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3 UN Workers Killed in DRC Clashes

By Jared Kleinman

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

KINSHASA, Congo — Three United Nations workers died during clashes between the Congolese military and a militia earlier this week, the U.N. said Tuesday.

Heavily armed rebels attacked the town of Mbandaka and overran the airport, UN officials said. Fighting between the U.N.-backed military and Enyele militiamen in northern Congo began Sunday and continued into Monday.

During the two days of clashes in northern Congo, a South African pilot and a U.N. peacekeeper from Ghana were killed. The U.N. said one of its subcontractors also died Sunday of a heart attack during the fighting. Several civilians were also killed in the attack. Dr. Alexis Isanzola told The Associated Press Tuesday that 26 corpses have been received at the local mortuary in Mbandaka since Sunday.

Col. Makengo, commander of the Congo army in northern Bandaka, told The Associated Press that the army re-seized the airport on Monday with the backing of the U.N. Mission in Congo after militia took it over Sunday. He said the army would continue pursuing the militia.

The Congolese army started battling Enyele militiamen in November after fighting started between the Enyele and Munzale tribesmen. The two rival ethnic groups have reportedly been fighting for local fishing rights. The local dispute is entirely separate from the fighting between numerous armed groups in eastern DR Congo, which has drawn the world’s biggest peacekeeping operation to the country.

Mbandaka is the capital of Equateur province, where at least 100 people were killed in clashes between the Lobala and Boba communities last year, displacing an estimated 200,000 people. Between 30 and 100 fighters were believed to have been part of the latest attack.

The UN is currently in talks with DR Congo officials on withdrawing its 20,500-strong peacekeeping mission, MONUC. The mission’s current mandate expires in May. UN officials say that this new fighting might put such a withdrawal in question.

For more information, please see:

AP – UN: 3 UN Personnel Killed in North Congo clashes – 6 April 2010

Rocketnews – UN Workers Killed in DR Congo Raid – 4 April, 2010

BBC – DR Congo Attack Kills Two UN Workers – 4 April 2010

 

 

Human Trafficking Violates Antislavery Convention, Says European Human Rights Court

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – The outcome of a human trafficking case involving a Russian woman transported to Cyprus has resulted in a significant change in the definition of human slavery and the protection of immigrants for many nations in Europe.

In its ruling on Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) determined that the act of human trafficking violates the antislavery provisions of the treaty for which all nations who are party to the European Convention on Human Rights are subject to.  Under this new application of the Court’s jurisdiction, each member nation that is the destination or origin of a sex trafficking case is required to independently investigate this matter.

The events that brought about this change in law centered on Oxana Rancheva, a young Russian woman who died after she had been transported to Cyprus in 2001 for the purpose of working in a cabaret.  Rancheva died while attempting to flee in March of 2001 from an apartment building in which she had been held against her while.  Following her death, her father brought her case before the ECHR.  In review of the facts of this case, the ECHR concluded that both Russia and Cyprus had failed to properly investigate the parties that had engaged in the human trafficking in their respective countries.

The Court found Russia and Cyprus to have violated Article Four of the European Convention on slavery.  Cyprus also “violated the girl’s right to life and right to protection under the law” by failing to determine how Rancheva had arrived in Cyprus and what she was doing there, while Russia should have done more to determine how Rancheva was originally recruited to perform in a foreign cabaret.  The Court ordered the government of Cyprus to pay damages to the family of the woman involved.

The Court decision was welcomed by immigrant rights groups.  Doros Polycarpou, the leader of one such group in Cyrus, commented that the Court’s ruling was significant because “the Republic of Cyprus must finally get the message that we are no longer an isolated village where whatever we do stays between us.”

Rancheva had arrived in Cyprus on an artist visa, a bureaucratic instrument that the Court commented had been used in recent years to allow for the importation of women to the island nation to be exploited.  Three thousand such visas were issued in 2007.  Calls from international organizations for the elimination of this type of visa loophole resulted in its recent discontinuance.

Prior to the Court’s decision, the national government of Cyprus had publicly acknowledged its violations of international law in regards to this case.  However, the ECHR decided to rule on this case anyway, breaking with the court’s past tradition on not hearing cases in which “the defendant admits guilt”.

For more information, please see:

CYPRUS MAIL – ‘Handed over as if she was his possession’ – 9 January 2010

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Rights Court Raises Sex-Trafficking Oversight – 8 January 2010

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE – Cyprus and Russia violated human trafficking laws: court – 7 January 2010

High Rate of Unnatural Deaths Among Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon – On August 26, Human Rights Watch called on the Lebanese government to address the high rate of unnatural deaths of migrant domestic workers.  Since January 2007, at least 95 migrant workers have died in Lebanon.

Of these 95 deaths, 40 are classified as suicide, while 24 others were caused by workers falling from high buildings, often while trying to escape their employers. By contrast, only 14 domestic workers died because of diseases or health issues.  Key factors pushing these women to kill themselves or risk their lives are forced confinement, excessive work demands, employer abuse, and financial pressures.

A 2006 survey quoted by HRW showed 31% of 600 domestic workers interviewed were not allowed to leave the home they worked in.  “Many domestic workers are literally being driven to jump from balconies to escape their forced confinement,” said Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Domestic workers are dying in Lebanon at a rate of more than one per week…All those involved – from the Lebanese authorities, to the workers’ embassies, to the employment agencies, to the employers – need to ask themselves what is driving these women to kill themselves or risk their lives trying to escape from high buildings,” said Houry.

