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State Media Announces Crackdown on Terrorism in China after Deadly Market Attack

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Managing Editor

 

BEIJING, China – In response to a serious of explosions targeting an open-aired market in western China the Chinese government has launched a crackdown on terrorism, Xinhua, state media, said Friday. The report said authorities had started a “one-year crackdown on violent terrorist activities” in the region after the attacks were carried out in the heavily policed city of Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang. the attacks killed  39 people and wounded more than 90. State media reported Friday that five perpetrators where reasonable for the attacks; four were killed in the blasts and the fifth was arrested Thursday.

Chinese officials announce crackdown on terrorism following a deadly attack blamed on Uyghurs separatists. The attack came just days before the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989 (Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Thursday’s attack was carried out before 6 a.m. during a time when many of the city’s residents were headed to the market to buy fresh food for the day. State media reported that two SUVs came careening through the street and their occupants hurled explosives through the vehicle’s windows. At least one of the vehicles exploded. The owner of a liquor and cigarette store in the market, said he was still in bed when he heard a loud noise that he first though was thunder outside his door. He said; “I saw smoke and fire, people lying on the ground and blood everywhere.”

In response to the attacks China’s highest-level government official in Xinjiang has called for all forces to be mobilized in order to find the perpetrators of Thursday’s deadly terrorist attacks vowing to “crush the swollen arrogance of terrorists.” President Xi also pledged on Thursday that those responsible for the attack would be caught and punished.

So far in Urumqi, authorities have tightened security checks at entry ports in an attempt to prevent weapons smuggling. Security efforts include inspections of individuals, luggage, transport facilities and postal deliveries at land border crossings.

Chinese officials have linked a mass knife attack that killed 29 people at a terrain station in the southwestern city of Kunming in March to Islamic separatists from Xinjiang.

State officials also blamed separatists for an attack in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square last October in which a car rammed into a pedestrian bridge killed two tourists as well as the three occupants of the vehicle.

According to state media; the perpetrators of both attacks were identified as Uyghurs separatists, members of a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group from Xinjiang. Tensions between Uyghurs and Han Chinese populations who have migrated to resource-rich Xinjiang in recent years, have repeatedly boiled over into deadly clashes with authorities in recent years.

Some Uyghurs have grown to resent the Chinese government because of the harsh treatment they have been subjected to from Chinese Security forces and because Han migrants to their homelands have been given better economic opportunity in the resources rich region. Overall the Han are the largest ethnic group in China, making up more than 90% of the state’s total population.

Much like the Tibetan people, the Uyghurs have felt disenfranchised by the discriminatory policies enforced by the Chinese government. Many argue that they are treated like second-class citizens. China has labeled the group “separatist militants” and blames Uyghurs for inciting ethnic violence. On Tuesday, the local government officials in Xinjiang arrested 39 Uyghurs for several crimes including organizing and leading terrorist groups.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Dozens Dead After ‘Thunder-Like’ Blasts Rock China Market – 22 May 2014

CNN International – Q&A: Xinjiang and Tensions in China’s Restive Far West – 23 May 2014

CNN International – China Launches Terrorism Crackdown after Xinjiang Region Attack – 23 May 2014

Al Jazeera – China to Mobilise ‘All Forces’ After Attack – 23 May 2014

David M. Crane to be Honored by Center for Victims of Torture

CVT_LogoINSCT faculty member and Syracuse University College of Law Professor of Practice David M. Crane is to be honored by the Center for Victims of Torture with a 2014 Eclipse Award at a June 25, 2014 ceremony at the Open Society Foundations in Washington, DC.

CVT gives the Eclipse Award each year to an individual or organization that has played a crucial role in either preventing torture or treating its survivors and to commemorate the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Curt Goering, CVT Executive Director, says his organization honors Crane this year for his work fighting impunity throughout the world, from his role as Chief Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, to starting “Impunity Watch,” to launching the SU College of Law Syrian Accountability Project, to co-authoring the Chautauqua Blueprint, and more.

Past winners of the Eclipse Award include Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT); the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture; Dr. Elizabeth Lira, a clinical psychologist from Chile; Elisa Massimino, President and CEO of Human Rights First; and Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL).

The CVT half-day event—“Fighting Impunity”—will bring together government officials, NGOs, academics, human rights and national security experts, survivors of torture, and journalists in a discussion of why meaningful accountability is vital to preventing torture and other violations of human rights.

Senate Panel Votes To Release CIA Torture Report

By: Brandon R. Cottrell 
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America 

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – The Senate Intelligence Committee voted last week to release parts of a four year long report that investigated CIA terror interrogations during the Bush administration.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, who voted in favor of releasing the report, described the results as “shocking” and that such a program “must never be allowed to happen again” (Photo Courtesy Washington Post).

