to Prevent Such Probes” – 31 January 2009

CNN – Top Israeli Official Blasts Spanish Court’s Probe – 30 January 2009

International Herald Tribune – Livni Says Spain to Drop Universal Legislation – 30 January 2009

Reuters – Israel Says Spain Says it Will Amend War Crimes Law – 30 January 2009

Al Bawaba – Spanish Court to Investigate Israeli Officials for Alleged ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ – 29 January 2009

Reuters – Spanish Court Investigates 2002 Israeli Gaza Attack – 29 January 2009

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

KISSUFIM CROSSING, Israel/Gaza – On January 27, a bomb attack killed one Israeli soldier and injured three others as they patrolled the Kissufim border crossing.  According Israeli military authorities, it is unknown whether the explosive device was remotely detonated or pressured triggered.  This is the most serious exchange since the unilateral ceasefires were declared.

Following the attack, Palestinian witnesses report that a gunfight claimed the life a Palestinian farmer.  Some sources indicate that the gunfight was an immediate response to the bomb attack.  However, Dr Moaiya Hassanain of Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that the farmer was killed several miles away.

In confirming the border attack, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, added that Israel must respond to “whoever fires towards us, places a bomb [under us] or smuggles weapons.”  Also, Israel’s Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, warned that Israel would retaliate the grave ceasefire violation at the Kissufim crossing.  Mr Barak said that Israel “cannot accept” the attack. “We will respond, but there is no point in elaborating,” he said.

Such response took place in the form of Israeli airstrikes and ground incursion in southern Gaza.  Residents of Khan Younis report heavy fighting in the area.  One airstrike targeted a Hamas militant on a motorbike.  The strike left him and a passer-by wounded.  Shortly afterwards, an Israeli warplane flew over the strip causing a sonic boom, apparently in a warning to the population.  In addition, Palestinian sources say 20 Israeli tanks and seven army bulldozers have made an incursion.

Also, in response to the border attack, Israel closed the crossings into Gaza.  This comes at a difficult time, as the crossings were briefly opened in the morning to allow the entrance of humanitarian aid.

No Palestinian militant group has claimed responsibility for the border attack.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Deadly Clash Along Gaza Border – 27 January 2009

BBC – Israel Launches Attacks in Gaza – 27 January 2009 h

Ha’aretz – Barak, Defense Officials Assess Response to Deadly Gaza Blast – 27 January 2009

New York Times – Two Killed in Violence on Gaza Border – 27 January 2009

Times – Israel Carries Out Air Strike After Bombs Kills Soldier on Gaza Border – 27 January 2009

Yedioth – Barak Vows to Retaliate Kissufim Attack – 27 January 2009

By Lauren Mellinger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen– On January 25, the Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection, a Yemeni child-rights organization based in Sana’a made an urgent humanitarian appeal to end the use of children as tribal fighters in northern Yemen.  According to a recent study by the organization, as many as half of the tribal fighters involved in violent clashes in north Yemen are children.

Seyaj noted that over the past four months, more than 63 people were killed in ethnic clashes in Amran province in north Yemen, and forty percent of those killed were children.  According to Ahmad Al-Qurashi, the organizations director, “the tribal culture in Yemen does not regard a 15-year old as a child…Yemen’s society as a whole views a 15-year old as a man and they’re forced into battles.  The society views fighting alongside a tribe as an important part of a child’s passage to manhood.  We see children as young as 13 carrying weapons that are bigger than they are.”

Seyaj blames the Yemeni government  for the high rate of children currently serving as tribal fighters.  The tribal areas in north Yemen are not provided sufficient financial resources by the government, and as a result they lack educational opportunities, and health and development programs.  Often children drop out of school by the age of 12 and either work in their families’ farms or are inducted as tribal soldiers.  According to the report released by Seyaj, the government does not intervene in the northern tribal areas to prevent the tribes from recruiting children as soldiers. 

In its Child Soldiers Global Report 2008, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers accused the Yemeni government of recruiting child soldiers in a war with rebels in north Yemen since 2004, despite the legal minimum recruitment age of 18.  According to the report, “joining the army was highly sought after, since other employment opportunities were extremely limited.  Parents sometimes agreed to the recruitment of their children into the armed forces because of their poor economic situation.”

Seyaj urged the government to provide the tribal areas with sufficient economic resources and with better educational opportunities in order to reduce the number of children serving as tribal fighters.  In addition, the organization is demanding that the fighting tribes throughout north Yemen to stop using children in armed clashes and to respect the State’s minimum legal age for an individual to join armed forces.  To that end, Seyaj recommends that government officials and tribal sheikhs enact a new law to punish those targeting women and children, using them as fighters for combat operations or for providing logistical support or any other form of engagement with tribal forces.
For more information, please see:

The Media Line – Report: Half Yemen’s Tribal Fighters are Children – 26 January 2009

Armies of Liberation – SEYAJ Opposes Use of Child Soldiers in Amran Tribal War – 25 January 2009

News Yemen – Yemeni Children Used as Soldiers in Sa’ada War: Report – 7 September 2008

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers – Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 – 20 May 2008