Eritrean Footballers Seek Asylum in Tanzania after Tournament

July 14, 2011

By Carolyn Abdenour
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – Thirteen members of the Eritrean Red Sea FC football team are seeking political asylum after losing a semi-final championship game of a regional tournament sponsored by the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations in Tanzania on Saturday. Of the twenty-six members of the team, only half arrived at Mwalimu Nyerere International Airport to depart from Tanzania. The remaining players are attempting to escape a repressive government, national military service, and poverty under the regime of the Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki.

Eritrean striker during a Kagame Castle Cup game at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam. (Photo Courtesy of The Citizen)

Tanzania Football Federation Secretary General Angetile Osiah reported that the returning Eritrean football players attempted to stamp the passports of their missing team members at the airport’s immigration checkpoint. Ms. Oshiah stated that law enforcement authorities were notified about the missing players for investigation.

Isaac Nantanga, spokesperson for Tanzania’s ministry of Home Affairs reported “[t]he 13 Eritrean footballers went directly to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices in Dar es Saleem and sought protection as refugees.” Nantanga noted that authorities were unable to arrest the defecting players since they had received international protection.

Since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, the government has repressed the population; prohibiting political opposition, an independent media, and freedom of worship. President Afewerki also keeps the country in a constant state of insecurity, preventing international mediators from deciding a common border between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Eritrean youth are forced to serve decades in the army or low-wage government positions and face extreme challenges gaining exit visas. The Guardian has reported that “the [youths’] situation seems so hopeless that the only option is to make perilous journeys on foot to Ethiopia or Sudan, and onwards.”

Eritrean football players have previously absconded four times different times. Most recently, twelve members of the Eritrean football team disappeared in 2009 after completing a regional football tournament in Kenya. These players received asylum in Australia to continue their football careers.

While the defection of Eritrean football players may create international headlines, the emigration of Eritrean citizens to surrounding countries is nothing new. Human rights reports indicate that thousands of Eritrean citizens flee from “the most repressed African nation” annually. Although Eritrea has a population of only five million persons, it has one of the largest ratios of asylum seekers in the world. Playing sports has often been used as a method for Eritrean citizens to dodge military conscription and leave the country. However, to prevent sports related defections, the Eritrean government charges each traveling athlete a $6,700 deposit which the government returns only upon their arrival home.

Although the players are currently being held by Tanzanian authorities for questioning, Mr. Nantanga stressed that the “interviews are in line with Tanzanian and international laws and the objective is to establish reasons for the applicants to seek asylum in the country.”

For more information, please see:
BBC – Eritrean Red Sea FC footballers seek Tanzania asylum –12 July 2011
Global Post – Eritrean footballers go missing (again) – 12 July 2011
The Citizen – Eritrean team players now seek TZ asylum – 12 July 2011
The Guardian – Eritrean footballers go missing in Tanzania after tournament – 12 July 2011
SomaliNet Forums – Eritrean Football Players Missing in Tanzania – 12 July 2011

Second Brazilian official resigns this month after accusations of corruption

July 13, 2011

By Paula Buzzi
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The transportation minister of Brazil, Alfredo Nascimento, resigned on Wednesday after corruption allegations appeared in the Brazilian news magazine, Veja, earlier that week. According to Veja, Nascimento used his position of power to solicit bribes and transfer payments from federal infrastructure contracts to his own political party.

Alfredo Nascimento denies any wrongdoing. (Photo Courtesy of BBC News).

O Globo, another Brazilian newspaper, also accused Nascimento of using his ties to enrich his son’s construction company which suspiciously grew in wealth from $38,500 to $32 million in only five years. O Globo attributed the rapid growth to contracts the company had reached with public entities, including a contract in particular which was directly tied to his father’s Transportation Ministry.

Nascimento, however, denies the accusations and remains that he has not done anything illegal. Nascimento stated that he hopes to clarify everything on Tuesday when he appears in front of the Senate. In the meantime, he states that he will remain cooperative with the Attorney General’s investigation, allowing investigators access to all his personal financial data.

Nascimento is the second minister of President Dilma Rousseff’s cabinet to quit this month. Antonio Palocci, Rousseff’s chief of staff, resigned earlier this month after questions arose over his rapidly increasing wealth. Palocci also denied any wrongdoing.

President Rousseff’s reaction to these recent scandals has taken both criticism and praise from the public. Some people are beginning to question her ability to handle her own coalition. Others, however, are praising her willingness to question her own ministers’ spending and believe the departure of the corrupt officials will give her administration a much needed fresh start.