In early 2006, an official steering committee was established to ease the problems of domestic workers. The committee has three main goals.  First, to create standardized employment contracts in Arabic, English, French and the native language of the worker. Second, to publish a booklet detailing the rights and obligations of employers and employees, to be distributed at airports, ministries and recruitment agencies.  Lastly, to formulate a new law for migrant workers.

But according to Houry, “to date” the committee “has failed to deliver any concrete reforms … it’s time for the Lebanese government to show real leadership and actually deliver” these promises, he said.

For more information, please see:

The Daily Star – Domestic Workers Risking Death to Flee Employers – 27 August 2008

BBC – Lebanon Maid Deaths Cause Alarm – 26 August 2008

HRW – Annex: Deaths of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon – 26 August 2008

HRW – Lebanon: Migrant Domestic Workers Dying Every Week – 26 August 2008

BRIEF: Missing EU Soldier possibly found along Sudan/Chad border

DAKAR – A member of the European Unions peace-keeping force may have been found dead near the Chadnian border only days after the long-awaited force was deployed in Chad. The French soldier, one of thirty-seven hundred troops from fourteen nations, had been missing for two days. The soldier went missing when his vehicle strayed into Sudan, while he was on patrol in the town of Tissi in the far south east corner of Chad, along the border between the two countries. A second soldier was wounded in the incident, but escaped back to Chad. Sudan previously had expressed displeasure at Europe sending its troops to patrol near its border.

The European Union Force in Chad (EUFOR) was deployed in response to the influx of refugees from Sudan after the latest attacks in West Darfur began February 8th. Its mandate is to protect refugees from Darfur and the Central African Republic, and internally displaced people.  EUFOR is also providing security for humanitarian aid workers and UN personnel assisting the displaced. 

EUFOR was supposed to be deployed early in February, however they were delayed significantly by rebel attacks on Chad’s capital N’djamena.

For more information, please see:

allAfrica.com – EU Soldier Missing – 4 March 2008

BBC News – Sudan ‘finds’ EU soldier’s body – 5 March 2008

Ugandan Peace Deal: End in sight for 22 year war

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

JUBA, Sudan – The Ugandan Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) Rebels signed a deal over the weekend. The deal will include a permanent cease-fire to the twenty-two year war that killed thousands of people and displaced another one to two million. The agreement requires one final step: agreement on the disarmament, demobilization and re-integration of the rebel fighters. The official cease-fire will go into effect once the comprehensive peace deal is signed, an event most expected to occur by next weekend. However, negotiators such as UN envoy Joaquim Chissano see this past weekend’s events as “the laying down of arms. . . the end of the war.”

Peace talks began in mid-2006 when the parties signed a cessation of hostilities agreement that required both parties to stop shooting at each other and remain with their weapons. Last week, the peace agreement talks picked up steam when the two parties reached agreements on how to prosecute alleged war criminals and how rehabilitation efforts in war-torn regions would proceed. The progress made was almost lost Friday of last week when members of the LRA stormed out of the peace talks over demands for government positions.

The cease-fire agreement creates a temporary staging area in the southern part of  Sudan where rebels will remain prior to demobilization. The area creates a buffer of six miles (ten kilometers) around the area, which will be guarded by Sudanese troops. The rebel assembly area is on the border between  Sudan and Congo, in a town called Ri-Kwangba. The town has been used previously in the talks as one of the two locations the rebels were to assemble after the initial cessation was signed in 2006. However, the government contends the rebels never honored the assembly area and roamed throughout southern Sudan causing havoc.

Further, in the agreement a provision was left for the UN to play a policing role, assisting in compliance with the cease-fire. This cease-fire has “raised expectations that up to 500,000 of the (estimated) 1.3 million internally displaced people created by 20 years of war could go home in 2008,” according to a U.N. news released. Some refugees have returned to the areas they were displaced from, but aid agencies expect the cease-fire will lead to a “mass return” once finalized.

The revolt against President Yoweri Museveni, aimed at destabilizing the government, has torn apart Northern Uganda since 1986.  The LRA became infamous for their brutal tactics and methodology, including mutilation of their victims and recruitment of child soldiers. The Acholi people of North Uganda have been especially hard hit, suffering from not only the rebel attacks and recruitment but also from rape and other abuses by the military in refugee camps.

As the talks come to a close, LRA leader Joseph Kony is still at large. Kony claimed his power from spiritual authority, and his rebels demanded the Ugandan constitution be replaced with a version of the Ten Commandments. The International Criminal Court has had an outstanding arrest warrant for Kony since 2005. The warrant charges Kony with twenty-one counts of war crimes, including sexual enslavement, rape, directing attacks against civilians, and forced enlisting of children to fight.

For more information, please see:

Washington Post.com – Voting Starts in Remote Areas – 24 February 2008 (free registration required)

International Herald Tribune – Major Step Toward Final Peace Deal in Uganda – 24 February 2008

CNN.com – Ugandan Peace Deal Looms as Rebels, Rulers Sign Cease Fire – 24 February 2008

allAfrica.com – Govt, Rebels Sign Permanent Ceasefire Agreement in Juba  – 24 February 2008

Sify.com – Uganda Signs ceasefire with rebels – 24 February 2008

Impunity Watch – Brief: Second Breakthrough in Uganda Peace Talks this Week – 22 February  2008