The panel, which is comprised of fourteen members, had eleven members voting in favor of release and three members (Republican Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Dan Coats of Indiana and Jim Risch of Idaho) voting against release of five hundred pages (out of six thousand total pages) of the report.

Though the report needs to be declassified, the release should still provide the fullest account of the enhanced interrogation techniques that were used.  According to members of the intelligence community, however, the report will not paint a full picture as the underlying investigation “fail[ed] to include interviews from top spy agency officials who authorized or supervised the brutal interrogations.”

Senator Richard Burr, who voted in favor of releasing the report, believes that the report is “flawed and biased” but thought it important “to give the American people the opportunity to make their judgments.”

Amid concerns that the CIA will “sanitize key elements of their investigation” as they redact passages that could comprise national security, the White House reported that it would instruct intelligence officials to cooperate fully with the pending release.

Additionally, Dean Boyd, a CIA spokesman, said that the agency would “carry out the review expeditiously” and that “we owe it to the men and women directed to carry out this program to try and ensure that any historical account is accurate.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, stated that “”The purpose of this review was to uncover the facts behind the secret program and the results, I think, were shocking . . . the report exposes brutality that stands in sharp contrast to our values as a nation [and] it chronicles a stain on our history that must never be allowed to happen again.  This is not what Americans do.”  Feinstein has additionally stated that she hopes the report will be released to the public within thirty days.

Amnesty International issued a statement with similar sentiments, stating that “the interrogation techniques amount to torture and therefore violated international law” and that it wished the report would be released in full but acknowledged that “given the systematic failure of the U.S. authorities to declassify and disclose anything like the full truth . . .  any transparency on them is a step in the right direction.”

The report accuses the CIA of overstating the significance of alleged terrorist plots and prisoners, and exaggerating the effectiveness of the program by claiming credit for information surrendered before they were subjected to the interrogations.

 

For further information, please see the following: 

AP – Senate Panel Votes To Release CIA Torture Report – 3/April/14

New York Times – Senate Panel Votes To Reveal Report On C.I.A. Interrogations – 3/April/14

USA Today – Senate Panel Votes To Declassify Part Of CIA Report – 3/April/14

Washington Post – Senate Panel Votes To Release CIA Interrogation Report – 3/April/14

al-Shabab Suicide Bomber Kills Many at Hotel

By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

African Union and Somali government forces march around Buloburde

 

A car bomb exploded by the hotel where African Union and Somali officers were staying. Gunfire continued afterwards for five hours.

The al-Shabab suicide bomber rammed a car into the gates of the hotel before gunmen sprayed the building with bullets, killing many.

This attack occurred at nighttime in Bulobarde yesterday (Tuesday). al-Shabab abandoned Bulobarde last week when African troops advanced on the town in a new offensive aimed to flush the militants from the area.

Six soldiers were killed, including a top Somali army commander, the African Union stated.

However, the al-Shabab, who have claimed responsibility for the attack, have said that 30 African Union and army officers were killed in the attack.

A spokesman for the African Union has stated that all al-Shabab fighters involved in the attack have been killed, but he did not specify how many this was.

Local elder Hassan Nur said his nephew, a military commander, was among the killed.

“Most of the troops and civilians inside the hotel died or were wounded. We couldn’t count how many died because AU (African Union) and Somali forces swarmed all over the place,” Nur said.

The African Union force, known as AMISOM, said it stood with the “fallen soldiers” but did not state how many were killed.

al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has waged an eight-year insurgency to overthrow the weak UN-backed government and create an Islamic state in Somalia.

Bulobarde, which has a bridge over the River Shabelle and is a crossroads linking various regions of the country, was an important and strategic point for al-Shabab.

al-Shabab lost control of Mogadishu in 2011, but has intensified bombings and mortar raids in the city in recent weeks.

The militants, who seek to impose their version of Islamic law, were driven out of bases in the capital, but have continued to control swathes of countryside and smaller towns, which they use as launch-pads to carry out attacks at home and abroad.

Tuesday’s strike by al-Shabab followed an attack on Monday on a military convoy near the capital Mogadishu, which killed four Somali soldiers, according to an army captain.

al-Shabab said it carried out the attack to punish Kenya for sending troops to Somalia. Kenya said it had arrested two suspected al-Shabab militants on Monday with bombs that might have targeted the coast, which is popular with tourists.

For more information, please visit:

BBC News – Somalia’s al-Shabab attacks army hotel in Bulo-burde – 18 March 2014
The Frontier Post – Al-Shabab attack army hotel – 19 March 2014
Reuters – Somali militant strike kills peacekeepers, government troops – 18 March 2014
The Guardian – Somali militant strike kills peacekeepers, government troops – 19 March 2014