Reports show that both Nascimento and Palocci served in the same post under Rousseff’s predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva. Lula’s administration, albeit successful in stimulating the Brazilian economy, was constantly under scrutiny for apparent corruption within the administration.

David Fleischer, a political science professor at Brasilia University, is satisfied with Rousseff’s stance against corruption. “She is gradually reducing the number of Lulalistas that he imposed on her,” he says. “She is branding her own government rather than making this a third term for Lula.”

For more information, please see:

NY Times – 2nd Brazilian Official Quits in Graft Case, Giving New Leader a Chance to Clean House – 9 July 2011

BBC News – Brazil’s transport minister quits in corruption scandal – 7 July 2011

International Business Times – Brazil’s Transport Minister Quits Amidst Corruption Pro be – 7 July 2011

National Turk – Brazilian President Aims Fire at Corruption – 4 July 2011

Rally for electoral reforms in Malaysia results in mass arrests

July 13, 2011

By Brianne Yantz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – More than 1,400 protestors were arrested this past Saturday during a rally for electoral reforms. According to the Malaysian Insider, an estimated 50,000 people gathered in the streets of the capital city to take part in the ‘illegal’ protest. Yet many doubt the accuracy of that approximation; BBC News reported that the number of protestors was actually closer to 10,000. Nevertheless, many rally organizers believe the campaign was a success.

: Police handcuffing protestors at the election reform rally in Kuala Lumpur. (Photo Courtesy of CNN).

The event was organized by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, also known as Bersih 2.0, which means “clean” in Malay. It is compromised of 62 nongovernmental organizations.

Despite tensions between Bersih 2.0 and the Malaysian government, the New York Times reported that Prime Minister Najib Razak stated the rally could take place if it was held in a stadium rather than on the streets. Coalition organizers agreed to those terms after meeting with the Malaysian king, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, on Tuesday.

However, authorities then said that Bersih could not proceed without a police permit. Under Malaysian law, the government will not grant permits to organizations which have been declared illegal. One week before the rally, the government declared Bersih illegal for failure to register and for purporting to cause public disorder.

Angered by the government’s actions, Bersih announced that the rally would go forward. As a result, police arrested over 200 activists in the days leading up to the protest. Furthermore, a court order barred 91 demonstrators, including various opposition leaders, from entering the capital on Saturday and roadblocks were set up to prevent protestors from accessing the stadium where the rally was set to take place.

Although the city was on a 24-hour lockdown, thousands of protesters managed to slip through the security net early Saturday afternoon. As the crowds began marching down the streets towards the stadium, riot police began volleying tear gas into the masses. Those gathered around the city’s main bus station were hosed down by water cannons.

Ultimately, Bersih organizers were unable to hand over a memorandum that calls for the creation of a royal commission to look into electoral reform. Still, the rally was deemed a success.

The Malaysian Insider reported that one Bersih leader and national laureate, Datuk A. Samad, stated, “I have never seen all the races in Malaysia so united for one cause before.”

In 2007, a similar attempt was made to hold a rally for clean elections. BBC News reported that as a result, supporters of electoral reform had “won an unprecedented number of seats in the last general election.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Malaysia: Police fire tear gas at banned rally – July 9, 2011

CNN – Mass arrests as Malaysia police and protesters clash – July 9, 2011

The Malaysia Insider – Bersih says 50,000 protested, declares rally ‘great success’– July 9, 2011

NY Times – Hundreds of Protesters Held in Malaysia – July 9, 2011

Sydney Morning Herald – Malaysia police arrest 1400 protesters – July 9, 2011

NY Times – Malaysian Opposition Digs In – July 7, 2011

MILLIONS STARVING IN SOMALIA IN “WORST HUMANITARIAN DISASTER”

July 13, 2011

By Tamara Alfred
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

On Friday, July 8, the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, put out an urgent plea for $136 million in international donations to help deal with the approximately 10 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya who are at risk of starvation as the region faces the worst drought in 60 years.

In the drought-ravaged Gedo region of Somalia, obtaining water can involve treks of 12.5 miles or more. (Photo Courtesy of Mohamed Gaarane/IRIN)

Two consecutive poor rainy seasons over the past year have dried up pastoral areas in the Horn of Africa, where the drought is exacerbated by already sky-high food prices, restricted humanitarian access and conflict. Food is so scarce in Somalia that many will endure several weeks-long journeys through the desert just for the hope of nourishment at overcrowded Kenyan camps. During the journey, many have to brave often fatal attacks by packs of hyenas and armed bandits, said Alun McDonald, an Oxfam representative in Kenya.

“2011 has been the year of all crises, but I think that in Somalia we can find the worst humanitarian disaster of the year,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “I have never seen…people coming in such desperate conditions.”

Somalis are pouring into the already full Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. According to Bettina Schulte, Dadaab spokeswoman of the UNHCR, approximately 400,000 people are living in the camp, originally constructed to hold 90,000 people. In June alone, 55,000 Somalis entered Kenya and Ethiopia, with about 1,700 arriving each day. The flood of refugees still coming means that more than 60,000 Somalis are camped outside the actual refugee camp. According to Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UNHCR, about 80% of the people are women and children.

A new refugee camp in Kobe, Ethiopia, opened just weeks ago to help address the growing number of refugees. Already it is nearing its 20,000 person capacity.

The UN refugee agency said the flood of Somalis could overwhelm the ability of humanitarian agencies to help them: “Humanitarian efforts to help newly arriving Somali refugees in southeast Ethiopia are at risk of being overwhelmed without a more rapid and robust international response to the drought and displacement crisis in the Horn of Africa,” said Fleming.

“Refugee children are dying and their mothers, reduced to walking skeletons, face the unbearable choice of which child to save first,” Guterres said.

The World Food Programme estimates that more than 10 million people are already in need of humanitarian aid, with the UN Children’s Fund estimating at least two million children are suffering from malnourishment.

For more information, please see:

Time – World’s Greatest Ongoing Humanitarian Disaster Reaches a Crisis Point – 13 July 2011

AllAfrica.com – Somalia: UN – Situation is ‘Worse Humanitarian Disaster’ – 11 July 2011

CNN – Refugee chief: ‘Heart is broken’ by hungry refugees fleeing Somalia – 8 July 2011

Court ruling marks “historic day” for human rights in Europe

July 12, 2011

By Polly Johnson
Senior Desk Officer, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – The European Court for Human Rights ruled last week that Britain failed in its responsibility to investigate civilian deaths in Iraq after the 2003 invasion of the country.

British officers patrol Basra in 2009 (Photo Courtesy of CNN/Getty Images).

Rejecting the United Kingdom’s argument that the British troops were not subject to the European Convention for Human Rights because they were beyond its jurisdiction, the court in Strasbourg, Europe’s highest court, found that British soldiers in Iraq remained bound by the convention in “exceptional circumstances,” which extended to the acts of British soldiers in Iraq.

The case was brought by the Birmingham-based firm Public Interest Lawyers on behalf of Iraqis who said British troops inflicted torture, rape, and death upon their relatives between 2003 and 2006. The Strasbourg ruling overturned a 2007 ruling by the House of Lords, which ruled that there was no UK jurisdiction for the deaths of Iraqi civilians.

The landmark ruling may open the door for Iraqis seeking justice for abuses that occurred under British patrol.

The case involved six deaths that occurred in the Basra area of Iraq between May 2003 and June 2004. Basra at the time was under British patrol. Four victims were shot, while a fifth victim died after being beaten and forced into a river in which he drowned.

The sixth death involved Baha Mousa, who died at a British military base. His father, who identified his son’s body, said Mousa was covered in blood and bruises and had a broken nose.

In its decision, the Court wrote: “[T]he United Kingdom assumed authority and responsibility for the maintenance of security in (southeastern) Iraq. In those exceptional circumstances, a jurisdictional link existed between the United Kingdom and individuals killed in the course of security operations carried out by British soldiers during the period May 2003 to June 2004.”

The relatives of those who died, apart from Mousa, were awarded £15,200 each in damages, and £44, 700 in costs and expenses. Mousa’s family has already been awarded £575,000 in compensation.

Phil Shiner, part of the team at Public Interest Lawyers said of the ruling: “This is a monumental judgment . . . and an important day for our clients, many of whom can now force what the MoD has long-denied them – a public inquiry uncovering the truth about what the British army did to them and their loved ones.”

The Ministry of Defense said: “We are disappointed by these Strasbourg judgments and we will consider them in detail before deciding on our next steps.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Court ruling ‘paves way for UK Iraqi abuse hearings’ – 7 July 2011

Belfast Telegraph – Human rights ruling on Iraq troops – 7 July 2011

CNN – Court: Britain obligated to probe civilian deaths in Iraq – 7 July 2011

Guardian – Iraq abuse ruling by European court says UK failed human rights role – 7 July 2011

Telegraph – British troops in Iraq had a duty under human rights laws, European court rules – 7 July 2011